Spurs agree £54.5m deal to buy Mohammed Kudus from West Ham

  • Ghana attacker will sign six-year deal subject to medical

  • West Ham want at least six signings and must raise funds

Tottenham have reached an agreement to sign Mohammed Kudus from West Ham for £54.5m.

Kudus is due to undergo a medical on Thursday and will sign a six-year deal. The Ghana attacker will become the first player to leave West Ham for Spurs since Scott Parker in 2011.

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Transfer latest: Arsenal open Madueke talks with Chelsea, Everton sign £27m striker Barry

  • Madueke not expected to end Arsenal’s interest in Eze

  • Sunderland pay about £19.5m to buy winger Talbi

Arsenal have opened talks with Chelsea over signing Noni Madueke. Personal terms have been agreed with the winger, who is increasingly likely to move to the Emirates Stadium.

Chelsea have been revamping their attack and decided they were open to selling Madueke after winning the Conference League in May. The 23-year-old has had a bit-part role during his side’s run to the Club World Cup final and is likely to benefit from a change of scenery. Madueke made a late substitute appearance during the win over Fluminense in the semi-final.

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Crystal Palace’s Europa League hopes dealt blow after Lyon win relegation appeal

  • Uefa due to deliver Palace ruling this week

  • Palace expected to go to court if barred

Crystal Palace’s hopes of playing in next season’s Europa League appear to have been dealt a major blow after Lyon overturned their relegation to Ligue 2.

The seven-time French champions’ demotion over financial issues was imposed last month by the country’s football’s watchdog, the DNCG. But Lyon, who are owned by John Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings, have earned a reprieve after an appeal hearing in Paris on Wednesday and are expected to take up their place in next season’s Europa League after finishing sixth last season.

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Carlisle to Bosnia: Tyler Burey on an unlikely path to the Champions League

London-born winger is rekindling his joy for the game in an unlikely location and is about to live out a lifelong dream with Zrinjski Mostar

At the end of last year Tyler Burey was playing out of position in defence for a team doomed to relegation from the Football League. Seven months later he is preparing to make his Champions League debut after leaving England behind, seeking to rediscover his love for the game in an unlikely location.

Burey moved to Igman Konjic, a club in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in January on a short-term deal and impressed to such an extent that the country’s title winners, Zrinjski Mostar, signed him on a two-year contract. On Tuesday they visit Virtus of San Marino in the opening leg of their Champions League first qualifying round tie, allowing Burey to live out a lifelong dream.

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Football Daily | Two seasons in a day: the Champions League and Club World Cup overlap

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Football Daily would prefer not to have to think about Copa Gianni at all but we have a certain professional obligation to do so and have never knowingly been found shirking in the face of our responsibilities. To keep things simple, we prefer to view the tournament as a stand-alone competition that’s taking place between the end of the last season and the beginning of the next one, but the fact that it’s being contested by clubs instead of countries leaves plenty of room for debate. Watching Kingsley Coman “sprint” on to a through-ball from Harry Kane during Bayern Munich’s defeat by PSG as if he was running in knee-deep wet cement, we were presented with the sight of a player in next season’s kit who was quite clearly exhausted by the exertions of the one that may or may not have ended before the tournament in which he was playing started. Does the goal he didn’t score go down in the official xG column of last season, next season, or neither?

There’s me being able to walk down the stairs after I’ve played 90 minutes of football, there’s me in the future when I have children being able to walk around properly, being able to bend down and pick up toys, there’s me being able to do normal life things like put on socks without being in pain and, for the first time in a long time, I genuinely didn’t think about the response of the public because that just wasn’t a priority” – Millie Bright reveals how she is feeling better in her mind after taking the decision to miss Euro 2025 and prioritise her recovery from a knee injury.

Sometimes Mauricio Pochettino wants it to be a penalty, sometimes he doesn’t. There’s just no pleasing some people. Extra moaning points for Poch insinuating that the officials were swayed by the pro-Mexico crowd for a game that USA USA USA were playing at home. P.S. A doff of the cap to Mexico for that uber cool black and gold kit …” – Noble Francis.

With a tip of the cap to The Usual Suspects … the greatest trick Infantino ever pulled was turning me into a Chelsea fan for two hours rooting against Infantino’s home team making the finals” – Harry Webb.

I can’t have been your only reader who paused between Friday’s tea time email and big website’s MBM coverage of the Jurassic reunion opening gig, to turn the dial of my retro digital transistors to the political satirical radio broadcast, Deadringers. I – and what I suspect to be 1,056 others – nearly choked on my fermented tofu when I heard a repeat of your dinosaur banter about the aforementioned group of monobrows. I assume the requisite phone calls were made – i.e. your people calling their people, etc – and payment made (four pack of budget Tin) before Tom Baker’s closing remarks” – Nicholas Tipple.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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‘I’m heartbroken’: Jürgen Klopp leads tributes after Diogo Jota dies aged 28

  • Ronaldo says teammate’s death ‘doesn’t make any sense’

  • Wolves say ‘memories he created will never be forgotten’

Jürgen Klopp and Cristiano Ronaldo led the tributes from across the football world to Diogo Jota after the Liverpool and Portugal forward was killed in a car accident in Spain. Jota’s brother, André, also died in the crash in the province of Zamora.

