Browsing: worlds

Dec 11, 2025, 05:00 AM ETÃngel Di María and his Rosario Central being crowned as Argentina’s ‘league champions’ led to them being given a ‘guard of dishonour’ by rivals Estudiantes. Mateo Occhi/Getty Images

While Europe’s top leagues have stuck to the tried-and-tested round-robin league system to decide their champions, and others have added U.S.-style postseason playoffs that culminate in a grand final, some countries have taken a leftfield approach to determining how soccer teams are rewarded for their endeavours over the course of a season.

The final of this year’s Clausura championship in Argentina, pitting Estudiantes de la Plata against Racing Club, takes place on Saturday. Incredibly, this is one of eight matches that will crown a “champion” there this season.

Although Argentina may lead the way in baffling formats, it is not the only country with some unusual league rules.

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Eight ‘champions’ in one season?

For any fan, seeing your club become champions is the dream, the ultimate bragging rights, but that title loses some of its power when there are no fewer than eight “champions.” That is the case in Argentina where the recent introduction of yet another “champion” has caused controversy.

As is often the case in South America (and, oddly in Malta), Argentina has an Apertura and Clausura system. The season is split into two self-contained league championships, each with its own champion.

However, in Argentina this is the tip of the iceberg. There is also the Copa Argentina, a cup for all teams in the Argentine league system, but after that it all gets a little confusing.

The Trofeo de Campeones pits the winners of the Apertura and Clausura against each other, with the victor then taking on the Liga Profesional de Fútbol champions in the Supercopa Internacional. The winners of the Copa Argentina and the Liga Profesional de Fútbol also fight it out for the Supercopa Argentina (a Super Cup as contested in many nations). And, finally, we can’t forget the new Recopa de Campeones, a three-team tournament between the winners of the Copa Argentina, the Supercopa Argentina and the Supercopa Internacional.

Gracias Estudiantes. Esto es tener huevos.

Fin pic.twitter.com/NVyrkJEQep

— Lady Market (@ladymarketok) November 23, 2025

Into this deluge of champions, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) last month unexpectedly decided to add one more title — the “league champions” — to be bestowed upon the team with the most points in the Apertura and Clausura added together.

This proved to be the final straw for many, especially for the rivals of the new “champions” Rosario Central. Other sides claimed this new title had not been agreed, although the AFA disputed that, but the bad blood was clear when Estudiantes de la Plata were told to present a guard of honour for Rosario Central ahead of their Clausura knockout match. The Estudiantes players lined up but turned their backs to create a guard of dishonour. To rub it in, Estudiantes won the game 1-0, but club president Juan Sebastián Verón was suspended from all football-related activities for six months for his club’s show of protest.

It may come as little surprise, then, that relegation in Argentina is also a complicated affair. While one team is simply relegated for finishing with the least points accumulated in the Apertura and Clausura, another team is sentenced to the drop for having the lowest points-per-game average over the past three seasons.

Points halved?

If you are a fan of playoffs, you’ll love Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League. Just finishing top of the table is no guarantee of glory, as Union St.-Gilloise have found out twice in three years.

The top six at the end of the regular season enter a playoff stage, where their existing points tally is halved (with the total rounded up if necessary) and everyone plays another round of games. It is only after this stage that a champion is crowned. There are also protracted playoffs for European places and to decide who is relegated.

This format led to one of the most thrilling climaxes to a title race in recent years when, in the final five minutes of the season, Union St.-Gilloise and Genk were both destined to be crowned champions before Toby Alderweireld‘s stunning 20-yard strike at Genk sealed the title for Antwerp.

Enjoy this playoff madness while you can, because from 2026-27 a new format will come into place — a normal 34-game season where the title winner is just the team that has the most points at the end of it. Where’s the fun in that?

Points for losing?

The French overseas department of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean is home to AS Gosier, who have upset the odds by reaching the round of 64 of this season’s Coupe de France where they will face Ligue 1 side Lorient.

On the domestic front, AS Gosier’s record is impressive. In fact, it appears to be impossibly so, as they have a tally of 31 points from just nine matches this term. A quick bit of arithmetic would baffle any football fan used to the traditional awarding of three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss.

