That clearly suited Gordon.

Digging deeper, according to Opta, the England international has had a significantly better shot conversion rate in the Champions League (38.5%) compared to the Premier League (12.5%) in 2025-26.

Gordon has also had more shots (three) and touches in the opposition box (6.1); attempted more dribbles (3.9); and had a better dribble success rate (45.5%) per 90 minutes in Europe than when playing in the English top flight.

He averaged a goal or assist every 64 minutes in the Champions League in contrast to just one every 227 minutes in the Premier League in the campaign just gone.

The difference in numbers reflects some of the opponents Gordon has come up against after facing some particularly solid Premier League sides throughout the campaign.

But it also illustrates how he has tended to raise his game in Europe, which feeds into a wider point that Gordon’s best matches for Newcastle have often come against the biggest teams over the years.

The test at Barcelona will be to deliver week in, week out, particularly given the level of competition for a starting place, as he battles it out with Rhinha among others.

According to BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague, Barcelona have also opened talks to sign Julian Alvarez, with an agreement in place with the Argentine forward.

But Atletico Madrid are likely to turn down the 90m euros Barca are expected to offer.

Whoever else does come in, Gordon can expect tough competition.

“That will be a challenge [Gordon] will relish to take his game to the next level,” Ritchie added.

“I don’t think the stage or badge will change him as a person. He will always have this inner drive, this mentality, to be the best.”

PARIS — There was a familiar refrain heard in the stands at Roland Garros on Wednesday. “Vamos, Rafa!”

It’s a phrase that’s been yelled thousands of times over the past two decades at the French Open, but it’s been largely absent since Rafael Nadal‘s retirement in 2024.

But the fans in the nearly full Court 7 weren’t trying to conjure up the 14-time tournament champion. Instead, the 1,500 or so who packed the seats — which included former world No. 3 and 2013 French Open finalist David Ferrer — were all there to catch a glimpse of the latest Spanish up-and-coming star, Rafael Jodar, in his first pearance at the Slam.

With every strike of the ball, every jump, and even when he took a hard tumble and found himself covered in clay, the crowd watched, enamored, as he battled James Duckworth. At the end of the three hours and 22 sweat-drenched minutes, Jodar won the second-round match 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 after a double fault from Duckworth.

Jodar — who grew up admiring Nadal — clinched a fist and shook an arm in celebration when it was over, as the crowd rose to its collective feet.

It’s been a staggering rise for the 19-year-old, who turned professional at the start of the season following a brief NCAA stint at Virginia. In January, Jodar came through qualifying to make his major debut at the Australian Open and reached the second round. And while he won a handful of matches on hard court in the spring, it’s on clay where Jodar has surged. In ril, he won his first ATP title at the 250-level Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakesh, Morocco. He then reached the semifinals in Barcelona and the quarterfinals in Madrid. Ranked No. 168 at the start of the year, Jodar arrived in Paris ranked No. 29 and seeded in just his second major.

“It’s been a great year for me,” Jodar said Wednesday. “I’m enjoying every tournament, and every week that I’m playing on the tour is a new chter for me. I take it as a learning year, because I think I can improve a lot.”

In his first-round match against Aleksandar Kovacevic, he lost just five games — the fewest surrendered in a Roland Garros debut since Novak Djokovic in 2005. With Wednesday’s victory, he became just the fourth Spanish teenager to reach the third round of the French Open over the past 30 years, joining Nadal, Tommy Robredo and Carlos Alcaraz. With a 17-3 tour-level record on clay, he now owns the second-best ATP debut on the surface, trailing only Andy Roddick, who started at 18-2.

Jodar will next face Alex Michelsen, a rising 21-year-old American, on Friday with a chance to reach the second week. Pablo Carreno Busta or Thiago Agustin Tirante, both unseeded, would await in the fourth round.

And no matter what, it seems clear that Jodar’s star will continue to rise in Paris and beyond. Even if he’s just focused on one match and one tournament at a time.

