Sports
'How did I get here?' To Princeton from Tibet, one tennis player's remarkable road
!['How did I get here?' To Princeton from Tibet, one tennis player's remarkable road 'How did I get here?' To Princeton from Tibet, one tennis player's remarkable road](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/02/09101735/0206_Fnu-1-scaled.jpg)
PRINCETON, N.J. — His name is Fnu Nidunjianzan. Except it’s not. Because Fnu isn’t technically a name; it’s an acronym. Fnu stands for First Name Unknown, and it’s how Tibetans, who don’t follow traditional first name/surname structure, identify themselves in order to fill out pesky documents, such as U.S. visas.
Nidunjianzan grew up playing tennis in Tibet. Or not exactly. Because there are no tennis courts in Tibet. This is partially because of the altitude. Tennis balls often deflate/explode on impact, which makes playing tennis a little tricky.
Fnu goes by Top. Not because of topspin, though that would be badass. No, it’s because his older sister, Fnu Youjia, fancied a South Korean rapper, Choi Seung-hyun, who went by T.O.P.
Fnu became Top and Top he remains.
Maybe one day his name will become household. Or maybe not. Tennis is a difficult business; only a tiny sample size of its athletes achieve enough to become part of the vernacular. But what Nidunjianzan already has done is extraordinary. In the 50 years since the ATP Tour started its singles ranking system, not a single player from Tibet had earned a single ranking point. Nidunjianzan has 20 of them, and ranks 869th in the world.
Sitting in a media studio built in one of the many subterranean floors of Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium, the 19-year-old Nidunjianzan considers his journey, which is only just beginning. “I do wonder sometimes, how did I get here?”
Nidunjianzan’s father, Nimazhaxi, is a former track and field athlete turned coach turned tourism director. He and his wife, Gasheng, believe sports provide a critical outlet for their children which, in this country, doesn’t sound terribly revolutionary. It is outlandish in Tibet. Not until 2022 did a Tibetan-born athlete compete in the Olympics. That stems partially from a long and complicated political history in which Tibet has spent decades seeking independence from China, but also from a mindset that values white-collar jobs over sport.
But Nimazhaxi saw sports as a mechanism to develop his son into a more well-rounded person, allow him to explore the concept of competition that rarely has a place in Tibet, and perhaps spread his wings beyond the country’s fairly closed borders. He didn’t push him to any one sport. Nidunjianzan visited mainland China. He tried pingpong, swimming, badminton, and eventually, very rudimentary tennis. Father and son self-selected – pingpong and badminton are practically prodigy sports in mainland China, and basketball didn’t exactly suit the vertically challenged Nidunkianzian. That left tennis.
Except for the one tiny rub: Tennis didn’t really exist in Tibet. When Nidunjianzan started hitting the ball, people would stop and stare curiously, unsure what exactly he was doing. Nimazhaxi took it upon himself to craft a rudimentary court for his son to play on. He also appointed himself his son’s coach. “He tried to teach me, but he was a track coach,” Nidunjianzan says. “He’d tell me how tennis translates to javelin, like throwing a javelin is just like swinging a tennis racket. Um, not really.” Between that and the balls that regularly went pffffzzzzt upon impact, Nimazhaxi soon realized that tennis and Tibet wouldn’t work.
Top Nidunjianzan is the first player from Tibet to earn a ranking point on the ATP Tour. He has 20 of them, and ranks 869th in the world. (Courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
When most people think of Tibet, they think of Mount Everest, located in the Himalayan sliver between Tibet and Nepal on the country’s western border. Nidunjianzan grew up in the capital city of Lhasa, on the other side of the country, neighboring China. It was there that Nidunjianzan and his mother relocated – to Chengdu, some 1,200 miles from home. Tennis was then and remains still a growing sport in China. Li Na became the first Chinese athlete to win a Grand Slam title when she won the French Open in 2011. But it was lightyears ahead of Tibet, and afforded the 6-year-old Nidunjianzan, who played at the Chengdu City Club, a chance to practice alongside players as old as 17.