However, that is no misprint. In Guadeloupe’s Division d’Honneur, and also in the Championnat National of nearby Martinique, a winning side receives four points for a win, both teams get two points for a draw, and a losing side doesn’t go home empty-handed, they are awarded a point simply for showing up. It gives a whole new meaning to the concept of “a hard-earned point.”

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Midseason relegation?

In Moldova’s top flight, if a team’s season gets off to a poor enough start, it is relegated at the halfway point of the campaign and has to redeem itself by playing its way back up from the second tier.

After playing 21 games in Phase 1 of the 2025-26 Moldovan Liga campaign, Politechnica UTM and Spartanii Sportul were demoted to the second-tier Liga 1. But all is not lost as, over the course of Phase 2 of the season, they are playing to secure promotion back to where they started. That’s a promotion where the players probably don’t celebrate with an open-top bus parade.

A three-legged final?

The Caribbean islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis have an unusual three-legged final to decide the SKNFA Premier League champion.

The two teams play a best-of-three format, so if one side is victorious in the first two games, there is no need for the third.

That was the case this year when St Paul’s United twice beat Village Superstars 2-0, securing the silverware without requiring a decider.

Can we play you every week?

The Isles of Scilly is an archipelago off the southwest coast of England with a population of under 2,500 inhabitants. The Isles of Scilly Football League consists of just two teams: Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers.

These two teams play each other 20 times, on the Garrison football field on the island of St. Mary’s, to determine which are crowned champions. Wanderers are the reigning champions after winning their 17th title, but the Gunners have the edge all-time with 20 championships.

Just in case the two teams weren’t quite sick of each other, they also contest the two-legged Galley Cup, the Scillonian Club Cup and the Charity Shield every season.

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What next for Coleman after conquering his latest challenge?

“I’ve done some interesting things,” Coleman told BBC Sport Wales.

“I’ve done all of the Premier League grounds, I started in Southampton finished in Newcastle, that was good, I ran to Lisbon in Portugal for Euro 2004 and I did a lot of treadmill world records in 1998.

“I looked for things where I would stand out from other people and where I could make my mark as a runner.

“You have to play to your strengths, I’m not particularly quick, my marathon PB is three hours and 24 minutes so I’ve had to find somewhere where I could shine.

“Being able to run a marathon every day for 40 days, that’s my kind of thing.”

Coleman says for him running is all about mental resilience.

“I’ve set off 1229 times to run a marathon and I’ve never not finished, I’ve always somehow got to the finish line, sometimes really well, sometimes a struggle.

“My thing is about completing, not necessarily competing, but completing. I think that’s helped me through the dark times of life as well.”

Coleman is hopeful that his son can continue the family’s running journey.

“I’m running Marathon des Sables again with my son in April. He said he’d only ever do it once but he very quickly signed up, so maybe he’s going to follow in my footsteps a bit.

“I want to keep doing this as long as I possible can, I’m 64 next year, and as long as I can go and do the big multiway races and finish and still enjoy it, I want to do this for as long as possible.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a deeper underground marathon and hopefully I’ll be invited to go do that.

“Running really is part of life now and I can’t remember it not being part of it.”

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Pressure to perform. Golfers feel it. Golf course architects do, too.

“If I didn’t, then I’m in the wrong business,” Gil Hanse said the other day. “It would mean that I don’t care enough.”

His comments came in a conversation with Simon Holt on the Destination Golf podcast, recorded in late November in the clubhouse at North Berwick. The famous Scottish club is Holt’s home course and, as it happens, Hanse’s latest high-profile commission.

Listen to Gil Hanse on the Destinatrion Golf podcast here.

Word that Hanse and his longtime design partner, Jim Wagner, had signed on with North Berwick made headlines last month amid a particularly buzzy moment for architecture obsessives. GOLF Magazine had just finalized its newest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World, and North Berwick was one of the big climbers, jumping five spots to No. 25. Not bad for a course that, only a generation ago, flew largely under the radar.

North Berwick ranks 25th on GOLF’s latest World Top 100 list.

Graylyn Loomis

So much for anonymity. In recent years, North Berwick has gained widespread recognition for what it really is — a living museum of template holes whose DNA runs through designs around the globe. As its fame has grown, so has the sense that the course has been in good hands with Clyde Johnson and Chris Haspell as consultants. Which is partly why the club’s decision to bring in Hanse and Wagner grabbed the industry’s attention. At a club that is clearly doing so much right, what exactly could there be to change?

