Culture
Shock, fear, euphoria and heartbreak: The story of England's Euro 2024
It was past midnight in Berlin and, in the bowels of the Olympiastadion, one England player after another emerged from the dressing room in stony-faced silence. Some heads were bowed, some hoods were pulled up. There goes Harry Kane. There goes Jude Bellingham. There goes Phil Foden. There goes Declan Rice.
It was a night of long walks for England’s players. First, the miserable trudge to the podium, where the European Championship trophy was adorned in red and yellow ribbons — look if you want, but walk on by. Then down staircases to the dressing room, where tears were shed. Now this: a circuitous route to the exit, where a bus was waiting to whisk them off into the night, their dreams of glory dashed once again in a 2-1 defeat by Spain.
Few of them were willing to chat. One who did was John Stones, who described his emotions as “mental torture”. “You think, ‘Could I have done this? Could I have done that? What if this happened?’,” the Manchester City defender said, reflecting on Mikel Oyarzabal’s late winner. “You can play so many scenarios around in your head.”
But defeat had been coming. There had been moments of euphoria as England stumbled through the knockout stage, but in some ways, it was the least convincing of their four major tournaments under Gareth Southgate. They spent more time teetering on the edge of calamity than glory.
Stones passes the trophy, which now belongs to Spain (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
It was a strange campaign in so many ways. Southgate repeatedly spoke about the “noise” that was so difficult to overcome, but in the end, there was silence. The only noise was the fiesta coming from Spain’s dressing room down the corridor.
Stones spoke of pride in everything England’s players had done in Germany — “how we handled ourselves, how we gave everyone these memories” — but said that ultimately “it’s just sad”. It felt that way watching them leave, particularly youngsters like Kobbie Mainoo and Cole Palmer, who hadn’t experienced disappointment like this before.
For Southgate, Kane and others, the long lonely walk was achingly familiar.
To tell this story of England’s summer The Athletic has spent the past month speaking to multiple people close to the camp, many of whom have chosen to remain anonymous to protect their relationships.
Five and a half weeks before the final, Kane and Southgate went for another walk. This one was at Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground, where England were gathered before their final pre-tournament warm-up match.
Kane was worried. He and some of his team-mates were in a state of shock after Southgate, having already left Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford out of his pre-tournament squad, omitted Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish from the final group of 26.
Southgate had not enjoyed informing youngsters James Trafford, Jarrad Branthwaite, Jarell Quansah and Curtis Jones they had missed the final cut, but they always hoped for inclusion rather than expected it. James Maddison knew the writing was on the wall. Leaving out Maguire and Grealish was going to be much harder.
Maguire knew he faced a race against time, having missed the final weeks of Manchester United’s season with a calf injury. But even after a slight setback, the defender felt he would be fit by England’s third group game. He was shocked when Southgate told him he was out of the final squad. Maguire insisted he would be fit. Southgate told him he couldn’t take the risk.
Grealish was equally stunned. He had made a positive impact from the bench in the friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina three days earlier and hoped he would be involved in the final warm-up match against Iceland at Wembley, but he too was summoned by Southgate and told he had not made the cut.
Kane and Southgate spoke after a final squad selection that left many players shocked (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Maddison left the camp almost immediately. Maguire and Grealish hung around, still shocked. In both cases, that sense of shock was shared by team-mates. Some visited Grealish in his bedroom, expressing disbelief. Rice said in a news conference he was “gutted” that Maddison and Grealish, “two of my best mates in the squad”, had been left out.
Beyond personal feelings, some players simply felt Grealish should have been included because of his quality and big-game experience. He had barely figured in the final weeks of the season at Manchester City, but he started both legs of a Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid in April. If Pep Guardiola was willing to trust him in big games, why was he suddenly surplus to Southgate’s requirements? Was it personal? Something else?
Grealish wished all his team-mates good luck before he left the camp, but he was in no mood for pleasantries with Southgate. He was shocked and deeply upset. It left a bittersweet feeling among some of the players as they received confirmation of their call-ups. For many, it was not a happy camp that evening.
Grealish and Maddison were both left out of the final squad (Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Kane was keen to discuss the matter with Southgate so that he could better understand the decision and relay the manager’s thoughts to the rest of the squad. On that walk, Southgate tried to explain his reasoning.
The following evening, England were beaten by Iceland at Wembley in their final warm-up game. There were boos at full time from those who stayed long enough. England had only one shot on target all evening.
For the first time under Southgate, the mood inside and outside the squad felt far from optimal as they set off for a major tournament.
No stone had been left unturned by the FA the staff at their base in Blankenhain in the former East Germany, just over 60 miles from the border with the Czech Republic.
The Spa & GolfResort Weimarer Land had everything from a basketball court, a padel court and a games room, to spa pools, ice baths, relaxation pods and cryotherapy chambers. There were two 18-hole golf courses, to the delight of Kane and others, as well as golf and driving simulators. Each player’s bedroom was decorated with home comforts, family photographs and letters written by loved ones. There was artwork commissioned of various players’ pets, some of them wearing England shirts.
Meals were prepared by Danny Schwabe, the resort’s Michelin-starred chef. It even smelt like home; FA officials had brought diffusers from St George’s Park, their English training base, to make the players feel more at home.
At one time, England players would complain about being shut away in their bedrooms at tournaments. Under Southgate, they spend most of their time in communal areas, whether around the pool (between matches of volleyball and water polo) or around the big screen, watching the other matches, or in the games room or the juice bar. Lewis Dunk and masseur Ben Mortlock set to work on the Lego kits the FA had provided, quickly building the Hogwarts Castle set from Harry Potter.
There was a different dynamic to this squad: no Raheem Sterling, no Henderson, no Sterling, no Maguire, no Rashford, no Grealish.
Some of the personalities within the squad were well established: Kane a quiet leader, Jordan Pickford exuberant, Rice as infectiously enthusiastic off the pitch as on it, Bellingham exuding alpha male energy, Bukayo Saka the universally loved “starboy”. Others would emerge as the tournament went on, not least “Uncle” Marc Guehi, mature beyond his 24 years, and youngsters like Palmer and Mainoo.