By good fortune, Timmy Allin arrived in Chengdu around the same time as Nidunjianzan relocated there. Born and raised in Texas, Allin played tennis at the University of Utah. A three-time All Mountain West scholar-athlete, he was awarded a fifth-year academic scholarship to study Chinese at any university in China. He chose Chengdu and while studying, he also coached tennis on the side. He met Nidunjianzan in 2011 when the family sought out Western coaches to improve his game.
Allin long has been struck by the singularity of focus for children in China. “Your path is pretty much chosen,” he says. “You will go to school sometimes, and play tennis a lot.” That, however, didn’t necessarily create great tennis players, in Allin’s opinion.
The sport requires technique and skill, but also thrives off of creativity and the ability to adjust on the fly. The fundamentals-driven approach in China didn’t allow that side of the game to flourish. “What I’ve found is, the kids who stay in China tend to be more one-dimensional,” Allin says. “They could hit a wall for hours, play on the baseline, but it was almost robotic.”
Allin encouraged Nidunjianzan, who he thought had real talent, to broaden his horizons and invited him to his home in Dallas. “A sort of summer tennis camp,’’ Allin laughs. He helped Nidunjianzan and his mother work through the paperwork of getting a tourist Visa – Nidunjianzan’s mother mistakenly told a U.S. customs officer she intended to stay for three hours when she meant three months – and set them up with a place to stay and introduced them to American food. Subway was a big hit.
Nidunjianzan was wide-eyed at the various ethnicities and cultures in America and that, coupled with the tennis instruction, pushed him and his family to seek out a more permanent U.S. home. They landed on IMG Academy, which, before it became an all-sports behemoth, was founded by Nick Bolletieri as a tennis academy in Bradenton, Fla. Nidunjianzan arrived as an 8-year-old, granted an exception to enroll before the typical admissions age of 10.
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Young Top Nidunjianzan meets tennis great Pete Sampras. (Courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
Nidunjianzan and his mother moved into an apartment right next to the courts. In the mornings, he woke to the sound of tennis balls ricocheting around the court, and often a view of a pro – Maria Sharapova, Sebastian Korda, Denis Shapovalov – practicing. For a kid raised in a country without even a court, it felt like some sort of tennis paradise.
Most days, Nidunjianzan practiced two hours with other athletes, and then spent an additional hour with private coaching from Pat Harrison, who ran the pro division. In between he worked with tutors to improve his English and attended classes. Gasheng, his mother, spoke no English. A few times a month, Nidunjianzan’s sister flew to Florida – she was attending college in Boston at the time – to help with grocery shopping and other mundane chores, but much of the day-to-day life navigation was left to Nidunjianzan.
The pair would go months without returning to Tibet, which meant months apart for Nidunjianzan from his father, and Gasheng from her husband. Strangely, the sacrifice contributed to Nidunjianzan’s success as a tennis player. There is no place to hide on a tennis court, no teammate to blame, or coach to offer a bailout. “Some people crack, some stay the same and some have an ability to elevate under pressure,’’ Harrison says. “Top always had an aptitude for handling pressure situations.”
Yet Nidunjianzan also carried that pressure with him. Though his parents never forced him to do anything, there is an implied expectation with cleaving a family in two and moving across the world to pursue tennis. At one point, Nidunjianzan felt it. The wins weren’t coming with the rapidity to which he’d grown accustomed, and he knew he needed a reset. “I had to stop and think. There’s more to life than just tennis, and I can’t put everything into it,” he says.
Opting for one of the nation’s best academic institutions might seem counterintuitive to alleviating pressure. To Nidunjianzan, heading to Princeton made perfect sense. Well, at least once he decided he’d be going to college.
At IMG there are essentially two tracks – turn pro or go to college. For years, Nidunjianzan was on the first track, with plans to become a prodigy teenager on tour. But only the rarefied few really bolt out of their teens and into the tennis stratosphere. Nidunjianzan and his family thought long and hard about the decision. Though he’d been living away from home for years, there was more sacrifice in the singular pursuit of tennis, with no promise of a payoff.
