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DeutschBarcelona director eyes summer move for 31-year-old Manchester City veteran – report
Despite being in the decisive stretch of the 2025/26 season and amid the upcoming presidential elections at Barcelona, the club’s sporting department, led by director Deco, continues to work on planning the squad for next season.
As has been well-established by now, a new left-footed centre-back is one of the priority signings for Barça, with names like Alessandro Bastoni and Micky van de Ven being touted as possible targets for the La Liga champions.
Deco eyes Nathan Ake of Manchester City
However, according to SPORT, one of the defenders most appreciated by Deco is Nathan Ake, currently under contract with Manchester City until 2027.
The 31-year-old Dutch international is viewed internally as a player who could fit both sporting and financial requirements for the Blaugrana.
Ake offers versatility, being able to play as a left-sided centre-back or left-back, which suits the needs of coach Hansi Flick.
Nathan Ake remains on Deco’s radar. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Moreover, within club offices, there is a belief that Manchester City might be open to negotiating his departure, considering the depth in the centre-back department.
After all, Ake has not been a regular starter under Pep Guardiola this season, playing 1,129 minutes across 24 matches, with only 12 starts, many of them in the cup competitions.
As such, Barcelona see Ake as a possible market opportunity in the club’s complicated financial context. Although the club recently received positive news regarding its salary limit, significant financial caution is still required.
The priority investment is expected to go toward signing a centre-forward, meaning that a relatively affordable defensive option could be attractive.
Barcelona already considered signing Ake during the winter transfer window after the long-term injury to Andreas Christensen. Ultimately, the club opted to bring in Joao Cancelo on loan instead. Even so, he remains on Deco’s shortlist.
Athletics GM: We’re always open to Kyler Murray exploring a return to baseball
Kyler Murray was the ninth overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft in 2018, signed a contract with the Athletics that year, and planned to pursue a professional baseball career after one final season of college football. Then Murray won the Heisman Trophy in his final season, was the first overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, and decided to pursue football instead.
Now Murray has been told the Cardinals plan to cut him, and the Athletics have let him know he'd be welcome to play baseball again.
"Kyler is an elite NFL quarterback and I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities for him to continue his football career,” Athletics General Manager David Forst told MLB.com. “That said, he and his baseball representatives know that we’re always open to him exploring a return to baseball with the A’s if that time ever comes.”
It's unlikely that Murray will change sports at age 28, but he's talented enough that if he wanted to do it, there's a real chance he could make the major leagues. And he's already got a team that would love to see him give it a try.
Why the World Baseball Classic keeps getting 'better and better'
With each passing iteration, the World Baseball Classic gets bigger and bigger – in crowd size, attendance, cultural currency and participants.
Yet the world within it keeps shrinking.
As the sixth WBC gets underway this month, the pool play portion of the event will bear faint resemblance to the earliest iterations of the event, an apparent marker of its growth and the game’s elevated level of play worldwide:
Closer games. Fewer run-rule victories and shutouts. And the more than occasional upset of a perceived global power.
“Everyone can see that there’s so much talent all over the world,” San Diego Padres and Dominican Republic third baseman Manny Machado tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not just here, but all over the world. It means a lot to be the last team standing. I hope it’s us.
“It’s just such a cool event. You’re playing for not just your country, not for the fans, but the people in their countries and across the world. I get goosebumps just talking about it because it’s such a special event."
The inaugural WBC was a little lighter on goosebumps. Pool play games were contested not in big league stadiums but rather spring training sites, Scottsdale and Lake Buena Vista among the locales to determine quarterfinalists.
And the games were, well, often over before they started.
In 2006, the nine countries and territories that supply the most major league talent – Japan, South Korea, USA, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and Canada – went a combined 15-0 against less-renowned baseball countries in pool play, with four shutouts and three run-rule wins.
Average score: 9-3, kicked off by Team USA’s 17-0 shellacking of South Africa behind Ken Griffey Jr.’s 4-for-4, two-homer performance.
Yet the gap has been shrinking in almost every iteration of the event since.
Have glove, will travel
In 2009, the less-heralded countries managed three victories in 13 games, including Australia turning the tables and run-ruling Mexico. The Netherlands, powered by a handful of major leaguers hailing from Curacao, scored the first big tourney upset, toppling the mighty Dominican Republic and bouncing them from the tournament.
And suddenly, the average margin of victory shrank from 9-3 to 7-3.
The trend continued through 2013 – when the average score between haves and have-nots shrank to 6-4 - and 2017, when the baseball-poorer countries endured just one shutout. Colombia knocked off Canada and took Team USA to 10 innings, while Australia fell in 10 innings to Venezuela.
