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'One of the worst things': How Grigor Dimitrov shook off 'Baby Fed' label to find himself

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'One of the worst things': How Grigor Dimitrov shook off 'Baby Fed' label to find himself

A decade has passed since Grigor Dimitrov announced himself to the wider tennis world. It was the summer of 2014, and in the space of a few weeks, Dimitrov won the title at Queen’s and beat defending champion Andy Murray at Wimbledon, to reach the semifinals. He was 23 — gregarious, glamorous and the boyfriend of tennis royalty in Maria Sharapova.

Such was Dimitrov’s talent and magnetism that he was quickly hailed as the future of the sport. With his silky-smooth technique and single-handed backhand, he was even given the nickname “Baby Fed” — no small name to live up to, at a time when Roger Federer had already won seven of his eight Wimbledon titles.

It’s a comparison that Dimitrov came to strongly dislike.

“Honestly, I found it funny at the beginning, and then I started… not hating it but I didn’t like it because there was no point to it,” he tells The Athletic 10 years on from that spectacular summer. “We’re so different and we have some resemblances but we’re really not the same people and I think it was so unnecessary. One wish I would have for a young kid is not to be compared to someone. I think it was probably one of the worst things I had to deal with in my career.

“I never liked it and it never brought me any good. Of course I’m flattered but I always wanted to be my own person.”

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Grigor Dimitrov in the 2014 Wimbledon semifinal that he lost to Novak Djokovic. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

A decade on from his first Grand Slam semifinal, still the furthest he has ever gone at a major, Dimitrov’s story arc has an enticingly simple shape that is not representative of everything that constitutes it. From a distance, it appears to trace a classic case of someone being overhyped, unable to fulfil their rich potential: a player who made three Grand Slam semifinals and four further quarterfinals, but never kept the promise of winning one.

In reality, it’s more complicated, illustrated by the fact that Dimitrov will arrive at Wimbledon next week looking rejuvenated and, despite a disappointingly early exit at Queen’s last week, playing possibly the best and most consistent tennis of his career since the dog days of summer 2014. There have been notable highs as well as the crushing lows in the Bulgarian’s last decade: Dimitrov reached those other Grand Slam semifinals, at the Australian Open in 2017 and the US Open in 2019, and after that January 2017 run in Melbourne, he ended the year by winning the ATP Finals and securing a career-high ranking of No 3.

Now, he is back in the world’s top 10 for the first time in six years; 2024 has brought his first title since 2017 and a final in Miami that he reached by dismantling Carlos Alcaraz along the way.

He has been one of the tour’s most reliable performers all year, reaching the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in May to make it a last-eight appearance at all four Grand Slam tournaments, even if the nature of his ultimate exit, a heavy straight-sets defeat to Jannik Sinner, felt disappointingly reminiscent of many of his defeats in the latter stages of Grand Slams: a loss to a higher-ranked and ultimately better player.

Back in 2014, that was also the story of his Wimbledon semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic, and even if a decade on he is not the Grand Slam champion that everyone assumed he would become, at 33 that door is not yet closed. At Wimbledon, he will be among a select few top players who feels comfortable on grass.  

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“It’s been great so far,” he says. “I’ve done a lot of things right, and I feel in a good place.”


A strong end to 2023 foreshadowed Dimitrov’s positive 2024, including a semifinal and a final at the Shanghai and Paris Masters respectively. Those results brought him a year-end ranking of No 14, comfortably his best since 2017; in the intervening seven years, his year-end ranking has bobbed frustratingly between No 19 and No 28.

Dimitrov puts his upturn down to a combination of factors: a new coaching team; a change in mentality; and learning to best deploy the fitness and experience he has accumulated over his 16-year professional career.

Dimitrov has been working with Andy Murray’s former coach Jamie Delgado since the end of 2022, when he also brought back former charge Dani Vallverdu. Vallverdu is another of Murray’s previous coaches, and a man with whom Dimitrov has tended to enjoy his best results.

“Jamie’s been amazing,” Dimitrov says.

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“He has so much experience, that he really helps me to look at myself from a different perspective. That automatically gives me a good mentality to look forward and experience the game a bit differently.”

Dimitrov adds that he’s always been self-critical, ever since he was a kid being put through his paces by his dad. “I get very hard on myself and he (Delgado) is the one who always keeps me on a good level, to navigate myself a bit more.”