College tennis players can compete in professional tournaments, but also have the luxury of working out the kinks of their game when it’s not yet their full-time job. For Nidunjianzan, that boils down to harnessing the power in his game – crafting a more reliable serve and improving his transition game. “You get the chance to work on your education, fill the holes of your game and take a year or two to gain even more experience,” Harrison says. “The tour can be pretty lonely. It’s year-round, with no real break. That’s incredibly difficult.”
Nidunjianzan admits he needed a little convincing. Like any athlete, achieving the pro ranks is the ultimate goal, and a detour at first felt like a step backward.
That has not been the case. Along with amassing an 18-10 record and earning first-team All-Ivy recognition playing No. 1 singles (and shouldering the inherent pressures that come with that position), Nidunjianzan won his first professional singles title last year. In Huntsville, Ala., the unseeded Nidunjianzan blew past three seeded opponents, including one-time NCAA singles champion Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, to win the title. He then earned a spot in the quarters at a tourney in Germany and rounds of 16 appearances in events in Italy and Spain.
Nidunjianzan missed much of the fall because of a wrist injury – though that afforded him the chance to go home to Tibet for the first time in four years – and hopes this spring to build on what he accomplished a year ago. Top players at the collegiate ranks earn wild cards to the ATP events, and for Nidunjianzan, that would be the perfect transition from where he is, to where he wants to go. “Chinese tennis, I don’t think it’s anywhere near where it could be,” he says. “That’s my dream: to be the player that makes it come along.”
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photos: Courtesy of Princeton)
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Sports
Transfer window roundtable: Debating the best, worst and most surprising deals of the summer
![Transfer window roundtable: Debating the best, worst and most surprising deals of the summer Transfer window roundtable: Debating the best, worst and most surprising deals of the summer](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/08/30125942/3008_TransferWindowRoundtable.jpg)
The transfer window has… closed.
For Europe’s leading football clubs, the chance to revamp, reshape and — in certain cases — reduce their squads is over, until January at least. It was another busy summer for Chelsea, while after years of bringing in significant funds by selling players, Brighton & Hove Albion transformed themselves into a buying club, spending almost £200million ($263m) to give new manager Fabian Hurzeler plenty of options.
Arsenal lured Euro 2024 luminaries Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino to north London, Liverpool added Federico Chiesa to Arne Slot’s attacking options, and Manchester United were seen making some potentially sensible additions to their squad in their first summer of the INEOS era.
But who was the best buy? Who should have moved but didn’t? And which transfers went completely under the radar? Five of The Athletic’s writers offer their thoughts on another big-money summer.
Who was the best signing?
Mark Carey: Taking Kylian Mbappe out of the equation, I’m going for Joshua Zirkzee. I may live to regret it, but Zirkzee could be a key cog in the Erik ten Hag system, stitching Manchester United’s attack together more coherently than Bruno Fernandes’ hero-ball attempts. Zirkzee is not an out-and-out goalscorer, but he brings others into play beautifully. With a bit of time, he could have a major impact on United’s attack.
Oliver Kay: It’s weird. Nearly £2billion has been spent in the Premier League but I can’t really think of many deals that make me think, “Wow, that will definitely work.”
The ones that could work out best are some of the younger players, such as Yankuba Minteh to Brighton, Leny Yoro to Manchester United and Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall to Tottenham Hotspur. But in all those cases — and many others — they are big, big fees invested in potential rather than certainty. I like Liverpool’s deal for Federico Chiesa at that price, but there is a risk. For certainty, you’re probably looking at West Ham United’s deals for Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Maximilian Kilman. Boring, I know.
Archie Gray, Tottenham’s 18-year-old signing (Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
Seb Stafford-Bloor: Bergvall is an extraordinary talent. One of the benefits of Tottenham competing in the Europa League this season is that whether he gets Premier League minutes or not, Bergvall will have the opportunity to play and develop into something truly special. It’s rare to find skill, size and the ambition to change games all in the same player at that age, rarer still given that he had never played outside of Sweden’s Allsvenskan. He will evolve quickly, I’m certain of it, and that €10million (£8m; $11m) will be money extremely well spent.
