Germany needs total rebuild for World Cup success: Oliver Kahn

Sarfaraz Ahmed sacked after 194-run loss at Lord’s White-ball coach Mike Hesson steps in Pakistan have decided to rip up their plans during an already chaotic tour of England by announcing that seven players and head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed have been sent home before the third Test at Edgbaston next week. Already confirmed to lose the series after going 2-0 down with a 194-run defeat at Lord’s on Sunday, Pakistan have now asked Mike Hesson, the New Zealander who runs their white-ball teams, to replace Sarfaraz as head coach. Umar Gul, their bowling coach, has also been swapped out for the Australian Ashley Noffke...

Atlético say they will not allow Barcelona to buy Álvarez Jesus poised for Barça and Martinelli for Al-Hilal Arsenal are running out of time to persuade Julián Álvarez to join them from Atlético Madrid after agreeing to sell Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Fábio Vieira in deals collectively worth more than £70m. Álvarez has his heart set on joining Barcelona despite Atlético’s insistence they will not sell to their La Liga rivals – he returned to training on Sunday after being left out of their squad for the win against Sevilla...

The Serb has his heart set on defending Olympic title in 2028 but his ageing body is screaming a resounding ‘no’ As the scoreline continued to cascade and the prospect of Novak Djokovic winning even one match in New York this year became increasingly remote, the 24-time grand slam title winner’s suffering and toil drove the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd to its feet in the early hours of Monday morning. With Djokovic trailing 3-1 in the fifth set, thousands of spectators stood in unison to salute their champion and urge him on. The moment reduced Djokovic to tears. This was quite a familiar scene. Five years ago, the same crowd similarly offered a tearful Djokovic a standing ovation as his match against Daniil Medvedev slipped away. The circumstances surrounding those results, however, could have hardly been any different. Back in 2021, Djokovic stood three sets away from winning the calendar year grand slam, the ultimate achievement. Here, he was losing in the first round of the US Open against a clay-court specialist ranked outside the top 50, an opponent he would usually crush with disdain...