Latest news with #Abraham
The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
England star slams ‘low life' burglars who robbed London home and took off with valuables as he shares shock footage
TAMMY Abraham has blasted "low life" burglars who broke into his London home and took off with valuables. The 6 Tammy Abraham has blasted 'low life' burglars who robbed his London home Credit: Instagram 6 The 27-year-old is playing for Besiktas this season after being sent out on loan Credit: Getty 6 Abraham has been capped 11 times by England Credit: Getty Abraham, 27, now plies his trade in But he still has a property in London with the striker revealing on social media it was broken into by thieves. Posting on his Instagram story, the former Abraham captioned the video: "A bunch of low lifes came to burgle my home couple days ago and took some valuables. Read More in Football "Thank God my family are all OK. "If anyone knows or heard any info, please let me know. I will find out soon." The striker then clarified the incident took place at his property in London, rather than Abraham was seemingly able to watch the break-in remotely via an app. Most read in Football It alerted him to the fact that there were people detected inside the property at just after 3am UK time. Video footage showed three masked individuals moving around in his garden. At one point, two of the intruders dragged away an unidentified heavy white object. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer blasts Besiktas for having 'no scouting department' after suffering humiliating Europa League exit Abraham returned to Serie A giants Roma after spending the last campaign on loan with AC Milan, scoring 10 goals as they finished in eighth place. The former Champions League winner then made the move to Besiktas this season - again on temporary loan terms. He made his senior debut for Abraham scored his first goal for England on 14 November 2019 in a 7–0 win over Montenegro in Euro 2020 qualifying. A Chelsea academy graduate, Abraham made his first-team debut for the West London club in 2016 before spe nding a season on loan at Bristol City. A further loan spell at Swansea City followed for Abraham, but the season ended with the club suffering relegation from the Premier League . He then joined Aston Villa in 2018 and became the first player since 1977 to score 25 goals in a single league campaign for the club. Abraham would return to Chelsea in 2019, recording 18 goals during their 2019/20 campaign , before lifting the UEFA Champions League in his following final season at the club. He then joined Roma in 2021 and scored 17 goals in his debut Serie A season , a record high for an Englishman. Abraham won the inaugural edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho. 6 Abraham is still on the books at Roma but is out on loan again Credit: Getty 6 He won the Champions League while with Chelsea Credit: Rex 6 Abraham also turned out for Aston Villa during his time in his home country Credit: Getty - Contributor
Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Politics
- Qatar Tribune
Israeli settler kills West Bank activist who worked on Oscar-winning film
Agencies An Israeli settler has shot and killed Palestinian activist and teacher Awdah Hathaleen in a village near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, local officials and journalists said. Hathaleen was well known for his activism, including helping the creators of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, which documents Israeli settler and soldier attacks on the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta. He 'was shot dead by settlers … during their attack on the village of Umm al-Khair', in Masafer Yatta, the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Education wrote on social media late on Monday. The two filmmakers behind No Other Land – Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and Palestinian journalist Basel Adra – also confirmed that the activist was shot and killed. 'My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening,' Adra wrote on social media. 'He was standing in front of the community centre in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life,' he said. 'This is how Israel erases us — one life at a time.' Co-director Abraham described Hathaleen as 'a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta'. Abraham also posted a video of the incident and said that 'residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter'. 'This is him in the video firing like crazy,' Abraham said. Israeli police acknowledged that they were investigating an 'incident near Carmel [al-Karmil]', an illegal Israeli settlement neighbouring Umm al-Khair. 'An Israeli citizen was detained at the scene and then arrested by police for questioning,' a police statement said.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Dogspiracy review – sincerity of activists is palpable in film that takes aim at puppy farming