James Horncastle: When a player who everyone expects or projects to go ends up staying, isn’t that like a signing? Nico Williams committing to Athletic Bilbao caught my attention, as did other examples of Basque loyalty, such as Martin Zubimendi turning down Liverpool to remain at Real Sociedad. Elsewhere, Roma fans descended en masse to Paulo Dybala’s house to thank him for refusing a salary package worth €75m from Al Qadsiah. If ever there was a player for whom Francesco Totti’s No 10 shirt should be passed down, it’s him.
Thom Harris: There are plenty that I really like across the continent. Teun Koopmeiners will bring luxurious technique and flexibility to Thiago Motta’s new-look Juventus, Yaser Asprilla should bring spark and creativity to Girona, while Paris Saint-Germain have snapped up one of French football’s brightest stars in Desire Doue. My favourite is closer to home, though — Mats Wieffer to Brighton. Constantly demanding the ball, he’s the box-to-box engine Hurzeler needed. He has the forward drive to bring the ball upfield and cause damage in the final third, too. At 24, there’s plenty of time for him to evolve into a real game-changer in the Premier League.
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Will Mats Wieffer be a game-changing option for Brighton? (Warren Little/Getty Images)
What was the most surprising signing?
Kay: Newcastle signing Nottingham Forest’s unwanted backup goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos for £20million was certainly… surprising. Forest signing Elliot Anderson from Newcastle for £35million was also surprising. Likewise some of the players moving between Aston Villa, Chelsea and Everton just before the end of the financial year. Yes, the transfer window is full of surprises.
![go-deeper](https://cdn.theathletic.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=128,height=128,fit=cover,format=auto/app/uploads/2024/06/24142635/swapdeals-1024x683.png)
GO DEEPER
PSR-friendly homegrown deals jar with the moral fabric of football
Horncastle: Where do we start? The shameless June 30 shenanigans in England? Roma signing a Saudi player from the Saudi Pro League? The other free transfer in the Mbappe family this summer (Ethan to Lille)? How about Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui to Manchester United? Don’t get me wrong, they are both fine players, but I thought Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new recruitment structure was supposed to be more original than allowing the coach whose position they seriously considered at the end of last season to continue reassembling his Ajax team from 2019. A positive surprise was Che Adams’ move to Torino, not to mention his instant impact, scoring the winner in a 2-1 win over Atalanta.
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Che Adams has swapped English football for Serie A (Nicolo Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Stafford-Bloor: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea. Relationships matter in football but the £30million fee was a surprise, as was Dewsbury-Hall’s willingness to walk into a situation that is unlikely to end with him playing every week. Whatever faith Enzo Maresca has in him, that surely pales in comparison to the vested interest the Chelsea owners have in watching Enzo Fernandes, Moses Caicedo and Romeo Lavia starting in midfield, or any number of pricier options playing in those wide forward positions in his place. Hopefully, that proves misguided — he is a good player, he could become an England international — but he seems destined to be on loan at Everton within a year.
Harris: Rayo Vallecano have done this kind of thing before — it was around about this time three years ago that they signed Radamel Falcao — but I can’t really believe they’ve pulled off a deal for James Rodriguez. His club form has continued to wander in the past few years, but the 33-year-old was by far and away the best player at this year’s Copa America, registering six assists as he inspired Colombia’s run to the final. His left foot is still made of gold and Rayo are picking up a player motivated to keep match fit for the World Cup in 2026.
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Can James Rodriguez bring his Copa America form to La Liga? (Irina R Hipolito/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Carey: It has to be Evanilson going from Champions League-battling Porto to Bournemouth. It’s a great coup for Andoni Iraola’s side and financially softened by the sale of Dominic Solanke, but it shows the pulling power of the Premier League. The Brazilian was averaging one goal every two games in Portugal, a similar return at Bournemouth would do very nicely.
Which club had the best window?
Stafford-Bloor: A left-field pick: RB Leipzig. Keeping Xavi Simons for a second season was extremely important and the addition of Antonio Nusa was bold and cleverly done — nobody knew about it until it was ready to be announced, with Club Bruges sworn to secrecy. Further back, 18-year-old midfielder Assan Ouedraogo is one of the brightest prospects in German football and the club are also excited about signing Arthur Vermeeren from Atletico Madrid. Yes, Dani Olmo has departed, but €60million was a big fee for a player who started just half of Leipzig’s games last season. Benjamin Sesko and Lois Openda are both still at the club, too.
