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Byline: Rory Smith An academy of a team in England's lower leagues offers Americans at the end of their collegiate eligibility a chance to continue their soccer careers. Izzy Morales [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Rio Ferdinand's endorsement was immediate. Manchester United had only fired Erik ten Hag a few minutes earlier - an eventuality as delayed as it was predictable - [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Is the Liverpool star a good defender? It depends on your evidence. The comedian Stewart Lee used to include, as part of his routine, a recollection of [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The appointment of Thomas Tuchel to coach the England men's national soccer team has provoked, well, some strong feelings. The post of coach of the England men's [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A decision about rules that left both sides claiming victory revealed the broken reality of the world's richest competition. One, single, lonely thing has become abundantly clear [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A gay couple embraced inclusion after buying an English rugby team. To their surprise, the fans bought in, too. Kaue Garcia and Ryan O'Neill had owned a [...]

Byline: Rory Smith This year more than ever is showing that the competition means different things to different clubs. And that's a good thing. Lille's players lingered on the field [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Such is the hold the Premier League has on the popular consciousness that enticing a player away from it is seen as a coup. Atlético Madrid had [...]

Byline: Rory Smith For one month in 1990, Schillaci was the most beloved player in Italy, and one of the most famous players in the world. Azeglio Vicini did not [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The world's most popular pastime has been irrevocably shaped by its exposure to social media. That evolution can still go awry. It may not quite qualify as [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The European soccer season is back. Here are the top story lines to watch this season. You will, in all likelihood, have heard the sentence already. You [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The saturation of soccer can be suffocating for the rest of the athletic landscape. For almost half a century, the BBC's broadcast schedule on a Saturday afternoon [...]

Byline: Rory Smith and David B. Torch As the runners hit the penultimate bend, the racing pulse of the music starts to beat faster. The choice, and the timing, are [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Is anyone as excited by the Paris Games as Antoine Griezmann? It doesn't seem possible. Some time on Monday night, his head doubtless heavy with sorrow, Antoine [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Euro 2024 memories, Copa América issues and the enduring allure of a winning goal. As promised, this week's newsletter has been designed as a monument to late-stage [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Southgate's eight years in charge made him the most successful England manager in decades. In stepping down two days after losing the Euro 2024 final, he got [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A 2-1 victory in the Euro 2024 final extended England's suffering but crowned a generational star in Spain's teenage forward, Lamine Yamal. First, Spain's players had to [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The U.S. collapsed under the weight of expectations at the Copa América. Its next move could determine if there is a repeat, or a revival, at the [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The region has long seen itself as distinct from its country and disinterested in the national team. Can a Euro 2024 squad studded with Basque stars turn [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The embattled Conservative Party is embroiled in investigations over whether some of its own staff members used insider knowledge to bet on the timing of the general [...]

Byline: Rory Smith and Christopher F. Schuetze Hard-core fan groups, embracing a strong nationalistic streak, have provoked pushback from soccer's authorities at the European Championship. The instructions were concise and [...]

Byline: Tariq Panja and Rory Smith A soccer championship has doubled as a test of identity for millions of Germans with Turkish roots. For many, picking one team to support [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A 5-1 thrashing of Scotland in the opening game of Euro 2024 was a good omen for a host nation in search of one. The arc of [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The European Championship starts in a week. So why are the headlines about Manchester City? In front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the street has been [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Modern soccer shouldn't be set up to rob fans of their joy. All being well, Bayer Leverkusen will end this season with one record, two trophies and [...]

Byline: Rory Smith and María Garrido The success of Barcelona's team has made Catalonia a laboratory for finding out what happens when the women's game has prominence similar to the [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A coach's soccer legacy is often reduced to titles and trophies. In Liverpool, a beloved manager will endure in murals, music and shared memories. Jürgen Klopp's week [...]

Byline: Rory Smith As a final scene it was so fitting that, for a second, it was possible to wonder if Kylian Mbappé had done it on purpose. He had [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Change comes neither easily nor naturally at Germany's two most successful clubs. Will success in the Champions League delay it again? In those few minutes after Niclas [...]

Byline: Muktita Suhartono, Elian Peltier, Shawna Richer and Rory Smith A Race the Whole World Is Watching The teams might bear the names of English towns, the stadiums might sit [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Having a team in the world's richest sports competition might alter how people think of Luton, a place long dogged by a ramshackle image and links to [...]

Byline: Rory Smith David Moyes has established West Ham as a fixture in the top half of the Premier League and a regular presence in Europe. So why do so [...]

Byline: Rory Smith When Paris F.C. made its tickets free, it began an experiment into the connection between fans and teams, and posed a question about the value of big [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The club is strutting into a future different from the one envisioned by its president, Florentino Pérez. But its prospects are as bright as ever. Florentino Pérez [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A nation that was soccer's gold standard a decade ago is now trying anything and everything to find its way. The clock is ticking. Last month, Toni [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Twenty years, it would appear, is a very long time indeed. This week, a brief video montage fluttered through the flotsam and jetsam that clog my (and [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Rodri's genius is not in making things happen. He is employed by Manchester City, at least in part, to make sure they do not. Pep Guardiola would, [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A few decisions against a handful of teams do not make the Premier League corrupt. But that doesn't mean the fans' grievances aren't valid. The referee's decision [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The Dublin club Bohemians has made support for social causes a crucial part of its identity. Critics say the hipsters have taken over, but the approach has [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Buying a small-town club offers a tempting entry to ownership. But the sport's economics mean even multimillionaires can struggle to compete. Geoff Thompson knows there are plenty [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The cost of business in Asia's elite tournament keeps going up. The rewards do not. At least nobody can accuse Asia's soccer authorities of failing to sweat [...]

Byline: Rory Smith As far as the man in the food truck is concerned, the patch of land he occupies in Sheffield, England, is about as humdrum as they come. [...]

Byline: Rory Smith As documentaries and series about teams proliferate, it's easy to pine for the ones that offered the clearest windows into the game. Being early, Marc Andreessen once [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Elite soccer didn't always welcome players' requests for help. Scandals, attitudes and support programs are changing that. The one thing she could not do, Sinead Farrelly knew, [...]

Byline: Rory Smith As Premier League clubs create fan zones to collect yet more money from stadium visitors, a local economy of food trucks, pubs and small restaurants is holding [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The Africa Cup of Nations and the Asian Cup, once seen as poorly timed intrusions by European soccer, may finally be getting the respect they deserve. At [...]

Byline: Rory Smith A festive pop-up restaurant is the latest crowd-pleasing stunt from Greggs, a mass-market bakery that is riding out Britain's cost-of-living crisis with gusto. To most of this [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The football-vs.-soccer debate is not about language at all. George Best's résumé, in the late 1960s, was pretty much flawless. He was a dazzling, edge-of-the-seat winger, certainly [...]

Byline: Rory Smith Data has driven soccer to new heights. But narrowing the margins in matches might come at the expense of their true value: to entertain. Few things degrade [...]

Byline: Rory Smith The system may be the center of the modern soccer universe, but stars like Kylian Mbappé exert a gravity of their own. Ultimately, a single wrong answer [...]