With the multiplexes awash in action franchises for the summer, here is some savvy counterprogramming, especially for parents interested in turning their kids' love of animals into an opportunity to raise awareness about justice and politics. Marc Abraham, a vet based in Brighton and familiar TV face, campaigns for animal welfare and was involved in the passing of Lucy's law, which banned puppy farming in England in 2020. Since then, he has been lobbying for the kept animals bill that would legislate further against cruel practices against animals, but that stalled in parliament under the last government. After a potted history of all that, the film follows Abraham as he travels to the US where animal welfare is governed mostly by state and local regulations. But in states such as Pennsylvania, interest groups representing pet stores and others pour money into thwarting legislation similar to Lucy's law that would ban puppy mills. In order to illustrate the scale of the problem, Abraham gets in a van with animal welfare charity worker Grace, who goes around the Amish-run puppy mills in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, collecting animals that have been worn out by years of breeding, most of them locked in small cages while they pump out puppies. Her courteous offer to take unwanted and no longer profitable animals off the hands of the puppy mill owners enables the film-makers to shoot footage inside a few of the facilities and expose the conditions. Turns out even the best quality ones look pretty brutal, with no enrichment for the animals inside antiseptic pens where the yelping and whimpering dogs spend their entire lives. Along for the ride with Grace and Marc is Republican state senator and avid dog lover Tracy Pennycuick who does sterling work here rehabilitating the image of her party by projecting empathy and dedication to animal welfare. But even Pennycuick's efforts to pass a bipartisan bill in Pennsylvania like Lucy's law, in this case called Victoria's law, flounder in the face of Big Pet Store's conspiracy to maintain the cruel status quo. You could critique the film for not going a little broader in its analysis, for example, the way it shies away from really underscoring how cruelty to dogs barely differs from the cruelty experienced by other animals farmed for food, but maybe that would have diluted the documentary's appeal and impact. Strictly as a film, Dogspiracy grates a bit with its syrupy musical bed, like one of those heart-tugging animal welfare adverts that lasts 98 minutes. But Abraham is a personable anchoring figure and the sincerity of the activists is palpable throughout. Dogspiracy is in UK cinemas from 1 August.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
From Ritwik Ghatak to John Abraham: A Radical Cinematic Legacy
Published : Jul 26, 2025 17:49 IST - 14 MINS READ The birth centenary this year of Ritwik Ghatak, the redoubtable chronicler of the partition of Bengal as also of the naxalite movement, is as good an occasion as any to recall the insightful words of the independent American critic Jacob Levich, who studied the cinemas of both Ghatak and, arguably, his foremost student, John Abraham, with equal keenness: 'Ghatak's stint as vice-principal of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) for a short while in the 1960's left something of him in his students. A John Abraham would never have happened were it not for the tutelage of Ghatak. Abraham did what he did because Ghatak validated his angst. Perhaps, similar was the case with his other protégés, but besides these few men, the legacy of Ghatak seems to have terminated. We need more people to be aware of this great man's ouevre and humanity. We need young filmmakers to continue in the tradition of this alternative school of filmmaking.' When Abraham died at the age of 49, there died with him a part of what is known as the 'Ritwik vision', for none of his Institute students had so tenaciously stuck to his credo, if not his craft, as Abraham. Ghatak had faith in Abraham; he sensed in the young man a capacity for creativity springing from a sense of protest that he did not find in too many of his students at the Pune institute, or elsewhere. Talking to an interviewer, Ghatak said that he 'pinned' his faith on Abraham; and Abraham did not fail his Ritwik-da. Especially in his last film, Amma Ariyan, which may be read as a homage to both Mother as well as to Mentor, but in a language far removed from that of the Bengal master. We should not fail to notice that though their social philosophy was uncannily similar, the two were quite different when it came to the use of poetics or aesthetics to make their respective personae felt. It was poor consolation to those who knew and loved Abraham that the short, lean, bearded man died with the knowledge that his last film had won two prestigious prizes at the National awards for 1986: the special jury award for excellence in direction and another for best black-and-white cinematography (by the gifted Venu). The New Wave I first heard of Abraham sometime in the second half of the 1970s when his second film, Agraharathil Kazhuthai (Donkey in a Brahmin Village), caused a wave of critical interest. Made in Tamil and not in his native Malayalam, Donkey was a delightful and disturbing satire on Brahmin bigotry and superstition told through the story of a little donkey. The poor creature is blamed for all the ills