A typically silky volley during his Miami Open run this year. (Michele Eve Sandberg / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The highlight of 2024 so far was a 6-2, 6-4 thumping of then Wimbledon, and now French Open, champion Alcaraz in the Miami quarter-finals in March. The shellshocked Spaniard said afterwards that: “He made me feel like I’m 13 years old. It was crazy. I was talking to my team saying that I don’t know what I have to do. I don’t know his weakness.”

Dimitrov laughs when reminded of the “13 years old” quote, and says it was one of those rare matches when every single thing you try comes off. Coming from as skilled a shotmaker as Dimitrov, that rarity makes for one hell of a spectacle — including drop volleys on the stretch, screaming passing shots and return winners from both wings.

“I played an amazing match, it happens — when whatever you touch turns to gold,” Dimitrov says. “They’re very rare but when they come, take them, and that was one of those matches.

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“I know that when I’m playing tennis like that it’s extremely difficult to beat me. There was a reason I got to the final of that tournament.”

What’s it like being in that kind of zone? “It’s the flow, a state of mind,” Dimitrov says.

“It’s very difficult to achieve. It’s happened to me more than a few times in a career, but it’s very difficult to tap into on a daily basis. One of those things that once you’ve experienced it, it sucks when it doesn’t come again. You get so frustrated with it.

“I’ve heard so many athletes from different sports saying they’ve had it, and then they’ve never been able to have it again. I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones, that I’ve been able to do it a few times in my career.

“When you activate that mode you know nothing can go wrong.”

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To get to his current state of contentment, Dimitrov has had to endure some hardships.

The match that torments him the most is a five-set loss to Nadal in the Australian Open semi-final seven years ago. Even now Dimitrov can’t understand how he didn’t win, to the point that he misremembers what actually happened. In Dimitrov’s telling, “I was 4-2 up in the fifth,” but he wasn’t — the closest he got was two break points at 4-3 which would have left him serving for the match. Both of which were saved not by Dimitrov mistakes, but by Nadal playing out of his mind.

“The match with Rafa took me seven or eight months to get over,” Dimitrov says.

“I often felt like there were invisible powers that tipped it over. I was 4-2 up in the fifth and played an amazing… there was no way I could lose the match, and yet I lost the match.”

How did he finally get over it?

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“Mental strength, overall,” Dimitrov says.


Dimitrov and Nadal after that match that the Bulgarian still can’t comprehend. (Greg Wood / AFP via Getty Images)

“You try to build on your own experiences, ask yourself questions. I’ve always been a believer that you have to speak to someone — whether it’s professionals, family or friends — I think it’s a vital thing for us to do and that should come from within yourself. Talking doesn’t mean anything unless you make the first step.”

He ultimately rebounded in style, winning the 2017 ATP Finals that November — the biggest title of his career and his last until triumphing in Brisbane in January this year. Casting his mind further back, Dimitrov says that he is “a completely different person and player” from his original breakout in 2014.

The perception of him at that time was one of pure showbusiness. He was already rumoured to have dated Serena Williams when his relationship with Sharapova helped to make him one of the most talked-about players on the tour. Now, Dimitrov is philosophical about the direction his career has taken and what he’s learned from the last 10 years.

“A lot has changed,” he says. “There comes a point where I had to make some tough decisions on and off the court.

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“Sometimes with my coaching team, sometimes there were things I had to focus on outside of tennis. It’s life. For me, part of growing as a human is you have basic experiences, which I didn’t really have, being a tennis player.

“I always wanted to make sure that I did have those things and maybe that’s why at times they were taking me away from the game. But I definitely don’t regret it.”

Is that something away from the court?

“Things that don’t have much to do with the sport itself, which of course takes your mind away. Once your mind is going in a different direction, inevitably you get to a different place.”

Having spent so long navigating fulfilment on and off the court, does Dimitrov feel he has the right balance now?

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“I think so, but I don’t like to say balance because what does that really mean?” he asks.

“To be the best in the sport you have to be obsessed, that’s how it is. To a point where you don’t have much margin for error. So when you look from that perspective, it’s pretty difficult.

“But I think I’m navigating myself better with things, and I also know that at the moment I’m way closer to the end than the beginning, and that also gives you a very different perspective.”

Because of Dimitrov’s geniality off the court — he’s a very popular locker-room presence — and his lack of killer instinct in some of his biggest matches, it’s been tempting to characterise him as someone lacking ruthlessness. He doesn’t feel that way.

“If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be here right now. And I think to have it something must have happened with you — like a bad experience that pushes you over the edge, that after you’re like, ‘OK, we’re on now.’

