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And who has taken the most wickets caught and bowled in Tests, and ODIs?

Steven Lynch05-Dec-2023Glenn Phillips took four wickets in his second Test, having not bowled in his first. Is this anywhere near the record? asked Kenneth Powell from New Zealand
New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips took 4 for 53 (and 1 for 47) in his second Test, against Bangladesh in Mirpur last week. Phillips hadn’t bowled on his debut, which came nearly four years ago against Australia in Sydney in January 2020.The best innings return by a player in his second Test, having not bowled in his first, is 6 for 65 by Simon Katich, for Australia against Zimbabwe in Sydney in 2003-04. No one else has taken a five-for, but two others apart from Phillips managed four. Nazir Ali took 4 for 83 for India against England in Madras in 1933-34; this was the only time he bowled in a Test. And Amir Elahi collected 4 for 134 for Pakistan against India in Delhi in 1952-53. He hadn’t bowled in his only previous Test, which was for India, in a rain-affected draw against Australia in Sydney in 1947-48. The Australian offspinner Ian Johnson took 6 for 42 in the first innings of his third Test, against England in Sydney in 1946-47, having not bowled in either of his first two.The best figures at any stage of a Test career by someone who didn’t bowl on their debut are 8 for 11, by England’s Johnny Briggs, against South Africa in Cape Town in 1889 (his 16th match). The Australian Frank Laver took 8 for 31 in the 14th of his 15 Tests, against England at Old Trafford in 1909.I read that Virat Kohli once scored 1000 runs in the course of 20 innings in T20Is. Has anyone bettered this sequence? asked Amrit Naik from India
Virat Kohli’s golden run in T20Is came between March 2014 and March 2016, when he scored 1018 runs in 20 innings, with 12 scores of 50 or more, and averaged 92. Suryakumar Yadav is next for India, after scoring 919 runs in 20 innings in T20Is between October 2022 and November 2023. Depending what he does in his next few matches, Suryakumar could improve this number.I rather expected Kohli to be top of this list – but actually there is someone above him. Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan collected 1061 runs – with ten scores of 50 or more, at an average of 88.50 – in a sequence of 20 innings between December 2020 and November 2021. And there’s a surprise in third place: UAE’s Muhammad Waseem collected 920 runs in 20 T20I innings (half of them against non-Test nations) between February 2022 and September 2023.Kane Williamson has scored centuries in each of his last four Tests – how many people have managed this? asked Michael Kirkpatrick from New Zealand
Kane Williamson’s 104 against Bangladesh in Sylhet made him the first New Zealander to score centuries in four successive Tests: he previously shared the national record of three with Mark Burgess (between 1969-70 and 1971-72) and Ross Taylor (2013-14).Williamson has a chance, in the second Test that starts later this week, of joining the three men from all countries who have reached three figures in five successive Tests – Jacques Kallis (2003-04), Gautam Gambhir (2008-09 to 2009-10) and Mohammad Yousuf, who actually crammed in six hundreds in a five-match run during 2006.But there is one man who once scored hundreds in six successive Tests. You won’t be too surprised to hear that it was Don Bradman, who did it over two Ashes series in 1936-37 and 1938. His sequence was ended by a match (at The Oval in 1938) in which he was unable to bat through injury; hundreds in the first two games of his next series, after the war in 1946-47, mean that Bradman scored centuries in eight successive Tests in which he actually batted. For the full list, click here.Muthiah Muralidaran has had 35 caught-and-bowled dismissals each in Tests and ODIs•AFPWho has taken the most wickets caught and bowled in Tests and in ODIs? asked Tim Morgan from England
Two bowlers collected 35 caught-and-bowleds in their Test careers: Anil Kumble and Muthiah Muralidaran. They are a long way clear at the top: Daniel Vettori and Shane Warne held on to 21 return catches, and Derek Underwood 20. Australia’s Nathan Lyon has 18 so far.Aggregate lists like this naturally favour players with long careers. If we look at percentages, then top among those with 50 or more Test wickets is the 19th-century Nottinghamshire and England seamer Billy Barnes, with eight out of 51, or 15.69% caught and bowled. The New Zealand slow left-armer Hedley Howarth’s 86 Test wickets included 12 c&bs, or 13.95%. The highest percentage among those with 100 or more wickets is 10.64, by the Australian Hugh Trumble (15 of 141).Murali leads the way in ODIs too with 35, ahead of the deceptive New Zealander medium-pacer Chris Harris (29) and the Pakistan pair of Shahid Afridi (24) and Saqlain Mushtaq (20). . Percentage-wise, 15 of Allan Border’s 73 ODI victims (20.55%) were caught and bowled, while the West Indian Roger Harper had exactly 100 wickets, 16 of them through return catches.In 1972, who played first-class cricket on the same ground where he played home games in the Football League? asked Hedley Dye from England
There were a few people from that time that could be the answer here: for a start, Chris Balderstone, who the following year played two Tests for England, played a County Championship match (for Leicestershire) and a Football League game (for Doncaster Rovers) on the same day in September 1975. Two other England cricketers of this approximate era also played League football – David Bairstow for Bradford City, and Ian Botham for Scunthorpe United, where a team-mate was the long-serving Worcestershire cricket captain Phil Neale.But it’s another Worcestershire player who’s the answer to this specific question. Ted Hemsley scored nearly 10,000 runs over a 20-year county career, and also played more than 500 Football League games for Shrewsbury Town (1961-68), Sheffield United (1968-77) and Doncaster Rovers (1977-79). And in 1972, Worcestershire’s Championship match against Yorkshire was played at Bramall Lane, Sheffield United’s home ground. Hemsley played four first-class games in all at Bramall Lane, but familiarity with the place didn’t help much: his highest score there was 38 in 1969. The ground had hosted an Ashes Test in 1902, but Yorkshire stopped playing there in 1973, when the ground was redeveloped to concentrate on football, with a new South Stand being built across the old cricket square.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Surrey quick’s stock is rising fast, and England are already watching his progress closely