As North Berwick’s board made clear in its announcement, the mandate isn’t aimed at reinvention. It’s about polish and preservation. Some stretches of the property are under threat from coastal erosion — the green at Perfection, for instance, the famed par-4 14th, sits just paces from the bluffs. The charge for Hanse and Wagner is to help safeguard and refine what’s there, not redraw it.

Hanse described that as a welcome kind of pressure. Not fear-of-failure pressure, but the pressure that comes with a chance to get something important right. He and Wagner have earned trust in this arena with acclaimed work at The Country Club, Los Angeles CC, Seminole and more. Still, as Hanse tells Holt, North Berwick is its own animal. “You could make the case,” he says, “that it’s the most consequential piece of golf course architecture in the world.”

For more from Hanse on the wonders of North Berwick and his approach to restoration work on storied courses, you can listen to the entire episode here.

Scientists estimate that in roughly five billion years, the sun will exhaust its supply of hydrogen, swell into “Red Giant” status and begin its slow death — engulfing the Earth and the inner planets in a wall of fire and ending life as we know it in our solar system.

That’s the bad news for those of us on Earth, including our more than 30,000 golf courses.

The goodnews is that, as far as golf’s existential crises go, that’s not too urgent! Before we can get to the bottom of that first question — what to do about the sun in five billion years? — we should have plenty of time to figure out the otherexistential questions, like overseas investment from sovereign wealth funds, the threat posed by the slow march of distance gains and the struggle of keeping an old, slow sport relevant in an increasingly young, attention-deficient world.

But as it turns out, the sun still has some luster as a golf issue in 2025. It’s a big enough problem to have encouraged Jay Karen, the chief executive officer of the National Golf Course Owners Association of America (NGCOA), to speak before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Thursday morning. And as Karen explained to Congress, the opportunity for American golfers is night and day.

Much as I would like to continue making corny astronomy puns for the remainder of this story, the actual substance here is actually quite relevant to the day-to-day lives of American golfers: Daylight Saving Time, the annual tradition whereby (most of) America “falls back” and “springs forward” by an hour each year. DST plays a critical role in the health of the golf business — potentially a multi-billion-dollarrole, if you believe the NGCOA’s latest estimations.

That’s how Karen and the NGCOA found themselves before Congress, and why they are now on the front lines of the fight to make Daylight Saving Time full-time.

“Our data shows it would be at least a 1 percent uptick in the overall golf industry, and that’s at a minimum,” Karen said at the House Committee hearing. “I would estimate that [changing to permanent Daylight Saving Time alone would add] 2-5 percent in the golf economy overnight.”

The story of the movement for permanent Daylight Saving Time — and of the golf industry’s potential windfall — begins, like so many other American tales, on a battlefield in Europe.

The first U.S. experiment with Daylight Saving Time began in 1918 with the Standard Time Act, a law passed at the height of World War I aimed at encouraging energy conservation during the war effort. The legislation was controversial from the start. Farmers took to the streets to protest the loss of morning light and the spectacular annoyance of falling out of sync with the city folk who bought their products. The law was repealed shortly thereafter, and adopted again in the 1940s to assist the American effort in World War II.

In 1966, the national disagreement reached a tenuous compromise under the “Uniform Time Act.” The law installed America’s current half-DST, half-Standard Time approach — but the solution was a half-measure, and like many half-measures, it was tremendously unpopular with both sides of the debate.

The clock controversy quieted some in the 60s, but it never quite went away. In 1974, the U.S. government fiddled with permanent Daylight Saving Time to conserve energy usage during an oil shortage. (Voters detested the dark mornings, and the on-again, off-again system was reinstated.) In the ’80s and ’90s, a collection of consumer brands and citizen advocates formed the “Daylight Saving Coalition,” fighting for the return of permanent DST under the guise that it might bolster consumer spending. And in the early 2000s, the government expanded DST by an additional four weeks, giving Daylight Saving Time the majority of the annual calendar.

But none of these movements moved the needle quite as much as the quite-sudden effort that materialized in the U.S. Senate just three years ago, in March 2022, when legislators began debating a bill named the Sunshine Protection Act. The SPA, as it was called, was a simple text by congressional standards: It was just one page and a few hundred words in length. The goal was singular: To reinstate DST as the permanent law of the land, and it fell on sympathetic ears with the winter-weary Senate chamber.