China, which lost its first six WBC games against global powers from 2006 to 2013 by a combined score of 64-5, was suddenly playing baseball games in 2017, losing 6-0 to Cuba and 7-1 to China.
Meanwhile, players are seeing the upside of playing in a global event by representing homelands with which they have strong or even faint connections. Italy this year will feature Kansas City Royals sluggers Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone as it aims to repeat – or exceed - its quarterfinal showing from 2023.
Israel, with major league old heads like Sam Fuld, Jason Marquis, Ike Davis and Ty Kelly alongside its “Mensch On The Bench,” made a startling 2017 run to the quarterfinals.
And stars spurned by their country of birth are nonetheless still pining to play. Eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado, who starred for Team USA in 2017 and 2023, didn’t hear his phone ring this time as a star-studded group of American-born commitments poured in.
Instead, Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina, his old St. Louis Cardinals teammate, called him up, asking to galvanize a squad beset by injury and insurance woes. Arenado, whose mother Millie is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, was all in.
“I didn’t expect (Team USA) to call coming off last year,” says Arenado, who produced a career-low .666 OPS for St. Louis before an off-season trade to Arizona. “I wasn’t going to play this year, but Yadi called me and my mom wanted me to do it.
“I love the tournament. The talent is sick. It just gets better and better.’’
Lurkers in the groups
Expansion may have its limits, however. In 2023, the event grew from 16 to 20 teams, with five countries now placed in the four pools. The giants flexed their muscles and the likes of Nicaragua, Czechia and Israel went 0-8 while getting outscored 66-6.
It made for a stirring back end of the tournament with Team USA surviving Venezuela in the quarterfinals and reaching its second consecutive championship, this time losing to three-time champion Japan. The final out, famously, came on a Shohei Ohtani strikeout of then-teammate Mike Trout.
Soon, we’ll see if the early rounds can again inject some drama into the proceedings. Australia will aim to repeat its first quarterfinal appearance in 2023 but will have to dislodge either Japan or Korea to do so.
Netherlands will aim to disrupt the Dominican-Venezuelan power duo in Pool D in Miami, with Israel also there in a spoiler role.
And Team USA will have to keep one eye on the disrupters in Houston’s Pool B, where Great Britain will deploy nearly a dozen current or former major leaguers – led by Bahamian Jazz Chisholm Jr. – and Italy’s paisan power guns for its third quarterfinal appearance in four tries.
Perhaps the chalk results will rule the day. But it’s likelier things will get a little tighter before the blue bloods move on.
“The WBC is getting better and better,” says Dodgers and Puerto Rico closer Edwin Diaz, “for every team. Look at the USA, they have a bunch of stars in this tournament.
“So that’s something that’s good for everyone.’’
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World Baseball Classic 'gets better and better' with 2026 schedule
£26m Brazil midfielder passes Liverpool audition
Summer could bring renewal to Liverpool’s midfield.
Arne Slot has been reliant on the same cast of midfield options for the last two seasons - and it’s clear change is coming. Curtis Jones and Wataru Endo are both out of contract in 2027 and Richard Hughes may well listen to offers.
Then there are contract deals to be sorted out for the other senior midfielders - Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister.
The clock is ticking - all three are out of contract in 2028 - and the off-season could see one or more moved on if no new contract is agreed.
We could see the Premier League champions move for a midfielder - and a long-standing target could be revisited.
Liverpool like Andre of Wolves
The Anfield side were heavily linked with a move for Andre before the then-Fluminense midfielder transferred to Wolves in 2024. But in January links re-emerged - suggesting that the soon-to-be-relegated side were prepared to listen to offers.
And Andre’s match-winning performance against Arne Slot’s side on Tuesday night may have been enough to win over any recruiters inside the club who might not have been sold on the idea of signing him.
The 24-year-old inflicted huge damage on Liverpool’s Champions League hopes - striking in the last minute to secure a 2-1 win for the Premier League basement boys. But the 13-cap Brazil international did much more besides in a man-of-the-match display.
Andre passes Liverpool audition
Andre was the best midfielder on show - even up against Liverpool’s star-studded trio of Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai.
Across 90+ minutes he completed 43 of 45 passes attempted - including 14 of 14 in the opposition half. He had a total of 67 touches - carrying the ball 13 times and making four progressive carries.
In the engine room he made nine defensive contributions - including winning three of five attempted tackles, making two interceptions.
The Wolves No7 also made one clearance and blocked one shot in a performance that featured 11 recoveries.
The midfielder went into 10 ground duels - winning seven - and gave away only one foul while drawing two. Into the bargain, Andre was not even dribbled past once.
All stats per Sofascore.