Tottenham are poised to sign Xavi Simons, with the RB Leipzig star completing a medical ahead of a €60 million (£52m/$70m) move.
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Lamine Yamal is set for a massive pay rise at Barcelona, with the teenage wonderkid agreeing terms on a lucrative new contract.
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Ethan Nwaneri is reportedly set to be handed a new shirt number after his breakout season for the Gunners.
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There are plenty of big names who could walk away from their clubs for absolutely nothing at the end of June – but who would be the best signing?
The end of the season is upon us, and while business on the pitch has been wrapped up, the serious stuff is only just beginning behind the scenes. And for those who are out of contract this summer, that will take on a particular urgency now as they enter the final month of their respective deals.
A host of big-name stars are potentially into their last 30 days with their current employers, cranking up both the intensity of negotiations over potential renewals and interest from clubs sniffing around for a free transfer.
Such is the stature of a lot of these names – both in their prime and coming towards the twilight of their respective careers – that some of 2025's most significant moves may cost absolutely nothing, with Kylian Mbappe's 2024 blockbuster free transfer to Real Madrid setting a precedent.
Below, GOAL ranks the best 2025 potential free agents who can negotiate a transfer…
Maddinson made his second successive century while Will Pucovski and Peter Handscomb posted unbeaten half-centuries to put Victoria in command
AAP17-Feb-2024Resurgent Victoria batter Nic Maddinson has scored a century for a second-straight Sheffield Shield match to continue his impressive return from a serious knee injury.The former Test player hit a superb 108 from 136 balls to put Victoria into a commanding position at stumps on day two against New South Wales at the SCG on Saturday.Victoria are 277 for 2, holding a first-innings lead of 25, with Will Pucovski and Peter Handscomb making unbeaten half-centuries to put the visitors on top at stumps.Maddinson’s 17th first-class century comes two weeks after he hit a dominant 104 against South Australia in his first Shield innings since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a BBL game on New Year’s Day 2023. It was also his ninth for Victoria and his third against his former state. He averages 52.09 in his last 37 Shield innings since moving states in 2018.Despite struggling for form during his return to cricket in the BBL for the Melbourne Renegades, Maddinson has quickly returned to his best in the longer form of the game.Maddinson put on a 114-run opening stand with Marcus Harris in reply to NSW’s 252. Harris made 32 from 117 but fell to a wild shot off Nathan Lyon. The Test spinner claimed both Victorian wickets in his last Shield appearance before embarking on Australia’s tour of New Zealand.But it has been tough going in the field for the Blues, rotating through seven bowlers as they search for breakthroughs.Pucovski will be vying to score his seventh first-class century when play resumes on Sunday with he and Handscomb sharing an unbeaten century stand after Maddinson’s dismissal.The talented 26-year-old missed Victoria’s last-start Shield win against South Australia due to suffering delayed symptoms of concussion. But Pucovski, regarded as one of Australia’s brightest batting prospects, recently spoke about feeling more on top of his mental health battles and concussion issues than ever before.Pucovski’s last first-class century came back in November 2020, two months before he made his one and only Test appearance.
Jonas Hofmann has revealed his frustration with Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen, admitting he would have left had the coach not left for Real Madrid.
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At the 2024 T20 World Cup, 10-overs-a-side needed to constitute a completed knockout game instead of the usual five
ESPNcricinfo staff15-Mar-2024The stop clock to help speed up over rates will become a permanent feature in men’s ODIs and T20Is between Full Members from June 1, the ICC announced after its board meetings in Dubai this week.According to the rule, which has been trialled in international cricket since December last year, the fielding side must be ready to start an over within a minute of the previous one ending. If they fail to do so, they will be allowed two warnings by the umpires, after which a five-run penalty will be imposed for the third offence and every subsequent one.”The results of the stop-clock trial were presented to the Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC), which demonstrated that around 20 minutes per ODI match had been saved in time,” an ICC said in a statement laying out the reasons for making the rule permanent. During the trial period, no team was found to have exceeded the one-minute limit between overs three times in an innings, and so the five-run penalty has not yet been imposed for this offence.In addition to the stop clock, there are two other penalties that can be imposed to police over-rates in limited-overs cricket – a fielding penalty and monetary fines.The fielding penalty is laid out as follows: if the fielding side fails to begin the final over of the innings by the stipulated cut-off time, after accounting for delays, they will have to bring an extra fielder into the 30-yard circle for however many overs are remaining in the innings. So they will be allowed only four fielders outside the circle, instead of five, for the duration of the penalty. This rule, introduced in early 2022, applies to both men’s and women’s limited-overs games.The monetary fine includes a 5% cut in the team’s match fee for every over they are short of the minimum required over rate, after the umpires have taken into account allowances for unavoidable delays. The fine for the captain is double that of his team-mates, and the fines are capped at 50% of the match fee.