Cameron Ponsonby06-Jul-2023Gus Atkinson’s stock is rising. Fast. He started the season outside the Surrey team, but three outstanding County Championship performances were all that was needed to propel him to being a whisker away from the Ireland Test squad, and only a handful of slips on the golf course from an Ashes debut.Atkinson’s rise is testament to England’s new mantra that how does, in fact, matter as much as how many. At 25 years old, Atkinson has played just 13 first-class matches and only recently become first-choice for his county, but in a running theme, people don’t need to see much of him to decide they’re a fan.A smooth run-up, a quick action and an even quicker short ball combine to make a player who is fast enough as it is and yet is legally obliged to be introduced by any commentator on radio or television as: “Gus Atkinson, right-arm-seamer, who’s just that bit faster than you think.” Comparisons to Jofra Archer, made at first by friends in jest, are now said with a straight face by those who actually know what they’re talking about: “Quite a few people have said that to me,” Atkinson smiles when asked. “A lot, actually.”His list of admirers extends from the revered old school of Michael Atherton, to the new-age number crunchers including England’s recently appointed white-ball analyst Freddie Wilde, who signed him twice in the last year, first for Oval Invincibles and then for Desert Vipers in the ILT20, before he joined the ECB. Over the winter, Atkinson also got deals to play in the Abu Dhabi T10 and was signed by Islamabad United in the PSL. And now he’s spearheading Surrey’s push for a place in the Vitality Blast Finals Day. With friends like these, who needs an IPL deal?It would be wrong, however, to say that Atkinson has come from nowhere. Surrey have been excited about the player ever since he returned to training as a slender 14-year-old and started hitting the coach’s mitt in bowling warm-ups far harder than the biology of his slight frame should have allowed.

I watched a video of myself bowling in 2020 or 2021 and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, oh my god, is that me? I was running in really slowly, it almost looked like I wasn’t trying.

