Report – Inter Plan To Replace Outgoing Iran Megastar With Attacking Midfielder
According to Sky Sport via FCInterNews, the Nerazzurri will search for a different profile to bolster their attacking ranks.
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New Inter head coach Cristian Chivu has deemed the Iran international surplus to requirements.
Therefore, the Serie A runners-up are actively seeking a new club for the former Porto goal-getter.
Given the circumstances, the exit looks imminent.
Inter Milan to Replace Mehdi Taremi with Different Type of Forward
LECCE, ITALY – JANUARY 26: Mehdi Taremi of FC Internazionale celebrates after scoring his team's fourh goal goal during the Serie A match between Lecce and FC Internazionale at Stadio Via del Mare on January 26, 2025 in Lecce, Italy. (Photo by)
Mehdi Taremi is an old-fashioned No.9.
However, Inter will not land another center-forward to fill the void.
Instead, they'll pursue a more versatile player capable of covering multiple positions alongside the frontline.
Indeed, Beppe Marotta and his associates will try to sign an attacking midfielder to fit Chivu's formation.
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The Romanian has slightly altered Simone Inzaghi's trademark 3-5-2 formation.
As such, Inter will line up in a 3-4-2-1 next term, hence the importance of adding a versatile forward.
Meanwhile, their quest to land Rasmus Hojlund looks to have taken a back seat.
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New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
Georgia Stanway's long road to recovery: ‘Low' moments, mentor chats and tattooing
A small ink etching on Georgia Stanway's leg would catch the eye of her Bayern Munich rehabilitation coach, Moritz Lemmle. Some days it was like playing spot the difference as the midfielder had added yet another tattoo to her body. That was because during her recovery from a knee injury in the first half of this year, Stanway tattooed herself. At times, the pain was unbearable. Advertisement 'She told me she was so close to finishing one and she didn't want to make a mistake but it was so painful,' Lemmle tells The Athletic. 'When you start, you have to finish, right?' Tattooing became her 'zen', a distraction from the monotony of rehabilitation. Her apartment is filled with equipment, including fake skin to practise on. With the brace on her injured right leg, her left leg became her canvas. She has lost count of the number of new etchings scattered over her limb. 'It was the only place I could reach!' she said. 'As soon as I pressed that button, my headspace was fully clear. All I had to do was perfect what was exactly in front of me.' A post shared by Georgia Stanway (@stanwaygeorgia) At the end of January, Stanway felt a sharp pain in her knee during training. She tried to carry on but could not. An MRI scan revealed she had ruptured her lateral collateral ligament in her right knee. The 26-year-old had surgery in Innsbruck, Austria, performed by renowned knee specialist Professor Dr Christian Fink. Bayern's physical therapist, rehab coach and doctors discussed the recovery timeline, and she was expected to be out for around four months. 'The good thing was that it was not as long as an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), but it's a severe injury,' Lemmle tells The Athletic. It meant her domestic season was over. It was too early to talk about Euros availability, but if she was going to be fit for selection, she knew she would barely have played a competitive match in 2025. Stanway wore a protective brace to stabilise the knee for six weeks, four of which were spent hopping around on crutches. In those first few weeks after surgery, she struggled. 'There were a few points where Georgia was quite low,' Luke Chadwick, a former Manchester United player and Stanway's mentor, tells The Athletic. 'It just seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel was so far away.' In her 10 years of senior football, Stanway has never had a serious injury. 'When the first injury comes, you are not sure how to deal with it,' adds Chadwick, who chats to the player on a weekly basis throughout the year and before and after games during this European Championship, just as he did at the 2023 World Cup. Advertisement 'She was really upset,' he says. 'She was just doing the same thing every day. She found that quite frustrating.' 'You can't load the leg with full body weight,' explains Lemmle. 'You can train the rest of the body quite normally, but with the injured leg, you have to be a little more patient in this first phase.' With both legs, they did some low-load isometric exercises, blood flow restriction training, activated the muscles with electrical stimulus and very light strength training. There were, in Stanway's words, 'terrible days' and times when she went home and felt a little bit 'low' or more 'emotional'. The road to recovery can be a lonely place, given you are not with the team on the pitch. 'I think she found that really hard,' says Chadwick. 'She's such an outgoing, bubbly personality and she was missing out on what she loves doing. That really affected her. She loves helping the team, but when you're not playing, you don't feel part of it.' But there was a turning point, Lemmle recalls, when Stanway accepted she could not play football. 