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New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
How Italy's perfect blend is allowing their dreams to run wild at Euro 2025
There's a saying in Italian: I sogni non sono nei cassetti perche ci stanno stretti. It translates as: Dreams are not kept in drawers because they are too tight. That much was certain last Tuesday as Italy defeated Norway 2-1 in a Women's European Championship quarter-final to reach their first tournament semi-final since 1997, allowing their deepest wishes to run wild and free. Advertisement 'We all dreamt together,' said midfielder Annamaria Serturini ahead of the quarter-final match. 'We all dreamt because, in the end, everyone dreamt for a long time. We have reached our great goal, and we do not want to stop. We want to continue dreaming, and making Italians dream.' With reigning European champions England next today (Tuesday), Italy are dreaming hard. But, as Serturini says, many of these players have also been dreaming for a long time. Of the 16 teams at this tournament, Italy's average squad age was the fourth-oldest (28.34 years), behind those of Sweden, Portugal and Wales. Comparatively, the other three sides still standing in Switzerland rank between eighth- (England, 26.93) and 10th-oldest (Spain and Germany are level at 26.33). Excluding the last two quarter-finals, of the 52 line-ups put forth by various teams at Euro 2025, Italy have fielded four of the 15 oldest sides (Sweden, Portugal, Wales and the Netherlands sent out the other 11 between them). Striker Cristiana Girelli, who got both goals in that win against Norway, is this tournament's fourth-oldest scorer at 35 years old, behind Wales' Jess Fishlock (38), Janice Cayman of Belgium (36) and Sweden's Kosovare Asllani (who is also 35 but around nine months older than Girelli). Also, of Italy's six most-used players in these finals so far, four are in their thirties: Girelli (298 minutes), goalkeeper Laura Giuliani (32 years old; 360), forward Elena Linari (31; also 360) and defender Cecilia Salvai (31; 347). Before we go any further: no, this is not a piece focusing solely on the age of Italy's squad. But one of their main problem areas for the Itailans after getting to previous tournaments was a perceived lack of pace and energy; they were a talented team bogged down by immobility. In the past two years, though, they have looked sharper, more energetic, despite still being bookended in goal and up front by two of the three oldest players in the squad in Giuliani and Girelli. The key has been the gradual introduction of a new generation around the experienced core to supplement their talents with pace and vivacity. Advertisement Specifically in midfield and along the flanks, Italy have looked much more lively in their displays. Full-backs Lucia Di Guglielmo and Elisabetta Oliviero are both 28 and have had good tournaments, while a midfield of Manuela Giugliano (27), Arianna Caruso (25) and Emma Severini (22) outworked and outplayed Norway last week. Even more beneficial have been the performances from Sofia Cantore up front. The 25-year-old forward, who joined NWSL side Washington Spirit from Juventus last month, assisted both goals against Norway. In Girelli, Italy have a very good penalty-box player — her one-touch close-range finish for the opener in that quarter-final and 90th-minute headed clincher are cases in point — but Cantore provides the zeal and creativity that allows her team-mate to focus on occupying those areas in the opposition box. Girelli's two goals that night were emblematic of Italy since the September 2023 appointment of head coach Andrea Soncin, who has shifted the team's look with this modest generational change. In fact, of the starting XI against Norway, six — Barbara Bonansea, Giuliani, Girelli, Salvai, Giugliano and Linari — all made their national-team debuts between 2012 and 2014. The rest — Di Guglielmo, Oliviero, Caruso, Severini and Cantore — made theirs between 2019 and 2024. Many of Italy's big moments have stemmed from the older players in their thirties, the ones who have endured big games, big dreams and big heartbreak in the past as a collective, while more recently introduced 'additions' enter the pool as players come of age. Calling these players 'young' would be disingenuous. Only Severini is under 24 years old. Yet, there is something abnormal about this blend. International teams are generally spaced by four years, with youth teams graduating together, contending for some time, then being replaced via gradual onboarding of their successors. In this way, sides take on the look of a quilt: kiddos, prime players and veterans stitched together and all scoring and playing. England at this tournament are a good example of this, with their quarter-final goalscorers Lucy Bronze (33) and Michelle Agyemang (22) having 14 years and three months between their respective birth dates. Advertisement Italy's chemistry is more two-dimensional than three. Soncin has found success in this method. His tenure began with a 2023-24 Nations League campaign in which Italy finished second in their group behind Spain but recorded a historic 3-2 away win against the world champions, leading to some of the optimism currently surrounding the squad. That sense of positivity was further built during Euro qualifying earlier this year, as Italy finished top of their group ahead of the Netherlands, who won the competition in 2017. Tonight against England, Italy will doubtless be underdogs, as they were in the previous round. Norway were disorganised last week and allowed Soncin's midfielders to move without much pressure. The English should be stronger in this aspect of the game — but Italy have surprised many in the past two years to reach this historic point, and that is arguably because of the slow but purposeful blend the 46-year-old coach has managed to nurture. Calling it a revolution (or even an evolution) is arguably a step too far. Rather, it's a slow reawakening, a reformation, nailing Italy's dreams to the front door of this tournament.