In the same age-group as Ollie Pope, Sam Curran, Ryan Patel, Amar Virdi and Will Jacks, Atkinson for a while threatened to be the black sheep of this mystical, magical cohort. From signing as a professional in 2017, he watched on as all of his contemporaries debuted for Surrey by the end of 2018 – and in the case of Curran and Pope, for England – all while he sat on the sidelines nursing the unwanted fast-bowler threepeat of suffering a stress fracture in each of 2017, 2018 and 2019. It wasn’t until 2020, almost three years after putting pen to paper, that he would finally make his professional debut, but in 2022 the intangible qualities that Surrey had long seen in him started to turn into tangible results.”I wouldn’t say it was hard,” Atkinson reflects about watching his contemporaries move ahead of him. “Because they earned that and performed well. But I was always sort of thinking, ‘ach’, I was not where I wanted to be and I just felt like my career’s not flourishing. And obviously, you’re still young, but you do think that your career doesn’t last forever.”Fears over contract renewals were natural, but from Surrey’s end, the risk of letting Atkinson go far outweighed the cost of keeping him. There was a serious player in there, with the likes of Vikram Solanki, at the time the 2nd XI coach, being a vocal supporter and the instigator of a net that changed the trajectory of his career.”Two or three years ago, I had a bowl at LSE [London School of Economics] New Malden. Just me and Jordan Clark went down with Vikram Solanki and Vik was like, ‘run in and bowl as quick as you can’ and something just sort of clicked.”My run-up didn’t feel as good and we just sort of lengthened it out a bit and when I did that, it was like, pfff, it’s coming out well…let’s go for it.”Atkinson’s first-class career has taken a while to take off, but he’s getting noticed now•Getty ImagesCut to 2022 and the private school Bieber mop was gone, and in came a skin-fade, a beard and a pair of biceps. The result was a summer where Atkinson no doubt turned as many heads in Cafe Sol as he did in the ECB offices. He may have only played four Championship games and six Vitality Blast matches, but it was enough.”I watched a video of myself bowling in 2020 or 2021 and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, oh my god, is that me? I was running in really slowly, it almost looked like I wasn’t trying. And that obviously wasn’t the case, but I think I was holding myself back because of maybe a fear of injury or a fear of not performing.”In my head, before, I wasn’t not trying, I just didn’t really know how much I could.”At this point it is probably best to admit a personal bias here. Hailing from the same club and two years apart in age, Atkinson and I have known each other for roughly a decade. Near enough the last match we played together was when a 19-year-old me tricked a 17-year-old Gus into playing for the 3rd XI by not revealing the team in question until after he’d got the green light from his mum, Caroline, that he was available. Opening the batting, Gus scored zero runs. And opening the bowling, he took zero wickets. The match was later abandoned after one of our fielders hit his head on the ground whilst dropping a catch and an ambulance had to be called. Gus did not play for us again.Around that same time, I was coaching at the Stewart Cricket Centre, an academy run by Alec Stewart’s brother, Neil, where you-name-him-and-he’s-been-there has passed through. I asked Neil who the one player was, who he’d been sure would make it as a professional, but hadn’t, and his answer was Atkinson. Not because at that point Surrey were planning to release him, but simply because they never saw him. With his mum in London and dad overseas, summers were spent between the two, with cricket not necessarily left behind, but harder to be front and centre.”It’s the same for me!” Atkinson laughs when trying to make sense of the black hole in his cricket timeline that occurred from 16 to 19 years old.Related

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“I played [at Surrey] since Under-11s but I was never one of the main guys because there were other lads who were better than me.”I always wanted to do cricket, but I don’t reckon I actually believed I could until after school and I went to Adelaide and did well.”The story goes that after duffing his A-Levels – “To be honest, I was never… school,” Atkinson grimaces in an incomplete sentence that millions would relate to – it was his mum who kept the Surrey wheels turning.”I think she sort of did that behind my back,” Atkinsons says. “Mum would email… just trying to keep me in the loop as much as possible, because I wasn’t ever really on the Academy. Like I would play Academy games and I would train every now and again, but I was never signed.”Through Caroline, Surrey stayed in contact and it was pre-season 2017 when Alec Stewart had a look and liked what he saw – “So I stuck around, played, and got a contract that summer.”Caroline would see Gus make his long-awaited debut for Surrey three years later, when he dismissed former England captain Alastair Cook, but was tragically killed in a car crash later that same year.”It’s obviously difficult,” Gus explains. “My sister started a Master’s a few weeks after it happened and she did that. My brother’s also started at university. We’ve just sort of, just carried on our lives really, there’s not really too much you can do apart from that.”I went into training three, four days after because I needed to get out of the house. I just needed to get away and escape.”As a player, Atkinson has a huge amount of goodwill surrounding him. And as a person, so does Gus. Introductions to people with the reference that “I know Gus Atkinson a bit” bring a smile, and depending on the company, a follow-up comment that “he’s a serious bowler.””You know,” Gus ponders on the England talk now following him. “Probably if you asked me six months ago, I would have said my goal is to just play cricket for England. And now, I probably go, ‘I would like to play for England in the next year’.”So, yeah,” he finishes with a smile. “I guess it is a big change.”

Paul Skenes and three Pittsburgh Pirates relievers—Ryan Borucki, Dennis Santana and David Bednar—combined for a shutout of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, who are certainly not short on bats. It was the exact sort of performance you hope to see from a young ace going up against one of the best teams in baseball.

While the result was great, Skenes was not perfect, including getting himself into a hole in the fifth inning with reigning NL MVP Shohei Ohtani at the plate and a runner in scoring position. The count went to 3-1 before a fouled-off splitter loaded the count. Then, Skenes dropped in a curveball that Ohtani whiffed at, marking the third time Skenes got Ohtani out that night to end his work for the inning.

Here's a look at that pitch:

After the game, Skenes gave some insight into his thought process as he battled back from 3-1.

"Let's see what I'm made of," Skenes said he remembered thinking, as told by Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. "Let's see where my stuff is."

The phenom pitcher admitted his real first thought, though, was, "Crap." But he quickly locked in and went to work.

But who could blame him for that first thought? With just three runs of support and one of the game's best batters at the plate for the third time in the game with a runner in scoring position, it was a stacked deck against Skenes. He did what good pitchers do: Battled.

Newcastle United have now reportedly made their first contact to sign Ruben Neves from Al-Hilal, as they look to find a solution for their current problems under Eddie Howe.