that descend on the village and is ultimately killed by some people hired by the local Brahmins. But the tongue-in-cheek Abraham would not let the story rest at that. The humble four-legged on which The Family rode into Bethlehem was invested with posthumous miraculous powers as also a frightening capacity to invoke an apocalyptic end. Following the death of the donkey, an absconding son returns out of the blue, a lame woman is able to walk again, so on and so forth. The sinner becomes a saint overnight: a temple is raised to the memory of the benevolent creature, and black humour expressed in an almost documentary style has a field day. While the film was eminently successful in giving an idea of how people with closed minds give birth to a rigid and cruel society, it could also be read as an allegory with recognisable parallels in human experience. Many an innocent person is hounded out of his wits in his lifetime, only to be pronounced blameless, even blessed, when he is safely dead and buried or cremated or whatever. Also Read | What happens to radical cinema in reactionary times? When Ghatak was alive and made his kind of films with a conviction and vengeance hard to come by in Indian cinemas, which naturally caused a lot of discomfort to varied vested interests, he was declared to be insane as a result of excessive drinking over a period of many years. But once he was dead and could no longer be a thorn in anyone's flesh, or so they thought, retrospectives of his films began to be held all over, and such homage started being paid to him by word of mouth or in writing as would have perhaps caused him to wither away in embarrassment had he been living. A similar fate was reserved for Abraham. For many years, he was treated as some kind of a joke, on account of his drinking and his offhand lifestyle. Little or no mention was made in well-defined circles of his importance as a filmmaker and intellectual. But those who knew him well and had also done a bit of history-reading could easily make out that those who laughed at him were extremely nervous in their laughter, for they saw in Abraham a threat to the iniquitous established order of things. Born in Changanacherry in Kerala, Abraham graduated from Kerala University. After adorning a clerical chair at the LIC office in Bangalore for a while, he joined the FTII in Pune. His first film won the National award for best story, but went largely unnoticed. It was with Donkey, his second film, that he made many sit up in admiration. It was five years before he could make his third film. Amma Ariyan, his fourth and last work, made Abraham a legend. Rarely has a film established a director as firmly in the minds and hearts of viewers as Amma Ariyan did. Crossing State boundaries and regional frontiers with a sureness that was difficult to believe when it first began to happen in the late 1980s, Amma Ariyan has acquired a pan-Indian audience today that is characterised by mature thinking about cinema as art, politics, and philosophical discourse, not confined to metaphysical niceties. Abraham's political philosophy is full-bodied, rooted in the searing lives and experiences of the people he chooses to portray, and yet ethereal in a moving, contrarian sort of way. One of the mysteries of what goes by the name of New Indian Cinema, that never ceases to haunt me, relates to the question of what further conquests Abraham would have made had he not died at the young age of 49 after taking that quantum leap with Amma Ariyan, which could be the dream of many a filmmaker of high substance. To leave just at the moment when one is poised to join the pantheon is a sadness that is difficult to express adequately. It is impossible not to get emotional while discussing this unforgettable 'people's artist', not so much in the sense of social realism as value-driven humanism with an unflinching agenda not to submit to the tyrannies of history or the market, come what may. While on the subject of the near-hysterical allegiance on the part of many viewers in Kerala, Bengal, and elsewhere to the artistic and political legacy of Abraham, I strongly repudiate any suggestion made by some 'established' filmmakers that the allegiance is juvenile or mindless over-enthusiasm. It is the likes of Abraham and Ghatak who have given to film art in India that cutting edge, without which the viewing experience is reduced to, well, viewing for the sake of viewing. Cinema is a many-roomed mansion; and the master and his pupil, who was himself maturing into a master when prematurely snatched away, inhabited a particularly ill-furnished chamber reserved for those opposed to mathematical precision or clinical cleanliness in art. Perhaps, making it big in the world in his lifetime may not be the best thing to happen to an artist. A teacher's worth It has been said that one reliable way of measuring the worth of a teacher is to explore the quality of the work done by his best students. By that standard, Ghatak appears to have succeeded splendidly. For the brief period that he taught at FTII, he had among his students some brilliant young minds who, in subsequent times, went on to be major contributors to what is known as New Indian Cinema, a