Gallagher’s midfield inclusion was curtailed by Southgate (Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
A favourite pastime was “Werewolf”, from which the TV series “The Traitors” is adapted. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Bellingham, fiercely competitive in everything they do, were the main players — something they referenced with their celebration when Bellingham scored against Serbia to get England’s campaign off to a winning start.
But their performance that day in Gelsenkirchen was unconvincing. England hadn’t hit the ground running the way Germany and Spain had. After a dominant first half-hour, featuring Bellingham’s goal, they had just 44 per cent of the possession and managed just two more shots on target.
There were other concerns. Southgate’s use of Alexander-Arnold in an unfamiliar midfield role had not paid off. The balance wasn’t right. The manager expressed worries afterwards about the physical condition of his players.
Next was a 1-1 draw with Denmark in Frankfurt. Again, there was a lack of fluency and cohesion. Alexander-Arnold was substituted again, this time just 10 minutes into the second half. Southgate seemed to have pulled the plug on that experiment and was now ready to try Conor Gallagher instead.
The team’s energy levels were a real concern now. Southgate spoke of “limitations” in their ability to press because of the “physical profile of the team”. Kane, for his part, said England’s players were “not sure how to put the pressure on and who’s supposed to be going” when the opposition have the ball.
A day later, a report appeared in the London Times detailing the coaching staff’s concerns about the deficiencies in the team’s pressing game, but specifically about Kane. The report detailed conversations Southgate’s coaching staff had previously had with Kane, explaining to him that when pressing an opponent, he has to be at top speed when he reaches them. Kane, the report said, “has never been able to do this. He moves at half-speed towards his opponent, slowing down as he gets there”.
Kane scored against Denmark but was later criticised (Vasile Mihai-Antonio/Getty Images)
The report was by David Walsh, who ghost-wrote a book with Southgate two decades ago and was billed recently as “the journalist who knows him best”. The line about Kane’s pressing might have been historic, or might not have come from Southgate, but it was strikingly specific.
Kane ended the tournament with three goals, sharing the Golden Boot award, but he looked uncomfortable throughout. There were frequent suggestions that he was struggling with the back injury that curtailed his season at Bayern Munich, but publicly, he insisted he was fit.
The issues were piling up, but the biggest of them, according to Southgate, was the one that escalated in the following days.
As much as Southgate was worried about his team’s energy levels, their lack of cohesion, their lack of creative spark and the struggles of Kane, what troubled him most post-Denmark was what he called an “unusual environment”.
This was his fourth tournament as England manager and it was the first time he felt tension in the air. He spoke of “noise” and the difficulty players had in trying to shut it out.
There was still a warmth to media engagements at the team’s base in Blankenhain — built around the now traditional daily player-versus-reporter darts challenge — but some of the players felt they were under attack from former England players including Gary Lineker, who, on his podcast The Rest Is Football, called the performance against Denmark “s***”.
Kane hit back at the pundits, saying they had a “responsibility” to consider the impact of their words on a group of players — some of them at their first tournament — who were already under intense pressure.
At this point, there were whispers from inside the camp about whether Southgate had erred by leaving Henderson, Maguire and others behind. Even if they were not going to get much playing time, some players wondered whether their personalities and experience might have helped bring a sense of calm.
According to those briefed on the matter, one player told a member of Southgate’s staff he had “never known anything like” the criticism the team faced after the Denmark draw, particularly on social media. There had been a backlash after 0-0 draws with Scotland at Euro 2020 and the United States at the World Cup in 2022, but nothing on this scale. Kane was getting stick, but so were Bellingham, Rice, Foden, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier and others.
Southgate was troubled by the reaction of his players to the draw with Denmark (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
There was also unrest when one newspaper accompanied Walker’s former mistress, the mother of his 10-month-old son, to the game against Denmark. Another player’s marriage was also the subject of media speculation.
The players always look forward to spending time with their families the day after a game, but Kane said some of them felt a seven-hour “fun day”, with bouncy castles and inflatable slides laid on for the children, had been a “bit too long”. “We might cut down on that in future,” he said — and they did.
In the days after the Denmark game, Southgate showed his players some footage from the final whistle in Frankfurt. He openly challenged the players over their body language, telling them, “They (Denmark) are on two points, we’re on four. They’re celebrating with their fans, we’re on our knees.”
Southgate felt their reaction, symptomatic of that “unusual environment”, had fuelled an outside perception of a failing campaign. But the environment got worse before it got better.
First came the boos and jeers. Then, as Southgate made a point of applauding the fans at the end of a dismal 0-0 draw with Slovenia in Cologne, came a stream of insults as the air turned blue. Finally, there were some plastic beer cups thrown in the manager’s direction, which shocked him.
England’s place in the knockout stage was already secure before they kicked a ball against Slovenia, but the mood darkened at the final whistle. It was aimed primarily at Southgate, but the players felt it, too. Ezri Konsa told reporters that some of the players’ family members had been “hit with a few drinks. My brother was hit, a few others. It was coming from all angles”.
So was the criticism. The team just wasn’t working. Bellingham, Saka, Foden and Kane were all struggling. Rice was carrying a heavy load in midfield. There were issues with the balance of the team — the blend in midfield, the lack of width in attack, the absence of a specialist left-back with Luke Shaw still sidelined — but what troubled Southgate above all was what he again referred to as an “unusual environment”.
He reflected after Cologne that the difference in mood was “probably because of me” and that this was now “creating a bit of an issue for the group”.
Empty cups thrown at Gareth Southgate as he applauds the England supporters. @TheAthleticFC #ThreeLions pic.twitter.com/rvJhL6t5OL
— Dan Sheldon (@Dan_Sheldon_) June 25, 2024
There were players Southgate felt he had to take aside. They included Alexander-Arnold, who had been cast aside after two games in midfield, and Gallagher, who was deeply disappointed at being substituted at half-time against Slovenia. Southgate assured both players they would still have important contributions to make, even if they were from the bench. He was pleased by both players’ response over the rest of the tournament.
But Southgate detected an underlying angst within the group. He didn’t go into specifics at the time, but two weeks later, having turned a corner, he was willing to acknowledge it publicly.
“I’ve talked to a lot of psychologists over the years and one of the things that human beings want to avoid is public embarrassment,” he told ITV Sport. “We had a little bit of that mindset in the group stage. We weren’t free. We were too aware of the noise around us.”