The 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies in June will have reserve days in place for the semi-finals and final, in case of delays and interruptions. And each of those knockout games will require a minimum of 10 overs per innings to constitute a completed game. For the group stages, the minimum requirement remains five-overs-per-side to constitute a match, as is the norm for T20 cricket.
The 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup, like the upcoming edition, will comprise 20 teams, with 12 automatic qualifiers: the two hosts India and Sri Lanka as well as the other teams that make the Super Eights at the 2024 T20 World Cup. Then, two to four teams (it will be fewer than four if India or Sri Lanka finish outside the top eight in 2024) are decided by who are the next highest-ranked teams in the ICC’s T20I rankings on June 30, 2024. The remaining eight spots for 2026 will be decided through the usual regional qualifiers pathway.
As many as four players who have never played Test cricket were named in the Indian squad for the Mumbai Test
Analysis by Amit Varma27-Jul-2005
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As many as four players who have never played Test cricket were named in the Indian squad for the Mumbai Test, but you couldn’t accuse the selectors of a kneejerk reaction. The Indian team is tattered in spirit and mind, and changes were needed. They are good not just for the team, but also for the players who were dropped. Parthiv Patel, Aakash Chopra and Yuvraj Singh all need a break to sort out their game. Ajit Agarkar bowled well only in patches, and he surely must agree that he hadn’t done enough.The four new players were all from different zones, which may raise familiar questions about how the selectors conduct their business. Be that as it may, it is hard to complain about any of the new selections. They have all excelled in domestic cricket for some time now, and have performed at the India A level as well. They deserve these opportunities, and one hopes that they get a decent run in the side to prove what they are capable of.Dinesh Karthik had an excellent domestic season last year, scoring hundreds in both the semi-final and the final of the Ranji Trophy, and performed well for India under-19 and India A as well. The selectors, of course, would have looked at his wicketkeeping, rather than his batting, as the core reason for choosing him. We shall soon find out for ourselves how he keeps to the Indian spinners, but he certainly has more experience of Indian pitches than Patel, who has yet to play a Ranji Trophy match, did.Dheeraj Jadhav, who plays for Maharashtra, used to be a doughty middle-order batsman a couple of years ago, who then transformed himself into an opening batsman who stroked the ball around fluently. He made a century recently in the practice game before this series between India and India A at Bangalore, timing the ball so exquisitely that Sandeep Patil, the India A coach who has seen him in action often, said that he should be the next Indian Test opener.Jadhav will contend for that place with Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir, who turned 23 when the Chennai Test began, has been prolific in domestic cricket, and his first-class average is an impressive 55.85. A couple of years ago he made successive first-class double-centuries, one of them against the touring Zimbabweans. (The previous three Indians to make 200-plus in a tour game at home were, ahem, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sachin Tendulkar.) His footwork has been considered suspect, but the sheer volume of runs he has scored should not be disregarded until he gets a chance at the highest level.Shib Shankar Paul took 50 wickets in eight matches in the last domestic season, and was lethal in an India A match against Zimbabwe A recently, where he took 12 wickets. He may not get to play in the final XI, with Ashish Nehra likely to accompany Zaheer Khan, but India need to develop their second-string, and Paul should be groomed.Sridharan Sriram, who has been in stirring form of late, was unlucky to miss out. He is a middle-order batsman, and the Indians are not planning any changes in that area. In fact, if Sourav Ganguly is declared fit, the team management will face the knotty question of who he will replace. Mohammad Kaif, after a combative 50 in each of the last two Tests, deserves to retain his place, and it will be hard to drop a player of VVS Laxman’s class, despite his poor form of late. Will both Jadhav and Gambhir stay on the bench as a makeshift opener is tried out? It is a tricky problem.The selectors cannot be faulted in the choices they have made. But one worries about the men who have been dropped now. There is no disputing the talent of Patel and Yuvraj, and they must be nurtured so that their technical flaws are ironed out and their confidence returns. That is how one builds bench strength. Australia have a system in place which does just that, but does India?When Patel goes back to Gujarat to play the Ranji Trophy, the