Latest news with #BillyGilmour
Scotsman
a day ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
'Staggered': Billy Gilmour's Napoli future addressed as Man City claim made on Scotland star
Nevin believes Scotland star's impact on games goes unnoticed Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour has the skillset to play for Manchester City under Pep Guardiola - but he should stay at Napoli, according to Pat Nevin. Gilmour made the move from Brighton and Hove Albion in the English Premier League to Italian side Napoli last summer. Alongside fellow Scotland internationalist Scott McTominay, he went on to win the Serie A title - only the fourth Scudetto in Gli Azzurri's history. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Contracted to Napoli until the summer of 2029, any suitors would have to pay a significant fee for the Rangers academy graduate, who already has experience of playing in the EPL with Chelsea, Norwich City and Brighton. And while former Scotland internationalist Nevin reckons the 24-year-old would thrive at a possession-based club such as Man City, he is better off staying in Naples. Billy Gilmour has excelled since moving to Napoli. | Getty Images 'Billy was playing for Chelsea when he was 18, playing against Liverpool and looking like the best player on the field,' said Nevin. 'Then he doesn't get his chance. 'He moves to Norwich, a team that wasn't suited to him. Then he goes to Brighton, finally a place that suits him, and they loved him and he was doing really, really well. But he didn't suit the way they were buying and selling so they moved him again. 'Honestly I do think if you stuck him in the centre of Manchester City's midfield he'd be fine. He's good enough. He can do that technically with his quality. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Why leave Napoli? 'But why would you move back from Napoli? It is heaven over there for a player. If you're winning the scudetto, if you're getting lauded the way he and Scott McTominay are, I would be staggered (if he left). I think he'd look towards Spain if he were to move. I think that would suit Billy down to the ground. And I think he'd love them there. 'People that don't watch Napoli or Scotland sometimes roll their eyes and think it's just a Scottish guy. He plays against some of the best players in the world and he outshines them quite regularly. 'The downside is he's not going to score you any goals and he's not massively creative either. But he controls games. That control in games is massively important for certain types of teams.
Daily Record
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Scotland star spotted at TRNSMT among 50 Cent crowd
Scotland national star Billy Gilmour was spotted at Glasgow Green to watch the US rapper perform on Friday evening A famous Scots footballer was spotted yesterday at Glasgow Green enjoying the first day of TRNSMT as rapper 50 Cent took to the stage to perform. Ex-Rangers star Billy Gilmour, who now plays for Napoli, was seen in the crowd watching the US rapper play the first headline set of the weekend, Glasgow Live reports. The 50-year-old Candy Shop hitmaker was the closing performance of the first evening of the three day festival in the city with a performance which included a backdrop of neon signs with images including lollipops and 50 Cent coins. The star got the crowd going wild as he performed all of his best hits over an hour and a half period with a series of dancers. Unfortunately for Billy, 50 Cent has already previously pledged his loyalty to Celtic FC as he shared his hopes of paying a visit to Parkhead after being inspired by his good friend, Gerard Butler. Paisley born actor Butler and the In Da Club rapper starred together in the 2018 blockbuster Den of Thieves and became good pals during filming. According to 50, the Scots actor's love for the Hoops was impossible to ignore. According to SunSport, the rapper said: 'Man, Gerard is crazy about Celtic. I don't think I have ever met somebody more in love with their team. "We are going to watch a Celtic game together. That guy won't miss a game even when he's shooting. He must go up another level when he's actually at the stadium.' The rapper added: 'If I went to watch a game in Scotland, it would have to be Celtic. "He would never forgive me if I went to watch anybody else.' Other acts to perform on the Friday included James Bay, Twin Atlantic, Wet Leg, Jamie Webster, School Boy Q, Callum Bowie and The Script. The high temperatures of up to 29C are set to continue over the course of the weekend with festival goers being warned to stay hydrated and top up with suncream throughout the day. 50 Cent reportedly made a stop in the city centre to enjoy a bite to eat and a game of bowling ahead of his TRNSMT show. The Get Rich Or Die Tryin' star, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, made a stop in Vega on Argyle Street on Thursday evening after staying in a newly refurbished hotel in the city centre. 50 enjoyed the luxe bowling space all night scoring "strike after strike" according to a fan who spotted the US megastar. The rapper reportedly ordered crispy fried chicken, mac and cheese and skin on fries courtesy of Vega's brand new chef Garry Rae. The fan who spotted him said: "We couldn't believe it was really him, we had to do a double-take. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. "He scored strike after strike and seemed to be having a great time with his pals. "If it's any indication of what his performance will be like tomorrow night, it looks like he'll be at the top of his game."
Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
How Britain's fluent footballers are finally beating language barriers
There he was at Wimbledon, the blazer, sunglasses, tan and swept-back hair — looking every last centimetro an Italian movie star. Except it was good old Scott McTominay. ' Come stai?' ('how are you?') he asked a talkSPORT interviewer. ' Tutto bene?' ('is everything OK?') McTominay's metamorphosis at Napoli is one of the stories of our age and from a British perspective his embrace of local language and culture is as delightful as his success on the pitch. Because, if we're honest, ability to adapt abroad does not come easily to Brits. One of our greatest footballers, after all, was Ian Rush, who, when asked to explain why he couldn't score at Juventus, replied that being in Italy was like being in a foreign country. But McTominay is new school. Since transferring from Manchester United last summer he has taken biweekly Italian lessons with a university tutor, while using several language apps to improve his fluency. His team-mate and Scottish compatriot Billy Gilmour is the same. McTominay now records video messages to fans in Italian and can navigate Italian TV interviews. He's determined to keep getting better. Even more assimilated is Fikayo Tomori, the England centre back who joined AC Milan in 2021 and used lockdown to learn Italian to a high level, speaking it with a native accent. Football's polyglots... and some useful phrases Players who speak a variety of languages Romelu Lukaku Napoli and Belgium striker: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Flemish, Italian, Lingala Henrikh Mkhitaryan Inter Milan and former Armenia winger: English, Armenian, French, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Italian Nadia Nadim AC Milan and Denmark women's forward: English, Danish, German, Persian, Dari, Urdi, Hindi, Arabic, French Amadou Onana Aston Villa and Belguim midfielder: French, German, English, Dutch, Wolof — and is learning Spanish Managers and coaches Mike Arteta Arsenal: Spanish, Basque, Catalan, English, Portuguese, French, Italian (and he claims an eighth: 'Scottish') José Mourinho Fenerbahce: Portuguese, English, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, French Nuno Espirito Santo Nottingham Forest: Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, Russian Roy Hodgson English, Swedish, French, Italian, German —and even taught French as a sideline when in South Africa as a player Arsène Wenger French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese Foreign language cheat sheet (from the Futbol Lingo app) 'Switch of play' Changez le jeu (French), Spiel Verlagen (German), Cambia de orientacion (Spanish), Skipt um Kannt (Icelandic), Zhuanji jingong (Mandarin) 'Penalty spot' Punkt pola karnego (Polish), Penalti noktasi (Turkish), Strafschopstip (Dutch), Nuqtat darbat aljaza (Arabic) 'Referee' Arbitro (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish), L'arbitre (French), Scheidsrichter (German), Domari (Icelandic) …and some interesting idioms (from 'Do You Speak Football' by Tom Williams) 'The Top Corner' in different countries: Spain Donde anidan las aranas (literal translation: 'Where the spiders nest') Egypt Fil maqass ('In the scissors') Brazil Onde dorme a coruja ('Where the owl sleeps') Algeria Wayn yeskon shaytan ('Where Satan lives') 'A nutmeg' in different countries: France Petit pont ('Little bridge') South Korea Alggagi ('Hatching an egg') Jamaica Salad Tammy Abraham learnt enough to conduct interviews in Italian while playing for Roma and two hours of language lessons a day during five years at Borussia Dortmund left Jamie Gittens, Chelsea's new signing, fluent in German. Harry Kane jokes about his continued struggles with German but in March a clip emerged of him taking lessons with a tutor at Bayern Munich that suggested he is better with the language than he lets on. Jude Bellingham learnt some German at Dortmund and threw himself into mastering Spanish after joining Real Madrid, using apps and taking lessons at home. Trent Alexander-Arnold noted his close friend's example and wowed with a long address in fluent Spanish at his Real unveiling. Sensitive to accusations that considerable time was spent plotting his transfer from Liverpool, Alexander-Arnold's camp declined to clarify how long he had been learning the lingo when contacted for this article — but an experienced Spanish-language teacher of