creative and interrogative movement lasting all through the fourth quarter of the last century. They included Mani Kaul, Saeed Mirza, Nirad Mahapatra, Kumar Shahani, and Abraham. It was only to be expected that a modern and powerful medium like film should take note of the naxalite movement in its different regional avatars in this vast and variegated country. In this connection, two films immediately come to mind—Ghatak's Jukti Tokko Aar Goppo (Reason, Debate and a Story) and Abraham's Amma Ariyan (Letter to Mother)—not only because they deal with a common theme, but also because the viewer is repeatedly reminded of the commonality of their makers, their attitudes, purposes, and sensibilities. Abraham was able to direct only four films in about two decades. Of these, the last, Amma Ariyan, gave rise to important discussions by virtue of its depiction of what the director perceived to be the naxalite persona in Kerala, and many things besides. Amma Ariyan has a slow, stretched-out beginning lasting for half an hour or so. For those who know their Abraham well, there is nothing exasperating in this; for others, it could well prove to be a test of patience. But for those who pass the test, the next one and a half hours could come as a revelation. The film is structurally reminiscent of Jukti Tokko Aar Goppo, which tried to come to ideological grips with a group of militant young naxalites holed up in a jungle, both fearless and vulnerable at one and the same time. Ghatak's film starts in the port city of Calcutta and ends in wooded hill country; Abraham's starts in the northern highlands of Kerala and ends in the port city of Cochin. Both cities carry memories of the arrival of foreigners who turned into exploiters. Thematically, too, the two films are of a piece. The same attempt at indicating the historical links between the past, especially the post-Independence past, and the present; the same fierce faith in the coming generations which, however, would do well, or so the directors seem to maintain, to seriously examine the dialectics of human relationships before plunging into the maelstrom of political and social liberation and, finally, the same preoccupation with the idea and being of the Mother as the fountainhead of strength and energy. Amma Ariyan's camerawork is tailored to a feverish design, in tune with the film's total spirit, reflecting the director's vision and convictions. One sequence, in particular, should be mentioned: Purushan, the protagonist, and his small band of comrades coming out of an ancient church in Cochin. Unforgettable in its quiet impact, it summed up the feeling of unity of humankind in the service of a common ideal. 'We ought to miss original men and artists like John Abraham or his teacher, Ritwik Ghatak, if we are to defeat the mediocrity currently invading our regional cinemas.' It is this oneness of spirit that is at the core of what Abraham himself had to say about his last film: 'Amma Ariyan is an analysis of the extremist movement in Kerala during the late seventies. Many of my intimate friends connected with the extremist group committed suicide in that period. They were very intelligent, sensitive and had high aesthetic sense. Their deaths were haunting me and this provoked me to make this film. The way I see it, films should speak to the people and people should speak through cinema. The cinematic experience should rouse the social consciousness of the audience. Through Odessa [a film co-operative started by Abraham and his friends to reach good cinema to the masses], I will show my films to the people. If they don't have money, I'll show them free. Amma Ariyan is an open letter from a pampered child to his mother and it is also a letter from all those of my generation who cannot communicate. I am writing on behalf of them to Mother.' How do we bring back originality? In the premature death of Abraham, Kerala's New Cinema, which had a profound impact on filmmakers and audiences throughout the country, lost one of its brightest and most original practitioners. The word 'original' is being used with a definite view in mind, for one heard the criticism after Amma Ariyan, that it resembled Ghatak's last film in some ways, for some people's comfort. Yes, Abraham was influenced by Ghatak, which the former readily conceded with a touch of unmistakable pride, but he never imitated Ghatak: he was too talented for that. Abraham was too much of an artist and an individualist to imitate anyone. Like all original talents, he would take whatever he needed from one or more sources and then mould them according to his own artistic notions and political needs; according to his own vision of place and people, of ideology and history. In fact, we ought to miss original men and artists like Abraham or his teacher, Ghatak, if we are to defeat the mediocrity currently invading our regional cinemas. If the naxalite movement was aimed at radical political change, the small band of artists that sought to record different aspects and delicate nuances of that movement may be said to have infused fresh and challenging vision into the largely moribund film scene in the country. Also Read | Aravindan at 90: A legacy outside the market