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“I had that, of course. Both on and off the court. I had many of those experiences and I’m very grateful for them. Some of them have been extremely hard but it’s part of the game and part of life. I always link the game, our sport, to our life. I think they go hand-in-hand — it teaches you life as well.”


Sharapova and Dimitrov at Wimbledon in 2018. (TPN / Getty Images)

Part of that hand-in-hand relationship has led him to consider his views on what it means to be selfish and ruthless as a tennis player, whether in pursuit of wider goals or individual points, while still knowing how to behave. “Selfishness (for an athlete) goes without saying but it’s a fine line between it being a bad kind and a good kind,” he says. “I could have been more selfish with some decisions I had to make, but I’m contradicting myself a little bit because I always wanted to grow as a person, and now I’m kind of bitching on it.

“Ruthlessness, of course, that’s how it is. You want to win. You can be the nicest guy off the court but on it you can be a total… That’s the bit I find, I don’t know if it’s difficult with some players but I make sure I say something because I think it’s also vital for our sport to have a good etiquette in that way.”


Dimitrov takes his role as one of the more experienced heads on the tour seriously. He is part of the ATP Player Advisory Council for the second year running and outside of Djokovic is the oldest player in the world’s top 20. Dimitrov believes that tapping into all the experience he has accumulated means that “of late I’ve been able to win some matches maybe I shouldn’t”.

He also says he’s learned not to bother competing unless he’s ready to give everything. “The place where I’m at in my career, I have the luxury that I can pick and choose,” he says. That also allows him to be always looking for an edge, with more time to put any benefits into practice. He’s recently started working with a sleep consultant to help with one of the most important, and often overlooked, areas of a player’s wellbeing.

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Outside of tennis, Dimitrov enjoys pursuing his passion for art collection. “I have developed a very good relationship with some galleries — in England, in LA, so it’s been a really interesting time for me,” he says. Living in Monte Carlo, Dimitrov also enjoys driving cars and motorbikes; the relentlessness of the tennis circuit means he can only get back to his native Bulgaria two or three times a year.

For the moment, Dimitrov’s focus is on maintaining the good start he’s made to 2024 at Wimbledon. “This period is always a bit more tricky, with a few tough tournaments,” he says. “It’s the time of the year when you have to give everything you have.”

(Top photos: Shi Tang; Paul Gillam / Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic)

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Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

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Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card

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Mixed martial arts legend Jon Jones ended his retirement from UFC simply because he wanted a spot on the “Freedom 250” fight card at the White House in June. 

But, when UFC CEO Dana White announced the card during UFC 326 this past weekend, Jones wasn’t among the fighters. As a result, he has requested a release from his UFC contract. 

White was candid when asked about Jones following the UFC 326 card. 

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Jon Jones of the United States of America reacts after his TKO victory against Stipe Miocic of the United States of America in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024 in New York City.  ((Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images))

“Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousands times, was Jon Jones ever even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” White explained, per CBS Sports. “Some guy with Meta Glasses filmed him talking about his hips – that his hips are so bad. And I don’t know if you guys saw that flag football game where he can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Apparently, doctors say he should have a hip replacement.”

White added that “the Jon Jones thing is bulls—,” saying that he texted the fighter’s lawyer saying he would never be on the White House card despite Jones saying he was in negotiations for it. 

UFC ANNOUNCES CARD FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENT

The Meta Glasses incident White is referring to came from a viral video, where Jones, unaware he was being filmed, discussed issues with his hips to a fan. 

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On Monday, Jones composed a thorough response to White’s comments about him and the White House Card. He previously posted and deleted social media explanations, but Monday’s appeared to be his final statement on the matter. 

UFC President Dana White speaks after UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center on Feb. 21, 2026.  (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)

“Yes, I have arthritis in my hip and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones, who retired a heavyweight champion in 2025, said. “So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine and I’d be on the White House card? That doesn’t make sense. I even received stem cell treatment last week to get ready for the White House card, and training camp was scheduled to start today. I was preparing to be ready. 

“I understand business deals fall through sometimes, but going out publicly and saying things that aren’t true isn’t right. After everything I’ve given to the UFC, the years, the title defenses, the fights, hearing that I’m ‘done’ is disappointing. Especially when as recently as Friday UFC was calling me trying to get me on that White House card for a much lower number.”

Jones finished his statement by saying he “respectfully” asks to be released from his UFC contract.