One player seemed more aware than anyone. Bellingham’s man-of-the-match performance against Serbia was followed by indifferent displays against Denmark and Slovenia. He was said by those familiar with the team environment to be acutely aware of every word said or written about him in the media. Any criticism of his performances seemed nuanced, but he would later refer to a “pile-on”.
His demeanour was the subject of murmurs. That “Hey Jude” Adidas advert, which portrayed him as the national team’s saviour, was well received by the public, but some within the camp felt the tone was at odds with the collective ethos of Southgate’s England.
Bellingham has followed a different path to his England team-mates: eschewing the Premier League to go from Birmingham City to Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid. He was fast-tracked through the England development teams without spending much time with others in his age group. Other than a close friendship with Alexander-Arnold, he does not have as many strong connections within the squad as others do.
On the eve of the tournament, Bellingham was promoted to the team’s “leadership group” with Kane, Walker and Rice. But his leadership did not extend to attending any of the daily outside media duties at Blankenhain, whereas less experienced players, including some on the fringes of the squad, such as Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Adam Wharton, faced up and answered awkward questions on the team’s behalf.
This was picked up on by former England captain Wayne Rooney, who wrote in a newspaper column that Bellingham “is in a position where he should be taking responsibility”. “It may be time to grow up, make decisions and say, ‘I need to help out and speak during the difficult times’,” Rooney said, “because if England win these Euros, I’m sure you’ll see him doing interviews.”
Bellingham — and England — needed a big response on the pitch against Slovakia in the round of 16.
England were staring into the abyss. It was the fifth minute of stoppage time and they were on the way out of the tournament, 1-0 down to Slovakia. They hadn’t got a single shot on target. Their campaign — and, it seemed, Southgate’s tenure — was about to end in embarrassment, ignominy and rancour.
And then, after a long throw-in from Walker was headed on by Guehi, Bellingham did something extraordinary, leaping, contorting his body in mid-air and saving England with a spectacular, dramatic scissor kick. Bellingham charged away in celebration. “WHO ELSE?” he asked. “WHO ELSE?”
Well, there was also Kane. In the first minute of extra time, the forward made it 2-1. From facing humiliation in the face, England were heading to the quarter-finals.
This time, Bellingham did the post-match interview rounds, having been named player of the match by UEFA. He said his celebration was partly adrenaline-fuelled but partly a “message to a few people”. “You hear people talk a lot of rubbish,” he said. “It’s nice that when you deliver, you can give them a little back.”
There was also a moment, after that goal, where Bellingham appeared to make a crotch-grabbing gesture. UEFA gave him a suspended one-match ban — to be triggered in the event of a further offence — and fined him €30,000.
Bellingham was the man of the moment, but the biggest pluses for Southgate were the performance of Mainoo, who had brought a better balance to the midfield since replacing Gallagher at half-time against Slovenia, and the contributions of Palmer, Eberechi Eze and Ivan Toney from the bench.
The spectacular Bellingham goal that changed the mood (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
There was a different mood as England returned to Blankenhain that evening. Nobody doubted they had got away with a poor performance, but it felt like a weight had been lifted by the euphoria. Back at their hotel, the players bonded, some of them taking Southgate up on his offer of a celebratory beer or two.
The next day brought a recovery session, more family time — a more relaxed mood this time — and, in the evening, a surprise visit by singer Ed Sheeran, who performed an acoustic session for the players, as he had during Euro 2020.
Not every player shares Kane’s enthusiasm for Sheeran’s music, but the night was a great success. Again, the players were allowed to have a drink or two. Some took the opportunity to sing with Sheeran. There was hilarity when Ollie Watkins, an enthusiastic singer, suddenly got stage fright and walked off, telling Sheeran, “Sorry, this song isn’t the one.”
But in a wider sense, the fear of embarrassment had been overcome — just. On the training pitch, on the padel and basketball courts, in those evening games of “Werewolf”, the mood was more upbeat. There was a unity of purpose and a sense of momentum. They were on what looked like the gentler side of the knockout bracket. That helped, too, with Spain, Germany and France all on the other side.
There was also a six-day break between the Slovakia game and the quarter-final against Switzerland: time to recover, recharge batteries and refocus, but also time to work on the training pitch.
Three days before the quarter-final, there were widespread reports that Southgate was considering switching to a three-man central defence against Switzerland. With Guehi suspended after two yellow cards, it was reported that Konsa was likely to join Walker and Stones in central defence, with Saka and Trippier as wing-backs.
Southgate and Holland were livid. Journalists were invited to a conference call where FA officials expressed anger and disapproval on the manager’s behalf. Southgate later asked in an interview with Talksport, “How does it help the team to give the Swiss (who might have been expecting us to play differently) three days to work out what we might do?”
The indignant reaction was a surprise. Media outlets, including The Athletic, have frequently run stories about potential personnel or system changes without attracting such a backlash. The possibility of reverting to a back three, mirroring Switzerland’s system, had already been speculated upon given they had done so in extra time against Slovakia and Southgate had frequently used that system earlier in his tenure.
They worked extensively on the back three in the build-up to the quarter-final. They also prepared for the possibility of a penalty shootout: not just working on their own technique (including the walk-up and the importance of slowing down breathing), but preparing each taker with a designated “buddy” to support him after the kick, to avoid others being disturbed.
The first-half performance against Switzerland was England’s best of the tournament to date, but there was a familiar drop-off after the interval. A sinking feeling took hold even before Breel Embolo gave Switzerland the lead with 15 minutes remaining.
Pickford’s penalty water bottle (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
It was desperation time again for Southgate. Off came Trippier, Mainoo and Konsa. On came Eze, Palmer and, for the first time all tournament, Shaw. Salvation came almost instantly from Saka, the 22-year-old cutting inside from the right and beating Yann Sommer with a shot whipped inside the far post to force extra time. England looked the likelier winners in the first half of extra time, but they ended up clinging on in the closing stages.
Penalties, then: so often the source of English tournament misery in the past, but rarely so (with the Euro 2020 final a notable exception) under Southgate.
