Fresh-faced, unconventional, the owner of at least one skateboard: Julian Nagelsmann is German football as it would like to see itself. His job at Euro 2024 is to make the whole country feel that way. nytimes.com/2024/06/14/wor…

Ken joins us on the line from Munich alongside Rory Smith of the New York Times and both were really impressed by the German players and the Scottish fans secondcaptains.com

So sad to hear of the passing of 26 year old footballer, Matija Sarkic, while on international duty 🇲🇪 I met Matija in 2016 and that moment stayed with me and still makes me smile (story attached) Condolences to family and friends. Rest in Peace, Matija. Taken way too soon 💙

Rachel Corsie is a superb pundit. (You may all have realised this during the first game, but I didn’t see any of the coverage). Hope the BBC don’t just limit her to Scotland games.

That is an INSANE penalty decision.

Be wary when the first people organisers try to blame for such incidents are fans.

Bordeaux probably count as one of the 6/7 biggest clubs in France. They’ve been mismanaged for years. Their last hope was being turned into a part of a network, and now that’s fallen through, they’ve given up their professional status. If it can happen to a club of that size…

My opinions on rugby are on the record but what Antoine Dupont's just done in the Rugby Sevens final is the culmination of a remarkable, risky story, an almost word-perfect definition of what it is to be great, and the moment that France will feel the Olympics really started.

I thought beating the French to the World Cup was the highlight of his career. Turns out it was the stunning come-from-behind win against the English at Bannockburn.

In what feels a crucial period for the game's history, I have written a book on modern football and how it has been transformed by geopolitics, capitalism and its own failures. It's now out on 7 November (put back from today), and you can pre-order here: geni.us/StatesOfPlay

Twitter used to be good for this sort of thing, but I’m guessing it’s not any more. Still: I read a thing ages ago about how Final Score being made separate from Grandstand marked the point where football stopped being “sport.” It was a blog, maybe a forum post. Any ideas?

I wrote about football and twitter, a relationship that is more influential than I think a lot of people realise, and one that makes football quite…exposed to twitter’s changes in direction nytimes.com/2024/09/06/wor…