“I think I can improve a lot,” Jodar said. “I can do better things in the future, but always with the same mentality, that I can be better in every tournament and in every match.”

This time last year, Jodar was some 4,660 miles away from Paris in Little Rock, Arkansas, preparing for a Challenger event. He was ranked No. 707 in the world and was watching what he could of the French Open.

He lost in the first round of the Challenger.

“It was obviously another chter of my life,” Jodar said after his first-round win. “But I think that chter also helped me, you know, to develop a lot and to be a better player now. I think about those times as times that helped me to be on court.”

After a strong junior career in which he won the 2024 boys title at the US Open, Jodar made an immediate impact as a freshman during the spring 2025 semester at Virginia. With a 19-3 singles record, he was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Rookie of the Year and the ACC’s Freshman of the Year, in addition to earning All-American honors. Less than two weeks after the college season concluded, Jodar was in Little Rock and getting ready to play a number of Challenger events.

He then opted to skip the fall portion of the NCAA season. It proved to be the right decision — he won three Challenger titles in that stretch. His ranking and results were good enough to qualify him for the ATP’s Next Gen Finals in December. By the end of the month, he announced he was turning pro.

“My time in college has played a huge role in my growth both as a player and as a person, and I now feel prepared to take this next step and embrace a new challenge in my life,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

While some players struggle in their first months on tour, there was no such learning curve for Jodar. He won 10 of his first 11 matches, coming through qualifying to reach the Challenger final in Canberra before rolling through qualifying and into the second round in Melbourne.

The victory in Marrakesh raised his profile and proved he was a legitimate talent, but it was his matches in Barcelona and Madrid that put him in an entirely different conversation. In Madrid, his hometown, he recorded the first top-10 victory over Alex de Minaur. Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, sat in the stands to watch. Two days later, Jodar defeated Joao Fonseca, the 2024 ATP Next Gen champion whom many had dubbed “the next big thing,” in three sets. In the quarterfinals, he lost to Sinner but pushed him to a tiebreak in the second set.

The two had a lengthy embrace at the net and Sinner later shared that he told him to “Keep working, keep improving.” Sinner then wrote, “What a player” on the camera lens in recognition of his young opponent.

– Tennis TV (@TennisTV) ril 29, 2026

“He’s already a very solid player, and I think he has shown why,” Sinner told reporters after the match. “He’s playing very, very high-quality tennis. … Everyone is improving, you know, so you need always to be in the present moment. That’s also one of the reasons why I went to watch him, you know, him and Joao Fonseca. I like to watch because I know that they are going to be potentially the future opponents most of the time.”

Fonseca echoed Sinner’s thoughts on Jodar, calling him “super solid” when speaking to reporters after his own third-round victory Wednesday.

On Wednesday, with Ferrer, a childhood role model and ctain of the Spanish Davis Cup team seated with his father, Jodar was challenged by his opponent and the conditions, but he ultimately believed that would help him down the road.

“I think this match will help me a lot because, ultimately, I see this year as a year to learn a lot,” Jodar said in Spanish. “I’m not going to win every match, obviously, and I’m aware there will be losses, but I’m going to try to learn a lot from both the victories and the defeats.”

Before the match, Jodar hadn’t looked very far ahead in the draw and only found out he would next be playing Michelsen when his father told him ahead of his news conference. But he said he was expecting another tough challenge against the American — “he’s won two matches for a reason” — and was looking forward to having Thursday to recover and prepare.

Jodar doesn’t seem to be thinking about how far he can go this year in Paris. And with Sinner — who is currently on a blistering 30-match win streak — in the draw, it seems unlikely that Jodar will win the title. But a Spanish teenager named Rafa winning Roland Garros in their first pearance isn’t unheard of. Nadal did just that in 2005.

There was certainly some surprise when England boss Tuchel opted to leave Wharton out of his 26-man squad heading to the World Cup.

Palace may have not had a great domestic season given they finished 15th in the Premier League and went out of the FA Cup against non-League Macclesfield – but they have now won a European trophy and Wharton was hugely influential in that.