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Jon Jones enters the ring before facing Stipe Miocic in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, New York. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

“No more spins, no more games. Thank you to the real fans who know what’s up,” he wrote. 

The UFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.

Jones is considered one of the best UFC fighters of all time, owning a 28-1-1 record, which includes his last bout with Stipe Miocic, knocking him out to take the heavyweight title belt. He is also a two-time light heavyweight champion. 

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With U.S. at war with Iran, political upheaval could engulf World Cup

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With U.S. at war with Iran, political upheaval could engulf World Cup

Twelve days ago the U.S., a World Cup host country, launched a full-scale bombing campaign against Iran, a country that has qualified to play in the tournament. That’s never happened before.

Five days later, that same World Cup host began military operations inside the borders of Ecuador, another World Cup qualifier, half a world away. That’s never happened before either.

With the tournament scheduled to kick off in three months, those events have soccer scholar Jonathan Wilson questioning whether it’s wise for the World Cup to go on at all.

“It seems to me, for each passing day, it’s less and less likely that the World Cup can happen,” he said.

That take seems unduly alarmist said David Goldblatt, a British sportswriter and sociologist who is a visiting professor at Pitzer College in Claremont. Anything short of a full-scale war inside the U.S. would not be enough to pull the plug on the tournament now, he said. Especially with FIFA expecting revenues of as much as $11 billion.

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“I mean, it’s not a good look,” Goldblatt conceded. “And certainly when set against FIFA’s official pronouncements on its role in encouraging world peace and cosmopolitan celebrations of a universal humanity, none of that sits terribly easily.

“But in terms of actually running the World Cup, I don’t think it’s going to make very much difference at all.”

However, with the Trump administration open to engaging in more international conflicts, there’s little doubt this World Cup, the largest and most complex in history, will also be the most political in history as well.

Complicating things further is the fact the current conflict in the Middle East hasn’t been limited to just the U.S. and Iran. Iranian missiles have hit both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, and Jordan has fired on U.S. assets.

Those three countries are World Cup qualifiers as well.

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The fate of a soccer tournament pales in importance to the death and destruction the conflagration in the Middle East has produced, of course. But the need for unity is the very reason there’s a World Cup in the first place.

When French soccer administrator Jules Rimet founded the tournament 96 years ago, he believed soccer could be a tool for international peace. And in the early years of the tournament, Rimet, FIFA’s longest-serving president and a talented diplomat, was able to limit the impact of geopolitics on the World Cup, watering down Mussolini’s influence on the 1934 World Cup, for example, and steering the 1938 tournament away from Hitler’s Germany.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has taken a far different approach, courting President Donald Trump’s support despite his growing number of global conflicts.

A week before bombs began falling on Iran, Infantino appeared at the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace wearing a red cap with ‘USA’ on the front and the numbers ‘45-47’ — a reference to Trump’s non-consecutive presidencies. That act was so blatantly partisan, IOC president Kirsty Coventry said her organization would investigate whether Infantino, an IOC member, breached the terms of the group’s charter, which requires members to act independent of political interests.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino holds up a USA hat as he attends the inaugural meeting for the Board of Peace at the Institute of Peace in Washington on Feb. 19.

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(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

“Infantino has absolutely breached every FIFA protocol on neutrality,” said Wilson, author of “The Power and Glory: The History of the World Cup.”

“Absolute neutrality is always impossible and not desirable, but it has clearly gone way, way, way beyond. The peace prize looked grotesque at the time. It looks even worse now. And I can’t see how the future will look kindly on Infantino. I think Infantino has to some extent legitimized Trump.”

This is hardly new behavior from Infantino, who had close relationships with Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2018 tournament played in Russia and Qatar’s leaders ahead of the 2022 tournament despite their well-known human rights violations.

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The list of countries Infantino is asking to overlook poor relations with the country hosting the majority of World Cup games this summer is growing.

Consider that Denmark, which administers Greenland, an autonomous territory Trump has also threatened to invade, can qualify for the tournament in a European playoff that will take place later this month. Then there’s World Cup qualifiers Haiti, Ivory Coast and Senegal, who aren’t at war with the U.S. but whose citizens have been banned from entering the country to cheer for their teams. That completely contradicts a promise from Infantino, who said “everybody will be welcome” at the 2026 World Cup.

“If I had a crystal ball I could tell you now what is going to happen,” Heimo Schirgi, the World Cup chief operating officer for FIFA, said Monday. “But obviously the situation is developing. It’s changing day by day and we are monitoring closely. [But] the World Cup will go on right? The World Cup is too big and we hope that everyone can participate that has qualified.”