The Magpies were in dire form before the international break and defeat at the hands of Brentford just about summed things up. For the first time in his tenure at St James’ Park, Howe is under pressure to get things right and turn things around as soon as possible, but with Manchester City up next there’s no doubt that’s easier said than done.

The manager admitted that Newcastle’s Premier League form has “not been good” at a recent charity dinner, saying: “Our Premier League form has not been good, and our away form has not been good. [But] our home form’s been strong, been good in the Champions League and we’re still in the Carabao Cup, so it’s a mixture of things.

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“It’s been difficult to pinpoint one thing but certainly, we know we have to improve the general performances. We’re looking for more consistency – we’re looking for more goals.

“We’re looking for a big response in this moment and we’re going to need them because we have got game after game. Our schedule for the next two months is relentless, so we can’t allow any sort of negative trend to continue. It’s a really important few weeks for us.”

It’s form that has arrived off the back of a fairly chaotic summer transfer window, in which Newcastle missed out on almost every top target before turning elsewhere.

Under new sporting director Ross Wilson, that simply cannot happen in January and the Magpies have already set their sights on stars such as Elliot Anderson and Neves in a midfield rebuild as a result.

Newcastle make contact to sign Neves

As reported by Caught Offside, Newcastle have now made contact to sign Neves from Al-Hilal in 2026. The midfielder has just over six months left on his current contract and will be available for just €20m (£18m) in the January transfer window.

Whilst PIF, who hold a majority stake in Al-Hilal, could be about to lose Neves in Saudi Arabia, they could use their existing relationship with the Portuguese star to bring him to Newcastle.

Unlike Al-Hilal, however, the Magpies could struggle to meet his current wage demands. As things stand, the 28-year-old earns £15m-a-year in Saudi Arabia, which would instantly make him Newcastle’s highest-earner by around £7m. It’s simply not doable unless he brings his demands down.

Putting those wage demands to one side, though, there’s little doubt that Neves would be an excellent signing. Dubbed “fantastic” by former manager Nuno Espirito Santo during his time at Wolves, Neves would ease Newcastle’s fears of struggling in the face of a potential Sandro Tonali exit and could even form an impressive partnership using the Italian.

Find a way past his salary demands and those in Tyneside should go all out to bring Neves back to the Premier League in 2026.

Newcastle hold strong interest in Elliot Anderson amid Thomas Tuchel comments

Shohei Ohtani's massive, $700 million (largely deferred) contract was valued as high as it was in part because there was an expectation he would impact the game on both sides of the ball both as a slugger and a pitcher.

Ohtani missed out on pitching his first season with the Dodgers as he recovered from an operation to repair his UCL after the 2023 season. Los Angeles found a way to build around that, though, including with some trade deadline moves to add pitching help, ultimately winning a World Series trophy in 2024.

Now, Ohtani is hoping to get back on the bump, spending this spring training getting prepared to pitch in a Dodgers uniform for the first time in 2025. Manager Dave Roberts gave an update on how he's progressing on Saturday.

Roberts told reporters that Ohtani was throwing 92 to 94 miles per hour (fastball) with a brief 14-pitch bullpen session. He also added it's possible Ohtani will be facing batters in simulated settings before the Dodgers head to Toyko for the 2025 MLB World Tour in mid-March.

Ohtani's average fastball velocity was 96.8 mph in 2023.

It's overall great news for Ohtani and the Dodgers, who will be even more of a threat once he's back as a pitcher.

Visitors post sub-par total despite punchy Bairstow-Smith opening stand

ECB Media07-Aug-2025Zak Crawley shone under the lights at Headingley to make an unbeaten 67 and lead Andrew Flintoff’s Northern Superchargers to an assured eight-wicket win over Welsh Fire.The England man hit five fours and four sixes across his enterprising 37-ball stay at the crease to see the Superchargers to a brace of home wins on their opening matchday of the Hundred, following the women’s team’s win earlier in the day.Crawley was accompanied by captain and fellow England star Harry Brook to hit the winning runs at the end, book-ending a game that started with Jonny Bairstow and Steve Smith putting on 62 for the opening wicket for Welsh Fire.The pair were booed on their way to the crease but they looked as if they’d get their own back on their crowd, before Smith was bowled by Matthew Potts and the Fire innings began to lose its heat.Fire fought their way to 143 for 9 from their 100 balls but Crawley, David Malan (41) and Brook (25*) made light work of the chase – knocking off the runs with 11 balls to spare.Brook signalled his arrival at the crease with a first-ball six over mid-off and his innings brought plenty of cheer to the Headingley crowd, who on this performance may have plenty to celebrate across the Hundred this season.Crawley said: “I loved it. The boys are great, and coming here with Freddie [Flintoff] – the guy’s a legend. It’s a great place to play your cricket and an awesome wicket to bat on, so I loved it.”It felt a really good wicket for us to bat on and the outfield was rapid so the game-plan for us was to play strong shots, and it came off. The boys kept them to a really good total with the ball, and we felt like we could chase that and it was a good performance.”I felt like me and Dawid complemented each other quite nicely, we hit in different areas, so that was good. And obviously the skipper came in and does what he does. He’s a proper player so that made it easy for me at the end.”The bowlers got us off to a great start. They’ve got a couple of top players at the top for them but we managed to take regular wickets, which is what we talked about before the game, and the boys did brilliantly to keep them to 140-odd and that was very chaseable.”