This Conference League final performance was another reason to be wondering why Wharton is not on the plane.

The decision to pick Brentford midfielder Henderson at the age of 35 over the 22-year-old Wharton may be the most eye-catching and surprising selection.

Henderson has obviously been picked for his experience but Wharton would probably have more to give on the pitch if you compare not only their performances this season but also last term.

“I understand why the manager has taken Henderson but for me if he is going to do that kind of job, take him as a coach,” said Hoddle. “Take him as a player-coach if you like but I think there was a spot there for Wharton.”

The re-emergence of Mainoo at Manchester United has also not helped Wharton given the Palace midfielder was in Tuchel’s squads for the last two international breaks and featured in qualifiers against Serbia and Albania before a friendly pearance against Uruguay in March.

Mainoo, given he was being frozen out at Old Trafford by Ruben Amorim for the first half of the season, was not involved under Tuchel until the March friendlies and now has won his way into favour.

Both were at Euro 2024 but Wharton never got on the pitch while Mainoo started all four knockout games, including the final.

Arsenal‘s Declan Rice is surely one of the first names on the team-sheet and Elliot Anderson is expected to partner him while Tuchel also has Bellingham, Eze and Rogers as midfield options.

It certainly feels a very harsh decision to leave someone like Wharton at home, even if Tuchel has many choices in the position.

As the NHL season nears a close, teams are gearing up for what could be a busy summer. A jump in the salary c means more flexibility. And if the Vegas Golden Knights making their third trip to the Stanley Cup Final in nine years proves anything, teams that act boldly often get rewarded.

Here’s what I’m hearing about the key storylines emerging over the next few months.

AUSTON MATTHEWS AND Connor McDavid are in similar spots: As ctains in pressure markets, there will be noise about them and their future any season the team doesn’t win. They’re both under contract through the 2027-28 season. Though they have loyalty to their teams, what they’re looking for most is conviction.

Matthews and McDavid are represented by the same agent, who preaches the same thing: Why make a decision before they have to? So as they move through the primes of their career, they’re constantly assessing whether their organizations are acting aggressively enough to put them in position to win. Neither team has hired a coach for next season yet, which is a major data point. Don’t expect any news from McDavid after a dispointing Oilers season. He just signed a short-term, team-friendly deal last summer. Edmonton already knows it’s on the clock with its generational superstar.

On Matthews, there’s a bit more uncertainty given the management change. But there’s still a strong belief that nothing will change with Matthews’ situation ahead of next season. He loves being ctain in Toronto, loves the city and wants to win there.

There is supposed to be a meeting between Matthews, new general manager John Chayka and president of hockey operations Mats Sundin. This isn’t unusual. When Kyle Dubas was fired as Mle Leafs general manager after the 2022-23 season, Matthews also took time, met with new leadership and worked through what the next era would look like. The only reason it hasn’t hpened yet is logistics: Matthews is recovering from knee surgery after the hit by Radko Gudas and can’t travel far from Arizona as he rehabs. Sundin is relocating his family from Europe. They’re knee-deep in scouting meetings in Toronto. But the lines of communication have been open. Chayka hasn’t tipped his hand publicly, but there’s belief the Leafs want to stay aggressive and compete now — not pivot toward any kind of rebuild. Management is not asking for Matthews’ input on decisions such as roster moves or coaches, but they are keeping him in the loop.

ANOTHER THING THE Leafs have kept close to the vest: what they’ll do with the No. 1 draft pick. Most scouts and executives I’ve checked in with still believe Gavin McKenna is the most likely pick simply because of his high ceiling. Beyond the skill, McKenna showed at Penn State this season he can handle noise — and often feed off it. Whether it was a loud building or moments when scrutiny turned negative, evaluators saw a player who used that energy as fuel, not something that rattled him. A GM’s worst nightmare is passing on a talent like McKenna and he hits, then spends years making you regret it.

But Is draft boards.