footballers said, 'I found it incredibly impressive. That didn't strike me as just a few months' study.' Yet before lapsing into parochial self-congratulation it should be acknowledged that British players are merely beginning to do what those of other nationalities have done for years. Kylian Mbappé spoke Spanish to a higher level at his Real unveiling and started learning Spanish as a 15-year-old because, even at that age, he was planning to play in La Liga one day. McTominay's Napoli team-mate Romelu Lukaku speaks nine languages and at United he played with Henrikh Mkhitaryan (eight languages), Bruno Fernandes (five languages) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (five languages). He was managed by José Mourinho, speaker of six languages, whose route into coaching began with a stint as Sir Bobby Robson's translator at Barcelona. Sixteen of the Premier League's 20 managers speak at least two languages (including Mikel Arteta, who has seven) but the only bilingual Brit among them is Graham Potter, who has Swedish. However, at the same time as a rise in polyglotism in the game so there is an acceleration towards English becoming football's lingua franca. Take refereeing. A number of Premier League refs speak more than one language, including a certain younger official, who would rather remain nameless, who speaks five. And yet increasingly Fifa and Uefa are pushing referees across the world to learn English. The men's and women's national teams of Belgium — a linguistically divided country — have used English in their dressing rooms since Roberto Martínez introduced the principle nine years ago. Long before he joined Liverpool Arne Slot was coaching and doing team talks in English. He demanded English be used at all times at Feyenoord, even getting dinner ladies to speak to players in English. His reasoning was that a common tongue builds unity and it would be more useful, in their future lives, if Feyenoord's many South American and African signings learnt English rather than Dutch. British players learning languages and English as football's lingua franca appear, at first glance, to be opposing developments, but both have the same root cause. It's that communication has never been considered more important in football. In a marginal-gains world where every advantage is important, the leading coaches see social bonds and successful communicating as super-important to the success of teams. Thomas Tuchel has spoken of little else since becoming England head coach. In Premier League academies, players access GCSE and A-level language qualifications through clubs' education programmes. The Professional Footballers' Association offers language courses to players across the men's and women's game, encouraging members to use them and the PFA considers it critical to have a multilingual leader. Its chief executive, Maheta Molango, speaks six languages and this is seen as vital to helping connect with the union's modern membership. Southampton's Will Still, raised in Belgium by British parents, is an example of a young English manager able to switch tongues to project his message. Footage of Still motivating his former Reims squad in French while switching to industrial English for emphasis is fascinating — and amusing — viewing: ' Ces trois points dimanche … F***ING THREE POINTS ON SUNDAY!' And so on. Roy Hodgson, the father of multilingual English managers, coached in five languages, including French — which he even taught part-time in a school while playing in South Africa. The League Managers Association includes a 'learning a foreign language' module in its diploma in football management and provides a language consultant, Robert Hunt, a former United Nations translator, to help members broaden their language skills. An early linguistic specialist in English football was George Scanlan, a remarkable character who played at junior level for Everton and had a successful coaching career with Marine, but was also head of languages at Liverpool Polytechnic, having studied French, Russian, Persian and Arabic at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was attaché/interpreter for the Soviet Union at the 1966 World Cup and fulfilled a similar role for numerous British and foreign teams, sitting on the Aston Villa bench when they played Dinamo Kiev en route to winning the 1981-82 European Cup. Scanlan became a trusted figure for Sir Alex Ferguson, not only interpreting for Andrei Kanchelskis at United but also co-writing Kanchelskis's autobiography and even helping to broker his transfer to Everton. Phil Dickinson, who studied under Scanlan, has been a key provider of language services to top English clubs for 25 years and his early gigs included interpreting for Eric Cantona. Dickinson was on duty the day Cantona signed for United and it befell him to go through the contract with the Frenchman and ask all the insurance questions. 