Harris: It has to be Brighton, doesn’t it? Owner Tony Bloom has finally dipped into some of the transfer profit over the last few windows and has picked up some prolific one-on-one dribblers to elevate the side on the transition. Minteh and Brajan Gruda are particularly exciting.
In Spain, Villarreal have recruited well and built a deep squad with plenty of interesting profiles under Marcelino; Willy Kambwala and Logan Costa look like astute reinforcements in defence, while young forward Thierno Barry will enjoy the service of assist-king Alex Baena after his move from Basel. All of that should allow them to push for Champions League qualification without any European football to contend with this season, even if the late departure of Arnaut Danjuma to top-four rivals Girona undoes much of their good work in the summer.
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Yankuba Minteh should prove an astute pick-up for Brighton (Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Horncastle: Not to labour the anti-consumerist point, but I like teams that spent the summer focusing on retention. National champions in less-resourced leagues (Bayer Leverkusen and Inter Milan) kept their best players. Mehdi Taremi’s free transfer to San Siro is straight out of the playbook of Inter president Giuseppe Marotta.
Where buying is concerned, Chelsea made Brighton cash-rich in a league otherwise constrained by profit and sustainability rules (PSR). The Ferdi Kadioglu, Georginio Rutter and Minteh signings are all good fun. Juventus have gone big in part because they have been able to sell players from their ‘Next Gen’ reserve team for pure accountancy profit. Scarily, Motta already has them playing excellent football without integrating new signings beyond Juan Cabal. Motta has limited himself to promoting more kids from their brilliant youth scheme.
Honourable mentions in selling terms for Manchester City (Julian Alvarez) and the much-derided Manchester United who, credit where it is due, have belatedly learned the art of the sale. Atalanta have been typically excellent across the board, too.
Kay: Again, I can’t really get carried away with excitement about any club’s business. I’m inclined to say West Ham, who have signed Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Jean-Clair Todibo, Guido Rodriguez, Luis Guilherme, Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Fullkrug — but are those players guaranteed to make them that much better? I don’t think they are. Ditto Tottenham, Brighton, Nottingham Forest and others. I don’t see any club making the kind of jump that, say, Aston Villa and Bournemouth did last season.
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Wan-Bissaka has moved to West Ham from Manchester United (Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Carey: Trimming the fat is just as important as bringing in new blood and Tottenham have done well on that front. Waving goodbye to fringe players Oliver Skipp, Japhet Tanganga, Tanguy Ndombele, Ryan Sessegnon and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg means Ange Postecoglou has a sharpened focus in the squad. The youthful talents of Archie Gray, Bergvall and Wilson Odebert complement Solanke’s signing, making it a net positive for Spurs.
And which side had the worst window?
Kay: A lot of clubs haven’t addressed their greatest need: Liverpool and a deep-lying playmaker, Arsenal and a top-class centre-forward, Chelsea and Manchester United and various, Manchester City…? Well, they do lack depth in certain areas. But these are first-world problems, whereas Everton look very constrained. It’s nothing against the business they’ve done, but they needed three or four players who could come in and improve them immediately. With the appalling ownership situation dragging on, they’ve been unable to do that. There’s a lot of pressure on Tim Iroegbunam and (if it got through in time) Armando Broja to hit the ground running.
Carey: Don’t say Chelsea, don’t say Chelsea… I worry a little for Wolverhampton Wanderers, who have lost two key players in Kilman and Pedro Neto. I quite like the look of Yerson Mosquera at centre-back (returning from loan) and the arrival of Jorgen Strand Larsen up front, but Gary O’Neil’s squad has not improved from last season and that could be a concern.