How deeply Ghatak was embedded in Abraham's soul, in his psyche, in his absurd and fanciful ways, comes across vividly in a poem called 'A Tribute To Ritwik Ghatak', snatches from which may be recalled: Ritwik Daa,/ let me call you Ritwik Daa, / I know that you are no more./ But I am, alive for you, believe me./ When the seventh seal is opened/ I will use my camera as my gun/ and I am sure the echo of the sound/ will reverberate in your bones,/ and feed back to me for my inspiration./ Thank you Ritwik Daa,/ I am thanking you/ not with impotency and insipidity./ Ritwik Daa,/ I remember you,/ when the words fail to criticize you,/ Ritwik Daa,/ eternally you are/ in my brain/ in my spirit and / in my Holy Ghost/ Amen. Nearer home, another homegrown poet but certainly not blessed with an iota of the social or artistic credentials of such extraordinary intellectuals as Ghatak or Abraham, sought to give vent to his soul thus: Some artists die/ go to heaven/ or some such place/ rub shoulders/ with heroes and saints/ spend/ rest of their lives/ like museum pieces/ cold/ remote/ untouchable/ Other artists die/ go to hell/ deserve or not/ they burn/ head heart liver spleen/ lower organs too/ burn and burn/ till to ash/ gas/ they turn/ There's one other set/ smallest/ select/ they die like the rest/ but cannot leave/ for another shore/ love of earth/ love of fellows/ follow them/ like hunting shadows/ Love of students/ love of donkeys/ love of cruel deeds/ love of mothers/ love of letters/ love of reason/ love of stories/ love of arguments/ love of fumes/ love of myths/ love of roads rivers/ love of the absurd/ love of the impure/ love of love/ pursue them/ singly/ and in packs/ to hold them back/ where they were/ No heaven/ no hell/ no earth/ no in-between/ only where they were/ exceeding god/ shaming satan/ these unquenched artists/our pride/ joy/ solace. To return to where we began, namely, the brief period during which Ritwik set FTII on fire with his alcoholic tantrums, not to mention the depth and range of his reportedly past-midnight lectures away from the classroom. Saeed Mirza, who went on to build a formidable reputation with his kitschy working-class classics around the violent and sordid underbelly of Bombay, is on record that Ghatak was given to saying that to be a filmmaker, one must carry his childhood in one pocket and, in the other, a bottle of alcohol! While Saeed or Nirad Mahapatra, the one-film Odia auteur remarkable for his poetry of small-town dailiness, took their teacher's mock-heroic, impish advice as no more than an enjoyable metaphor, Abraham embraced it so literally as to singe and scorch and finally burn himself to an untimely end. But not before he had proved himself a resounding credit to his angry, sad, great teacher. Vidyarthy Chatterjee writes on cinema, society, and politics. For several decades now, he has pursued New Malayalam Cinema with great devotion.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Evan Ferguson and Brighton – is there any way back?
Evan Ferguson's season-long loan from Brighton & Hove Albion to Roma is a pivotal moment in his career development. The switch to the Italian capital until next summer for the 20-year-old Republic of Ireland international striker, with the possibility of the move becoming permanent, could go one of two ways. Advertisement Everybody involved in the deal — the player, his representative, both clubs — will hope it works out the same way as it did initially at Roma for Tammy Abraham, the No 9 he is replacing at the Stadio Olimpico. After leaving Chelsea in summer 2021 as a 23-year-old, Abraham scored 17 goals in his first season in Serie A, while also helping Roma to win the inaugural UEFA Conference League and earning himself an England recall. His career has not hit those same heights since, however. An ACL injury in his left knee at the end of his second year in Italy cost him much of the 2023-24 season, before the last one was spent on loan to Italian rivals Milan, scoring only three times in 28 league appearances. The now 27-year-old joined Turkish side Besiktas, again on loan, at the start of this month — a transfer which will become permanent if certain conditions are met. His exit to Istanbul created the vacancy up front in the Roma ranks. If Ferguson hits the ground running along similar lines to Abraham four years ago, his confidence levels and prospects will be restored. Brighton will then get back a rejuvenated player at the end of a deal in which Roma have paid an initial loan fee of €3million and are covering his wages in full. Alternatively, a €37m (£32.2m$45.5m) buy option clause for Roma kicks in — a very healthy profit on a player signed to Brighton's academy from Bohemians in his homeland as a raw 16-year-old in January 2021. Do please note the 'if' at the beginning of that previous paragraph, though, because there is another scenario where his time in Italy is much gloomier. A continuing of Ferguson's downward spiral over the past 20 months — injuries contributing to irregular game time, the goals drying up and belief ebbing away — could be accompanied by a nosedive in the value to Brighton of a player who was being talked about as a £90m ($121.7m at