ALEX OVECHKIN RETURNED to Moscow last week, and from everything I’m hearing, little has changed in his situation. The decision pears to be whether to retire from the NHL or return to Washington on a one-year contract. Ovechkin’s mother, Tatiana — one of his closest confidants — has also been in Russia as he considers the next step. The most recent timeline I was given was around the draft — before or shortly after — when many players begin ramping up offseason training. But if Ovechkin needs more time, the Citals pear willing to give it to him. Communication has remained open between Ovechkin and the organization as both sides continue to work through key questions, including what his role would look like next season. That conversation is particularly notable after Washington hired power-play coach Ray Bennett.

THE COACHING CAROUSEL might still run through Vegas — and a trip to the Stanley Cup Final could further complicate it. The Golden Knights have made clear their focus is on the playoffs, and as of now, are waiting until their season is over before deciding whether to grant permission for Bruce Cassidy to interview elsewhere. The league is not expected to intervene, as it views Vegas within its league and legal rights to withhold permission while Cassidy is still under contract. There is mutual interest between Cassidy and Edmonton, and I believe he’d also like to speak with Los Angeles, which also has interest. But even when Vegas’ season ends, there’s no guarantee the organization will allow those conversations.

That matters because Edmonton has made it clear it wants a veteran coach. And now, some executives around the league are wondering: If Cassidy isn’t available, do they pivot to John Tortorella as Plan B? Tortorella signed with Vegas only through the end of the season. The long-term expectation had been that the Golden Knights would eventually turn to Ryan Craig — their AHL coach, someone they’ve developed internally for years and who has a long-standing relationship with Kelly McCrimmon since junior hockey. But Tortorella’s success this spring might have complicated that timeline. How can Vegas turn away from Tortorella now? So the bigger question might not just be whether Cassidy is available. It’s whether Vegas suddenly has to make a coaching decision of its own.

THE MLE LEAFS have real interest in coach David Carle and he seems to be at least entertaining it. But he has been highly selective about making the jump to the NHL and has never wanted to do it just for the sake of it.

Part of that is the cutthroat nature of NHL coaching contracts. He already has one of the best jobs in hockey at the University of Denver, where he has built a powerhouse with the stability and control few NHL coaches ever get.

And around hockey circles, there long has been a belief that if Carle does leave, the Colorado Avalanche could be the ideal fit. He has deep ties there, and many around the league have wondered whether he’d rather wait for a job like Colorado than jump at just any NHL opening.

So now that Colorado has suffered a stunning playoff exit, does that suddenly add another layer to the conversation around Jared Bednar — and Carle’s future? Bednar, extremely well-regarded around the league, would not be out of work for long.

ALEX TUCH‘S EXTENSION talks were intentionally shelved at the end of the regular season and through the playoffs. The Buffalo Sabres had the luxury of patience, and so did Tuch. At that point, they were not close on money. They’ll now circle back on conversations, and Tuch’s camp feels as if it doesn’t yet have a final answer from GM Jarmo Kekalainen. So the question is whether that g has narrowed into striking distance. Tuch played below market value on his last deal, and though money is not the only factor here, he is viewed around the league as a highly desirable player who could command double-digit average annual value in a weak free agent class. If Buffalo gets competitive, there’s a path. If not, this could become a relatively straightforward decision. Either way, Tuch’s zero-point performance against Montreal is not a major factor here. Every team, but specifically Buffalo, will be looking at the 30-year-old’s larger body of work and all-around impact (including the fact he was a big reason the Sabres made the playoffs, and his four goals against Boston in the first round).

WHEN I CHECKED in with Bill Guerin this week, he said he was “confident” the Wild would re-sign Quinn Hughes when he’s eligible for an extension on July 1 — citing their relationship, Hughes’ positive experience in Minnesota, and what he knows matters most to the star defenseman: winning.

