Sports
Leny Yoro, from Paris boy to Man Utd: 'He had the same speed as Kylian Mbappe'
There are always Sliding Doors moments in a player’s career; points when a lifetime’s path takes a critical turn, based on what feels like a coin toss.
In Leny Yoro’s case, it happened in the form of a red card.
On October 20, 2021, Baptiste Rolland’s dismissal for Lille Under-19s against their Sevilla counterparts in the UEFA Youth League transformed Yoro’s trajectory. Centre-back Rolland was dismissed in the 79th minute for pulling the shirt of Diego Rodriguez. Yoro, just 15 years old and previously a striker and then midfielder, came on to play in defence for the final few minutes, his first appearance for the French club’s under-19s side. The sending-off and Rolland’s subsequent suspension meant Yoro would start the team’s next Youth League fixture, the return at home against Sevilla.
It was the last time Olivier Szkwarok, who was in charge of Lille Under-16s at the time, would coach him.
“When Leny was an under-16, I said to the under-19 coach that he needs to play in the under-19s, but he didn’t have a place for him,” Szkwarok, now working as a youth coach at Toulouse, another French club, tells The Athletic. “But the first time he (started for the under-19s), he never returned with me. He was the best on the pitch.
“On that day, Liverpool and Monaco saw a lot of potential in him. After that, he was with the under-23s, and it was easy for him. Lille needed him to sign a professional contract and they invited him into the first team. Jocelyn Gourvennec, the first-team coach, loved his potential and said he could train with professionals full-time.
“I was a little surprised, but not surprised. Leny is a competitor and a hard worker.”
Yoro had joined Lille in 2017 from local side Villeneuve-d’Ascq. He initially grew up in Saint-Maurice, a suburb of Paris, 137 miles (222km) to the south, where he played his football in a playground opposite his home. Then he played for Alfortville, in the south-east of the French capital. His three brothers — Esteban (14), Eden (12) and Romeo (10) — all play football too; his father, Alain Yoro, had been in Lille’s academy himself as a teenager.
When Yoro was young, his parents split up and his mother, Flore Baugnies, moved the family to Bormes-les-Mimosas on France’s south coast for six months, before then going to Lille, in the north of the country near the border with Belgium, to be closer to family. That was when Yoro joined Villeneuve d’Ascq, known locally as VAM.
United’s Yoro battles with Rangers’ John Souttar last week (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“The club is located in a working-class neighbourhood,” recalls Aboubacar Sankhare, the former Lens, Toulouse and Dusseldorf defender. “At the time Leny was there, I was the club’s general manager. He stayed at the club with his brothers for two-and-a-half to three years.
“From a very young age, he had this ability to adapt quickly, and he had this maturity. He understood instructions very quickly. He already had intrinsic qualities of his own. He played with the team of his age and a higher category (age group). He had his siblings, and his mother came to see them every day at the stadium. It was a social club.”
VAM fell into financial difficulties and no longer exist. At the time, though, Sankhare was leading the club’s social and educational projects, in addition to training youth sides with a view to some of those kids reaching the first team. In addition to Yoro and his brothers, Sankhare’s sons, Yssouf and Zakary, also joined professional clubs after playing at VAM.
Yoro stood out. But not in the position you would expect.
“He was a striker with us, and could play in all positions because he could adapt extremely quickly,” recalls Sankhare. “The Lille scouts came several times and reported on him. At the time, there were the biggest clubs in the region — Lens, Lille, Valenciennes, Dunkirk, Boulogne — who came to scout. He became a defender at Lille.”
When he went to Lille for a trial, Yoro impressed immediately. That was when Szkwarok, who coached the under-13s and then the under-16s at the club, first saw him play. “I loved him from the trial,” he recalls. “He was a different player. When he was 12, he was the same as now. For a tall player, he had good technique. But he was missing the speed. He had a good personality. Like today, he was a leader who always encouraged his team-mates.”
The years Szkwarok worked with Yoro bookmarked a critical period in his development. Yoro initially played in midfield, before switching positions. “He was a defender full-time from under-15,” says Szkwarok. “He had a very good technical level and a very good in-game intelligence. He can see and play quickly, with his left or right foot, and I think, at professional level, he can play in midfield if a coach needed him to. A little bit like John Stones at Manchester City. In my opinion, Leny has a better potential than John Stones.”
But not everything was straightforward.
“All of the coaches loved him for his personality but not all of them believed in him,” says Szkwarok. “In the under-14s, it was a little bit complicated. A coach said in a meeting that Leny does not have the potential to play at the highest level. For me, it was a big error to say that about Leny. Because he was a tall player, and we needed to give him a little bit of time to grow up, and after he can show his potential.”