current rates) prospect when he first broke through in the Premier League with six goals and two assists in 19 top-flight appearances in 2022-23. Advertisement In those circumstances, Ferguson would return to the Amex Stadium with the chance of re-establishing himself at his parent club further diminished and the likelihood of leaving next time for a club at a lower level than Roma and West Ham United, where he spent the second half of the last Premier League campaign on loan. The Irishman does not feature in the immediate plans of Brighton's head coach Fabian Hurzeler. That is self-evident from this move to Roma happening in the same month the German has lost Joao Pedro from his forward options for the new season, with the Brazilian's sale to Chelsea. The landscape could be different in a year's time if Ferguson's latest temporary exit goes to plan. 'For sure, he has a future at Brighton,' Hurzeler told The Athletic at the end of Brighton's training camp in Marbella, Spain, on Monday. 'I am very happy for him that we found a good solution, that he now has an opportunity to get game time. That is the most important thing for Evan. I still see a lot of potential, and I still see that he is a player for us for the future.' That switch to West Ham in January looked a logical step to re-energising the career of a player who became Brighton's youngest Premier League goalscorer against Arsenal on New Year's Eve in 2022 and the fourth-youngest to get a hat-trick in the competition's three-decade history, aged 18 years and 318 days, against Newcastle United the following September. The loan reunited him with Graham Potter, who had been his first senior head coach at Brighton, but Ferguson made just eight appearances under him for West Ham, just one as part of the starting line-up, and did not score any goals. 'It is most important that the player gets the game time, but it is also the responsibility of the player to make sure that he trains hard, to make sure that he is ready for the games,' Hurzeler said. 'We can't say to the other coach (signing him on loan) that he must play, that's his decision, but we had good talks with Roma. It is a good stage for him. He had a nice arrival. There were a lot of cheers for him and hopefully now he can bring his quality onto the pitch.' Ferguson was all smiles, signing autographs as he received a rousing reception from Roma fans at the airport as they welcomed him to Italy on Sunday, before he completed the medical and paperwork formalities of his move. What a reception for Evan Ferguson in Rome by the Roma fanbase The start of something special — Rep of Ireland Player Tracker (@reptracker) July 20, 2025 Even fresher in the minds of those expectant Roma supporters than Abraham's first-season exploits for their club will be the successes of Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay and Ferguson's Brighton team-mate Billy Gilmour in helping Napoli to the Serie A title last season after the Scotland international colleagues moved to Italy a year ago. Advertisement That increases the pressure to deliver on a young player who has three goals in 44 Premier League appearances since that hat-trick against Newcastle and who did not score for almost a calendar year between November 2023 and last October. Ferguson was in the middle of that goal drought when he made second-half substitute appearances under Roberto De Zerbi in both legs of Brighton's 4-1 aggregate defeat by Roma in the Europa League's last 16 in March last year. On the plus side, there is a good chance he will get the game time he needs under Roma's new manager Gian Piero Gasperini, who spent the previous nine years finding various levels of success at Atalanta, including winning the 2023-24 Europa League. Roma will be competing in the league phase of that same competition in the coming season after finishing fifth in Serie A despite a campaign of managerial turbulence — Daniele De Rossi was sacked in September with just four games played, replacement Ivan Juric left after two months for a Southampton side who already looked on course for relegation from the Premier League and a 73-year-old Claudio Ranieri had to be coaxed out of retirement in November to steady the ship. 'Evan had a challenging period across the past season and a half, and it has been one disrupted by niggling injury issues which haven't allowed him a run of games,' Hurzeler says in Brighton's announcement of the Roma move. 'He is over those injuries and has come back in great shape. Now he really wants to play regularly. This is an exciting opportunity in a strong league and with the prospect of European football.' A whole country is also keeping its collective fingers crossed for Ferguson as he makes this switch to the three-time champions of Serie A. He is still the golden boy for the Republic of Ireland's national team, with five goals in 22 caps since his senior debut as an 18-year-old in November 2022, as they target a place in the World Cup next summer from a tricky-looking group also containing two Euro 2024 sides in Portugal and Hungary. For the sake of all parties, but especially a young lad who has experienced a dramatic rise and fall, this is a move that needs to work.