Associated Press
2 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Brice Matthews hits first 2 big-league homers, leads Astros past the D-backs 6-3
PHOENIX (AP) — Brice Matthews hit his first two big-league homers and had five RBIs, Christian Walker added an RBI double in his return to Chase Field and the Houston Astros beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3 on Monday night. Matthews went deep in the second inning with a three-run shot, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead. His two-run homer in the seventh pushed the Astros ahead 6-3. The 23-year-old second baseman is one of the Astros' top prospects and a first-round pick in 2023. The Diamondbacks had their four-game winning streak snapped. Eugenio Suarez hit his NL-leading 36th homer. Arizona's Zac Gallen (7-11) gave up six runs over six innings. He's given up 23 homers this year, which is already the most in a season in his career. Houston lefty Colton Gordon (4-2) gave up three runs — two earned — over 5 2/3 innings. Josh Hader worked the ninth for his 26th save in 27 chances. The D-backs had the tying run at the plate with two outs, but Josh Naylor flied out to right to end the game. Walker had two hits while playing against the D-backs for the first time since he left the team for Houston in free agency during the offseason. He hit 146 homers over eight seasons in Arizona, helping the franchise reach the World Series in 2023. D-backs star Ketel Marte returned to the lineup for the first time since his house was burglarized over the All-Star break. The D-backs left 11 runners on base. Key moment The D-backs loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but reliever Bennett Sousa retired Marte on a fly ball to left to end the threat. Key stat Gallen reached 1,000 career strikeouts in the fourth inning. He's the second pitcher who debuted in 2019 to hit the mark, joining Dylan Cease. Up next The Astros send LHP Framber Valdez (10-4, 2.75 ERA) to the mound against Diamondbacks LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (3-6, 5.94) on Tuesday. ___ AP MLB:
New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why have Nottingham Forest taken out an £80m loan from Apollo Management?
Nottingham Forest have taken a loan of £80million ($108m) with Apollo Management, a global asset management company based in New York. It is the company's first venture into Premier League finance. The three-year loan, which was secured in December 2024, will operate with an interest rate of 8.75 per cent. Advertisement For Forest, £55million of the loan was used to refinance an existing debt with Rights and Media Funding Group (RMF) as a potential cost-saving exercise. It is secured against the entirety of the club and its assets, the most significant of which is the City Ground. It is not an unusual practice for clubs to secure finance in such a manner. In fact, it is a reasonably regular occurrence; fleeting star players aside, a club's most valuable asset tends to be its home, so that's what gets put up as security when large tranches of funding are obtained. But, when it involves a headline figure of such a high number, it might raise some questions among fans. Which The Athletic attempts to answer here… Apollo — or Apollo Global Management — is a global asset management company, headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Founded in 1990, Apollo had, as of the end of 2024, assets under management of $751billion, ranking them as the 28th largest asset management firm in the world, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. Apollo was co-founded by Josh Harris, now a shareholder at Crystal Palace. Harris left Apollo in 2022, though retained a six per cent shareholding in the firm as of April this year. Naturally, the firm's business is widely diversified, with various companies in operation. Of the £80million loaned to Forest last December, £25m is owed to Apollo Debt Solutions (ADS) BDC (the latter standing for 'Business Development Company'), a subsidiary of the Apollo group. Based on filings by Forest's holding company, NF Football Investments, the remaining £55m is held by Apollo Investment Management Europe, a Luxembourg-based entity. While this is Apollo's first known direct foray into football, the Financial Times reported this week that the investment firm is in talks to buy a stake in Atletico Madrid. Advertisement Which isn't to say the firm is not already active in sport. ADS' loan book includes two term loans, totalling $172million, given to Endeavor, owners of World Wrestling Entertainment and the Ultimate Fighting Championship via their ownership of TKO Group. A further $52m was loaned to TKO earlier this year, while there's another $5m due from Delta 2, a Luxembourg-based company that holds debt for Formula One. There's an existing link to football too. Also on ADS' list of investments at the end of March was a £40m loan to Sports Invest Holdings Limited, a business set up last May by prominent football advisor, Kia Joorabchian. Rights and Media Funding Limited is a Macclesfield-based company that lends to the sports and entertainment industries. RMF loaned Forest £55million in two tranches. First, in August 2022, £45m repayable by July 30 2025, bearing