The Wild would like Hughes as long as they can have him. Guerin acts with conviction, the owner has no problem signing checks for big-time talent (see: Kirill Krizov) so this could be a massive deal. But the Wild also know this is about what Hughes wants. The expectation around the league is that Hughes ultimately re-signs in Minnesota, with a three-year deal viewed as a logical structure because it would align with brother Jack Hughes‘ contract timeline.

Hughes will have more serious conversations with his agent and family in the coming weeks as he weighs what’s next. A clear path to the Stanley Cup is important. There was a real feeling internally that if the Wild had been healthier — particularly with Jonas Brodin and Joel Eriksson Ek available against Colorado — that series could have looked different. But for Hughes, family is also part of that equation, with two brothers already in the league. From Minnesota’s side, it will continue to be aggressive this summer, with finding a center still an absolute priority, but only if it’s the right deal and the right fit.

AS FOR THE next wave of cornerstone franchise contracts? We could see a few massive ones this summer.

Macklin Celebrini is eligible to sign an extension July 1, and the expectation is the Sharks won’t drag this out if both sides are aligned. This is a franchise-defining negotiation. Because this is the last offseason before the new CBA changes max extension length, Celebrini can sign an eight-year deal if it’s registered before Sept. 15. NHL contracts are cped at 20% of the salary c, meaning the Sharks can offer Celebrini eight years by $20.8 million for $166.4 million total, which would surpass Krizov’s $136 million ($17 million AAV) deal from last offseason. They can also include sweeteners such as max signing bonus structure and a no-movement clause. Celebrini wearing a “C” as ctain next season is all but guaranteed. But whether San Jose goes all the way to that number, or whether Celebrini wants to commit that long as a 20-year-old in a ridly changing c landsce, is a separate question.

Then there are Connor Bedard and Leo Carlsson. Both players effectively bet on themselves, putting long-term contract talks on the back burner this season — and both followed it up with massive production efforts that only strengthened their leverage. Now it becomes a bit of a game of chicken. Whichever side moves first could help define the next tier of superstar contracts. If one signs first, that deal immediately becomes a benchmark — not only on AAV, but structure, term, bonuses, and how aggressively teams are willing to pay elite young centers entering their prime. Many around the league are expecting Bedard to go first; there seems to be no rush on Carlsson and the Ducks’ side when I checked in this week.

THE JASON ROBERTSON saga will finally see some clarity and all signs point to an extension in Dallas, rather than a trade. There’s interest from the Sabres to extend Zach Benson and the Flyers to re-sign Trevor Zegras. Pavel Dorofeyev has made himself a ton of money this season, especially with how he’s scoring in the postseason. As usual, Vegas will need to do some maneuvering (like finding a new home for Adin Hill, and possibly other shocking moves) to create space.

Other young players who could be due big extensions this summer include Simon Edvinsson and Adam Fantilli. Patience is the word for the restricted free agents. All too often they don’t get settled until September, right before the season. As for offer sheets — they remain hockey’s favorite offseason hypothetical. But for one to actually hpen, everything has to line up: c space, draft-pick compensation, player buy-in and a team willing to push the risk. That’s why the noise almost always outweighs the action.

New South Wales staged the greatest comeback in State of Origin history following the pivotal dismissal of Queensland’s Kalyn Ponga as the Blues won a dramatic opening game of this year’s series.

Ponga became the seventh player to be sent off in Origin matches when he was dismissed for a high tackle on wing Tolutau Koula with 23 minutes left to play and the full-back’s side leading 20-6.

NSW half-backs Ethan Strange and Nathan Cleary then scored tries, with the latter converting his, to reduce the deficit to 20-16 and set up a grandstand finish at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.

The 12-man Maroons defended valiantly and looked to have withstood the Blues’ pressure but in the 78th minute veteran James Tedesco outjumped stand-in full-back Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to grab Cleary’s superb high kick and ground the ball to tie the scores.

It presented Cleary with a relatively straightforward conversion and, after a false start that increased the tension, he stroked the ball over in the pouring rain to seal victory in the first game of the best-of-three series.

Game two will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 17 June with the third match at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on 8 July.