Yoro had a growth spurt before the age of 16. Speaking to French newspaper La Voix du Nord, mum Flore recalled how “he gained 10 centimetres (almost four inches)” during his under-16 year but “all year long, he was injured”. “He injured himself, without taking any hits during matches,” she said. Yoro had to adapt to his changing body and Lille tailored their coaching to deal with his small, repetitive muscular issues.
Yoro going up against Kylian Mbappe in Ligue 1 last year (Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)
“Leny was always the tallest but he grew and it (led to) small injuries,” says Szkwarok. “He had them often. Two days (out of action), three days, four days. We found a solution and after we changed our method of training with him, he could train all day and played all the games.
“When he was an under-16, at the beginning of the season, we went to a small tournament. He hadn’t played during the season so in his first game, to protect him, I put Leny in midfield. Against (Belgium’s Club) Bruges and PSV (Eindhoven, from the Netherlands), he played very well. In defence you have to make more runs in behind, longer runs, and in midfield they are shorter.
“In order to adapt to his new body, he worked a lot. That’s why he’s always a good player technically and this part of his character is a very good example for his career in football.”
Yoro became one of the quickest and strongest in the group. But those years without exceptional pace had honed his ability to read the game too. It is a key trait, normally confined to experienced players, and it is something scouts picked up on when assessing him.
GO DEEPER
Leny Yoro to Manchester United: The Athletic 500 transfer ratings
“When he played against (France captain and now Real Madrid forward) Kylian Mbappe, he had the same speed as him,” says Szkwarok. “But when he was younger, Leny did not have a lot of speed and he developed the ability to read the game, both defensively and offensively. It is his best quality. A very intelligent player.
“He had the mentality of a defender. He loved defending, he loved intercepting the ball, winning the ball with his head. It is a little bit rare to have both qualities, to have technique and the mentality of a defender.”
Then came those under-19s matches against Sevilla in late 2021, under coach Stephane Pichot, and Yoro’s progress went up several gears. “It all started from there, because he played two more Youth League matches afterwards,” his mother said. “That’s where his No 15 comes from (which Yoro will now also wear at Manchester United). Because it all started when he was 15 years old.”
In October 2021, Yoro played with Lille Under-19s for the first time. By the following May, then aged 16, he had made his debut for their first team — coming off the bench away at Nice. In the process, he became the club’s youngest player since Joel Henry in 1978, surpassing Eden Hazard. He was invited to stay with the first team under new manager Paulo Fonseca in summer 2022 and, after just two days of pre-season training, the Portuguese coach had made up his mind.
Yoro holding back Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins in the Europa Conference League last season (Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images)
“In all my years as a coach, I’ve never seen such a young player with so much maturity,” Fonseca told The Athletic last year. “He has so much class. So much elegance. He’s a beautiful player.” In the September, he became Lille’s youngest starter since Oumar Dieng in 1989.
“When we started to work with Leny, we saw a lot of potential,” Tiago Leal, Fonseca’s assistant, tells The Athletic. “We didn’t care about his age. We care about his skills. Technically, tactically, mentally, personality, character… he had many things that for his age were not normal.”
Taking the step into the professional game is never plain sailing, though. His full debut against Toulouse, a 2-1 Lille win, was a case in point. He won four of five aerial duels but also made an error that led to the Toulouse goal — a loose pass. He needed time, and the right environment, to adjust.
Under Fonseca, he would get that. Now in charge at AC Milan, Fonseca is no stranger to bringing through young talent, doing so with Diogo Jota (now of Liverpool and Portugal) at Pacos de Ferreira and then Mykhailo Mudryk (Chelsea and Ukraine) at Shakhtar Donetsk.
“In the first season, he made many mistakes that cost us many games, but for us, it was not a problem at all,” says Leal. “We knew it was part of the process with younger players. He was brave, because he never stopped trying to do what we demanded of him. We made a bet on him and as a team we were ready to pay the costs of this bet.”
Yoro’s first season of senior football was a learning curve. He made eight league starts and 15 appearances for Lille’s first team. How he responded to those inevitable rookie errors set him apart. “He’s really mature, his composure is not normal at his age,” says Leal. “That’s what impressed us. It wasn’t just because of his physical or technical qualities. It was the package. He was different from most of the others at his age.
“When he made mistakes, what I felt is that he was always stable, and that says a lot about his personality. He was always focused on his work, always trying to improve every day, not dependent on winning, losing, making a goal or not. He was always stable. That’s why he has this level of attention with Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, clubs like that spotting him. Because it is special at his age.”
𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒏 & 𝒏𝒐𝒘 😍
Leny Yoro et nos diplômés 2023 ont reçu leur BAC lundi au Domaine de Luchin 🎓@leny_yoro ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ZjaMixgnX4
— LOSC (@losclive) April 24, 2024
Under Fonseca, Lille played an expansive brand of football, the coach demanding that his team press high up the field, take risks in possession and sometimes leave their defenders exposed with half a pitch of space in-behind. “Leny showed from the very beginning that he wanted to learn, to improve, and this is an important aspect of his character,” says Leal. “He is humble. When you have the skills technically, and when you are physically blessed — he’s really tall, fast, explosive — you need the desire to be better and courage to play the game we demand. He showed that from the beginning.”
His second season, 2023-24, bore fruit. Yoro started 30 league matches and featured in 44 games in all competitions. He succeeded the experienced Jose Fonte in Lille’s starting lineup, who had been a “role model” for him within the group according to Leal, along with the new captain Benjamin Andre. “He needed the mix of many things to help the flower grow,” says Leal. “We didn’t create the flower, we just gave it water, nutrients — the others and us are the gardeners.
“In the second season, he became the player we expected. He became more confident in himself, started to build this ego that you need, because he was ready to take his place in the team. He became almost complete. And we are speaking about a kid. I don’t have any doubts, about Leny. He’s getting what he deserves.”
His form earned him a place in the Ligue 1 team of the season, and elevated his status to one of the most exciting centre-backs in Europe. It was enough to persuade Manchester United to spend £52million ($65m; €62m), potentially rising to £59m, and fight off serious competition, making Yoro the most expensive player ever aged 18 or younger. (Mbappe was signed initially on a season’s loan by PSG before his €180m transfer from Monaco at age 19.)
Throughout his career, Yoro has quickly adapted to every challenge. United, English football and the Premier League will be a different order of magnitude but Leal feels he can thrive again.
“We cannot forget he is a young kid,” he says. “He is not going to solve every problem at Manchester United. Not alone. But if he gets a proper environment around him and the space and confidence to participate, I’m pretty sure he is going to be a main player for them.”
GO DEEPER
How Manchester United beat Real Madrid to the signing of Leny Yoro
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
Sports
Florida AG launches civil rights investigation into MLB’s warning to Christian pitchers over Pride Night caps
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The attorneys general from Missouri and Florida have reacted strongly to the controversy stirred when Major League Baseball warned three San Francisco Giants players about inscribing a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps, and that reaction includes MLB being served with a subpoena that signals the launch of an official investigation.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier launched his investigation on Friday by serving MLB with a subpoena to investigate whether it is violating the civil rights of players based on their religious beliefs.
The general purpose and scope of Florida’s investigation “extend(s) to possible civil rights and deceptive and unfair trade practices violations in matters of employment concerning the business practices, policies, and procedures of Major League Baseball,” per the subpoena obtained by Fox News Digital.
In a letter from Uthmeier to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred, the AG warns that “a pattern or practice of selectively enforcing its rules to benefit favored secular beliefs over disfavored religious beliefs would not only potentially violate Florida civil rights law, but it would also violate the League’s own policies.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FACES BACKLASH FOR ITS STANCE ON CHRISTIANS WRITING BIBLE VERSES ON PRIDE CAPS
“And a practice of claiming not to discriminate based on religion while discriminating based on religion could further amount to an unfair or deceptive trade practice in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks at a news conference in Orlando on July 15, 2025, where he said U.S. Masters Swimming should not allow transgender athletes to compete against women swimmers or face legal action. Advocates Cassidy Carlisle and Lainey Armistead also attended. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service)
Uthmeier is particularly troubled by the fact MLB said its warning had nothing to do with the players’ religious beliefs but rather was strictly because of a violation of the league’s uniform code.
It should be noted MLB said in a follow-up statement to its initial warning to the players that it was merely enforcing its uniform codes and the warning had nothing to do with Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker writing a Bible verse on the team’s Pride Night Cap most of the other players wore.
MLB ACCUSED OF ‘DOUBLE STANDARD’ AFTER CALLING OUT PLAYERS’ BIBLE MESSAGES DESPITE BACKING BLM IN 2020
Uthmeier noted that doesn’t ring true and presented in his letter a handful of examples where MLB has been absolutely fine with players adding to their uniform.
