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Lionel Messi registered a stunning strike for Inter Miami as he claimed another notable record in their MLS draw with Toronto FC.

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Argentine icon helped to secure a pointHas 44 goal contributions in MLSPlayed 90 minutes after recent restsFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Argentine superstar Messi thought that he had broken the deadlock in that contest when slipping beyond a challenge on the edge of the box and drilling into the back of the net with 38 minutes on the clock. That effort was, however, ruled out following a VAR review.

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The Herons then fell behind two minutes into first-half stoppage-time when ex-Italy international Federico Bernardeschi found the target. There was still enough time on the clock for Messi to restore parity before the interval.

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The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner was afforded too much space just inside the penalty area, allowing him to control a pass that was fizzed into his feet and spin on the spot. A trademark left-footed volley was then hooked into the bottom corner.

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That effort means that Messi now has 44 goal contributions for Inter Miami across his MLS career. Nobody in the club’s history has more, with the reigning MVP adding another entry to the record books.

Turning towards the January transfer window to cement their Champions League and possibly even title hopes, Nottingham Forest are now reportedly readying a fresh attempt to sign a winger worth over £21m this month.

Nottingham Forest transfer news

For the first time, Nottingham Forest can put their current Premier League standing to good use and welcome further impressive reinforcements before the end of this month. Joining up with Nuno Espirito Santo’s side in the current climate would certainly be a difficult prospect for players to resist in what should hand the Midlands club a major boost in pursuit of their targets.

Among those already mentioned regarding potential mid-season switches is Douglas Luiz, who could complete a controversial loan move to Nottingham Forest just six months after ditching Midlands rivals Aston Villa for a permanent move to Italian giants Juventus.

The move simply has not worked out, however, and now the Brazilian could find himself at the heart of a second shock top four finish in two seasons after playing a vital role in Aston Villa’s Champions League qualification in the previous campaign.

That’s not to say he’s been the only name mentioned though. According to Turkish newspaper Sabah, as relayed by Sport Witness, Nottingham Forest are now readying a fresh attempt to sign Baris Alper Yilmaz from Galatasaray, who are reportedly confident that they’ll keep hold of their winger after rejecting an initial €25m (£21m) offer from the City Ground.

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With over two weeks remaining of the winter window, Yilmaz will certainly be one to watch with Forest not giving up and in a better position than ever in the Premier League to welcome such talents.

If the Midlands club are looking to seal Champions League qualification in style then signing Yilmaz would go a long way towards achieving exactly that come the end of May.

"Elusive" Yilmaz is one to watch

Whilst Forest currently have a wealth of attacking options to choose from – be it Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga or Ramon Sosa and Jota Silva – Yilmaz’s impressive form cannot be denied. The Galatasaray star has netted nine goals in 24 games in all competitions so far this season – more than Hudson-Odoi and Elanga combined.

So the argument is certainly there to be had that Yilmaz would be a welcomed upgrade at the City Ground and one ready to take Champions League football by storm next season.

Lighting up Euro 2024 at times in the summer too, Yilmaz earned high praise from Netherlands and Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. The defender told reporters as relayed by GiveMeSport: “Baris Alper Yilmaz was running constantly. He was running elusive. It was difficult for every defender. He made it very hard for us. He couldn’t score a goal though. If we were to describe him in any way, he is a really important player.”

It speaks volumes about Yilmaz’s quality that one of, if not the best defender that world football has to offer was impressed enough to hand him such significant praise and the winger could yet get the chance to impress the Liverpool man once again if he completes a January move to Nottingham Forest.

The pair have said there is already evidence of players favouring other competitions

Alex Malcolm22-Jul-2022Cricket Australia is under more pressure than ever before to attract big-name overseas talent to the BBL due to the huge sums of money that might be on offer in the new South Africa and UAE T20 leagues which will run at a similar time of the year, according to both Ricky Ponting and Usman Khawaja.Ponting has moved into a team role in the BBL for the first time since playing and commentating on the tournament through the first 11 years having been appointed as Hobart Hurricanes’ head of strategy. He made his first key appointments on Friday announcing Jeff Vaughan as head coach for the next three years alongside new assistants James Hopes and Darren Berry.Ponting and his new coaching staff held a three-hour meeting on Thursday night in which they discussed Hurricanes’ plans for the upcoming overseas player draft which is to be held on August 28. Hurricanes will have the last pick (8th) in the first two rounds after being drawn out last in the weighted lottery.But following the development that the new South Africa T20 league had sold ownership of each of their new franchises to IPL owners, and with the likelihood of the same thing happening in the UAE, Ponting warned the BBL might be under greater threat than ever in terms of attracting the best players given the overlaps in January.Related