Their preparations looked clinical in their precision. So, too, did their penalties as Palmer, Bellingham, Saka and Toney all scored while Pickford pulled off a great save to deny Manuel Akanji (diving to his left, just as the instructions on his water bottle had told him to if the Manchester City defender stepped up).
Alexander-Arnold walked up to take England’s fifth penalty, knowing that he could secure victory. His response was emphatic, a thunderous shot that sent his team through to the semi-finals. On the pitch and in the stands, the celebrations were loud and joyous.
The previous angst had given way to joy and a sudden sense of excitement about what this tournament might now have in store.
There was barely time to rest now. England’s players returned to Blankenhain that night and, after a recovery session the next day, there was only time for two full training sessions before they flew to Dortmund, where they would play the Netherlands in the semi-final on the Wednesday evening.
Southgate reflected on how “at the beginning of the tournament, the expectation weighed quite heavily and of course the external noise was louder than it has ever been”. “We couldn’t quite get ourselves into the right place,” he said. “I felt that shifted once we got into the knockout stages and definitely in the quarter-final.”
The “shift” he spoke about was, he felt, from a “fear mindset” to a “challenge mindset” — being driven by the challenge in front of them rather than consumed by fear of consequences.
But it didn’t quite ring true. They had looked fearful for long periods against both Slovakia and Switzerland, only to be rescued in both matches by a moment of individual brilliance. Performances were still unconvincing. They were going to have to raise their game against the Netherlands.
That need grew after they fell behind to a seventh-minute thunderbolt from Xavi Simons. But they responded well. The manner in which they equalised was fortunate — a Kane penalty following a VAR review which found that Denzel Dumfries had followed through on the England captain — but they were playing more fluently, with Foden enjoying his best 45 minutes of the tournament.
But again they lost their way after half-time. Again they went most of the second half without producing so much as a shot. Foden’s influence had faded after an excellent first half. Kane looked exhausted.
Throughout his tenure, Southgate’s use of substitutions in big matches has been arguably the biggest blot against his record. This time, needing fresh legs, he sent on Palmer and Watkins for Foden and Kane. A big call. Two big calls.
Watkins had only had one brief cameo in the tournament to that point, but earlier in the day, Watkins had told Palmer the pair of them were going to combine for the winning goal. Palmer, receiving the ball in the inside-right channel, knew where to play the pass. Watkins knew where to run. He took one touch to tee himself up and then surprised Bart Verbruggen with a crisp finish inside the far post. England were through to the final.
Watkins creates another euphoric moment (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
The scenes that followed will live long in the memory: Watkins being mobbed by the whole squad, led by Kane; Rice close to tears; Jordan Pickford going berserk; every player looking euphoric, including those who hadn’t kicked a ball in the tournament; Southgate dancing along to “Freed from Desire” and punching the air with delight.
“One more!” Southgate shouted, holding his finger up to the supporters. “Come on!” One more game. One more victory to “make history”, as Southgate put it later.
Spool forward to 10.53pm local time on Sunday. The final whistle was blown and, as Spain’s players and supporters celebrated a deserved triumph, their English counterparts sank into despair.
Rice on his knees. Stones on his back. Saka down, disconsolate. Bellingham walked off the pitch, towards the dugout, and then took out his frustration on a crate of water bottles.
The first half went reasonably well for England. They had far less possession than in previous matches, but Spain’s attacking threat had been kept at arm’s length. Foden forced Unai Simon into an awkward save just before the interval.
But barely a minute into the second half, Spain struck through Nico Williams after the precociously talented teenager Lamine Yamal had escaped from Shaw on the opposite flank. It was a terrible time to concede.
Spain turned the screw, with Williams and Yamal enjoying themselves, and Pickford was repeatedly called into action. Kane gestured to his team-mates to keep going, but it was easier said than done. Again, he looked done for.
Southgate rang the changes, sending on Watkins for Kane and then Palmer for Mainoo. If England were going down, they at least had a duty to go down swinging.
Palmer is the latest to stir England, but this time they did not have the final word (Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Palmer’s impact, again, was almost immediate. He had barely been on the pitch for two minutes when he struck a first-time shot that beat Simon with the help of a slight deflection. England were back in the game.
It briefly looked like both teams were gearing up for extra time, but Spain found renewed impetus. Yamal forced Pickford into another save and then, in the 86th minute, Oyarzabal played the ball wide to Marc Cucurella and made a perfectly timed run for the return pass, sliding in ahead of Guehi to make it 2-1.
England rallied again, with Rice and Guehi both going close from a corner, but Spain would not be denied.
There was post-match talk of fine margins, as there often is, but this time it didn’t feel that way. England were lucky to end up on the right side of those fine margins earlier in the tournament. They had sailed close to the wind for weeks. It was no surprise when, finally, coming up against a far more coherent team, they were blown off course.
Additional contributor: Dan Sheldon
(Top photo: Getty Images: design: Eamonn Dalton)
This article is part of the “Beyond the Track” series, a dive on the surrounding scene, glamour and culture that makes a Grand Prix.
LAS VEGAS — A dash of dancing fountains, a sprinkle of star power supplied by a collection of celebrity chefs, and even something to chase it all down with champagne. Welcome to the Bellagio Fountain Club, a perfect recipe of the trappings the Las Vegas Grand Prix offers that makes it the most unique race on the Formula One calendar.
At first taste, a who’s who of chefs coming together just hours before qualifying might be hard to swallow. Ah, not so, says Wolfgang Puck, explaining there are parallels between performing at a high level on the track and concocting a gourmet meal in the kitchen.
“A restaurant is exactly the same as a Formula One team. Both are like an orchestra,” Puck told The Athletic. “It’s exactly the same. Because everybody has to work together and everybody has to help each other. You have to really bring it on because it is also all about timing. In a restaurant, if you have three or four different stations and one order has this or that and you have five different dishes coming out for one table, you can’t have them all coming at the same time. So it’s organization and a lot of training.”
Puck is no F1 novice; he closely followed the European-centric sport as a boy in Austria. Naturally, his favorite driver was fellow Austrian Niki Lauda, who later became a good friend. The mere mention of the three-time world champion’s name causes Puck to smile, with him immediately reminiscing about watching Lauda race whenever F1 visited the street circuit in Long Beach, Calif.