Tottenham Hotspur have only won one of their last four matches in all competitions after a last-gasp goal meant that they had to settle for a point against Manchester United on Saturday.

The Lilywhites turned the game around from 1-0 down to lead 2-1, but they were unable to get the three points over the line, as they were napping in stoppage time to allow Matthijs de Ligt to head in at the back post.

Spurs have only won one of their last four matches in the Premier League after that result, which has seen them drop out of the top four in the division.

Thomas Frank will surely be disappointed with the nature of the two goals that were conceded, because they were both unmarked headers inside the box that should have been dealt with.

The former Brentford head coach should look at his full-backs and demand more from them defensively, as Destiny Udogie was on the scene for the second goal and Pedro Porro was caught out for Bryan Mbeumo’s header.

In fact, Porro is one player who may be on borrowed time in the starting line-up under Frank, because his defending has come into question on multiple occasions.

Why Pedro Porro should be dropped

The Spanish right-back’s marking, or lack thereof, for Mbeumo’s goal was simply not good enough. He was not aware of arguably the biggest United threat in the box, and allowed him to have a free header to score past Guglielmo Vicario.

To his credit, though, the former Manchester City youngster did react to a comment from a supporter after the match and acknowledged that he was not at his best against the Red Devils.

This is not the first time that Porro’s defensive qualities have been called into question. Last year, former Ireland international Keith Treacy said: “Pedro Porro is a good footballer, obviously, he plays in the Premier League, he’s a decent footballer, but he’s not a good right-back, he can’t defend.”

The former Blackburn star added: “If I was a coach going up against Spurs I would say to isolate him, run at him all day long.”

Back in 2023, former Spurs manager Tim Sherwood said that Porro was “all over the place” because he “just wants to run forward” and play as a winger. The Tottenham defender later reacted to those comments by saying that he is not a “machine” who could integrate straight away, as he had only just joined the club from Sporting.

On top of the long-standing question marks over his defensive capabilities, the 26-year-old full-back has also been incredibly wasteful with the ball at his feet in the last two Premier League matches.

Minutes

73

67

Tackles won

0

1

Duels won

3

3

Error led to shot

2

0

Key passes

0

0

Crosses completed

0/5

1/12

Possession lost

24x

29x

Pass accuracy

58%

64%

As you can see in the table above, Porro has lost possession of the ball a staggering 53 times in the last two league games, without creating a single chance for his teammates, and creating two chances for the opposition with errors that led to shots.

This shows that the Spaniard has been dismal defensively and offensively of late for the Lilywhites, which is why Frank should ruthlessly ditch him from the starting XI after the international break for the North London derby.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

The obvious solution in the short-term would be for Udogie, who assisted Mathys Tel’s goal on Saturday, to come in at left-back and Djed Spence to move over to right-back.

However, the long-term plan that could put an end to Porro’s career in North London could be for Archie Gray to eventually nail down a place in the team as a right-back.

Why Archie Gray can end Pedro Porro's Spurs career

The England U21 international is currently sidelined with a calf injury that he sustained at the end of last month, and he is expected to be back in action around the end of this month or at the start of December.

Gray signed for the Lilywhites from Leeds United for a fee of £40m in the summer of 2024, with Joe Rodon heading back the other way, but he has failed to establish himself in one position since his move to the club.

The English youngster had to fill in at centre-back far too many times under Ange Postecoglou because of the injury crisis in that position, with the likes of Radu Dragusin, Micky van de Ven, and Cristian Romero all picking up injuries last term.

Centre-back

20

Right-back

9

Defensive midfield

8

Left-back

6

Central midfield

3

As you can see in the table above, Gray’s second-most played in position at Spurs has been right-back, which is where he played the majority of his first-team football with Leeds, despite coming up through the academy set-up in West Yorkshire as a central midfielder.

The young defender played 44 out of 46 league matches for Leeds in the Championship in the 2023/24 campaign, mainly as a right-back, and earned the Championship Young Player of the Year award.

Gray, who was hailed as “ridiculous” by Como scout Ben Mattinson, showcased his defensive quality as a right-back in that second tier season with the Whites, winning 92 tackles and 186 duels in total.