After a brief debate, the SPA was put to a vote. The bill passed unanimously, receiving no shortage of social media fanfare. It was quickly sent to the House of Representatives for review and then forwarded to then-President Joe Biden’s desk for signing.

Inside Old Petty, Tom Doak’s new design in the Scottish Highlands

By:

Josh Sens

What happened behind closed doors in the days afterthat agreement remains a mystery, but what transpired in public is simple fact: The Sunshine Protection Act died on the House floor without ever receiving a vote. Some U.S. House members blamed “stalled momentum” for the inaction, while others said it simply wasn’t “a legislative priority.” Whatever the reason, the bill has stayed on the House floor without receiving a vote for more than three years, occasionally resurfacing for further investigation by smaller U.S. House “committees.”

On Thursday, Karen was invited to testify before one such group — the Committee on Energy and Commerce — on the potential impact of permanent Daylight Saving Time (or permanent Standard Time) on the golf industry. It did not take long for the head of the golf trade group to make his point.

“Our data shows that permanent Standard Time would cost the industry, at a bare minimum, $1.6 billion annually,” Karen said. “That’s approximately $200,000 lost in revenue per golf course, and 37 million lost rounds of golf.”

Karen said that golf depends upon what he calls “recreational daylight time,” or when the sun overlaps with people’s ability to be outdoors. American golfers overwhelmingly prefer to be outside in the afternoon and evening, which can generate 40 percent more revenue for courses than in the morning.

“It basically unlocks an amazing amount of inventory for the golf industry,” Karen said. “And that’s just the golf industry, but it translates to good health for Americans as well.”

According to the NGCOA, course operators agree that extra sun is good for business and golfers. The only concern, Karen said, was that a permanent shift to DST could affect some golf courses’ ability to give adequate time off to clubhouse staff and employees.

“A survey showed about 64 percent of our members support permanent Daylight Saving Time, while 83 percent agree that it would help their business,” Karen said. “Twenty-seven percent are for the status quo, and only 7 percent support permanent Standard Time.”

In the eyes of the NGCOA, there’s only one solution: If America is going to change its relationship with sunlight, a rollback (of the clocks) is needed.

“If we eliminate changing the clocks, we are in favor of permanent Daylight Saving Time,” Karen said.

At least for the next 4.9 billion years.

November 19, 2025 | Paul Stimpson

Kacper Piwowar heads to the World Youth Championships in Romania with the belief that he can challenge the best Under-15s in the world.

The Devonian is one of just 32 young athletes to have qualified from around the world, earning a spot based on his Junior world ranking.

Piwowar is ranked 21st in the field but, speaking during a preparation camp at the Elite Training Centre in Sheffield this week, said he is going in with the mindset of grasping the opportunity.

“Iâ€m feeling very good and I’m very proud to be at this tournament,†he said. “I don’t really have a target, I want to give my best because you don’t get these opportunities all the time and I want to try and make the most of it

“I want to just enjoy the moment and play my best game and see what happens. I think when it’s my day and I’m feeling good and I’m in the right headspace and I’m playing my right game – being smart and staying close – I think of course I can give anyone a good game.

“Thereâ€ll be lots of good players there, but hopefully Iâ€ll be feeling good when I arrive there and I can play my best.â€

Piwowar pinpoints the WTT Youth Contender in Norway in June as a crucial event which gave him the world ranking points to qualify – but he was a point away from elimination before pulling through.

Facing Iranâ€s Mobin Amiri – who will also be competing in Romania – Piwowar trailed 2-0 and 11-10 but won that game and fought back to take the deciding fifth 12-10, having saved another match point in that game. He went on to win another match and reach the quarter-finals.

“If I hadn’t won that match I wouldn’t have qualified for the Worlds,†he said. “I didn’t know it at the time, I was just trying to play my game, and I got the win.

“I won another round to get into the quarter-final and I knew that I had good (ranking) points and it would really help me. But I didnâ€t know until after the match (against Amiri).â€

Piwowar has been training in Sheffield with Paul Drinkhall and Gavin Evans, and sparring with partners including his older brother Jakub, who is the Junior national champion.

