News

EA Sports FIFA players now have access to one of the most lethal strike-forces in football history, with the news that Diego Maradona, Pelé and Ronaldinho are teaming-up in a Soccer Aid World XI Fc team.

This is the first time ever that Maradona, Pelé and Ronaldinho will be playable from the start, in the same side, without the need for transfers.

Robbie Williams is set to play with the Soccer Aid World XI Fc in eSoccer Aid – an online competition on Saturday 27th June raising money to help stop the spread of coronavirus and limit the impact on children’s lives.

Unicef UK Ambassador and Soccer Aid for Unicef Co-Founder, Robbie Williams, said: "This is a unique and wonderful initiative to be part of because the Soccer Aid World XI Fc is needed more than ever before. We have been able to bring together some of the best players...

Rui Vieira/AP

Leicester striker Jamie Vardy is set to extend his current deal with the club by three-and-a-half years, BBC Sport has reported.

The England forward, who has been in fine form this season, is set to be rewarded with a much improved deal on his current £40,000-a-week contract.

In November he became the first player to score in 11 consecutive Premier League games, breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record previously set at 10.

Vardy’s form has pushed the Foxes to the top of the league, and put them in genuine contention for the title this season. A far cry from where they were12 months ago, as they held up the everyone else sitting rock bottom.

In February last year the bookies had Leicester at 10000/1 to claim the title, now they’re 8/1 joint third favourites.

Worth a tenner?

The 29-year-old’s form has earned him his first England caps, as...

Peter Byrne/Pa Archive/Press Association Images

Liverpool are one of the most historically significant football teams in the world: they are five-times European Champions and have no fewer than 19 league titles to their name with fans who follow the team spread across the globe.

Every player who plays at Anfield reveals how special it is; how the atmosphere overwhelms with a dogged spirit and an over-arching desire to succeed. The club has also had some epic players in the past to match the majesty of the Kop: Kenny Dalglish is a bona-fide hero on Merseyside, much like Steven Gerrard, Ian Rush and Jamie Carragher, and the impact they had on the Liverpool team of their generation will never be forgotten.

However, it is not always like that for players at Anfield and there has been many a player who initially came in with massive potential and who could have...

Barrington Coombs/Empics Sport

Steven Gerrard is one of the greatest footballers of his generation, there can be no denying that. At his peak he was best central midfielder in the world, and he has tweaked his game to become a superb deep-lying playmaker as age has caught up with him.

He is arguably the greatest player in the history of Liverpool Football Club- older fans will understandably say that Kenny Dalglish tops the pile, while the likes of Ian Rush, John Barnes, Graeme Souness and Luis Suarez also deserve a mention- winning games single-handedly at his peak and racking up 173 goals in 670 matches for his boyhood team to date.

When it comes to back catalogues of best goals, not many can compare to the 34-year-old. So often he has produced moments of sheer brilliance in the biggest games, swinging massive occasions in the Reds’ favour in the process. He has scored volleys,...

32 years after he first released Football Manager, Kevin Toms is back with a new football management sim for the iPhone

Interview

When Sir Alex Ferguson trotted down the tunnel for the final time last season, people thought the longest running career in football management had come to an end. Not so. Four years before Sir Alex set about transforming Ron Atkinson’s expensively assembled pub team into a trophy photocopier, Kevin Toms released a pioneering game that made Fergusons out of all of us: Football Manager.

Now, more than 30 years since he released what became the blueprint for every football management sim that followed – including the huge franchise that bears the Football Manager name today – Kevin Toms is set to release his new football management game for the iPhone.

Toms, although he perhaps won’t thank me for saying it, is the forefather of football management sims; the Bill Shankly...

