Bayern back in for Xavi Simons! Harry Kane and Co switch focus to RB Leipzig star after missing out on Florian Wirtz and Nico Williams
Dutch star scored 11 goals in injury-hit 2024–25 season
Leipzig yet to begin talks despite player's desire to leave
WHAT HAPPENED?
Bayern Munich have officially approached RB Leipzig over a possible deal for Simons, according to The Athletic. The 22-year-old has informed Leipzig of his intention to leave this summer despite only joining in January. Though talks have not yet begun, Bayern are weighing their next move following setbacks in the transfer market.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Simons is seen as a versatile solution after Bayern Munich failed to land Wirtz or Williams, who were the Bavarians' top targets this summer. With Jamal Musiala injured and Leroy Sane and Mathys Tel having left the club, Bayern's attacking depth has thinned. The Dutchman could fill multiple roles in Vincent Kompany's system for the 2025/26 campaign.
DID YOU KNOW?
Injuries limited Simons' playing time last season, but he still recorded 11 goals and eight assists. Across two years in Germany, he has racked up 44 goal contributions in 76 games.
WHAT NEXT FOR BAYERN?
WHAT NEXT FOR BAYERN?
Bayern are expected to open formal negotiations with Leipzig in the coming days. With the player eager to leave, Bayern could try to strike a deal before pre-season kicks off. Leipzig, however, may demand a fee close to or above the €50 million (£43m) they paid to Paris Saint-Germain in January.
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New York Times
35 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. 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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
38 minutes ago
- New York Times
What Jordan Henderson can offer Brentford – a midfield metronome who can fill leadership void
After two years away, including a disastrous six-month stint at Saudi Arabian club Al Ettifaq and a more successful spell at Ajax, Jordan Henderson is set to return to English shores and sign for Brentford on a free transfer. For the west London club, it's a timely arrival after losing captain Christian Norgaard to Arsenal and speculation surrounding the futures of Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa. Advertisement But the sands of time have worn on. Can a 35-year-old Henderson — once the energetic heartbeat of Jurgen Klopp's high-tempo, all-action Liverpool side — still cut it in the relentless environment of Premier League football? Here, The Athletic examines his time at Ajax for clues about how he has changed since leaving Anfield, and how this version of Henderson might fit in at Brentford. At first, Henderson's move to Ajax looked set to mirror his Saudi misadventure. Parachuted into a struggling, youthful side that had been bottom of the Eredivisie just months earlier, he was a steady but unspectacular presence as Ajax finished in fifth, 35 points adrift of champions PSV. The disarray ran so deep that Henderson even deputised as a right-sided centre-back in a 2-2 draw away at Sparta Rotterdam. His fortunes turned with the arrival of a new manager, and the clarity of a new role. Under Francesco Farioli, Henderson was redeployed as a lone defensive midfielder at the base of a three-man midfield, with Ajax reverting to their traditional 4-3-3. 'With us, he's playing more as a 'No 6' (deep-lying midfielder) than as a No 8 (further forward),' Farioli told Sky Sports. 'It was something different that the coach wanted from my position, both with and without the ball. It was great that even at my age that I could learn something new,' Henderson told reporters at the time. The shift is visible in his passmap, with start locations that cluster in deep central areas, where Henderson acted as the metronomic fulcrum of Ajax's patient build-up play. This marked a clear departure from the right-of-centre zones he occupied during Liverpool's title-winning 2019-20 season. Back then, his relentless box-to-box running and crisp passing helped progress the ball up the pitch, while his defensive work covered the spaces vacated by Trent Alexander-Arnold as the right-back surged forward. Henderson's role as the energetic glue in midfield, rather than a creative spark, has always been hard to quantify — he hasn't recorded more than 10 goal contributions in a single domestic season over the past decade. But thanks to tracking data provider SkillCorner, it's possible to gauge how his off-ball movements have helped Ajax tick over in midfield. Across Europe's top seven leagues, Henderson ranks in the 91st percentile among midfielders for movements coming short to receive the ball, a reflection of his importance in build-up play, where he constantly looks to offer an easy out-ball for his team-mates. An example of how this plays out in practice can be seen in the following screenshot from Ajax's 2-1 home victory against Feyenoord in February, where Henderson drops deep to split the centre-backs. This pattern was seen throughout the game as Henderson patiently controlled the tempo, dictating play with short snappy passes until an opening further upfield presented itself. His preference for these shorter passes is reflected in his high 'link-up play' value — measured in The Athletic's player pizza charts (below) as the percentage of short or medium-distance passes a player has made. Elsewhere, his creative threat ranks in the 88th percentile, though that owes largely to his successful conversion into a set-piece taker at Ajax, something the new Brentford boss Keith Andrews, formerly a set-piece coach, will no doubt have noted. But like any good defensive midfielder, Henderson knows when to slow the game down and when to speed it up. His first-time assist against RKC Waalwijk in January showed a sharp appreciation for when a quick pass can capitalise on a fleeting opportunity. His defensive metrics also paint the picture of a player who has quickly adapted to the demands of playing as a lone pivot. His high tackle success rate and ability to recover loose balls highlight both positional awareness and sharp instinctive timing. As writers at The Athletic have written about previously, Brentford thrive when doggedly capitalising on loose balls, and Henderson should be well equipped to support this. Advertisement His stabilising presence and composed performances from the base of midfield helped transform a floundering Ajax side and took them agonisingly close to a 37th Eredivisie title. Having led the league by nine points with five games to play, Ajax dramatically let their advantage slip. For his part, Henderson scored his sole Eredivisie goal of 2024-25 in Ajax's 2-0 final-day victory at home to Twente, but the damage had been done when they had conceded a 99th-minute equaliser against 10-man Groningen in the penultimate round. Still, the club recognised Henderson's role in making them contenders again. In a statement after his exit was confirmed, Ajax technical director Alex Kroes said: 'Jordan was a true captain for us, both on and off the pitch. An international top player who, through his mentality and leadership qualities, made a significant contribution to our qualification for the Champions League.' For all his intelligence on the pitch, it's his dressing-room personality that sets him apart in the eyes of his coaches. Last season, Farioli — who instantly made Henderson captain — told The Athletic, 'Jordan is an example. It was my decision at the beginning of the season to give him the armband because he personifies the values we want to have here.' Klopp echoed that praise for his character and leadership after Henderson picked up the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award in 2020: 'Hendo's package of leadership, attitude and consistency was really special this year.' Norgaard plays a similarly unfussy but vital quick-passing, tempo-setting game to the one Henderson was asked to show at Ajax, making him a natural — if not quite as physically dynamic — plug-and-play replacement for those aspects of Brentford's build-up. But it's the vacuum of leadership and tenacity that comes with losing a captain like Norgaard that's tougher to fill. 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New York Times
38 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.'