“In 2019, for example, a Cincinnati Reds player wrote on his cap in tribute to a nearby mass shooting,” Uthmeier wrote to Manfred. “And in 2020, MLB evidently added new, sweeping exceptions to its uniform rules by allowing players to ‘support social justice and diversity and inclusion.’ These policy changes included permitting players to add Black Lives Matter patches to their sleeves.
“MLB therefore appears to applaud — even change its rules for — the ideological beliefs it prefers, but targets players who express religious views the League doesn’t like.”
Commissioner of Major League Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. speaks at the 2024 MLB Draft presented by Nike at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 14, 2024. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The Florida subpoena, issued under the Florida Civil Rights Act, demands action from MLB on July 23, 2026, at 9 a.m.. At that time, MLB must deliver to the AG’s office documents including:
- All documents concerning how MLB characterized or classified the June 2026 cap writing, including, for example, whether MLB treated it as religious expression, political messaging, protest, or a violation unrelated to its content.
- All documents concerning what prompted MLB’s review of and warning regarding the June 2026 cap writing, including any complaint, media inquiry, internal escalation, or third-party communication received before the warning issued, and the timing of each relative to the warning.
- All documents concerning the actual June 2026 warnings issued by the MLB to any club.
- All documents, including drafts and internal deliberations, concerning MLB’s decision to issue and publicly announce the June 2026 warnings, and any analysis of whether doing so adhered to the Code or with MLB’s treatment of comparable non-religious expression.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Landen Roupp wrote “Genesis 9:12-16” on his Pride-Night themed hat. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Uthmeier is thus joining Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who recently wrote a letter to Manfred asking the commissioner to confirm that no player who has chosen to refrain from “wearing Pride Month paraphernalia or included Bible verses on Pride Month hats” will not be disciplined in any way.
Hanaway’s letter states that if Manfred fails to answer by June 25 or does not confirm that no discipline will be levied, she too will open an investigation of MLB.
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The two attorneys general have authority over their individual states. But it affects four MLB teams.
Florida is home to two MLB teams — the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins — while Missouri is home to the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals.
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Sports
Commentary: Why MLB’s Pride Night cap condemnation isn’t the anti-Christian crackdown conservatives claim
Amid the first days of grief after Alex Vesia and his wife lost their newborn daughter last fall, Vesia noticed something as he watched the World Series on television. He paused the broadcast, then checked the video, then texted another player to make sure.
51.
Dodgers teammates wore his number on their caps. So did players from the Toronto Blue Jays.
“It was awesome,” Vesia said. “It was a very heartwarming moment.”
Moving.
Touching.
And, under baseball’s rules, illegal.
Who knew, really, until this week? Three pitchers from the San Francisco Giants wrote the name of a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps and, amid an uproar, Major League Baseball said it had warned the players that “writing of any kind, with any message” on any playing apparel is not permitted. The issue, the league said in a statement, was not what they wrote on their caps but simply that they wrote on them at all.
Said MLB in the statement: “We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad’, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom’ and names of family members.”
To its credit, the league did not enforce the rule when Vesia’s number started appearing on caps in the World Series. But, if you’re going to draw a line on enforcement, where should you draw it?
In San Francisco, the actions of the Giants’ pitchers were widely condemned.
“They were in for a rude awakening with the response, and it wasn’t just from the gay community,” Giants broadcaster and former pitcher Mike Krukow told KNBR, the team’s flagship radio station. “It was from the Northern California community that supports the gay community.”
In response to media inquiries, and as first reported by Outsports, MLB confirmed it had warned the three players. I asked the league whether warnings had been issued in two other instances in which players had written on their caps, including Clayton Kershaw last year writing the same Bible verse on his Pride Night cap that the Giants’ pitchers wrote this year. MLB declined to comment.
“I got chastised by the league when I put Charlie [Kirk]’s name on my hat last year, because a man was murdered in cold blood,” Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen told me, “and now these gentlemen who are relievers in San Francisco are getting chastised by the league for putting a Bible verse on their hat. It’s crazy to me.”
Treinen said league officials had told him the rule is strictly enforced.
“I straight up asked Clayton last year, ‘Did they call you when you put that on your hat?’” Treinen said. “He said, ‘No.’”
The Pride caps feature team logos decorated in the colors of the rainbow, a symbol long associated with the gay community. In the Bible verse cited by the pitchers (Genesis 9:12-16), the rainbow represents “the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures.”
That the league would warn players against writing a Bible verse on their caps ignited a wave of conservative outrage, from Vice President JD Vance to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley fired off a letter to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, alleging apparent discrimination “against baseball players who profess their Christian faith” and threatening the league’s antitrust exemption. Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon said on national television that players might be able to file a claim for employment discrimination.