Per FotMob, he ranked within the top 7% of full-backs for tackles won and the top 14% for duels won, whilst also ranking in the top 7% for ball recoveries (196), which shows that he was one of the best defensive full-backs in the division, for a team that finished third in the league.

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These statistics suggest that he has the defensive resolve to eventually nail down a place at right-back as a reliable defender for Spurs in the future, which is why he could end Porro’s career at the club by offering Frank a steadier presence than the Spaniard, who has struggled on and off the ball.

It is now down to Gray, though, to return from injury and deliver quality performances when called upon to show that he can be better than Porro defensively week-in-week-out, which would leave Spence free to compete with Udogie at left-back.

Pedro Leon has opened up on his turbulent spell under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, insisting he has “forgiven” the Portuguese coach despite the harsh treatment he received. The former winger recalled the infamous “he’s not Zinedine Zidane or Diego Maradona” jibe and revealed how the controversy still shapes how he views his career more than a decade later.

Leon revisits fallout with Mourinho at Real Madrid

The former Madrid winger has reflected on his difficult relationship with coach Mourinho during their time together at Santiago Bernabeu, more than 14 years after their infamous fallout. Speaking on , the current Real Murcia midfielder revisited the controversy that erupted when Mourinho publicly downplayed his importance to the squad with a brutal remark comparing him unfavourably to Zidane and Maradona.

“It seems like people are talking about Zidane or Maradona,” Mourinho said at the time when asked why Leon had not been selected for a Champions League clash against Auxerre. “A couple of days ago he was playing at Getafe.” The comment instantly made headlines, turning Leon into the symbol of Mourinho’s tough-love approach and sparking widespread debate among Madrid fans.

Leon, who joined Madrid in 2010 for €10 million after an impressive spell at Getafe, saw his opportunities quickly fade. He would go on to make just 14 appearances under Mourinho before being loaned out and eventually returning to Getafe. Yet despite the disappointment, Leon insists he has no bitterness toward his former coach.

AdvertisementAFP'I’ve forgiven Mourinho' – Leon speaks out

Now 38 and playing for Real Murcia, Leon says he has made peace with the past. “I have forgiven Mourinho,” he said. “I think that otherwise my sporting career might have been different… but I don’t hold a grudge against him.”

Leon also downplayed the infamous “Zidane or Maradona” line, saying that it was not the insult itself that hurt him, but the lack of understanding behind it. “I’ll be honest with you. It didn’t hurt. That didn’t hurt. What hurt was not knowing why. And to this day I still don’t know,” he explained.

“I didn’t disrespect Mourinho or anything like that,” he said. Addressing long-standing rumours that he had failed to warm up properly during a match against Levante, an accusation that former Madrid goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek later confirmed in his autobiography, Leon insisted those claims were untrue. “You can watch that match. At no point did I make a scene, nor did I disrespect him or anything like that,” he said.

The locker room incident: What really happened at Levante?

According to Dudek’s autobiography, , the tensions between Leon and Mourinho reached boiling point during a La Liga match against Levante. The Polish goalkeeper wrote that Mourinho had been left furious after seeing Leon fail to properly warm up before being substituted on during the second half of the 0-0 draw.

“Mourinho told him to warm up but instead of doing so, he just stood around by the corner flag. I saw his reaction. He was furious,” Dudek wrote. The goalkeeper added that Mourinho confronted Leon after the match, telling him: “You lack professionalism. You think you’re pulling the wool over my eyes and your teammates’. You had two clear chances to score but you weren’t up to it. You want to play for Real Madrid? Here everybody gets their five minutes and you’ve had yours.”

The next day, Mourinho reportedly continued his tirade in training and dropped Leon from the squad to face Auxerre, instead calling up youth player Juan Carlos. “He turned around and asked, ‘How old are you?’ The boy said 19. ‘Do you want to play for Real Madrid?’ Mourinho continued, wanting to send out a message.

While Leon has always maintained his professionalism, these revelations illustrate how quickly Mourinho’s perception of the winger shifted, from a promising signing to a cautionary tale within weeks.

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Getty Images SportLeon claims Mourinho blocked Chelsea and Man City offers

In a separate interview with , Leon revealed that Mourinho not only sidelined him at Madrid but also prevented him from leaving. “I had another offer from City, Chelsea and Milan,” he said. “Some wanted to sign me in winter but Mourinho didn’t let me go.”

At the time, City and Chelsea were among several top clubs tracking Leon, whose breakout performances at Getafe had earned him a reputation as one of Spain’s brightest wide talents. His inability to secure a move, coupled with limited opportunities at Madrid, derailed his progress and led to years of stagnation before reviving his career at Eibar and Murcia.