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“There might be more pressure on Cricket Australia now than ever before,” Ponting said. “I’ve got no idea what Cricket Australia are thinking as far as the current model they’ve got, but it just seems that, if you look at the draft already this year, and you look at the player availability, it looks like the majority of the players are pretty happy to commit to the BBL for the first part, the first six or eight games.”Then the South African tournament is going to start up in mid-January and you can guarantee the players are probably going to look to play the first half here and go play the second half over there, which for a tournament like the Big Bash is not ideal. So if there are ways around that and ways that that can be changed, then I think Cricket Australia most definitely have to look at that.”

Even for the local players here, if leagues start coming up in UAE, South Africa, wherever, what if a local player starts thinking I’ll get paid twice as much money to go and play over there, why would I stay here in the Big BashUsman Khawaja

Time to go private?Khawaja was even more forthright on the threat CA faces from the overseas tournaments. He was part of the Australian Cricketers’ Association delegates conference in Melbourne earlier this week where CA CEO Nick Hockley and head of the BBL Alistair Dobson both presented on the upcoming season and the draft. Khawaja again stated his belief the competition had to look to private investment.”I’ve spoken about this before, I think there’s a fork in the road for the Big Bash in my personal opinion,” Khawaja said. “I don’t speak for ACA or CA, my personal opinion is the BBL needs to look to privatising because the money needs to come from somewhere. Players won’t come to the Big Bash unless you are paying them the right money.”There are other tournaments starting up that are privatised. If you don’t keep up with that, and there’s a small window for the Big Bash to privatise in the next few years, and I’m afraid if we don’t do that we’ll fall behind. Already you’ll see players not list for the draft. I’ve talked to a couple and they’ve not listed for the draft because they want to spend Christmas at home and then will go and play in the UAE. That’s a red flag for me already.”The money has to come from somewhere and you don’t necessarily want it to come from CA’s stock, then that affects another part of the organisation. So why not bring money from outside. I think the IPL is a very good model. If we aren’t trying to follow that type of progression, I feel like the BBL can be left behind.”This season the BBL will run from December 13 to February 4 with overseas players able to nominate how much they are available for.Hobart Hurricanes head of strategy Ricky Ponting appointed Jeff Vaughan as Hurricanes new coach•Cricket TasmaniaFaf du Plessis has put his name in the draft along with current South Africa batter Rilee Rossouw, among a host of other names. Du Plessis is set to be bracketed as a platinum player but may not be available for the second half of the tournament if he opts for the South African league, meaning BBL teams have to weigh up whether he or another platinum player is worth using roughly AUD$200,000 from a $1.9 million salary cap for half a season. Platinum players are set to earn up to $340,000 but CA will make up the difference which will sit outside the cap.BBL teams have opted for lower tier overseas in the past in order to have them available for the whole tournament with Perth Scorchers recruitment of Colin Munro and Laurie Evans last year a prime example.”If you are going to have 14 games like IPL the money has to match,” Khawaja said. “Even for the local players here, if leagues start coming up in UAE, South Africa, wherever, what if a local player starts thinking I’ll get paid twice as much money to go and play over there, why would I stay here in the Big Bash. Those are the questions we have to ask ourselves. I don’t think the amount of games is the issue, personally, it’s the salary cap.”Homegrown namesThe recruitment of Australian internationals is another element to this year’s tournament with multi-format players, some of who don’t have clubs, set to be available for the last three weeks after the scheduled ODI series with South Africa was cancelled.Last season Steven Smith was not allowed to play in the finals for Sydney Sixers despite wanting to. A key part of the next MOU negotiations between CA and the ACA, due to formally begin in September, will be regarding CA contracted players appearing in the BBL when available. David Warner has not played in the tournament since 2013 and Mitchell Starc has already said he won’t be available this year as he opts to rest. Whether they are forced to play and who they play for is an issue that needs to be resolved in the near future.Steven Smith will likely appear in the BBL this season•Getty Images”I don’t think players would like to be told where they’re playing,” Ponting said. “I think they would want to have the choice. I know that was one of the things we were talking about last night is, if there is a chance for us to be able to get hold of some of the guys that are going to have quite a decent break now through the middle of this tournament, so we threw a few names around there.”This has been spoken about for a long time now as well. How do we get the Australian players back into BBL but more importantly, if we do, how are they remunerated, and what teams are they associated with? And I think it’s coming to the point now…with these other tournaments around the world that more and more attention needs to be paid to that for the BBL’s sake.”I think there’s a chance attracting the best overseas talent here is probably going to get harder and harder as we’ve seen already the last three or four seasons. But the most important thing is getting our best Australian players when at all available to come and play in the BBL.”