That is complete nonsense. This is what you want: When employees raise an issue to their employer, the employer listens and addresses their concerns.
In 2023, the year after five Tampa Bay Rays players declined to wear rainbow logos for Pride Night, Manfred said the league would no longer compel players to do so.
“We have told teams, in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players: not putting them in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views,” Manfred said then.
Teammates congratulate Freddie Freeman after his walk-off home run gave the Dodgers a 1-0 win on June 5, when the Dodgers held their annual Pride Night. Blake Treinen, the winning pitcher that night, elected to wear his regular Dodgers cap instead of the Pride version.
(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
Manfred said the Pride Night celebrations could go on, however a team wished to stage them — or not, in the case of the Texas Rangers, the only one of the 30 MLB teams that declines to hold a Pride Night. And the league still sells Pride gear on its website for all teams, including the Rangers.
In the cases of the Giants and Dodgers, MLB grandfathered each team’s long-running use of a rainbow logo on the cap, with this accommodation to players: If you don’t feel comfortable wearing the Pride cap, just wear your regular cap.
That is what Treinen and outfielder Alex Call did when the Dodgers celebrated Pride Night. That is also what a fourth Giants pitcher did.
“My job is to abide by the rules,” Treinen said. “Ultimately, the only rule we have is to wear our team-issued uniform. So that’s what I chose to do.”
To Treinen, the decision over whether to wear a Pride cap is not about passing judgment on anyone else but about what he sees as the push “to force something on people that you know that is controversial to their faith — and, in fact, straight up against their faith.”
He expressed his support for the Giants pitchers.
“Kudos to those men over there who are standing strong in their faith,” he said. “It’s a sad thing to corner someone and try to make them feel bad about their convictions.”
I respect Treinen for explaining his viewpoint. To me, wearing a Pride cap for one night does not diminish your faith at all. It might sharpen your convictions. More important, it signals a welcome to everyone in the community that buys the tickets and broadcast subscriptions that help pay your salary.
“I think a few people made it about themselves and not about the community,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told the Bay Area Reporter.
We always proclaim the life lessons of sports. One of them: Sometimes you have to put the team’s interests ahead of your own.
Sports
2026 World Cup Odds: How Far Can Mexico Go After Winning Group A?
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After its massive 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday night, Mexico has won Group A and officially clinched a spot in the knockout round.
El Tri will play its Round of 32 game in Mexico City, and will face the third-place finisher in either Group C/E/F/H/I.
This is the fourth time that Mexico has topped the group stage of a World Cup, with the other three coming in 1986, 1994 and 2002.
With the win, Mexico remains unbeaten in World Cup group games at home, going a combined 6-2-0 (W-D-L), with two wins and a draw in 1970 and 1986, and now two wins in 2026.
Before the tournament began, Mexico was listed at +6500 to win the World Cup. Now, after winning its first two games of the tournament, Mexico has surged up the oddsboard to +5000.
Can Mexico build off its first two matches and make a deep run in this tournament? Let’s check out the updated odds for El Tri as of June 19.
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Team Mexico — Stage of Elimination
Last 32: +125 (bet $10 to win $22.50 total)
Last 16: +135 (bet $10 to win $23.50 total)
Quarterfinals: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total)
Semifinals: +1600 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Runner-up: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Outright winner: +5000 (bet $10 to win $510 total)
Mexico is currently +5000 to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup after winning Group A (Getty Images).
Mexico’s Past World Cup Results:
1930: Group stage
1934: Did not qualify
1938: Withdrew
1950: Group stage
1954: Group stage
1958: Group stage
1962: Group stage
1966: Group stage
1970: Quarterfinals
1974: Did not qualify
1978: Group stage
1982: Did not qualify
1986: Quarterfinals
1990: Banned
1994: Round of 16
1998: Round of 16
2002: Round of 16
2006: Round of 16
2010: Round of 16
2014: Round of 16
2018: Round of 16
2022: Group stage
2026: TBD
What to know: Mexico has made a habit of being in the running, but never really being in the running. Make sense? Consider this: El Tri made it out of the group stage in seven consecutive World Cups (1994-2018), but never made it past the Round of 16 in any of those years. In 2022, Mexico failed to make it out of the group stage, and it will look to get back to its winning ways in 2026 after a great start to the tournament. With its win Thursday night, Mexico has now advanced to the knockout stage in eight of the last nine World Cups. It is important to note, however, that Mexico has never made it past the quarterfinals at a FIFA men’s World Cup.
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