'Then it got better mentally because she knew the focus was on returning as quickly and as fit as possible,' he says. 'It was very important that she had time for herself to process everything. She found her own way out mentally from this situation.' Chadwick's role as a mentor changed slightly while Stanway was injured, with more of a focus on her feelings rather than performance. 'It's always a good thing just to be able to open up and be vulnerable with someone away from the football club, the national team, where she can talk about whatever she wants to,' he says. Stanway knuckled down, attacked the rehab programme and wanted to be the best team-mate possible. From then on, everything was focused on making the Euros. Around six weeks after surgery, Stanway had her brace removed, a key milestone. She could drive again, saw the swelling had gone down and was able to go out with friends, a return to some sense of normality. Advertisement Despite the initial struggles, Stanway says she found 'a lot of joy' with her routines. It became a day-by-day process rather than looking too far ahead. She would go to Bayern's campus, do her rehab programme, come home and put the recovery boots on. 'Then it would be my tattoo time,' she said. 'I felt productive because I had my schedule.' After six weeks, Lemmle's priority was to build strength. Her programme consisted of single-leg stability exercises, jumps and landings, as well as reactive drills to prepare her for the next big step — running. Stanway had to hit certain levels to prove her knee could cope with the force and load running brings. Lemmle tested Stanway's isokinetic and isometric strength values for her quads, hamstrings, hip abduction and adduction, as well as performing jumping tests. She celebrated the small wins, such as the percentage increase in her output. 'A lot of players have trouble increasing the strength values constantly from week to week to meet the criteria,' says Lemmle. 'These were the biggest moments for her and also for us as the medical team. 'When she is happy, you see it. When she is not, you also see it. Rehab is a hard time and there are days when you are not in a really good mood, but she pushed through these days.' Stanway ticked all of Lemmle's boxes quickly and returned to running on schedule. She started on an anti-gravity treadmill, running at 50 per cent of her body weight. Lemmle remembers her first day back running in late March. It fell on a matchday at home. 'We met for a rehab session before and we did the first laps around the track,' he says. 'She was really happy, the knee felt good.' A post shared by FC Bayern Frauen (@fcbfrauen) Stanway ran for a couple of weeks on the track before 'the coolest moment', in Lemmle's words, returning to the pitch in late April. 'It was a long slog, but being back on the grass made such a massive difference,' says Chadwick. Stanway and Lemmle worked hard on their own for approximately four weeks, doing running and passing drills on the pitch. Advertisement The next step was to gradually integrate Stanway with parts of team training, a small mental push to show how close she was. She would do the warm-up before returning to intense individual sessions with Lemmle. Ever the tenacious player, Stanway found that challenging as she wanted to complete the whole team session. Over 14 weeks, Stanway, who kept key dates on her phone, had between 70 to 80 'very, very, tough' rehab sessions. 'It's probably one of the hardest I've ever worked. It was an absolute battle,' she said. Bayern compared her running data pre- and post-injury to be sure she was ready to return. For Lemmle, it was important to check that she could manage not only the increasing intensity of high-speed running distances and acceleration and decelerations, but also the volume. 'You risk re-injury when you are not prepared for the volume,' says Lemmle. It was not over yet. Stanway started with a six-vs-six in training but wore a red shirt so her team-mates knew not to physically challenge her. There are a huge number of signals from every direction that a player has to process first, even without the risk of being tackled. Then, slowly, more contact was introduced. 'The team training is a step, but contact team training is a big step, especially with ligament injuries,' says Lemmle. Even though Stanway's recovery had gone very well, the rationale was not to rush her back. She watched from the sidelines — and sang with Harry Kane — as Bayern won their third consecutive Bundesliga title and the World Sevens tournament. Bayern had consistent communication with England throughout, updating them on Stanway's progress and, in April, Stanway had a visit from Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman, team doctor Ritan Mehta, physio Fran Clarkson and performance coach Ruth Waghorn. She had no fears going into the Euros and felt more prepared than if she'd had a jam-packed season. She said she feels fitter, faster and stronger than ever before and sees her injury as a positive. Advertisement 'I have test results now that I have not seen in two years,' she said. Lemmle agrees. 'After the rehab, she was the best she has ever been,' he says. The enforced break from playing allowed her to work on weaknesses in the gym and she entered a different mindset. 