Back then, Puck was a rising chef, on the precipice of becoming one of the first chefs to crossover into the mainstream culture, while Lauda was already recognized as an F1 legend. A friendship was formed, and each time Puck attends a grand prix, it brings back a flood of memories of watching races around the globe.
“A restaurant is exactly the same as a Formula One team. Both are like an orchestra,” celebrity chef and F1 fan Wolfgang Puck says. (Christopher Trim / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)
Puck was also here a year ago attending the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, and he is wowed by how this race became an event, a word he emphasizes because how can a setting like this — the famed Bellagio fountains behind him, and a purposely constructed street circuit that winds through Las Vegas’ famous landmarks — be a mere race.
“I think (the grand prix) shows Las Vegas really in a good way because they race at night,” Puck said. “I really think it’s really an amazing thing to finally have it here. People can come from all over the world. There are more hotel rooms so close by, like I go to the Formula One in Budapest and they have very few hotel rooms, you have to stay 50 miles away in a little donkey hotel. Then, you need to get out of the parking lot. Like this year, we waited two-and-a-half hours to get out of the parking lot. That doesn’t happen here.”
Although champagne toasts and caviar dishes have always been synonymous with the globetrotting sport that races in exotic locales, there is no denying that F1 is presented much differently than it was even five years ago.
Propelled by the “Drive to Survive” effect, the boost in U.S. interest in the sport often credited to the Netflix docuseries, races have become such a spectacle that a gathering like this one featuring nearly 20 name chefs doesn’t feel out of place on a grand prix weekend.
And just as Puck is an example of a more traditional F1 fan, another attendee here represents the other side of the spectrum.
“My daughter. All my daughter,” Mark Wahlberg said, explaining how he discovered F1.
Like so many, “Drive to Survive” was the entry point for Grace Wahlberg becoming infatuated with the sport. In particular, she was drawn to McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Before too long, her newfound interest piqued her father’s own curiosity, eventually leading to Mark, the famed actor, pulling some strings so that Grace could get the chance to sit inside one of Norris’ older cars.
“She has a big crush on two of the guys, Oscar and Lando, and so she wanted to meet them,” Mark Wahlberg told The Athletic. “So me being a dad who likes to make things happen for my kids, I figured out how I could track Lando down and get a car sent to the house. It was cool for us to be able to spend some time together and enjoy something.”
How did actor Mark Wahlberg get into F1? “All my daughter,” he says. Daughter Grace is a fan of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. (Christopher Trim / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)
Donnie Wahlberg nods his head and smiles as his younger brother describes how he got into F1. It’s the kind of nod that implies, “I told you so,” because Donnie has long been a fan, discovering the sport and learning its intricacies when they toured Europe during the heyday of the boy band New Kids on the Block.
Donnie has lots of opinions on F1 but little time now to express them all. He has to jet to meet his wife. But before he departs, he wants to make one thing known: He loves Michael Schumacher. And while the debate among fans of who is better often centers on Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Lewis Hamilton, Donnie leans in a different direction. His vote: Max Verstappen is the GOAT.
Mark gives his own smile as Donnie makes his point, though he prefers not to wade into the debate. Maybe Mark’s devotion to McLaren isn’t quite yet to the level of Grace’s or Donnie’s, though it doesn’t appear far off. Nor is his support mere lip service, instead it comes from a genuine place. He may be here at the Bellagio supporting his other brother Paul, a chef who’s worked in the restaurant industry since he was a teenager, but he’s also here because he’s a fan happy to be immersing himself in the event.
And here on a Friday afternoon atop a structure purposely built so fans could watch cars speed down Las Vegas Boulevard, F1 fans old and new intermingle. The event is all anyone is talking about.
“It’s a global event now,” Puck said. “Back then, Americans didn’t know Formula One. It wasn’t that popular. It’s not like today.”
The Beyond the Track series is part of a partnership with Chanel.
The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
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(Top photo: Jordan Bianchi / The Athletic)
Culture
NFL Week 12 roundtable: Giants’ QB plan post-Jones, NFC West race, is Bo Nix legit OROY contender?
You can officially count the New York Giants among the teams whose offseason will be built around finding its next franchise quarterback.
Daniel Jones’ being benched and then released is just one development highlighting league happenings leading up to Sunday’s Week 12 action. The Giants host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with fan favorite Tommy DeVito in line to start.
Elsewhere in this week’s roundtable, our NFL writers Mike Sando, Zak Keefer and Jeff Howe discuss the NFC West. Could it be the league’s most fascinating division title race?
What about the Offensive Rookie of the Year race? Is the Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix (or another rookie quarterback) closing in on the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels? Though Anthony Richardson has redeemed himself in Indianapolis, how will he and the Colts fare against the buzz saw that is the Detroit Lions? The 11-point favorite Kansas City Chiefs — sans Taylor Swift — visit Charlotte and the Carolina Panthers for the first time in eight years. The Harbaugh Bowl caps off Week 12 on Monday night, too.
Read more on what’s catching our writers’ attention this week.
The Daniel Jones era is over as the Giants host the Bucs. What’s next for Jones? What does the Giants’ plan at quarterback look like this offseason?
Howe: They tried to move up for a top QB in April, and I’d expect a similar effort — if not a more concerted one — this spring. The Giants are still in contention for the No. 1 pick, so they might get their choice of QBs, but the race has primarily been focusing on Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders. There isn’t a marquee prospect in this class, though, and there are personnel executives who have already said they wouldn’t rank any of the 2025 QBs ahead of the six first-rounders from April. The Giants, like every QB-desperate team, should be aggressive, but they can’t force it. As for Jones, he’ll enter the camp competition vortex for teams that aren’t able to find a starting-caliber QB in the draft. It’s recently worked for the likes of Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Russell Wilson, so I’d highly recommend a friendly offensive system.
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Sando: Jones projects as a backup somewhere, possibly with a team that has playoff aspirations and could stand to upgrade behind its starter. The Miami Dolphins are only 4-6, but they could use an upgrade behind Tua Tagovailoa. The Arizona Cardinals have Clayton Tune. Tampa Bay has Kyle Trask. The Minnesota Vikings have Nick Mullens. Maybe those teams love their backups, but I could see teams in their situations considering Jones.