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Pedro Neto could be a significant loss for Wolves (Gustavo Pantano | MI News)
Harris: It’s been sad to see some of last season’s over-performers picked apart — Girona and Bologna lost some of their biggest names despite an exciting Champions League campaign on the horizon. I fear for Stade Brest after their third-place finish in Ligue 1 last season. Influential midfielder Kamory Doumbia has returned to Reims, talented centre-back Lilian Brassier has joined Marseille and Ludovic Ajorque has been loaned in to lead the line after two goals in 15 starts for Mainz last year. With a handful of loan signings and just under €2million spent on a backup defender, they haven’t quite pushed on as I’d hoped.
Stafford-Bloor: Everton. This might be overly informed by their start to the season and how concerning their two defeats were, but it is hard to see too many positives — beyond getting rid of Neal Maupay and his preposterous villainy. It’s not that there is much wrong with Jake O’Brien, Iliman Ndiaye and Tim Iroegbunam, and Jesper Lindstrom on loan could prove a smart move, but are any of those players going to alter the mood at Goodison Park? They are how Everton chose to spend the Amadou Onana money, but I want a bit more for my €50million.
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Horncastle: Barcelona’s registration issues and the associated release of Ilkay Gundogan were embarrassing. Newcastle paid ‘how much?’ for Vlachodimos to be their third-choice goalkeeper and then developed a Marc Guehi obsession that amounted to nothing. Aston Villa were delighted to sign Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea only to leave them out of their first two squads and send the pair out on loan. Anyone who did deals that were finance first, football second gets marked down here.
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Ilkay Gundogan’s return to Manchester City has helped Barcelona register the likes of Dani Olmo (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
The deal you wanted to happen that didn’t
Stafford-Bloor: Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong was available and affordable, but a move never happened. Beyond Frimpong’s obvious virtues — his attacking contributions, his timing, his speed and skill — he played all manner of roles for Leverkusen last season. Wing-back, winger, briefly even No 10, that versatility would have been an asset somewhere and Frimpong’s effervescent personality might have been fun in England or Spain.
Horncastle: Matt O’Riley to Atalanta. He would have been perfect for Gian Piero Gasperini but ended up at Brighton.
Harris: Richard Rios shone for Colombia at the Copa America, an energetic midfielder with street-football skills and defensive bite. There were a few weak links to Premier League sides but the 24-year-old remains at Brazilian champions Palmeiras for another summer.
Carey: Liverpool have enough in their squad to deal with Arne Slot’s midfield demands but having Zubimendi in the Premier League would have been hugely fun to watch. The metronomic control, the effortless passing and the joyous technique are something all fans want to see, but the Spaniard remained loyal to his local team, Real Sociedad — which you cannot begrudge.
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Kay: I sometimes shudder when a top-class player comes to the Premier League at the tail-end of his career. It isn’t the 1990s anymore and such moves rarely go well these days — Bastian Schweinsteiger’s brief spell at Manchester United is a classic example — but I enjoyed the suggestion that Mats Hummels might fancy a swansong at Brighton. Is it still a possibility? I hope so.
The players who will be most upset at not moving
Carey: You could pick any number of Chelsea players. Maresca’s assessment of those frozen out has been honest and brutal when pushed on the topic. “At the moment the transfer window closes, they are not going to get minutes. I’ve already been clear with them and honest and this is the only reason.” No ambiguity there.
Kay: First of all, I’m glad Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho got their loan moves to Arsenal and Chelsea respectively. Both are talented enough to get back on track after a miserable two or three years since their previous transfers, even if Sancho seems to be swapping one dysfunctional club for another. I wonder whether Ben Chilwell will look at those moves and regret staying at Chelsea. It’s up to him whether he can force his way back into their plans or end up as the next Winston Bogarde.
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Raheem Sterling was left in Chelsea’s ‘bomb squad’ this summer but moved to Arsenal on deadline day (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Stafford-Bloor: Jonathan Tah. He seemingly had his heart set on a move to Bayern Munich and had agreed to it weeks ago, but the back and forth between the clubs never led to anything — other than a public spat between Max Eberl, Bayern’s board member for sport, and Fernando Carro, Leverkusen’s CEO. Still, Tah might be in the right place. Beyond Leverkusen being defending champions and Bundesliga favourites, Xabi Alonso’s back three probably suits him better than the centre-back pairing Vincent Kompany is using. Tah has entered the final year of his contract and appears unwilling to sign an extension.
