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Sunday, April 26, 2026
TopicFootball

Topic: Football

Sorry, sprinters! It’s midfield generals who are running the show this Champions League 

From Messi to Ronaldo, the Champions League has been a stage to display brilliance. This year, the midfield reclaimed its status as a facilitator of the game.

Iraq’s long road to FIFA World Cup qualification is a story of survival, defiance

Historically, football has been used as a lens through which political anger, identity, and resistance come into focus. From Mohun Bagan to Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast, this claim can be easily cemented.

Meet Minerva FC—this Indian football club is winning junior championships around the world

Founder Ranjit Bajaj claimed that he's not got any support from the government. The club crowdfunded over Rs 45 lakh for their latest tournament in Spain.

Mo Salah changed Liverpool beyond football. Hate crimes dropped by 19% after he joined

In a city like Liverpool, Salah became something more than a footballer. 'Salah became so popular that most of the babies born in Merseyside were named after him.'

No refund for flop Messi Kolkata event yet. Fans ask, ‘Who is accountable?’

For many, the memory of seeing Messi — even from a distance — has already faded. What remains is a transaction unresolved, and a demand that platforms, organisers, and authorities stop passing the buck.

English Premier League teams no longer dominate football’s rich list

Spain’s Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, as well as Germany’s Bayern Munich and France’s Paris Saint-Germain, now make up the top four.

Photos of the Week: Uttarakhand’s man-animal conflict, Army chief’s annual briefing, Netflix India @ 10

In PhotosOfTheWeek, we bring you pictures clicked by ThePrint’s photojournalists, video journalists and reporters this past week.

‘Goal Machine’ Anushka Kumari, 14, was taunted, stopped. Now she’s India’s rising football star

Anushka Kumari started out on an uneven village ground, playing barefoot with boys despite family resistance. Three years later, she is India’s U-17 ‘Goal Machine’.

‘I met Messi’ was the headline of the GOAT tour. Football and fans were ignored

Perhaps the clearest indicator of how shallow the tour was lies in how Luis Suárez and Rodrigo de Paul were treated. These aren’t random names.

Messi mania in Delhi: Fans pull all-nighters to see the GOAT, tight checks to avoid Kolkata-like fiasco

Fans of the Argentine legend like Alben, 24, who stood in 3 km-long queues, have called the Delhi crowd and the management 'much better' than Kolkata.

On Camera

Euphoria season 3 is an empty spectacle. Fans are upset, they want it cancelled

Euphoria's characters, who once carried moral ambiguity and emotional density, now feel like flat archetypes of the people they once were.

Strategic petroleum reserves: Why India needs bigger oil buffers & how others compare | Cut The Clutter

This is the transcript of Ep 1830 of Cut the Clutter, where Shekhar Gupta explains why strategic petroleum reserves are a national necessity & how India compares with China, US & Japan.

DRDO unveils amphibious battle platforms with crewless turrets, anti-tank missile capability

Tracked and wheeled variants, built in collaboration with Tata Advanced Systems and Bharat Forge, carry 30mm turrets, cross water using hydro jets, and are 65% indigenous.

Trump, Netanyahu’s Iran gamble: The regime change rebound

American objectives are unmet. They neither have muscle nor motivation to resume the war. As for Iran, the regime didn’t just survive, it’s now led by more radical individuals.