'Going in every day for rehab is completely different to turning up every day for training,' she said. She celebrated the small wins in the gym, so much so that when she made her return on May 30 at Wembley — playing 15 minutes against Portugal, nearly four months to the day after her surgery — it felt 'weird' and 'underwhelming'. 'It's supposed to be the big comeback you're looking forward to, but it's just the inevitable next step — you play.' She never doubted her return, only at what level she would come back. 'I've done everything to put myself in that position,' she said in June. 'If I'm ready, fantastic. If I'm not, there's nothing else I can blame.' Despite only recently coming back from injury, Wiegman trusted her, starting the midfielder in England's 2-1 Nations League defeat by Spain. It was her first 45 minutes in six months, but she was still disappointed to come off. 'She understood why, but she wants to play every minute of every game,' says Chadwick. 'That sums up Georgia.' Stanway had played 150 minutes in six months before starting against France in England's Euro 2025 opener. Despite feeling good physically, her touches were heavy and her passes loose. 'For some reason, I couldn't do the things I wanted to do, especially in possession,' she said. 'I did what I could to control what I could: my work rate, communication.' Stanway was not the only one to have a poor performance. The day after the France loss, the England players and staff had frank and open conversations. Stanway checked in with Chadwick, too. 'We spoke pretty openly about the meetings that happened within the staffing group and how positive that was,' he says. 'She had a really good conversation with some of the England staff about how she felt after the game and felt it was really galvanising. She seemed in a really good place before the Netherlands game.' Advertisement Stanway had a point to prove and did so in first-half stoppage time against the Netherlands in England's second game, scoring with a long-range drive. Her cathartic reaction said it all. She leapt, punched the air and let out a guttural roar. There was no hangover from the bad night out against France. 'The performance against the Netherlands under massive pressure just shows what Georgia is all about,' says Chadwick. 'In hindsight, her injury could be a positive, time away from the game to come back and play with even more hunger and desire.' (Top photos: Bayern Munich)
New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
Giorgio Russo's Love Island presence and what it says about women's football
Lionesses and Love Island summer: we hardly knew thee. The advice for England fans seeking levity and distraction amid the team's intense start to their European Championship defence was to flick over to ITV X, the streaming platform for one of the UK's Euros broadcasters, for the wildest subplot of the tournament. Giorgio Russo, brother of Arsenal and England striker Alessia, was in the Love Island villa. Advertisement It was all too brief, though: he was kicked off the island on Thursday. The more chronically online subset of women's football fans usually come into their own in moments like this, and it is with a disbelieving sort of glee that they note the England players have confirmed they are not only watching this each night but, as per captain Leah Williamson in a press conference, discussing it over breakfast. How Alessia Russo is surviving that particular ordeal is beyond me. The Athletic editors dispatched me to watch some of her brother's episodes and even I, no relation, felt like I had to peer through my fingers at the part where an oiled-up Giorgio dressed as a waiter and then covered himself in chocolate. That his sibling had two goals ruled out for offside in as many Euros games, including in a strong showing against the Netherlands, could be a metaphor for how it went for Giorgio, who found himself 'dumped' despite being far and away the kindest male resident of the villa. Alessia went on to be named UEFA's player of the match for the 4-0 win over the Dutch on Wednesday, while droves of X users declared Giorgio too normal for Love Island. Giorgio is trapped with these manchild losers, he's too nice and normal for anyone SET HIM FREE #loveislanduk — Ellie (@ellswindlehurst) July 6, 2025 Giorgio's run seemed to be good-natured. It hasn't occupied the Football Association's thoughts beyond a few light-hearted questions at a pre-Euros press day, even if there's an odd irony in many of the England players avoiding social media during the tournament to eliminate outside noise while also airing his great romantic quest. Love Island feels like an expansion pack to the main tournament for some Arsenal Women fans, whose fanbase is prominent on social media platforms. Fan identity blossoms through in-jokes and the personas built up around a club's most popular players, often referred to by their first names. Such investment is why a good chunk of supporters are tuning in to watch one of their star strikers' relatives. 'Can't watch Love Island, someone record Giorgio in it like you're in a concert pls,' read one post. Advertisement 'Anyone living outside of England and unable to watch Love Island, DON'T WORRY!' joked another. 