Reflecting on that period, Leon’s tone was more nostalgic than bitter. “Is Mourinho a good coach? He’s a good motivator, especially at the beginning. He arrives and you believe in the message. You buy into it,” he said. When asked if he missed his old boss, Leon laughed: “What if we miss a coffee? No. It’s not a problem, he’s fine in Portugal and I’m in Murcia.”

Leon's time at Real Madrid may have been short-lived, but his reflections reveal the human side of an era dominated by Mourinho’s intensity. A gifted right winger with technical flair and creativity, Leon became one of several players who struggled to fit into the Portuguese coach’s demanding, results-driven environment. His words reflect both maturity and closure, a reminder of how players and coaches often move on from the storms that once defined them.

Mike Shildt does not agree with how Dave Roberts is handling himself.

On Tuesday, hours before Game 3 of the NLDS between Shildt's San Diego Padres and Roberts's Los Angeles Dodgers, the Padres manager subtly jabbed Roberts for claiming Manny Machado threw a ball at him during a contentious Game 2.

Shilt was asked if he believed Machado was trying to hit Roberts with the ball he threw towards the dugout before the seventh inning Sunday night, he was emphatic, saying, "No." He added, "Manny has an exceptional arm," implying he could have hit Roberts if he wanted to.

When asked for his thoughts on how Roberts was handling himself, Shildt said the following:

"Well, I come from maybe just a different philosophy of dealing with this … I got into this game to help players get the most out of their God-given ability and to compete on the field and respect the opponent. I'm not, nor will I ever, disparage another player on another team. Especially anybody I've managed in the past. Nor Will I do it to a collective team. That's not how I want to operate."

This was clearly a direct shot aimed at Roberts, who managed Machado for several months at the end of the 2018 season.

"I have a lot of respect for their club, the players on their club," Shildt said. "As far as Manny goes, it's unfortunate people can't move on from things from the past. I thought Manny's exhibition of professionalism and leadership were on display the other night in a very tough environment. But people have their right, clearly, to share what they want and how they want to share it."

On the surface, those were remarkably tame comments, but the subtext is clear. The Padres and Dodgers may respect each other, but they certainly don't like each other.

With the race for the last two National League wild card spots still wide open, MLB's final weekend did not disappoint, delivering plenty of memorable moments. These five in particular were especially unforgettable.

Max Fried's Gem Keeps Braves' Playoff Hopes Alive in Potential Last Start at Truist Park

If Friday's start was the last of Fried's career at Truist Park, then it was one to remember. With the Atlanta Braves needing a win to keep their playoff hopes alive, Fried, a free agent after the season, was nearly perfect. The 30-year-old lefthander scattered three hits and a pair of walks over 8 2/3 innings pitched, striking out nine Kansas City Royals batters. Fried's game not only provided a crucial victory, but it also gave Atlanta's bullpen a much-needed rest day.

Not to mention that it forced Braves fans, already riding the emotional roller coaster of a playoff chase, to face the harsh reality of Fried potentially leaving this winter. That only made the standing ovation Fried received from the crowd even more special.

"I’d be lying [if I said free agency] didn’t cross my mind," Fried told reporters after the game.

White Sox, Doomed to History by Incompetence, Help Tigers End Playoff Drought

What makes a good team successful and a bad team, well, not successful? It's easy to ponder that question at times when watching sports. But, unfortunately, the answer was not so difficult to arrive at when watching the 2024 Chicago White Sox. Sometimes, it's as simple as this: Bad teams find a way to hand their opponents chance after chance to win, and good teams happily oblige them. That's exactly what happened at Comerica Park on Friday night during the Detroit Tigers' 4–1 win over the White Sox.

The two teams traded zeroes on the scoreboard for four innings. Then, after loading the bases in the bottom of the fifth inning, White Sox reliever Jared Shuster threw a wild pitch, allowing Tigers catcher Jake Rogers to score. Detroit outfielder Matt Vierling then lifted a sacrifice fly to give the club a 2–0 lead.

Later in the bottom of the seventh inning, the White Sox couldn't get out of their own way again. Tigers infielder Andy Ibáñez, who doubled with one out in the seventh, advanced to third on a throwing error by White Sox outfielder Dominic Fletcher. After an intentional walk to Vierling, Chicago reliever Fraser Ellard delivered a cutter that caught too much of the zone to Tigers outfielder Riley Greene, who promptly lined it into center field for a run-scoring double. Then, a wild pitch from Ellard allowed Vierling to scamper home and handed the Tigers a 4–1 lead.

When White Sox designated hitter Andrew Vaughn's lazy fly ball landed in the glove of Tigers right fielder Wenceel Perez (somewhat scarily for Detroit fans given the near collision with Parker Meadows), the Tigers' magical run culminated in their first postseason berth since 2014. And the White Sox were doomed to the history books.

