Real Betis fans were overjoyed at the arrival of the Manchester United outcast but like many La Liga teams, the club were only able to buy by selling some of their stars A goat crossed the Guadalquivir, which was when they knew. They had been made to wait until the last day of summer and on the footage it was a CGI creature scuttling over the Isabel II bridge (no animals were harmed in the making of this announcement) but Real Betis had actually done it. There were four hours left on deadline day and they had signed Antony Matheus dos Santos, or Antonio of Triana as they call him. When they’re not calling him the Goat. Triana is the Betis neighbourhood, Seville’s artistic heart on the west bank of the river, and Antony could not be more popular there. Last season he arrived on a six-month loan and changed everything, leading them to a European place, a derby win that was celebrated like it was the World Cup, and a European final. He had been changed too, happy again, the footballer he was supposed to be. This was his place, somewhere they loved him. He had wanted to come back the moment he left and they had been desperate for him to return. Continue reading...

Graham Potter keen for two midfielders to join Bournemouth close to signing forward Adli for £25m West Ham have submitted bids for Southampton’s Mateus Fernandes and Barcelona’s Marc Casadó as they scramble to add energy and creativity to their midfield. The club also had an approach for Andrey Santos rejected by Chelsea earlier this week and were advised not to try for the Brazilian midfielder again. Graham Potter is hunting for midfield reinforcements after West Ham’s frailties were exposed during their 3-0 defeat by Sunderland on the opening weekend. It has been slow going and it remains to be seen if West Ham have made any progress in their pursuit of Fernandes. Their first offer of £30m for the 21-year-old was rejected by Southampton last week and the sense is that their latest bid will not be enough to secure an agreement. Continue reading...

Struggling side beaten 6-0 at home by Vasco da Gama Cléber Xavier dismissed as head coach after rout An emotional Neymar said he was left “ashamed” after his Santos side were on the end of a 6-0 home defeat by Vasco da Gama on Sunday – a humiliation that led to the sacking of their head coach, Cléber Xavier. Philippe Coutinho was on the scoresheet twice as Vasco found the net five times in the space of 16 second-half minutes as part of a rout that leaves Santos two points above the relegation places in Brazil’s Serie A. At full-time, home supporters turned their backs to the pitch in the latest protest against the state of the team and club as a whole. Continue reading...

The Mill is going full knee-jerk after opening-weekend horrors We’re now into that strange period of the season where the starting gun has been fired but the transfer window remains open. In other words, there’s even more howling to be done as fans bemoan the glaring holes in their teams that were brutally exposed on opening day. In the battle for who needs most reinforcements, surely West Ham are leading the race after starting the season in shambolic style with a 3-0 defeat by newly promoted Sunderland. When the oddsmakers updated their ‘next Premier League manager to go’ markets on Monday morning, it was no surprise to see Hammers boss Graham Potter listed as the favourite. Continue reading...

Brazil forward Neymar leaves the field in tears after Santos suffer a 6-0 home defeat by Vasco da Gama.

He has not always been fit or available for the team, but Neymar’s time back at Santos has certainly not been boring “Eu vou mas, eu volto!” Those are the words that Neymar famously scrawled on a wall in the home changing room of the Vila Belmiro in 2013 before he crossed the Atlantic to join Barcelona. His message to the Santos fans was clear: “I’m going but I’ll come back!” Great things were expected of the prodigious 21-year-old who had been reared at the academy that produced Pelé. Brazilians hoped he would lead them to their first World Cup on home soil in 2014, erasing the hurt of 1950, and go on to become their first Ballon d’Or winner since Kaká in 2007. As we now know, these conquests did not come to pass. Continue reading...

Minute-by-minute updates on the action in New Jersey Email Scott | Fifa cuts ticket price to $13.40 for semi The yellow-card situation ahead of the final. There isn’t one. Fifa have wiped the slate clean after the quarters, so the only way a player will miss the final should their team get there is if they manage to get themselves sent off today. Your best behaviour, gentlemen, please. Chelsea make three changes to their starting XI after the 2-1 quarter-final win over Palmeiras. Tosin Adarabioyo, Moises Caicedo and Joao Pedro, the latter making his first start for his new club, replace the absent Levi Colwill, Liam Delap and Andrey Santos. Continue reading...

Brazil's all-time leading goalscorer Neymar renews his contract with boyhood club Santos until December.

A partnership between the world’s best man-manager and the Seleção will be fun – and potentially glorious The year is 2026 and Carlo Ancelotti is recreating a famous Real Madrid photo. Once more he finds himself on an open-top bus celebrating a landmark victory in sunglasses while smoking a cigar, accompanied by a smiling Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior and Éder Militão. David Alaba is missing and there are confusing new additions, such as Casemiro and Raphinha. Pan out and we realise we’re nowhere near the Cibeles Fountain in Madrid but are instead on Avenida Atlântica by Copacabana beach. Yellow and green confetti fills the sky and Neymar is showing off a record-extending sixth World Cup to an adoring crowd. He’s finally won them over for delivering the hexa, something expected of him since he rose to prominence as a spiky-haired Santos prodigy at the turn of the 2010s, and they have fallen in love with the Seleção again. Continue reading...

The Copa do Brasil is back after a nine-year break but there are concerns about Brazil’s top flight before a first World Cup in South America After a nine-year hiatus, fans of Brazilian women’s football will once again be able to support their clubs in the Copa do Brasil. The cup will bring together 65 clubs from the three divisions of the national women’s football league, starting with a preliminary round on 21 May and concluding with the final in November. It is a return that has long been requested by the women’s football community in Brazil in order to expand the calendar for lower-division clubs and gives high-profile teams such as Flamengo, Corinthians and Santos another opportunity to compete for silverware. However, all is not rosy on the Brazilian club scene only two years before Brazil are to host the Women’s World Cup for the first time. There have been a few years of growing sponsorship and visibility in the top tier, the Brasileirão A1, but this season has exposed the challenges facing the game. This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is back in to its twice-weekly format, delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday. Continue reading...

On 19 November 1969, the Brazil legend sparked wild celebrations with the 1,000th goal of his career – but it may have been scored five days earlier It was 14 November 1969. For the world’s greatest player, it wasn’t the best penalty. More an untidy scuff into the bottom corner. But it was enough for Pelé and his Santos team to open the scoring in a 3-0 friendly win over lowly Botafogo da Paraiba. More importantly, it marked the great man’s 999th senior goal. Or did it? Five days later, Santos travelled to Rio de Janeiro to face Vasco da Gama in a cup game and it seemed as if the entire nation was jammed into the cavernous Maracanã to witness a piece of football history. Despite a tropical rainstorm, every TV station, radio network and newspaper elbowed their way along the touchline waiting for the magic moment to happen. Continue reading...

Brazil call up teenage forward Endrick to replace Neymar for this month's World Cup qualifiers after the Santos attacker picks up a muscle injury.

Neymar opens the scoring in Santos' 2-0 win over Bragantino to advance to the Campeonato Paulista semi-finals.