As for the Giants, who will be making the decisions there? How high will their draft choice be? Which veterans might be available? It’s just way too early to know what the Giants are going to do, based on all the important unknown variables. They need to find a veteran able to start and possibly develop so they aren’t too dependent on their next drafted QB — especially in 2025, which doesn’t look like the best year for drafting at the position.
Keefer: Jones is going to make a lot of money in this league as a capable backup somewhere, removed from the expectations that come with being a franchise guy. I can’t see a team — barring an unforeseen injury — rolling with him as the starter in Week 1 next season. Not after what he’s put on tape the last two seasons. And the Giants will find themselves this spring backed into one of the worst corners in football: needing a quarterback in a draft that doesn’t feature a lot of quarterback talent. That’s caused teams to reach in the past, and it’s burned them for decades. New York would be wise to go the veteran route before the draft just to be safe. I wonder whether the prospect of Justin Fields taking over would get Giants fans excited.
Daniel Jones was benched Monday after the New York Giants’ 2-8 start to the season, during which he completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 2,070 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions through 10 games. (Mario Hommes / DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
The Broncos, on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, are in the thick of the AFC playoff hunt. Is Bo Nix (or another rookie QB) a legitimate Offensive Rookie of the Year contender or is it still Jayden Daniels’ award to lose?
Howe: It’s Daniels’ award to lose, and Drake Maye is playing better than Nix. If Daniels and the Commanders tumble while the Broncos snag a playoff spot, there’s absolutely an avenue for Nix to claim the award, but I would still take Daniels over the field.
Sando: It’s Daniels’ award to lose, but there is some uncertainty about how strongly he and that offense will finish. Nix is definitely gaining on him from a production standpoint. We can see that in the table below, which shows production for Daniels, Nix and Maye over their past six games. That’s a big change from early in the season.
Rookie QB comp: Last six games
| QB | Daniels | Nix | Maye |
|---|---|---|---|
|
W-L |
3-3 |
3-3 |
2-4 |
|
Cmp-Att |
101-163 |
132-192 |
122-181 |
|
Cmp% |
62.0% |
68.8% |
67.4% |
|
Yards |
1,203 |
1,409 |
1,214 |
|
Yds/Att |
7.4 |
7.3 |
6.7 |
|
TD-INT |
6-1 |
11-2 |
9-6 |
|
Rating |
94.2 |
104.7 |
89.0 |
|
Sacked |
11 |
11 |
15 |
|
QB EPA |
13.0 |
31.2 |
10.4 |
|
EPA/Pass Play |
+0.11 |
+0.13 |
+0.05 |
Keefer: Mike is right — it’s not only Bo Nix entering the conversation but Drake Maye as well, although he won’t be able to boast the relative team success Daniels is enjoying in Washington and Nix is enjoying in Denver. Voters for these types of awards often lean on turnaround stories, and for a while this season, Daniels was scripting the best one in football. He’s still in front, but how he responds to consecutive losses might very well end up deciding this award.
The Chiefs are 11-point favorites on the road against the Panthers and, presumably, they’ll bounce back Sunday. Does the loss in Buffalo combined with the Lions’ continued rise change how you feel about Kansas City?
Howe: A bit, yes. If the Chiefs managed to beat the Buffalo Bills with a subpar performance, that might have been a wrap, but the Lions and Bills are decisively better right now. And though everyone is waiting for the Chiefs to get significantly better as Patrick Mahomes gains experience with his skill players, we shouldn’t overlook the fact Josh Allen and the Bills will do the same. No one who has watched the playoffs for the past half-decade is ever going to write off the Chiefs, but they’re objectively behind Detroit and Buffalo entering the most pivotal stretch of the season.
Sando: The way the Bills offense handled the Chiefs defense should be concerning for Kansas City. Kansas City can improve as the season progresses because it is well coached and it will be developing key players as Isaiah Pacheco returns, Xavier Worthy gains experience, etc. But it feels like a good year to be Detroit or Buffalo, all things considered. The Chiefs are very good but less dominant than their record indicates.
Keefer: I learned my lesson last year. The regular season simply does not matter for the Chiefs. They’ve come to transcend football norms during their dynastic run. It doesn’t matter that plenty of their wins this season have been unconvincing. Doesn’t matter that Travis Kelce has taken a step back. Doesn’t matter that Patrick Mahomes has looked mediocre — or worse — for stretches. Doesn’t matter that they couldn’t close out the Bills last week. They absolutely remain a legitimate Super Bowl contender and can beat anyone in the playoffs. Remember, as Kansas City proved last year, it’s not the team that looks the best in November and December, it’s the one that gets hot in January. More than any team out there, it knows how to do that.
The Harbaugh Bowl takes place Monday night. The Baltimore Ravens trail in the AFC North title race. The 7-3 Los Angeles Chargers escaped the Cincinnati Bengals last week. There are plenty of storylines in this one. Which one intrigues you the most?
Howe: Before the season, coaches and executives around the league predicted Justin Herbert would make a jump with Jim Harbaugh, who would prioritize the ground game and a high-level defense to complement his quarterback. Harbaugh proceeded to run a conservative offense, but he’s given Herbert more of a chance to let it rip as of late. If Herbert topples the Ravens, he’s going to earn serious MVP consideration.
Sando: I’m interested in seeing whether the Chargers’ much-improved defense can slow Lamar Jackson with the benefit of whatever inside info they have from coordinators Jesse Minter and Greg Roman, who spent significant time on the Ravens’ staff. Is this a game the Chargers can play on their terms? What happens if this game picks up where Chargers-Bengals left off? Will Justin Herbert keep pace with Jackson in that case?
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Keefer: The Chargers-Bengals game was one of the best of the season — Herbert went wild in the first half, then Joe Burrow put together some of the best football I’ve ever seen him play in the second. The intriguing layer of the Harbaugh matchup Monday night is how Lamar Jackson bounces back from last week’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers (his -0.21 EPA per dropback and 66.1 passer rating were season lows). Jackson typically torches teams outside the AFC North, and a statement win Monday against an elite defense — the Chargers lead the league in scoring defense at 14.2 allowed per game — would push him right back in front of the MVP race.