'There was a certain one,' Dickinson remembers. 'Er, Eric, have you got Aids or ever had Aids? Non, non. OK, that's good.' Dickinson could fill several books with his experiences. One was working for Wigan Athletic during their era of high-profile South and Central American signings. He sat on their bench and in their dressing room to translate Paul Jewell's instructions to the Ecuador international Antonio Valencia. 'The other players would snigger because quite often Jewelly would turn round and tell me off,' Dickinson recalls. 'Like when Antonio didn't take the player on, or just played back inside: 'Fookin 'ell, Phil!' 'Once we had a home game against Watford and Paul brought out a video tactics board pre-programmed to replicate Watford's movements at corners. All these yellowy-orange discs representing the Watford players suddenly flew in all directions and [Jewell] was, 'Lads, it's like the f***ing Red Arrows!' 'There's always that totally untranslatable phrase that is wrapped in culture. Afterwards I said to Antonio, 'Well, the Red Arrows are our kind of acrobatic air force.' But I'm not sure that did the trick.' There was the interpreter who accompanied a Spanish-speaking player's wife to a pregnancy scan and, separated by a curtain for privacy, found themselves saying, 'There's the leg, here's the head.' Another had to talk a South American player's partner through breast-enlargement surgery. These are tales from the era before clubs invested properly in player care, when often the language tutor/interpreter was a foreign signing's only point of contact. Now most Premier League clubs have whole player-care departments. Hugo Scheckter, the former head of player care at West Ham United, Brentford and Southampton, founded The Player Care Group, the largest consultancy and education provider for sporting clubs across the world in player care. Research commissioned by his company showed that 80 per cent of all failed Premier League transfers from 2021-24 arrived from leagues where English is not the native language and Scheckter says, 'When going into clubs, we get them to buy into language learning from the top down. 'When I started in football it was from the bottom up. I'd try to persuade a player to do their English lessons but they wouldn't want to and there were no repercussions. Whereas now, either putting it in the contract or having the manager or director of football behind you, makes it a priority. 'On the pitch, in a high-pressure situation, if a player's English isn't good enough and a team-mate is shouting 'man on' or a manager is shouting an instruction and they can't get it immediately, it slows things down and in the modern game there isn't time for that.' David Moyes used Arteta as go-between when conversing with Marouane Fellaini at Everton and last season Jack Harrison (a Spanish speaker, having had a Costa Rican partner) proved invaluable in helping the Argentine player Charly Alcaraz communicate. Even after three seasons at Liverpool, Darwin Núñez leans on Alexis Mac Allister for language help but some players are linguistic sponges. The formidably bright Amadou Onana, at 23, is already fluent in French, German, English, Dutch and Wolof and has his heart set on learning Spanish — so asks the Villa head coach, Unai Emery, to use the language when speaking to him. Football language is different. At present Hunt is teaching a Spanish coach English. 'You have to be aware of the nuances,' he says. 'When we talk about a player playing deep in England we mean they drop towards their own goalkeeper and in Spanish the exact translation of 'deep' would be ' profundo '. But when you talk in Spanish football about ' profundidad ' you mean playing high up the pitch.' Offering a solution is Futbol Lingo, a brilliant app designed by two Uefa-licensed coaches based in England. One, Pierce Kiembi, speaks six languages and without widespread marketing his app has grown through word-of-mouth to almost 10,000 subscribers. Used by clubs in Spain, Belgium, Colombia and France it provides 1,600-plus football-specific words and phrases (with recordings of how to pronounce them) in 15 languages, including Arabic, Mandarin and Brazilian Portuguese. Users of the Futbol Lingo app can learn useful football phrases in a variety of languages… The vocabulary is provided by native-speaking players and coaches, rather than AI. 