From Formula One to football and boxing to baseball, here are the big screen's finest sport sagas

Rush

Don't get excited, Liverpool fans: director Ron Howard's latest film isn't about the Reds' all-time leading scorer Ian Rush and his rubbish 'tache. Instead, it tells the extraordinary story of the 1976 Formula One season, dominated by the battle between dashing British playboy driver James Hunt (played by Chris "Thor" Hemsworth) and austere Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel "Good Bye, Lenin!" Brühl). After a near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring, Lauda returned just six weeks later, his horrific scalp burns still bandaged and bleeding, to defend his world title. It's scripted by Peter Morgan, who's made a career out of dramatising real events in the likes of The Queen and Frost/Nixon.

The Damned United

"I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the country. But I'm in the top one." Director Tom Hooper...

Last Sunday’s Premier League encounter between Liverpool and Manchester United was an emotional affair. It was the first home game that Anfield hosted since the release of an Independent Panel Report into the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, which revealed that police tried to blame the victims’ for the tragedy, and even attempted to defame the deceased by using police records to look into their background.

TV cameras captured the poignant scenes, as Patrice Evra shook hands with Luis Suarez for the first time since suffering racial abuse at the hands of the Uruguayan international, for which the Liverpool forward received an eight-match suspension.

Fans watching at home also saw United legend Bobby Charlton make his way onto the pitch to present a bouquet of flowers to Ian Rush – Liverpool’s record goalscorer, before captains Steven Gerrard and Ryan Giggs released 96 red balloons in memory of those who died that day.

Both Liverpool and Manchester United fans respectfully observed a tasteful and emotional opening ceremony at Anfield in remembrance of the 96 supporters who lost their lives in the Hillsborough tragedy of 1989, but the occasion was marred after the final whistle when a handful of home supporters ran across to United fans still waiting to be released from the stadium and started making aeroplane gestures, in reference to the Munich Air Disaster of 1958 when eight United players were killed.

It was the first home game for Liverpool following the findings of an independent panel set up to investigate the Hillsborough stadium crush of 1989 were published – showing police attempted to blame the tragedy on fans and tried to defame the victims by using police records.

Prior to proceedings, as both sides emerged wearing tracksuits bearing the number “96″ on the back for the customary handshakes, TV cameras focussed on United defender Patrice Evra.

Much...

“Yeah, good one mate. I’ve not heard that one before.” John Barnes and Ian Rush are in London’s Berkley Square to promote Hyundai’s new game app, Hyundai Boot Shoot. To do so, Hyundai have recreated the app in real life; parking one of their i20 cars in the square, popping the boot open and Barnes and Rush are shooting footballs into it with impressive accuracy. A sizable crowd has turned up to watch them.

Of course, whenever Barnes makes a public appearance, it is unlikely that some wiseacre doesn’t make reference to his infamous rap which graced the middle eight of New Order’s England anthem, ‘World in Motion’. Today is no exception – a laddish-looking man calls out for a rendition of the rap and whilst Barnes’s retort perhaps isn’t the wittiest, it does the job and the heckler is silenced. Perhaps that’s...

Woody Harrelson and The Mentalist star Simon Baker have joined the Soccer Aid 2010 lineup, it has been confirmed. Actor Harrelson, whose famous roles include barman Woody Boyd in sitcom Cheers and movies such as Kingpin and Zombieland, has been added to the Rest Of The World squad. Australian Baker, 40, will also line up in the charity football match, which takes place on June 6 at Old Trafford. Organised by Robbie Williams, it will be broadcast live on ITV1. Yesterday, Mike Myers, rugby player Danny Cipriani and comedian Paddy McGuinness signed up for the event. Former Liverpool star Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush will manage the Rest Of (more)...

Hollywood star and Austin Powers comic Mike Myers has been added to the Soccer Aid 2010 line-up, it has been revealed. Myers, who has previously played for the Us football team Hollywood United, will line up with the Rest Of The World XI, according to Robbie Williams's official website. The TV charity football match, which is organised by Williams, takes place on June 6 at Old Trafford. It will be broadcast live on ITV1. Kelly Brook's boyfriend England rugby star Danny Cipriani and Take Me Out presenter Paddy McGuiness have also been added to the celebrity teams. Former Liverpool star Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush will manage the Rest Of The (more)...