It’s time for the biweekly NFC West temperature check. The Los Angeles Rams (5-5) host a hot Philadelphia Eagles team Sunday night. The San Francisco 49ers (5-5) are on the road against the Green Bay Packers. The Cardinals (6-4) and Seattle Seahawks (5-5) meet. Which team is in the best position to win the division?
Howe: I liked the Cardinals as a fun surprise team this season, but I didn’t anticipate they’d be a serious division threat, even if injuries among their opponents are a big reason. I’ll stick with the Cardinals because they’re playing the best and continue to get better. I do like the Seahawks and think they’re neck and neck with Arizona, so their two meetings in the next three weeks could very well tell the story in this division race. Seattle needs to focus more on the run game, though, and the O-line injuries have been problematic. The Niners still have the highest ceiling in the division, but they’ve been giving away too many games and I’m not ready to assume that pattern is about to magically break. The Rams have been too inconsistent, although I can’t rule out Matthew Stafford’s flipping a switch and keeping them in the mix.
Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals could be one of the league’s surprise teams at 6-4 and atop the NFC West. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
Sando: The Athletic’s model gives the Cardinals a 58 percent chance of winning the division, followed by the Rams (23 percent), the 49ers (12 percent) and the Seahawks (8 percent). Is it really that lopsided? I see this division coming down to the final week, when San Francisco visits Arizona and the Rams visit Seattle. All four teams could have a shot at 9-8. Any team getting to 10-7 probably will win the division. I don’t see any team with a big advantage, but I question whether the 49ers can stay healthy enough to prevail.
Keefer: The Cardinals are playing the best of any team in the division, and as Jeff noted, these two meetings with the Seahawks could end up deciding the NFC West title. (San Francisco and L.A. have been too inconsistent.) But critical this time of year are the teams that are showing tangible signs of improvement, and the Cardinals fit the bill: Arizona has won four straight, including its last two by a combined 45 points. In three of those wins the defense allowed less than 16 points. On offense, Kyler Murray has been lighting it up. By mid-January, I like the Cardinals to win their first division title since 2015.
(Top photo of Bo Nix: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
Culture
NWSL infrastructure is the ‘hardest problem to solve’. Here’s how things stand around the league
All eyes will be on Kansas City, Missouri this weekend when the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit face off in the NWSL championship on Sunday. In a way, it will bring the season full circle with CPKC Stadium hosting an action-packed finale.
The stadium’s opening in March marked a historic moment for the NWSL, raising the standard for a club’s stadium experience. With its 11,500-seat capacity, the Current became the first NWSL club to sell out every home game in the regular season.
Although privately financing a stadium might be an unrealistic goal for some clubs, or even an unnecessary one, what the Current has accomplished with CPKC Stadium makes room for a larger conversation about infrastructure in the NWSL. Last year, league commissioner Jessica Berman described that as “probably the hardest problem to solve long-term, and one of the most important problems for us to solve as soon as possible”.
That being the case, The Athletic has taken stock of some of the biggest infrastructure-related wins and losses of the 2024 season.
Most teams are using shared facilities
Nine NWSL clubs in the 2024 season shared a venue with an MLS club. That will increase to 10 teams next year as a new MLS team comes to San Diego. Four teams share training facilities, too. Some teams also share space with a lower-division men’s team, from MLS Next Pro or USL for example.
The only team not to share its venue was the Kansas City Current, which largely used private financing to build its own stadium and training facilities.
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While sharing resources has its upsides, there can also be friction between teams. Take the disagreement between DC United and the Spirit over their long-term deal in 2021, forcing the Spirit to train at a local high school while the matter was resolved.
Three years later, the Spirit is now in a very different place, heading to another NWSL championship after winning its first title in 2021. It now has American businesswoman Michele Kang as majority owner, and Audi Field is its full-time home venue after splitting time between multiple stadiums in previous seasons. This year the Spirit sold out three matches, with its semi-final win against NJ/NY Gotham drawing 19,365 fans.
Rodman celebrates during the 2024 NWSL Playoffs semi-final match at a sold-out Audi Field (Amber Searls / Imagn Images)
Kang has not been shy about expressing her goal of Spirit one day having its own facility. This seems especially pressing now, given that USL Super League’s DC Power, partly owned by DC United, also calls Audi Field home.
In other instances, as for Racing Louisville and USL club Louisville City, having a shared facility means also sharing ownership, which makes it easier to make last-minute decisions, like when deciding to offer your venue as an alternate with only a few days’ notice.
Issues of being a tenant, and not an owner
Earlier this month, San Diego Wave FC was forced to move its final home match of the regular season across the U.S. to the aforementioned Louisville at Lynn Family Stadium because of poor playing conditions at its home, Snapdragon Stadium.
“The safety and wellbeing of all players is our top priority, and the current field conditions at Snapdragon Stadium, which are the responsibility of a third party, have not met the standards required for a safe playing environment,” the club said in a statement.
The Wave had a series of planned celebrations, including a fan appreciation night, a ceremony for Emily Van Egmond’s 100th NWSL appearance and a ceremony for Alex Morgan’s retirement. All of which had to be moved following the venue switch. Morgan’s celebration will happen next year. The venue also will host two games in the SheBelieves Cup in February.
Megan Rapinoe sustained an ACL injury during the first half of the 2023 NWSL Championship match at Snapdragon Stadium (Orlando Ramirez / Imagn Images)
Field issues in San Diego are not new, with multiple season-ending injuries for NWSL players happening at Snapdragon last year, including Megan Rapinoe’s injury in the early moments of the 2023 NWSL championship. These issues extended into the 2024 season, with former interim coach Landon Donovan saying that “outside of replacing the whole field” there was little to be done to remedy the issue.
Because the Wave is only a tenant, it has limited say over what San Diego State University does and soon cedes next priority to MLS expansion team San Diego FC.
The MLS team will have priority in scheduling, despite the Wave having a loyal fanbase and averaging 19,575 fans per game. Only one other women’s team in the world averages higher attendance, according to the club: Arsenal Women in the Women’s Super League. The university’s contract with the MLS club, though, specifies there will be an annual meeting at the start of each contract year to discuss topics such as “stadium maintenance and capital improvement plans” and “field of play quality”.