'Futbol Lingo won't teach you the whole language but it'll teach you phrases you need on the pitch, in the dressing room, in the boardroom,' Kiembi says. Maybe Carlos Tevez could have done with the app. During seven years in England he avoided learning more than a couple of English words, later claiming this was out of Argentine patriotism: 'I had a cultural problem with the English. I didn't want to learn English. I wanted them to learn Spanish,' Tevez said. One tutor sent to him found Tevez in no mood for a language lesson but rather craving a game of golf. He wondered, as they jumped in Tevez's car, how on earth the Argentinian would ask directions to a course. Tevez just typed 'GOLF' into his satnav and sped off with a grin. It took them to a run-down municipal course an hour away, rather than one more salubrious and local, but Tevez wasn't the type to care.
Glasgow Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Famous footballing star spotted at Glasgow's TRNSMT for 50 Cent
Ex-Rangers stat Billy Gilmour, who now plays for Napoli, was spotted in the crowd watching rapper 50 Cent. The US star, known for hits including In da Club and Candy Shop, closed the first night of the three-day festival with a performance which included a backdrop of neon signs with images including lollipops and 50 Cent coins. READ NEXT: Recap of everything from Friday of TRNSMT 2025 - from 50 Cent to fashion advice Archive image of Billy Gilmour (Image: PA) Fiddy, part of G-Unit, got the crowd dancing with his hits as he performed with a series of dancers. His set was at one point punctuated with the sound of gunshots.
Scotsman
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
Scott McTominay transfer exit slammed as 'biggest mistake' by ex-coach as Scotland star lands new €28m teammate
The Scotland midfielder has been a revelation at Napoli after being allowed to leave Manchester United last summer. Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Manchester United's decision to let Scotland international Scott McTominay join Napoli last summer has been deemed as 'one of the biggest mistakes in football' by one of his former Old Trafford coaches. The 28-year-old Scottish superstar ended his 22-year association with the Red Devils on deadline day last summer, joining the Italian giants in a deal worth around £27.5million alongside fellow Scotland international Billy Gilmour, who joined from Brighton on the same day. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A revelation in his debut campaign at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, he bagged 12 league goals as Antonio Conte's side won the title, with the midfielder breaking Denis Law's 63-year record for the most goals scored by a Scotsman in a single Serie A season in the process. However, former Manchester United first team coach Benni McCarthy, who worked with McTominay during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons under ex-boss Erik ten Hag, believes the decision will now be looked back on as one of the most ill-advised transfers in the club's recent history, claiming it should have never been allowed to happen. 'There are different reasons why you sell homegrown players sometimes,' McCarthy told 'When they go, the profit lets you sign more players. Having said that, it was one of the biggest mistakes in football to let him leave. He was born to play for United. Maybe he wasn't the most technical, but he had fight, and I think it's what they will get back with Matheus Cunha. Scott McTominay won the title in his debut season at Napoli. | Getty Images 'Scotty was a player that you look for in a dressing room to get you where you want to be. To let him go for what was a small transfer fee was a big shame. I think everyone at the club regrets that decision. For me, with my experience, I know what you need to deliver at a special club. People can say what they like but we tried to bring in great players that would fit. I know the manager always takes the blame, but sometimes the club needs to look at itself.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