Horncastle: Will Adrien Rabiot be upset he still doesn’t have a club? He’s a free agent and has gone from enigma to sure thing these past two years. Guess Madame Rabiot (his mother, Veronique, is his agent) will have to compromise on salary and signing on fee.
Harris: Las Palmas goalkeeper Alvaro Valles caught the eye with his outstanding reflexes and nerveless distribution last season — he took 791 touches outside of his penalty area in his debut La Liga campaign, which is 451 more than any other ‘keeper in the division. The 26-year-old has one year remaining on his deal but made it clear from the start of the window that he had no intention of signing a new contract but Las Palmas failed to find a suitable buyer as deadline day dawned.
The transfer that passed you by
Kay: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s move to Saudi Arabia, his fourth transfer in two and a half years, is a development so predictable that I completely missed it.
Stafford-Bloor: Youssoufa Moukoko joining Nice. He and Borussia Dortmund had been bound for divorce for some time and it has long been clear that he was not developing as he should and that he was not going to get the game time to correct his career trajectory. And while plenty was written about his transfer situation, much of it without basis, it became easy to tune out the stories and focus instead on where Dortmund were headed next — to Serhou Guirassy and Max Beier, ultimately. But there he is in Nice and that feels like a good place — and league — for a personal re-boot.
Horncastle: Several of the players Chelsea have stockpiled. PSG doubling down on youth. They’ve spent €150m on Joao Neves, 19, Doue, 19, and Willian Pacho, 22. I also love a comeback story. Alexis Sanchez has returned to Udinese and James Rodriguez is in Madrid again with Rayo Vallecano.
Harris: The Turkish Super Lig is always a treasure trove for deals like this, but I didn’t initially see Ciro Immobile’s move to Besiktas. The 34-year-old is one of just eight players to score more than 200 goals in Serie A and I’m sure he’ll continue to find the back of the net as he approaches the twilight of his career.
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Ciro Immobile is now operating in Turkey (Seskim Photo/MB Media/Getty Images)
Carey: Enzo Le Fee to Roma is a lovely bit of business that I missed. The 24-year-old is something of an analytics darling, but his technical ability is something to behold and it is great to see him make the move to Serie A.
A deal you think might happen in January…
Carey: Surely there has to be more chaos at Chelsea in the winter months? Expect to see several attacking players’ minutes limited, leading to some short-term loans in January.
Kay: I don’t know why, but I have the strangest feeling that Nottingham Forest will sign a middling international goalkeeper.
Harris: Barcelona’s Marc Bernal suffered a devastating anterior cruciate ligament tear at Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday, leaving Hansi Flick without a natural pivot at the base of midfield. I imagine that we’ll see Pedri, Marc Casado, Pablo Torre and maybe even defender Eric Garcia trialled there before Barca cut their losses and find their latest Oriol Romeu to see them through the winter.
![](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/08/30123348/GettyImages-2169013138-scaled.jpg)
Will Marc Bernal’s injury impact the January window? (Diego Souto/Getty Images)
Horncastle: Picture the scene: Romelu Lukaku invites Sky UK into his apartment overlooking the Bay of Naples. Relations with Antonio Conte aren’t what they were in the past. He misses… the green fields of Cobham, the crowded Chelsea gym, the feeling he could be sent out on loan at any time. He’d like to play for Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, but at the same time, he feels like he’s still got unfinished business with Chelsea…
Stafford-Bloor: Scott McTominay. Loan. Nottingham Forest.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
Sports
Booger McFarland points finger at Clemson's 'same stale offense' amid program's streak of disappointments
![Booger McFarland points finger at Clemson's 'same stale offense' amid program's streak of disappointments Booger McFarland points finger at Clemson's 'same stale offense' amid program's streak of disappointments](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/11/Booger-McFarland.jpg)
The Clemson Tigers faced a tough test in their season opener.
Head coach Dabo Swiney and the Tigers traveled to Atlanta for Saturday’s matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs — a team that’s won two of the past three College Football Playoff National Championships.