'There will be a free stream showing the entire season of Giorgio Russo on (Alessia Russo's Arsenal team-mate) Katie McCabe's Snapchat stories.' McCabe, an Arsenal fan favourite known for her uncompromising playing style and effervescent off-field personality, was at the centre of much of the discussion as fans daydreamed about her reaction to it all. Another added: 'I know Katie McCabe is taking Giorgio being on Love Island SERIOUSLY — like that's her Super Bowl, her World Cup.' A post shared by G I O 🤙🏼 (@giorgiorusso__) 'Myself and a lot of other Arsenal fans I follow found it quite funny,' says Kennedy, an Arsenal Women fan based in Melbourne, Australia, for whom social media is key to connecting with other supporters. 'We all love Alessia and we were all curious about what her reactions to watching him would be. Arsenal fans have taken it all in jest, both rooting for Giorgio and joking about it at the same time. Overall, it's been a positive reaction.' 'The (women's football social media) side of it has been so entertaining because a lot of people are tuning in just to see Giorgio when they've never watched Love Island before and didn't know what to expect,' says Summer, an Arsenal Women follower and experienced watcher of the show. 'The fierce defence of Giorgio to anyone talking about him has been hilarious.' There was no mention of the footballing Russo in the week's worth of episodes I watched. Worse, the villa's residents have missed the few clues Giorgio has dropped about her. Love Island has often featured semi-pro footballers (there are two of them in this series) as well as the daughters of Michael Owen and Dennis Wise. 'Giorgio's situation is completely different since his sister is actively playing at the highest level of football,' Summer says. 'With the Euros on, people who watch Love Island live are also seeing Alessia in the ad break.' Mostly, Giorgio seems too well-adjusted for Love Island. 'That's all right,' he says, when dumped by fellow villa resident Helena after four days. 'No worries at all. It is what it is.' In one challenge, contestants are invited to pie members of the opposite sex. One contestant is pied for the way he speaks about and to the women in the villa; Giorgio gets a pie purely because he took the rejection so well the previous night that Helena knows he will cause no drama. They end up high-fiving each other. Advertisement It's all made for lighter conversation around Love Island than the show might be used to. Watching it for the first time, I am struck by the irreconcilable tension between what the programme purports to be — a guilty pleasure with a wise-cracking narrator inviting us all to watch on with an air of disdain and superiority — and the heaviness at each turn. It is not easy, for instance, to watch young women in distress, often over the way the show's men have treated them, and the knowledge that the ulterior motives of fame, money and popularity (there is a public vote at several points throughout the series) underline much of the action. Online discussions veer between judgement, analysis, support and ridicule. The show often spawns worthwhile online conversations about behaviour in relationships, respect and boundaries, but the cost is other people's discomfort. In the UK, the conversation has often been a weighty one. Since the show's revival in 2015, Women's Aid has spoken out against the treatment of female contestants by their male partners. Two contestants, Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis, later died by suicide. There have been thousands of Office of Communications (Ofcom) complaints, and a parliamentary inquiry into TV production companies' duty of care to participants was launched in 2019 as part of a wider societal reckoning in the UK. Love Island no longer attracts the six million viewers of its peak six years ago but it remains one of the UK's most popular programmes among the 16-34 demographic. The UK's summer of 2018 was dominated by the men's World Cup and Love Island. Should England revive their Euros campaign and get into the knockout phase, that twin fever may be replicated in the coming days on a smaller scale. A post shared by G I O 🤙🏼 (@giorgiorusso__) 'Giorgio's inclusion as the relative of a high-profile women's player for the first time on Love Island just shows even further growth of the women's game in England,' Summer says. 'One of the most mainstream TV shows in the country wanted to connect to the game and brought awareness of it to a largely new set of people. 'Even if Alessia hasn't been mentioned on air, Giorgio's Instagram page has gained thousands of followers and four of his six most recent posts showcase women's football. Maybe we'll see some newcomers be influenced to watch the Euros this summer from that increased exposure.' Advertisement England's Lionesses have needed to get used to increased fame and higher stakes since their 2022 Euros triumph, with interest and scrutiny often extending, via social media, to their partners and families. Giorgio made a very conscious step into a different kind of surveillance. Had he stayed in the villa long enough, it could have ended in an especially compelling piece of television. 'With the England men's team being in the last two Euros finals, the contestants have been allowed to watch those finals despite having no communication with the outside world (in the villa),' explains Summer. 'This Love Island season is due to finish after the Women's Euros final (on July 27) happens. 'There was a chance, if England reach the final and Giorgio was still in the villa, they would have let the contestants watch it. That would have been huge.'