If there is one thing Wolverhampton Wanderers need for their ongoing relegation battle, it is a sense of commitment to their fight for survival within their squad. That seems like something Vitor Pereira has looked to maintain during his short time at the club so far, and it was something former boss Gary O’Neil instilled.

In his first six games across all competitions, the Old Gold boss has overseen three wins, one draw and two losses. They were back-to-back defeats in the Premier League against Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United. It has been a solid start to his tenure at Molineux.

Almost all of the squad seems to be on board and ready to fight for survival. However, former club captain Mario Lemina seems destined to leave the West Midlands.

Lemina’s 2024/25 season

It has been a very strange season for Gabon international midfielder Lemina. He began the campaign as a key player for the Old Gold and has played 19 times across all competitions. At the beginning of the season, he was also club captain, although was stripped of that title.

During mid-December, O’Neil confirmed that the captaincy had been passed from Lemina to experienced full-back Nelson Semedo.

That came after a fight with West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen after their game at the London Stadium. O’Neil confirmed that “sparked the conversation” for a change in the captaincy.

Now, the West Midlands outfit might lose the midfielder altogether, in a situation that has escalated fairly quickly. After their 3-0 defeat away to Newcastle United, which Lemina was not part of, Pereira confirmed he “wants to leave” Molineux this month.

The new man in the hot seat at Wolves explained “with this energy and this mentality, I don’t need him”. It seems certain that the former captain will leave Molineux just one month after being relieved of his duties as skipper.

Indeed, the Old Gold may well have their replacement in mind already and could make a move before the end of the January transfer window.

Wolves’ dream Lemina replacement

The player in question here is Chelsea youngster Renato Veiga, with reports earlier in the window suggesting that Wolves had enquired about a potential loan move, which was rebuffed by the Blues. Perhaps, however, going in for another approach would be a wise choice for the Old Gold.

The 21-year-old has been impressive for Enzo Maresca’s side so far this term, having made 18 appearances across all competitions for the Blues.

He has scored twice and grabbed one assist, registering a goal and assist against Gent in the Conference League.

He has clearly made a lasting impression on Blues fans so far, with Alex Goldberg full of praise for the Portuguese star. He explained that “anything he touches turns to gold”, a metaphor of course, but still something that shows just how well he has played.

One of the biggest advantages of signing Veiga would be the fact Wolves have something of a utility man in their squad. Described as a “Swiss army knife” by football talent scout Jacek Kulig, he can play in multiple positions in defence and midfield.

Indeed, this certainly rings true when looking at the positions he played for former club Basel, and, of course, Chelsea. The Portuguese starlet has been trusted across the defence, at full-back and centre-back, and in the midfield.

Position

Basel

Chelsea

Centre-back

4

2

Left-back

0

13

Defensive midfield

14

2

Centre midfield

6

2

Left midfield

0

1

This must be an appealing factor for Wolves, and one reason why Pereira might want to sign his countryman. Not only would they be bringing in a Lemina replacement in midfield, but also someone who can play at left centre-back in his back three system.

This certainly seems like the perfect deal for Wolves. It might be tough to convince Chelsea to part ways with their versatile star, but if it is possible, then it could be a fantastic piece of business for the Old Gold.

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