Clemson’s 34-3 loss to the Bulldogs was one of the most lopsided defeats of Swiney’s tenure. The loss sparked numerous questions about the direction of the program, but ESPN college football analyst Booger McFarland shared his thoughts on what he believed has contributed to the Tigers’ shortcomings in recent years.
Former NFL player and current NFL analyst Booger McFarland looks on before the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders at Lincoln Financial Field on November 14, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
From McFarland’s point of view, a lack of creativity on the offensive side of the ball has held Clemson back. The Tigers only managed to produce 188 total yards of offense on Saturday.
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“I’m afraid to say it’s the same old thing,” McFarland during Saturday’s broadcast. “[There is] no creativity on offense. It’s been the same stale offense for four or five years. … If you’re a Clemson fan, you have to ask yourself, when are we going to change?”
Swiney’s approach to the transfer portal has been widely criticized. McFarland suggested that Swiney’s roster building philosophy would need to change in order for Clemson to have the most competitive roster possible.
![Dabo Swinney looks on field](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/Dabo-Swinney-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney on the field before a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)
“Dabo chooses not to [use the portal], therefore, you’re going to have those lulls in the program,” McFarland said. “And I’m afraid, right now, they have a little bit of a lull.”
![Cade Klubnik throws a pass](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/Clemson-Tigers-football.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Aug 31, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik (2) throws a pass against the Georgia Bulldogs in the first quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)
Swiney was asked about the transfer portal after the blowout loss.
“People are going to say whatever they want to say,” Swinney said, via ClemsonWire. “It doesn’t matter what I say. People are going to say whatever they’re going to say. And when you lose like this, they’ve got every right to say whatever they want to say. So, say whatever you want to say, write whatever you want to write. That comes with it. That’s just part of it.”
Swiney and the Tigers will have an opportunity to get back on the winning track on Sept. 7 when they host Appalachian State.
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Sports
San Francisco 49ers rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall shot during attempted robbery in Union Square
![San Francisco 49ers rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall shot during attempted robbery in Union Square San Francisco 49ers rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall shot during attempted robbery in Union Square](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ccdd74e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5472x2873+0+388/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb1%2Fc3%2F4cae24c54dfbb359c1907ed6e38d%2Fap24131766148697.jpg)
Ricky Pearsall, the San Francisco 49ers’ rookie wide receiver and first-round draft pick, was shot during an attempted robbery in the city’s Union Square on Saturday afternoon.
Pearsall was stable, according to Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s office, which has been in communication with the San Francisco Police Department, and a suspect has been taken into custody. Peskin represents Union Square, a downtown district known for its high-end shopping, hotels and restaurants.
Mayor London Breed’s office said she was en route to San Francisco General Hospital, where Pearsall was taken for treatment.
“This afternoon, there was an attempted robbery in Union Square involving San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall and he was shot,” Breed wrote on social media. “SFPD was on scene immediately and an arrest of the shooter was made. My thoughts are with Ricky and his family at this time.”
San Francisco police officials issued a statement saying officers responded to a shooting at approximately 3:37 p.m. near the intersection of Geary Street and Grant Avenue, close to boutique shops such as Dolce & Gabbana and Saint Laurent.
“Upon arrival, officers located two male subjects suffering from injuries. Officers rendered aid and medics transported both subjects to a local hospital for further medical evaluation,” the statement said. “The suspect is in custody, and charges are pending at this time.”
Peskin said police told him the suspect tried to rob Pearsall of his Rolex watch, and that “Ricky wasn’t having any of it.”
A struggle ensued, Peskin said, and both Pearsall and the suspect “managed to get shot.”
Peskin said he was assured that Pearsall “does not have any life-threatening injuries.” He was shot in the chest, but the bullet did not hit any major organs.
The suspect was shot in the wrist, Peskin said.
Pearsall played for Arizona State and the University of Florida in college. The 49ers drafted him in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. He was sidelined with a shoulder injury during much of the NFL preseason.
The 49ers are scheduled to open their season against the New York Jets on Sept. 9.
“He’s good,” 49ers teammate Deebo Samuel wrote on social media after the shooting. “Thank god!!!!”
This is a developing story.
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