New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
PSG's quintessential goal and why opposing teams still don't know how to stop it
The game itself was about as convincing a performance as you can get in such sweltering conditions, but it was Paris Saint-Germain's third goal that caught the eye in their 4-0 win against Real Madrid in Wednesday's Club World Cup semi-final. After giving Madrid the run-around by keeping possession for nearly half a minute midway through the first half, PSG worked the ball back to goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma before finding themselves with the perfect opportunity to execute a typical move from head coach Luis Enrique's playbook — ripping through Madrid's shape with some excellent one-touch action. 'Hang it in the Louvre' would not be an outrageous declaration to make, given that some of the new European champions' patterns, like this, can resemble an art form at times. 🤩 | Quel début de match exceptionnel du PSG qui mène désormais 3 buts à 0 ! 🔥✨ #FIFACWC #PSGRMA #PSG #RealMadrid 👉Suivez la rencontre @PSG_inside 🆚 @realmadrid gratuitement ici : ! — DAZN France (@DAZN_FR) July 9, 2025 There are many impressive elements of this goal to unpack, with the crucial pass that unlocked the attack foremost among them. As Achraf Hakimi receives the ball from Donnarumma near the touchline, Vitinha shuffles across to offer a square ball into midfield and drags his marker with him. Here, PSG's midfielders have intentionally left space in the middle of the pitch for a team-mate to exploit — with any one of Enrique's attacking trio encouraged to either roll inside from the touchline or drop deep from a more central area. That is exactly what occurs below, as Desire Doue comes into his own half to receive Hakimi's pass, with Madrid centre-back Antonio Rudiger following him and ending up incredibly far out of position. Add a simple return ball from Doue to Hakimi, and the dominoes have already begun to fall. What is interesting is that Madrid had been given a warning sign of this very sequence of play eight minutes earlier. As PSG circulate possession across the back line, Hakimi receives on the touchline, Vitinha makes that square run across to empty the midfield, and Doue drops to fill the space before spinning Madrid's left-back Fran Garcia and springing another attack from back to front. For those of you thinking of the 'Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme' right now, you would be correct in doing so. That's right, you might well have seen this move from PSG in other matches this season. The two salient examples were the goals Ousmane Dembele scored away to both Liverpool and Arsenal in the last 16 and semi-finals of the Champions League respectively. On those occasions, the crucial pass was delivered by Nuno Mendes from the left flank, not Hakimi on the right, but the principles remain the same. Madrid head coach Xabi Alonso could not claim post-match that he hadn't seen this pattern before. Not just from those games in PSG's triumphant Champions League campaign, but as recently as last Saturday, in their Club World Cup quarter-final defeat of Bayern Munich. The similarity of the sequences is remarkable. Advertisement As PSG zip the ball across their back line once again, Bayern are in a good position, having gone man-for-man in their aggressive press high up the field. This time, it is Joao Neves who is crucial in shuffling across to offer for a pass from midfield, coming deeper to make space elsewhere. Hakimi's diagonal ball finds Bradley Barcola rolling inside from wide — into space opened up by his team-mates in the middle. Note once again the out-of-position centre-back (this time it's Jonathan Tah) making a failed attempt to close down Doue, who has also dropped deep to receive the ball. It's another curated, direct attack that leaves Bayern's defence scrambling to retreat towards their own goal, with dominoes falling everywhere. The same sequence was on show again barely five minutes later. You know what happens by now. This time, Fabian Ruiz is the midfielder making the square run towards Hakimi, but everything else is the same — PSG's Moroccan right-back opens his body up and plays the diagonal ball into space for Barcola to attack, and the 22-year-old spins before thrusting forward. From a tactical perspective, it has been widely discussed that the best way to beat the press is by playing the ball back into the space that your opponents are shepherding you away from. Given that a coherent press is designed to push the in-possession team in a certain direction, going against the grain means that the opposition's momentum is halted and — as the above examples show — that press is subsequently broken. It is a masterful sequence that Luis Enrique has imposed. Just when the other team think they have pinned PSG towards the touchline, little do they know that they are arguably at their most vulnerable. Having such well-worked, choreographed patterns is one thing, but the technical quality and raw athleticism of PSG's players is like a cheat code. Step off them and they can circulate possession for minutes at a time, get tight and they can spring forward in the blink of an eye. Such is the pace they have across the team, you would be forgiven for thinking that third goal against Madrid on Wednesday came on a counter-attack, given how the ball was worked from back to front. Finding a weakness in this side is a difficult task at the moment, as some of Europe's other top clubs — Madrid, Bayern, Inter, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool, among others — have found out in recent months. An opportunity to lift a fifth and final trophy of their 2024-25 season awaits, with Luis Enrique's side being heavy favourites against Chelsea in Sunday's final. His counterpart Enzo Maresca will be acutely aware of the danger PSG pose all over the pitch and will no doubt be imploring his side to stay alert for every single second of the match — a simple pass out to the full-back can be the beginning of a deadly attack.
