Kevin de Bruyne's announcement that he will leave Manchester City when his contract expires at the end of the season raises several questions.

Manager Pep Guardiola says "it's a sad day" as he reflects on the news that Kevin de Bruyne is set to leave Manchester City at the end of the season.

With Kevin de Bruyne set to leave Manchester City, find out where Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards ranked him in 2023.

We preview the weekend's action in the Premier League including the Manchester derby

The Belgian international midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has confirmed he will leave Manchester City at the end of the season. De Bruyne has played for the English Premier League club for a decade. He is Manchester City’s most decorated player ever, having won 16 medals since he joined the club in 2015.

Belgian announces news via social media postGuardiola pays tribute to ‘one of the greatest’ Pep Guardiola lauded Kevin De Bruyne as “one of the greatest” players in Premier League history and said it was a “sad day” after the Manchester City captain announced he would depart at the end of this contract in June. The Belgian is the club’s most-decorated player, winning 16 major trophies, but was not offered an extension. De Bruyne will be the final player to leave City who was in the first-team squad before Guardiola’s arrival. City signed him for €55m from Wolfsburg in 2015 and he has been an integral part of their success, winning six Premier League titles and helping the club lift the Champions League for the first time. Continue reading...

Kevin de Bruyne accounces he will leave Manchester City when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Forward is in fine form going into Belgium double-header‘To be a No 9 you have to have that confidence about you’ Leah Williamson has praised the form of Alessia Russo before England’s No 9 spearheads the Lionesses’ attack in their Women’s Nations League double-header against Belgium, starting in Bristol on Friday. Arsenal’s Russo has scored 14 goals in her past 21 games for club and country, including two in last week’s Champions League second-leg comeback win over Real Madrid. Her clubmate, the England captain Williamson, praised Russo’s character, saying at St George’s Park on Thursday: “Everyone will always say how nice a person Alessia is and everyone wants to see her do well for that reason. But to be a No 9 you do have to have that sort of – not arrogance – but confidence about you. Continue reading...

Gareth Southgate wants role models to offer a different path from toxic influencers. Do those in sport have the will to do so? Amid all the pressing problems of the day, one crisis has cut through: the acute need for greater support, care and steady role models for young men, addressed powerfully through the Netflix series Adolescence, explored in the Centre for Social Justice paper Lost Boys and discussed in parliament. Then came the BBC Richard Dimbleby lecture by the former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate, reinforcing the importance of belief and resilience for young people in a challenging world. Southgate continues to embody how sport and society can connect in a new way. The question now is whether the rest of sport – its leaders, coaches, athletes, volunteers and fans – stands ready to take up the cause and whether sport has the collective vision, will and competence to do so effectively. Continue reading...

Chelsea and England defender on the power of football, the pitch named after her and a new reality for fan interactions “When you experience the things we have in the women’s game, it does open your eyes to the struggles of others,” says Millie Bright. “It does make you more aware of all kinds of different barriers people might face. You really appreciate the struggles that people have to go through and the constant barriers and battles that have to be fought every single day just to exist. Literally just to exist. You’re not asking to be better than anyone, you’re just asking to exist and be able to do what you love doing, whatever that is, in sport or beyond sport; things that are just part of living a full life, and everyone deserves a full life.” The Chelsea and England defender is sitting in the small stand at Cobham FC’s brilliantly named Leg O’ Mutton Field talking about the power of football. Last year Bright was back in Killamarsh, the village in north-east Derbyshire where she grew up, opening the “Millie Bright pitch” at her childhood club, Killamarsh Juniors. That is one of 30 3G pitches dedicated to prioritising women’s and girls’ football that have received funding via the Premier League, the Football Association and the government-backed Football Foundation’s Lionesses Futures Fund. Continue reading...

Former Watford manager discovered news three years ago‘I am focused on keeping physically fit,’ says 54-year-old The former England Under-21s manager Aidy Boothroyd has revealed he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s three years ago. Boothroyd also managed Watford and Coventry before succeeding Gareth Southgate as Under-21s manager in 2016, spending five years in the role before leaving in April 2021. In a statement released on the League Managers Association’s website on Wednesday, the 54-year-old said: “Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. The news came as a massive shock to me, following what I expected to be my routine LMA Annual Health Assessment. Continue reading...

Brighton forward Fran Kirby is recalled to the England squad for their Women's Nations League matches against Belgium next month.

GENK, Belgium, March 23 (Reuters) - Belgium retained their place in League A of the Nations League with a stunning 3-0 home win over Ukraine on Sunday as Romelu Lukaku's late double helped them secure a 4-3 aggregate victory.

Newcastle striker Alexander Isak prefers a move to Liverpool over Barcelona, Kevin De Bruyne holds talks with San Diego, Harry Kane considers leaving Bayern Munich for Liverpool, plus more.