Sports Poets Society

RALF IBING/FIRO SPORTPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES ‘It’s not bad for Germany to be underdogs at the World Cup’ Drawing on his own family’s experience in Sierra Leone, the Germany defender is challenging stereotypes ‘What do you want us to do at Madrid?  Cry over the last seasons?  No. Find the right conclusion‘ 4 Jun 2026 - The Guardian Sam Cunningham As a child, Antonio Rüdiger would look out of his bedroom window to see whether anyone was playing on the field it overlooked. It was not a big pitch, but it had two goals, enough room for six-a-side and was where a young Rüdiger honed the skills that would take him to the top. He grew up in Neukölln, Berlin, in a community largely made up of refugees, where his parents settled after fleeing civil war in Sierra Leone. It was, by his own account, a tough area, and football kept him out of trouble. Rüdiger, preparing to represent Germany at the World Cup, says: “We didn’t have phones to call each other. No. We just looked out of the window, w...

‘In the right situation, I can win a Grand Tour’ The British rider and unvarnished free spirit on why duelling with Pogacar is like ‘racing a zombie’ and his Grand Tour hopes ‘My shoulder, elbow and my hand hurt the most. I was, like, I’ve definitely broken something here’ 4 Jun 2026 - The Guardian Sean Ingle When Tom Pidcock talks about how it feels to chase down the greatest cyclist of his generation, his language is so vivid you can almost taste the salt-baked sweat on Tadej Pogacar’s jersey. But as we discuss the pair’s epic duel at the Milan-San Remo classic in March, and what it was like when a bloodied Pogacar went nuclear on the final climb, Pidcock can’t help but smile. “Up the Poggio, when I was following his attack, it was like racing a zombie,” he says. “He was white, white skinsuit, white shorts cut up, blood. He’s a demon. It was incredible.” What made Pogacar’s performance even more staggering was that he crashed 30km from the finish. Yet as everyone else slipped back, ...

L’accolade entre Matteo Arnaldi et Matteo Berrettini,  contraint à l’abandon, hier, dans le deuxième set. Revenu en quarts de finale de Grand Chelem quatre ans après sa dernière apparition à ce niveau, l’Italien a de nouveau été trahi par son physique, hier, et contraint à un abandon déchirant. 4 Jun 2026 - L'Équipe LUCILE ALARD « Je suis fatigué d’abandonner. » Casquette vissée sur la tête, regard un peu perdu, Matteo Berrettini ne cachait pas son immense désarroi, hier, au moment d’évoquer ses douleurs. L’Italien de 30 ans, sixième mondial à son meilleur en 2022 mais hors top 100 (105e) au moment d’aborder ce Roland-Garros, a de nouveau été trahi par son corps en pleine session de nuit, hier, face à son compatriote Matteo Arnaldi . Un pépin physique de plus pour celui dont la carrière est pourrie par les blessures depuis quatre ans. Alors qu’il avait retrouvé les quarts de finale d’un Grand Chelem pour la première fois depuis 2022, l’ancien finaliste de Wimbledon en 2021 ne cach...

Gianni Infantino Le meneur de jeu tout-puissant du football mondial A une semaine du début de la Coupe du monde, enquête sur le président tout-puissant et controversé de la planète foot. En poste depuis dix ans en dépit de polémiques répétées, le président de la Fifa, organisatrice de la Coupe du monde qui débute le 11 juin, affiche ostensiblement son amitié avec les puissants, en premier lieu Donald Trump. «Aucun étranger n’a passé autant de temps qu’Infantino  à la Maison Blanche ces dernières années.»     - Alexander Koch ancien directeur       de la communication de la FIFA» 4 Jun 2026 - Libération Par SAMUEL RAVIER-REGNAT Washington, 5 décembre 2025. C’est le grand jour, celui qui lance la chamade dans le coeur des amateurs de foot. Le tirage au sort de la Coupe du monde. Dans un amphithéâtre du Kennedy Center, l’emblématique salle de spectacle mise au pas l’an dernier par Donald Trump, Gianni Infantino déroule le tapis rouge au président de...