interest at 7.5 per cent plus the Bank of England (BOE) base rate (then 1.75 per cent; now 4.25 per cent), then a further £10m in October 2023, again repayable by July 30 2025, this time bearing interest at 6.45 per cent plus the BOE base rate. Both loans have now been repaid in full and were filed as such on January 6 this year. Forest aren't the first club to have received funding from RMF, whose most high-profile lending was to Everton before the club's takeover by The Friedkin Group last December. At one stage, that debt sat at £225m, though it was all repaid following the takeover. As well as Everton, RMF has previously loaned money to West Ham (varying amounts between 2017 and 2020), and a cohort of 11 clubs in Spain. The lender provided €67million in December 2020 in a joint-financing venture that looked to shore up liquidity during the Covid-19 pandemic. In July 2021, RMF loaned Valencia €51m over five years, before organising a separate €20m, over four and a half years, to the Mestalla club in January 2024. Per RMF's balance sheet at the end of June 2024, the company was owed loans in the region of £288million, the vast majority of which looks to have been amounts due from Everton and Forest. Both clubs are now free of debt to RMF. The £80million loaned from Apollo to Forest is senior debt, meaning it takes priority when it comes to repayment; in the unlikely event Forest were heading out of business, Apollo would be at the front of the resultant queue. The loan has a three-year term, due for repayment on December 20 2027, though there is provision for that to be extended a further two years. It incurs 8.75 per cent interest annually or, based on the £80m balance, £7m per year. That was around half Forest's total matchday income in the 2023-24 season (the latest for which we have figures). Advertisement £55m of the Apollo loan has been used to repay the amounts due to RMF. Based on most recent interest rates, those RMF loans were incurring £6.4m in annual interest, so this refinancing — now a common occurrence in football — works out cheaper in a sense; applying the Apollo interest rate to £55m gives an annual charge of £4.8m. Of course, Forest have borrowed above and beyond their previous debt to RMF, taking out a further £25m this time around. It is unclear what the additional funding is to be used for. It is difficult to read too much into the timing of the loan, beyond the fact that the restructuring of the debt should ultimately reduce costs for the club. With those RMF loans due for repayment at the end of July, it makes sense that the club looked elsewhere — successfully — for cheaper financing. The club have declined to comment. Debt has long been a dirty word in football, but it need not be; the only way debt becomes overly problematic is if clubs are unable to service it, or it unduly impacts their ability to spend elsewhere. In that sense, Forest shouldn't have too much new to be concerned about in the immediate future. While their debt burden has increased by £25million, the more favourable rate — and a fixed one at that — means interest costs have only increased by around £0.6m annually. That is, however, simply relative to the club's previous position. £7m in annual interest isn't too bad for a club in the Premier League and the commensurate wealth that brings (The Athletic estimates Forest earned £157.5m in domestic prize money alone last season), but should a bad season result in relegation, interest quickly becomes a much bigger problem. An 8.75 per cent interest rate is hardly cheap, though it's also not as hefty as some other clubs are paying — including Forest's own recent payments to RMF. Rates are high generally and a potential drop into the Championship, deemed a possibility for all but a minority of clubs, makes it difficult to obtain low-rate lending. A positive is that Forest have now locked in the rate on this tranche of funding, so are no longer subject to interest rate swings and have certainty over upcoming payments — though, of course, that could turn to a negative if rates fall in the future. Advertisement Of greater concern is whether Forest have anything to show for it. If the money has only been used to cover ongoing costs, that's much less desirable than pouring it into infrastructure; for example, the imminent works at the City Ground. Debt just to fund existing operations always raises the question of how it will eventually be repaid. Eight Premier League clubs paid more in interest than Forest in 2023-24, some substantially so, but several of those did it to build new or improved facilities. There's also the important point that all of the club being used as security precludes Forest from putting its assets up against any other funding, such as whatever may be required to pay for those City Ground works. That money will, presumably, have to come from the pockets of owner Evangelos Marinakis. The repayment date for the Apollo loan isn't until December 2027, but could be extended to 2029, and it may be that Forest simply refinance again. In the immediate term, the lending doesn't look overly risky or expensive — at least relative to what went before. But finances at Forest, like most clubs outside a handful, will remain reliant on on-field success.