The crowding at Snapdragon has led at least one team, the professional rugby team San Diego Legion, to relocate in the new year. The team announced Tuesday it would move to the 6,000-seat Torero Stadium to make way for more weekend home matches.
Public land and public funds – or private financing?
A similar availability snafu happened in Chicago, when the punk rock festival Riot Fest announced it would be held at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, on the same day as a home game for the Chicago Red Stars. The stadium is publicly owned by the Village of Bridgeview, and the hope was that both events would happen concurrently.
“It is unfair and unfortunate to have our club put in this situation, shining a light on the vast discrepancies in the treatment of women’s professional sports versus men’s professional sports,” Red Stars president Karen Leetzow said at the time.
The problem resolved when Riot Fest announced the festival would be relocating to Chicago proper, bringing an anticlimactic end to the months-long drama. The timing of this dilemma unraveled just after the Red Stars had packed Wrigley Field in a historic game against Bay FC on June 8.
Chicago hosted Bay FC at Wrigley Field in front of a record-breaking crowd. (Daniel Bartel / Imagn Images)
While the Red Stars have been tenants of SeatGeek Stadium since 2016, and are contracted through the 2025 season, club leadership has been outspoken about wanting to find a home closer to Chicago.
“Every week, we’re meeting with influential people here in the city who can help us get this done,” Leetzow said in August. “I have a whole series of talking points I’ve been refining and honing throughout the summer and into the fall as the (state) legislators go back into session.”
The hope is for city officials to commit public funding to a women’s soccer stadium like they did to renovate Soldier Field, where MLS side Chicago Fire FC currently competes. That might be a tall ask, though, as the Chicago Bears and White Sox are also bidding for public funding for stadium projects.
The Chicago Fire said last month they are considering building a privately financed, soccer-specific stadium in the city, and had already toured three sites for the project. The MLS team left SeatGeek Stadium, which is 30 minutes outside the city, by paying $60.5 million to get the Fire out of its lease with the venue early in 2019 after Joe Mansueto acquired a controlling stake in the team.
What about training facilities?
Investing in better infrastructure also means investing in training facilities that will help develop and prepare players.
Last year, the Utah Royals unveiled multi-million-dollar expansion and remodelling plans for an NWSL-specific training site at their Zions Bank Real Academy, a 42-acre campus with several grass and indoor fields that houses the franchise’s clubs, including Real Salt Lake in MLS. The Pride and Houston Dash have similar, dedicated spaces with their MLS counterparts.
NWSL expansion club Bay FC announced in September plans to build a training facility in San Francisco’s Treasure Island neighborhood, slated to open in 2027.
“Having a permanent dedicated space that is built specifically for our players and football operations staff will allow us to continue to attract the best national and international talent and continue our Club’s mission of being a catalyst for innovation and change for our athletes and the community,” Bay FC chief executive Brady Stewart said at the time.
The news drew criticism, though, for the decision to develop an area with a history of hazardous waste.
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More recently, Angel City Football Club unveiled plans to relocate to a nine-acre site on the campus of California Lutheran University, where they plan to upgrade and remodel a 50,000-square-foot training center. The center was previously home of the Los Angeles Rams and will undergo a multimillion-dollar remodel entirely financed by the club, serving as the team’s home for up to four years.
“The size of this performance center is incredibly important, because not only can we provide the resources and staffing and tools that they need today, but we have enough room to grow and evolve,” Julie Uhrman, president and co-founder of Angel City told The Athletic. “So, if we extend beyond from a first team to a second team to Academy, we have the ability to grow.”
The new facility will be exclusively for Angel City and feature custom lockers for players, coaches and staff. Other custom features include a dedicated locker room for players under 18, a children’s playroom to support players and staff, an onsite studio for content creation, a custom boot wall and a private outdoor relaxation lounge.
“Our commitment is that we are going to build a permanent Performance Center for our players, and we’ve actively been working on that since 2020,” Uhrman said. “Wanting something that’s 10-plus acres is challenging and takes time, and while we’re doing that, we wanted to build the best temporary training facility that we could.”
That search for a permanent home remains a “work in progress”, she added. So far, the club has “identified a couple of locations that we’re really excited about.”
Where do things stand for expansion clubs?
The NWSL is growing, with plans to announce a 16th team before the end of the year. The latest expansion club is expected to begin playing in 2026 alongside Boston. While the league isn’t hinting at which direction it will go, it’s safe to assume that having a concrete plan for a team’s facilities and infrastructure could be a deciding factor.
The ownership group in Boston proposed renovating George R. White Stadium in Franklin Park for the team’s home venue, where BOS Nation FC will play. This would be secured through equity and involve a public-private partnership with Boston Public Schools, which would retain ownership of the stadium for its own use.
As for a potential 16th expansion team, one ownership group in Cleveland recently announced the joint purchase of 13.6 acres of state land to build a $150 million, 12,500-seat stadium on what is currently undeveloped land in the city’s downtown. Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) plans to pursue a public-private partnership, similar to Boston’s thinking.
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“I think it’s really important because most stadiums in this country have had some public financing element to them,” Murphy said. “If you look back in the state of Ohio even, maybe over the past 30 years, there’s been about $2 billion spent in this state across Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, (and) other cities on men’s professional (sports), and over the same periods it’s been $0 for women.”
Big step forward for soccer in The Land! ⚽️
The Cleveland Metroparks just approved a 13.6-acre land deal for a proposed stadium, part of Cleveland Soccer Group’s efforts to secure an NWSL expansion team.
Team bid results expected later this year! pic.twitter.com/h5ukBVHtQI
— I’m From Cleveland (@ImFromCle) September 19, 2024
Cleveland Metroparks purchased the roughly $4.2 million state-owned property, where the stadium will sit, from the Ohio Department of Transportation. CSG will fund the purchase, with the stadium remaining publicly owned. The purchase of this property, though, is contingent on CSG being awarded the NWSL expansion bid.
Some other potential expansion groups, such as a campaign that launched in Nashville last month, have not shared specific details on their own facilities plans. The local MLS club, Nashville SC, has however expressed interest in potentially sharing their stadium, Geodis Park.
(Top photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
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