Haaland Shielded from Press After City News

Norwegian national team coach Ståle Solbakken explained that Erling Haaland was shielded from attending Saturday's press conference at Ullevaal stadium. The decision came after news broke about Manchester City, Haaland's club, being found guilty of numerous legal violations.

Solbakken confirmed he was involved in the decision to protect Haaland, allowing him to focus on the important Nations League match against Portugal on Sunday. "It is obviously that we want to give him the best possible conditions to concentrate on the match," said the coach, adding that he believes Haaland will handle the situation well and will start against Portugal. umafrika.club

The idea of 16-year-olds like Cavan Sullivan playing for the USMNT was once unfathomable – until Mike Slivinski, Mark Jonas and Nelson Vargas appeared in a 1991 friendly

If 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan takes the field for the US men’s national team in the coming days, he will join a list of youngest-ever US players that has no shortage of recognizable names.

At the top is onetime phenom (turned cautionary tale) Freddy Adu, still the youngest player to ever appear for the US men. Names in the top 20 like Eddie Gaven and Bobby Convey will feel familiar to longtime US fans; Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah and Gio Reyna are all still very much in the picture and may well prove to be Sullivan’s future partners in attack.

Ten years ago, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback refused to stand for the national anthem. He was accused of disrespecting the flag, the game, and America. In a rare interview, he talks about inspiring a global gesture of civil rights

Colin Kaepernick still gets up at 4.30am every morning to train. “Strength training, speed training, position training – still do all of the same type of workouts I did while I was playing,” he says cheerily. “And then go about the rest of my day.” It is almost 10 years since Kaepernick last played a game of top-flight football. His career was abruptly and cruelly cut short just as it was peaking, after the National Football League (NFL) effectively closed ranks and shut him out for being too political. Now, at 38 years old, he is well aware that his chances of a return are dwindling by the day, but he remains as game-ready as ever. “I stay relentless at it,” he continues in his easy drawl. “I look at it from the perspective of, ‘What are the things that I can control?’ And what I know I can control is being prepared for when opportunity knocks, and to also continue knocking, on my end, looking for ways and opportunities … just staying resilient and focused and disciplined – that is what’s gotten me to this point in my life.”

Kaepernick’s story is defined by the events of late 2016, when he repeatedly refused to stand for the pre-match national anthem – resulting in a chorus of booing on the pitch, insults and outrage off it, and exclusion from the sport he still loves. He was one of the biggest names in the game at the time; quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, a national celebrity, sponsored by major brands, and looking back, his actions fed into so much that has happened since: the rise of Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter protests and a global reckoning with racism, then the backlash against what is now being called “Woke 1.0”, and the resurgence of a white nationalism that the US complacently assumed was in the past.

• Activation backfires for Dockers who let lead slip late on at MCG

• Lions coach Chris Fagan says Dockers ‘probably deserved to win’

Fremantle’s Wharfie Time was supposed to signal the coronation of the Dockers’ first premiership, but Brisbane Lions midfielder Josh Dunkley said after Saturday’s memorable grand final it had the opposite effect.

The Dockers led by 17 points with barely four minutes to play when the bells rang out around the MCG. Immediately afterwards, the Lions scored four late goals to pull off an improbable victory in one of the great AFL grand finals.