(AP Photo/eric Gay) -  San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama shoots free  throws  during a workout prior Tuesday to the start of the NBA Finals basketball series  against the  New York Knicks in San Antonio. 3 Jun 2026 - Texarkana Gazette TIM REYNOLDS AP BASKETBALL WRITER SAN ANTONIO — For a few hours on Tuesday, the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks held practices on a floor that had the NBA Finals logo painted at midcourt. They did interviews with the logo as a backdrop. They saw finals mentions basically everywhere they looked. It might have seemed normal. It wasn’t. This stage — the NBA Finals — is new to just about everyone on the Spurs and Knicks rosters, meaning very few players on either side can have any real idea of how the moment will seem on Wednesday night when the 80th title series in league history gets underway in San Antonio. They have two big things in common : It’s going to be new, and it took them all forever to get here. “Falling i...

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2114534142748762&set=a.1001086544093533 di SIMONE BASSO 3 giugno 2026 Pallini in serie, senza prendersi sul serio, a qualche ora dalla palla a due di gara1 delle NBA Finals. L'alieno francese contro New York. A Silverland , si brinda con lo champagne. 1.   Le Finals a Ovest sono state (e rimarranno) il momento più alto nella stagione. Sì, le vere Finals. Accade, ogni tanto, quando una Conference ammassa più portaerei e All-NBA rispetto all'altra. Ciò non toglie che questi Knicks, nei mismatch e nei temi tattici contro gli Spurs, siano da corsa. 2. Game-7 a Oklahoma City "for the ages" quanto la vernice all'iperuranio (con 2 OT). Alla faccia di quelli che "la regular season non conta", il 4-1 di RS è stato l'ipofisi del 4-3 della postseason (e 8-4 nella somma). Se il metodo-Thunder, attraverso Sam Presti , è stato clonato dagli Spurs dinastici, quello della San Antonio di Brian Wright lo replica. Pop culture...

Il trionfatore di due edizioni in fila: “Mi hanno premiato con una Mercedes, l’ho venduta e mi sono tenuto la Fiat 127” STEFANO MANCINI La Stampa - Mercoledì 3 giugno 2026 Pagina 19 Ci sono vite che si misurano in anni e altre in chilometri. Quella di Orlando Pizzolato supera i 150 mila.  Basta aprire il suo database - nomi, tempi, tabelle di allenamento, sensazioni annotate con una precisione quasi maniacale - per ritrovare mezzo secolo di corsa italiana.  «Ho scritto tutto dal 1972, da quando avevo 14 anni», racconta rovistando tra i taccuini ingialliti che ancora conserva sulla scrivania. Dentro ci sono allenamenti, distanze, fatiche, ma soprattutto pezzi di vita. Due volte vincitore della Maratona di New York, nel 1984 e nel 1985 , Pizzolato è stato l'italiano che gli americani non riuscivano a pronunciare e che finirono per ribattezzare "Pizzowhat". Un soprannome nato quasi per caso, mentre lui staccava tutti lungo le avenue di Manhattan sotto un caldo soffocante. Og...

ROB NEWELL/ CAMERASPORT VIA GETTY IMAGES Michail Antonio places much of the blame for  his  departure from West Ham on former manager Graham Potter Michail Antonio on West Ham’s decline, the benefits of therapy and always being asked about his car crash ‘People do treat players like pieces of meat.  As soon as you get a bit stale, they get rid of you’ 3 Jun 2026 - The Guardian Jacob Steinberg ‘I never thought I needed therapy,” says Michail Antonio during a long conversation about the darker side of football, trauma and where it went wrong for West Ham. “I was always a happy person. But I had so many demons.” This is not just about the moment that almost cost the 36-year-old his life. Antonio knows how lucky he was to emerge from the wreckage with only a broken leg after crashing his Ferrari in December 2024, but it is one part of the story and there are plenty more chapters to write. The former West Ham forward lets it all out in Humans Not Robots , his raw and entertai...