Goldblatt, the Pitzer professor, said Infantino’s action are understandable since he has few cards to play against Trump.

President Trump speaks as he receives the FIFA Peace Prize while FIFA president Gianni Infantino applauds Friday.

President Trump speaks as he receives the FIFA Peace Prize as FIFA president Gianni Infantino applauds on Dec. 5 the Kennedy Center in Washington.

(Patrick Smith / Getty Images)

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“What’s Infantino going to do? What levers can you pull?” he asked. “You can threaten to take it away. That’s not happening. Moral admonishment? Who’s going to take that from FIFA? It is a farcical idea that anybody thinks that the president of FIFA has any kind of collective moral authority or any role as a spokesperson for the progressive part of the world.

“They may fantasize that this is the case. But it is morally and politically absurd that any of us should expect that of these people. So if you are Infantino and that is the case, you know what works with Trump? What works is flattery. So of course he’s gone down that path.”

The games, Goldblatt said, will go on even if bombs are still falling. And that may not be an entirely bad thing.

“Football’s a great distraction. That’s partly why it’s so popular,” he said. “It will be virtually impossible, if the war continues, for that not to be a central element of like, the meaning and the purpose of what we’re all doing here.

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“How we’ll feel and what it will look like, I don’t know. It will be very strange. Football is unpredictable and extraordinary. Something will happen that will warm our souls.”

You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

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Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players amid Iran conflict

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Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players amid Iran conflict

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Australia granted asylum to five players from the Iranian women’s soccer team who were visiting for a tournament when the U.S.-Israeli attacks against Iran began.

Australian federal police officers on Tuesday transported the five women from their hotel in Gold Coast, Australia, to a “safe location” after they made asylum requests to meet with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and to finalize the processing of their humanitarian visas.

“Last night I was able to tell five women from the Iranian Women’s Soccer team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here,” Burke said on X.

The move comes after the team refused to sing the Iranian anthem before their first Women’s Asian Cup match early last week against South Korea, although they later sang and saluted the anthem in two subsequent matches, including ahead of their final match, when they were eliminated by the Philippines.

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IRANIAN WOMEN’S SOCCER FANS SHOW SUPPORT FOR TRUMP AS TEAM APPEARS TO PIVOT ON NATIONAL ANTHEM STANCE

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke poses with five Iranian women soccer players who have been granted asylum in Australia, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Australia Ministry of Home Affairs)

“I don’t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night it was joy, it was relief,” Burke told reporters after signing the documents. “People were very excited about embarking on a life in Australia.”

The five women said they were happy for their names and pictures to be published, according to Burke, who emphasized that the players wanted to make clear that they were not political activists.

The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the tournament before the war against Iran began on Feb. 28.

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After the team was eliminated from the tournament over the weekend, they faced potentially returning to a country still under bombardment. The team’s head coach, Marziyeh Jafari, said on Sunday the players “want to come back to Iran as soon as we can.”

An official squad list named 26 players, as well as Jafari and other coaches.

While only five players were granted asylum, Burke said the offer was given to everyone on the team.

IRAN FLAG REMOVED FROM PARALYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY AFTER SOLE ATHLETE WITHDRAWS OVER TRAVEL SAFETY CONCERNS

Iran players during their national anthem ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAPImage via AP)

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“These women are tremendously popular in Australia, but we realize they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they’re making,” Burke said. “The opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to.”

It remains unclear when the remaining players will leave Australia.

“Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “They’re safe here and they should feel at home here.”

“They then had to consider that and do it in a way that did not present any danger to them or to their families and friends back home in Iran,” he continued.

The asylum offer came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday called on Australia to grant asylum to any team member who wanted it.

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Trump had blasted Australia on social media, saying Australia was “making a terrible humanitarian mistake” by allowing the team to be “forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.”

Supporters react towards a bus transporting Iranian woman players following their Women’s Asian Cup soccer match against the Philippines on the Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAP Image via AP)

“The U.S. will take them if you won’t,” Trump said, despite his administration’s efforts to limit the number of immigrants in the U.S. who can receive asylum for political purposes.

Just hours later, Trump praised Albanese in another post.

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“He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way,” Trump wrote.

Albanese said Trump had called him for “a very positive conversation,” about the issue. The prime minister said he explained “the action that we’d undertaken over the previous 48 hours” to support the women.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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