Travis d'Arnaud Plays Hero for Braves With Dramatic Walk-Off

Oftentimes, September and October baseball beckon for unsung heroes to emerge. On Saturday night, one day after Fried's gem, it was Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud's turn to put on the Superman cape against the Royals.

d'Arnaud, no stranger to October greatness, stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out and the game tied 1–1. d'Arnaud, with just six hits in his last 42 at bats, took the first two pitches from Royals reliever Sam Long for balls. Then, the Braves backstop got a juicy fastball right down Broadway and crushed it 421 feet to dead center, watching it fly with a Carlton Fisk-esque hop down the first base line. d'Arnaud raised his arms in the air as the ball soared over the fence for a walk-off home run. Truist Park went ballistic. Ballgame, Braves.

The moment was made even sweeter by the fact that the rival New York Mets had lost earlier Saturday, though that point would become moot on Sunday. More on that in a moment.

Francisco Lindor Keeps Mets' Playoff Hopes Alive With Huge Game

There was understandably some concern surrounding Mets star Francisco Lindor's health, as the veteran shortstop missed nearly two weeks as he dealt with lower back pain before returning to the lineup on Friday. On Sunday, Lindor seemingly erased those concerns—and kept the Mets' season alive.

Lindor, bad back and all, was quite simply inevitable during Sunday's 5–0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. In the top of the first inning, Lindor drew a walk, stole second base and then scored on a Brandon Nimmo single. 1–0 Mets. The Mets star was slow to get up after sliding into home, but he wasn't about to let a bad back stop him.

In the top of the fourth inning, Lindor, after a Francisco Alvarez RBI single, tacked on an insurance run of his own with a run-scoring single. 3–0 Mets. Lindor then swiped his second bag of the game. Finally, in the top of the sixth inning, the Mets shortstop turned on a 2-1 splitter and crushed it over the right field wall to cap off a monster day. 5–0 Mets.

Thanks to seven shutout innings from southpaw David Peterson and another two scoreless frames from the bullpen, the Mets walked away with the victory. And with the Braves' loss Sunday, New York and Atlanta, thanks to untimely weather postponements, will play a Monday doubleheader to determine their—and the Arizona Diamondbacks'—postseason fates.

"Our destiny is in our hands," Lindor said after the game. "We've got to go out there and do whatever it takes to win."

Diamondbacks Power Their Way to Three-Way Tie for NL Wild Card Spot

After losing five of their last six games—and getting blanked in a 5–0 loss on Saturday, the Diamondbacks needed something to change on Sunday to keep their season alive. And boy, did it ever.

After getting blanked for the first three innings again, one could hardly blame the Chase Field fans for feeling a bit anxious. But all that changed in the bottom of the fourth inning when the Diamondbacks put up a six spot, courtesy of a pair of RBI singles, an RBI double, a run-scoring groundout and a Ketel Marte two-run homer.

But Arizona was far from finished. The D-backs proceeded to tack on runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings to win the game over the San Diego Padres 11–2. The offensive awakening kept the Diamondbacks' playoff hopes alive, as they sit in a three-way tie with the Mets and Braves for the final two wild card spots in the National League prior to Monday's doubleheader between New York and Atlanta.

The Diamondbacks' postseason fate is, unfortunately, out of their hands at this point. As Tom Petty once aptly put it, the waiting is the hardest part.

Honorable Mentions Paul Skenes Cements Case for NL ROY With Stunning Sequence vs. Yankees Sluggers

Did Skenes win the National League Rookie of the Year award with the two perfect innings he pitched Saturday? Certainly not. But striking out New York Yankees sluggers Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, the Yankees' duo who represents the closest thing baseball has seen to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the modern era, was the perfect capper to a truly memorable season. He's no ordinary rookie.

Luis Arraez Hits His Way Into History Books

Not only did Luis Arraez, who doubled in Sunday's 11–2 loss to the Diamondbacks, collect 200 hits for the second straight season, he also secured another batting title, denying Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani the Triple Crown in the process. The Padres infielder became the first player in MLB history to win three consecutive batting titles with three different teams (Minnesota Twins, Miami Marlins and Padres). That Arraez managed to lead the league in hitting again in a year where MLB hitters posted the fifth-lowest batting average of all-time dating back to 1871 is nothing short of remarkable.

Mother Nature Denies Jose Ramirez Chance at Rare Season

The final game of the year for the Houston Astros and Cleveland Guardians carried no meaning for either postseason-bound club. But it sure did for Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez, who, with the Sunday contest's postponement, finished one home run shy of just the seventh 40-homer, 40-stolen base season in MLB history. It's a real bummer for the six-time All-Star. Perhaps he will use it as October motivation to help the Guardians end the longest World Series drought in the sport.