level of coaching and physical training he will receive will nosedive. Who will help him put his wicketkeeping technique together again? And if it does come together, who will notice? As Deep Dasgupta pointed out recently, wicketkeepers in Indian domestic cricket are noticed only for the runs they make, and Patel’s will count for nothing, because his batting ability was not in question anyway.Consider that all of the wicketkeepers tried and discarded in the last few years have never come back, but disappeared in the deep black hole of domestic cricket. Rumours have been floating around that Dasgupta’s wicketkeeping has improved dramatically, that Ajay Ratra has been working hard, but these are forgotten men. Patel must not be forgotten. Our cricket academy must have a program in place where players like these receive guidance, and where their improvement is monitored. Karthik may turn out to be the wicketkeeper that India has been looking for, but his back-ups should be confident men capable of withstanding the rigours of international cricket.Consider, as an example, how many of this Australian side were comeback men. Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Michael Kasprowicz and even Shane Warne were discarded from the Australian side at some time or the other. And then, via the infrastructure available to them at the first-class and academy levels, were nurtured back into the top level. It made them stronger characters, and it made Australia a great side. There is a lesson there for India.
Cricinfo looks at the stats highlights from the third day’s play of the Brisbane Test
S Rajesh25-Nov-2006
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14.29 – Australia’s percentage of enforcing the follow-on when they’ve had an opportunity to do so since 2004. On the last seven such occasions, they’ve only enforced it only once, against New Zealand at Wellington, after inclement weather had ensured that only two innings had been completed going into the final day. Earlier, Adam Gilchrist had twice turned down the opportunity to make India follow on in the 2004-05 series, while Ricky Ponting followed that example against New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies over the next couple of seasons.17.29 – Stuart Clark’s bowling average in Tests. This is his fifth Test, and he has already taken 24 wickets. (Click here for the summary of his previous four matches.)18.24 – Glenn McGrath’s bowling average against England in their first innings. Of his ten five-fors against them, eight have come in the first innings.18.33 – Kevin Pietersen’s average against McGrath in Tests. In 100 deliveries, Pietersen has scored 55 runs off McGrath and been dismissed by him three times47 – The highest partnership in England’s innings (between Ian Bell and Geraint Jones, for the sixth wicket). In the Australian innings, there were six stands of 50 or more445 – Australia’s first-innings lead at the Gabba. It’s the fourth-highest in all Ashes Tests, behind England’s 702 at The Oval in 1938, and Australia’s 504 (Brisbane, 1946) and 453 (Headingley, 1993).
The ICC World Twenty20 is approaching its business end with the race for the semi-final berths heating up
Cricinfo staff18-Sep-2007
After India’s thumping win over England at Kingsmead, they picked up their first points of the Super Eights, but the size of their victory has given them a massive boost in the qualification stakes.New Zealand are done and dusted, while South Africa play India at Kingsmead on Thursday.
England were eliminated before their latest defeat. Barring a catastrophic loss, South Africa are already through, but even if they lose narrowly to India, it may not be enough to give the Kiwis a lifeline. Only an Indian defeat will guarantee New Zealand’s survival.
| Team | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | Pts | Net RR | For | Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | +0.766 | 312/39.1 | 288/40.0 |
| New Zealand | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | +0.050 | 507/60.0 | 497/59.1 |
| India | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | +0.200 | 398/40.0 | 390/40.0 |
| England | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.700 | 494/60.0 | 536/60.0 |
The permutations for this group are far more straightforward. Bangladesh have been knocked out of the competition after losing to Sri Lanka while Pakistan have cemented a semi-final berth by winning against Sri Lanka and Australia with a game in hand against Bangladesh. Australia and Sri Lanka are level on two points each and their match on Thursday will be a virtual quarter-final.
| Team | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | Pts | Net RR | For | Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | +1.038 | 354/39.1 | 320/40.0 |
| Australia | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | +1.159 | 288/33.5 | 288/39.1 |
| Sri Lanka | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | +0.775 | 303/40.0 | 272/40.0 |
| Bangladesh | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2.860 | 206/40.0 | 271/33.5 |