A whirlwind day last Friday saw Manchester United reach an agreement with Juventus to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to the club.

The deal was confirmed just hours after it had looked likely the Portugal star would be heading to Premier League champions Manchester City instead.

According to reports, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer encouraged the club to enter the race when it began to seem inevitable Ronaldo would head to the Etihad Stadium. Contact from Bruno Fernandes, Rio Ferdinand and even Alex Ferguson helped persuade Ronaldo that a return to Manchester could mean only one thing.

It all made for a short-lived but extraordinary transfer saga that ended with United re-signing a player who made history with the club between 2003 and 2009, winning three Premie…

The Premier League is approaching a landmark age: on August 15, the competition will be 30 years old, with that date ultimately ushering in a golden era for English football.

Although we may be 10 days away from that particular milestone, Friday sees the latest edition of the Premier League kick off with Crystal Palace and Arsenal contesting the opening game of the 2022-23 campaign at Selhurst Park.

As such, it only seems right to jump the gun a little and look back on the first 30 years of what many believe has become the greatest league in world football.

So, buckle up as Stats Perform takes you on a trip down memory lane…

Managing expectations

This is classic pub quiz territory: which manager has presided over the most Premier League games?<…

Champions League football resumes on Tuesday, with Robert Lewandowski s return to Bayern Munich with Barcelona being an obvious highlight.

Barcelona travel to Bavaria in a match few would be disappointed to see replicated in next year s final, with Atletico Madrid also travelling to Germany to take on Bayer Leverkusen.

After Premier League football was suspended at the weekend as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen, Liverpool are back in action against Ajax and are seeking to respond to a defeat to Napoli last week, while Tottenham travel to face Sporting CP.

Elsewhere, Inter face Viktoria Plzen after both sides lost their opening fixture and Eintracht Frankfurt, following defeat to Sporting, travel to Marseille – and the only remaining match of …

Patrick van Aanholt has signed a new contract with Sunderland that will keep him at the club until June 2020.

The Netherlands international s previous deal was due to expire at the end of the 2017-18 campaign, but he has now agreed to a two-year extension.

Van Aanholt joined Sunderland from Chelsea in 2014 and has since developed into a key figure at the Stadium of Light, scoring five goals in 69 appearances in all competitions.

The 25-year-old played a key role in Sunderland s Premier League survival in 2015-16 and manager Sam Allardyce has voiced his delight with the left-back s decision to stay put.

Patrick was an outstanding performer last season, contributing not only solid defensive performances, but also assists and vital goals, Allardyce commente…

Diego Simeone has boosted LaLiga champions Atletico Madrid by extending his contract with the club until 2024.

The Argentine coach is approaching 10 years in charge at Atletico, having been appointed in December 2011, and in that time he has established the Rojiblanco as serious rivals to the big two in Spain and as a European force.

He has led Atletico to league titles in 2014 and this year, as well as winning a Copa del Rey and the Europa League twice.

Simeone also helped Atletico reach the Champions League final in 2014 and 2016, losing on both occasions to Real Madrid.

The 51-year-old was contracted until 2022 and it emerged earlier this year that Atletico were making moves towards prolonging his stay.

Confirmation of his new deal came on Thur…

Walid Regragui compared Morocco to Rocky Balboa after his side overcame Portugal to make World Cup history.

Morocco became the first African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals with a 1-0 victory at Al Thumama Stadium on Saturday.

Youssef En-Nesyri s header put them ahead in the 42nd minute and the Atlas Lions holding firm amid late pressure.

Morocco have conceded only once – an own-goal – in their five matches in Qatar, despite having played Belgium, Spain, Portugal and fellow semi-finalists Croatia.

Regragui believes his team sent a message to the world , which is now fully behind Morocco s story – one the coach likened to Hollywood s underdog boxer.

We are becoming the team everyone loves at this World Cup because we are showing if y…

Market: Central Coast Mariners win

Odds: 6/5 @

With this season’s A-League play-off title up for grabs on Saturday morning, Central Coast will welcome Melbourne Victory to the Industree Group Stadium.

Starting with the hosts, crowned AFC Cup champions earlier in the month as they secured a 1-0 victory against Lebanese outfit Al-Ahed, Central Coast have enjoyed a famous fairytale this season. Continuing to receive a string of plaudits and with the mood in their camp at a red-hot high, Mark Jackson’s men are riding a major wave of momentum. Booking their spot in Saturday’s showpiece event as they edged past Sydney thanks to a 2-1 aggregate victory, the former MK Dons boss has not seen his squad suffer a single defeat from any of their previous 10 appearances…

Bayer Leverkusen managing director Simon Rolfes is confident defender Jonathan Tah will remain at the club amid speculation linking him with Bayern Munich.

Tah played a key role as Bayer won an unbeaten Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double in 2023-24, making 48 appearances in all competitions and contributing to 18 clean sheets.

The centre-back also scored six goals and recorded the highest pass completion rate (96.47%) of any Bundesliga player in his 31 league outings.

However, Tah has now entered the final 12 months of his contract at the BayArena, and with no agreement reached on fresh terms, he has been linked with Bayern.

There have also been suggestions Bayern could wait until the second half of 2024-25 before attempting to agree a free transfer for Tah,…

Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham is defying expectations and can bring joy and visibility to LaLiga, according to former Spain midfielder Marcos Senna.

The England midfielder has enjoyed a blistering start to life in Madrid since joining from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth an initial €103million, which could rise to €133.9m.

Bellingham is the top scorer in LaLiga with five goals, while his stoppage-time winner against Getafe last time out made him only the third Madrid player – after Pepillo and Cristiano Ronaldo – to net on each of his first four competitive appearances for the club.

The 20-year-old s exploits have caught the eye of ex-Villarreal captain Senna, who was part of the Spain squad that won the 2008 European Championships.

Speaking …

Former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein was on Thursday appointed international president of England s bid to stage the 2018 World Cup.

Bid chairman Lord David Triesman, also the chairman of England s governing Football Association (FA), has come under fire for not devoting enough time solely to bringing the World Cup to England in either 2018 or 2022.

And an FA statement said on Thursday: Dein will share with the chairman, David Triesman, a key role in the international promotion of England s campaign to host the FIFA World Cup. His appointment begins immediately.

Triesman added: David (Dein) has a huge amount of experience in world football and an excellent network of contacts. We are very pleased that he will be joining the team in such an important role for…