Jota was 28, a father of three young children and had married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, less than a fortnight ago. Klopp, who signed Jota for Liverpool in 2020 and managed him for four seasons, posted on Instagram: “This is a moment where I struggle! There must be a bigger purpose! But I can’t see it!

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Ryan Mason ready to ‘write own script’ with West Brom after perfect Spurs ending

Having helped Tottenham win the Europa League the 34-year-old is stepping out on his own after building a library of coaching experience

For Ryan Mason, this opportunity has been a few years in the making. Since retiring from playing aged 26 after fracturing his skull – a horror injury that required 14 metal plates to be inserted into his skull, held together by 28 screws – he has built a library of coaching experience, working under José Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Ange Postecoglou. This coming season, after accepting his first full-time managerial role at West Brom, he has an opportunity to show his workings. “My last game was as a 25-year-old and I have had a seven-, eight-year apprenticeship, which in normal circumstances is quite a long time,” he says.

Nothing was normal about the end of Mason’s playing career. For a while there were 45 staples and he had a six-inch scar across his head. For about 10 days he had to be spoon-fed and being able to pick up a glass of orange juice was a major milestone. At the time he felt his career was in its infancy but stepping into coaching, initially in the Spurs academy, he discovered a new passion. “I definitely have a fire inside of me to be successful and fulfil the sort of dreams and ambitions that I had as a player,” he says.

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Portland Timbers’ Facilities Plan Eyes MLS Calendar Change

The Portland Timbers are expanding their current training grounds after making a $25 million land purchase. As part of the project to grow the Adidas Timbers Performance Center, the Timbers have an option to construct an additional indoor practice surface, augmenting the pair it already leases. Indoor facilities have grown in importance as MLS considers …

Columbus Crew Owner Sells Stake in MLS Club at $900M Valuation

Haslam Sports Group has sold a 10% stake in the Columbus Crew. The MLS team was valued at $900 million in the transaction, according to someone familiar with the agreement who was granted anonymity because the details are private. HSG, the parent company for Jimmy and Dee Haslam’s sports assets, sold the shares to the …

The Club World Cup has shown MLS the cost of capping ambition

Inter Miami’s defeat to PSG wasn’t just a mismatch, but a reminder that MLS can’t compete globally while playing by different financial rules

Even for a tournament that produced a 10-0 scoreline, Paris Saint-Germain’s dominance over Inter Miami to reach the quarter-finals of the 2025 Club World Cup was overwhelming. In an especially one-sided first half, the Major League Soccer side failed to muster a single shot on target. Lionel Messi had just 14 touches against his former side who scored more goals (four) than Inter Miami completed passes in the attacking third (three).

Nobody expected anything different. This is a PSG outfit that scored five past Inter Milan in the Champions League final only a few weeks ago. They also opened their Club World Cup campaign with a 4-0 thumping of Atletico Madrid that further highlighted the strength of Luis Enrique’s team. Inter Miami were the sixth side to have lost to PSG by four goals or more this season. They are not unique.

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Lionel Messi remains MLS’s highest-paid player at more than $20m per year

  • Messi’s salary more than the payroll of 21 MLS teams

  • Complete MLS salary figures released on Wednesday

Lionel Messi is the highest-paid player in Major League Soccer for the third straight year with total annual compensation of $20,446,667 – an amount greater than the entire payroll of 21 MLS teams.

Messi’s base compensation is $12m the Major League Soccer Players Association said on Wednesday. His total figure covers his MLS deal, which runs through the 2025 season, including any marketing bonus and agent’s fees. They do not account for any additional agreements with the team or its affiliates, or for any performance bonuses.

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‘Proud and excited’: QPR appoint Julien Stéphan as head coach after Cifuentes exit

  • Frenchman coached Rennes and Strasbourg in Ligue 1

  • QPR say he has a record of creating ‘world-class talent’

Queens Park Rangers have appointed the Frenchman Julien Stéphan as their head coach. The 44-year-old’s arrival comes a day after Martí Cifuentes officially left, having been placed on gardening leave after the penultimate game of the Championship season. Stéphan has worked in Ligue 1 in two spells with his boyhood club, Rennes, with whom he won the Coupe de France in 2019, and one with Strasbourg.

“I feel very proud and excited to join QPR,” Stéphan told the club’s website. “QPR is a historic club with strong values and passionate fans, so I feel honoured. I wanted to come here because I know there’s a lot of passion around the club and around the team, and I feel very lucky to discover that.

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