International Football
Five things to know about Morocco’s goalie Yassine Bounou
Yassine Bounou dives to save a shot by Spain’s midfielder Carlos Soler during penalty shoot-out. PHOTO: AFP
With Morocco conceding just once from an own goal at this World Cup, no opponent has scored against their goalkeeper yet. Incredibly, these include penalties in their round of 16 shootout win over Spain. Who is Yassine Bounou, the man with the safest pair of hands at Qatar 2022?
1. He has come a long way
Literally, he has, for he was born in Montreal, Canada to Moroccan parents.
He then moved 5,795km to Morocco at an early age, joining local club Wydad Casablanca from age eight and playing nine league games for them across two seasons before heading to Atletico Madrid in Spain on a pay cut.
With Thibaut Courtois, Sergio Asenjo and Joel Robles all on Atletico’s roster, Bounou played for the B team in the second division and never featured for them in La Liga.
Impressing for Zaragoza in the second-tier while on loan, he signed for Girona in 2016 and helped them win promotion. Two strong spells in the top tier earned him a loan deal with Sevilla in 2019 before the move was made permanent a year later after he helped the club win the Europa League.
From then on, he has been Sevilla’s first-choice custodian, winning the Zamora trophy for clocking the lowest goals-to-game ratio for the 2021/22 season in which he conceded only 24 goals in 31 games. He is the first player from Sevilla and Africa to win the prestigious award.
2. He has a good track record of saving penalties
On Tuesday, Bounou kept out Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets from the spot, while Pablo Sarabia struck the post (Bounou went the right way), and people shouldn’t be surprised even if he is the first African goalkeeper to save two penalties in a World Cup shootout.
After all, the 31-year-old has faced 50 penalties in his career and saved 13 of them
Morocco midfielder Azzedine Ounahi told ESPN: “We trust him. We know he is an excellent keeper. We knew that if we got to the penalties, he would do the job for us. And he did. Spain didn’t even score a single penalty.”
However, Bounou was modest when he told ESPN: “It was incredible. It is a historical moment. I hadn’t even prepared for the shootout that much. There was so much pressure in the game so I just tried to enjoy it.
“For the penalties, it is about instinct, a bit of luck and that’s it, there is not much else.”
3. He also has a sterling clean sheet record
According to football website Transfermarkt, Bounou has 109 shutouts from 334 games at club level.
For Morocco, he has an even better record, with 31 clean sheets from 49 matches. This translates to an average one every 2.7 games. Some top strikers don’t even score this frequently.
4. He is dangerous at the other end too
Nicknamed Bono, he is a rock star on both ends of the pitch. In March 2021, with Sevilla down 1-0 at Real Valladolid, he went to attack a corner kick, and scored his first and only professional goal.
5. Haaland feud
While he is known to be generally calm and soft-spoken, Bounou couldn’t help but be pumped up in a Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund and their striker Erling Haaland in 2021.
During their match, Bounou tipped Haaland’s penalty on to the post, denied the Norwegian on the rebound and celebrated in his face, only for the Video Assistant Referee to order a retake as the goalkeeper had stepped off his line before the spot-kick was taken.
Haaland made no mistake with his second chance and returned the favour by goading Bounou after scoring.
Now with Manchester City, Haaland said: “I missed and then he cheated. Then I took it again and scored when he didn’t cheat.
“When he was screaming in my face after the first one, I was thinking ‘it will be even better to score another goal’ – and that’s what happened, so it was nice… Maybe it’s karma in this world.”
-Straits Times
In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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International Football
Players’ union, FIFPRO, wants 20-minute halftimes, more cooling breaks amid extreme heat
Global players’ union FIFPRO is exploring whether extending halftime to 20 minutes and introducing more frequent cooling breaks could better protect players from extreme heat.
Nine of the 16 host cities for the 2026 World Cup face conditions considered “extreme risk” for heat-related illness.
Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Monterrey and Philadelphia are expected to face dangerous levels of heat and humidity, posing player safety concerns and fuelling calls for mandatory cooling aids or schedule changes.
FIFPRO’s heat risk assessments are based on wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), a measure combining temperature, humidity, solar radiation and wind speed to estimate how environmental conditions affect the body’s ability to cool itself.
Under FIFPRO guidelines, a WBGT reading above 28 degrees Celsius indicates conditions in which matches should be postponed or rescheduled to protect players’ health.
By comparison, world soccer governing body FIFA’s own guidelines set the extreme risk threshold higher, at 32 degrees Celsius WBGT – but even by that standard, six of the nine cities are still projected to exceed safe limits.
Major League Soccer in the U.S. has a threshold of 29 degrees Celsius WBGT.
“Cooling breaks at the 30th minute and 75th minutes are quite traditional, but from a physiological point of view it does not make sense,” said Vincent Gouttebarge, FIFPRO’s Medical Director.
“Even if you ingest more than 200 millilitres of fluid, you already cannot take it all. So I would definitely like to see some project where we look at the efficacy of perhaps more frequent but shorter cooling breaks – every 15 minutes, rather than only one during each half.”
LONGER HALFTIMES
Gouttebarge also questioned whether the traditional 15-minute halftime interval is sufficient when matches are played in extreme heat.
“You can imagine that halftime of 15 minutes might not be enough in order to decrease the core temperature,” he said.
“It could be a halftime of 20 minutes which would be significant. That has been shown in the laboratory and FIFPRO, together with the national union in Portugal in August, we are going to test this kind of mitigation strategy.”
The urgency of stronger heat protocols became clear at this month’s Club World Cup where two matches — Benfica-Bayern Munich in Charlotte and Chelsea-Esperance in Philadelphia exceeded the WBGT threshold FIFPRO considers unsafe.
“According to our position, those games should have been postponed later that day or rescheduled,” Gouttebarge said.
FIFPRO officials acknowledged that FIFA has responded constructively during the tournament by lowering thresholds for mandatory cooling breaks and improving pitch-side hydration, but stressed that proactive planning is critical.
“FIFA have been quite responsive once the tournament was under way,” said Alex Phillips, FIFPRO General Secretary.
“They have actually modified how they’ve been dealing with heat during the matches based on FIFPRO’s input, which is credit to the work of the team. Obviously, it would have been better if that happened in advance, but it’s better that they have adapted.”
FIFPRO warned that the risks highlighted at the Club World Cup are a preview of what players could face at the expanded 2026 World Cup.
“This is not just affecting the Club World Cup, but also future tournaments either in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world,” said Alexander Bielefeld, FIFPRO Director of Policy & Strategic Relations.
“We need a better balance between commercial interests and the health and safety of players,” he added, referring to earlier kick-off times to accommodate European television audiences.
-Reuters
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Former Manchester United and England midfielder Paul Ince has been charged with drink-driving, police said on Monday.
Ince, who earned 53 caps for England and won two Premier League titles during his six years at United, has been released on bail and will appear in court on July 18.
“The incident involved a black Range Rover which had collided with the central reservation barrier. Officers attended the scene and arrested a 57-year-old man,” the Cheshire police said in a statement.
“Paul Ince, of Quarry Road, Neston, has since been charged with drink-driving.”
Reuters has contacted Ince’s representative for comment.
After retiring as a player, Ince led Milton Keynes Dons to a League Two title in 2007-08. He most recently managed Reading during 2022-23.
-Reuters
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