The tournament also features doubles – Piwowar will link up with Mark Gergely of Hungary in the Boys†and with Mariia Lytvyn of Austria in the Mixed.

He has had success on the WTT circuit this year, winning gold with Italyâ€s Maria Picu in Kosovo, and with Polandâ€s Natalia Wszolek in Serbia, plus a silver with the latter in Norway. He has also won a couple of bronzes alongside Abraham Sellado.

With Gergely having won a bronze at the European Youth Championships, the pair will have hopes of advancing through the competition in Romania – though Piwowar admits doubles is not something he has always focused on.

“I think over the last year I’ve had a few good results, but I wouldnâ€t normally say I was a good doubles partner,” he said. “I always hated doubles and never wanted to play doubles, but my dad just told me to try, because when I’m older in big tournaments, I’ll have to play doubles anyway.

“So I tried my best and just found a flow and played really well at a few tournaments. And I’ve got some good results.

“I treat it more like singles now, I take a bit more serious. Obviously the results help!â€

Both partnerships are new and Piwowar added: “Me and Mark have played a few times in singles, so we both know weâ€re very good players, and hopefully we can try to do something at the World Championships because he’s also a very good doubles player. And Iâ€m playing with Maria in Mixed. Itâ€s good to try something new and weâ€ll do our best.â€

Piwowar is the only English player there, but Wales†Anna Hursey is in the Under-19 competitions. She is the top-ranked player in the singles as she looks to add a world title to the double European Under-21 gold and the European Under-19 Singles title she won earlier this year.

Anna Hursey & Mia Griesel win the European Under-21 title in May

She again partners Mia Griesel of Germany in the Girls†Doubles – with whom she won that Under-21 title – and lines up with Romaniâ€s Iulian Chirita in the Mixed.

Piwowar said it was inspiring to have Hursey in the same GB pathway: “I think she’s a really good player, and she’s always so calm and she plays a game that I wish I could play, really close and fast. And she’s always composed.â€

The World Youth Championships begin in Cluj Napoca on Sunday with the team events, with the singles and doubles getting under way next Tuesday.

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Brazilian winger Denilson is often cited as one of the biggest transfer flops in recent history, following the winger’s world record £21.5million move from Sao Paulo to Real Betis in 1998.

That saw him break the record set by his international team-mate Ronaldo 12 months earlier and big things were predicted from the 21-year-old who had broken into the Brazil national side as a teenager and played in that summer’s World Cup final.

And while he would never quite live up to the potential of his lofty transfer fee during his time in La Liga, Denilson did notch up more than 500 club appearances, plus 61 caps for his country and was part of the victorious 2002 World Cup squad. But how did that big move come about, and what did it mean for him?

“In 1996, I got my first Brazil call-up,” Denilson recalls to FourFourTwo. “Suddenly, rumours of European clubs swirled. I was linked to Milan, Barça, Real Madrid, Manchester United. By 1998 things got serious. Then one day, Sao Paulo’s president summoned me and my former agent. That alone was terrifying for a kid, since contact with the president was rare.

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October 24, 2025 | Table Tennis England

International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) President and International Olympic Committee member Petra Sörling is very confident that London will stage the “best-ever†ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in 2026.

On Wednesday, Sörling, alongside an ITTF delegation including Steve Dainton, ITTF Group CEO, and Bart Vermoesen, ITTF Event Director, visited the capital to see how preparations are progressing with the sport already transforming lives in local communities.

Next yearâ€s tournament, 100 years on since London hosted the first edition, acts as a powerful full-circle moment which celebrates the sportâ€s heritage. Returning to its birthplace makes London 2026 a once-in-a-century celebration of the sportâ€s history, excellence and evolution.

Sörling said: “Iâ€m very confident that London will host the best-ever ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals next year. The city truly understands what it means to host great sporting moments, and the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships will not only celebrate the sport at the highest level but also leave a lasting legacy for its future by inspiring the next generation of players.â€

In the morning, Sörling visited OVO Arena Wembley, the main venue and centre stage for the main draw from 2-10 May, to see the progress already being made as London prepares to welcome table tennis home. Londonâ€s Copper Box Arena and OVO Arena Wembley will host 64 menâ€s and 64 womenâ€s national teams, the largest and most inclusive edition in the eventâ€s history.

ITTF President Petra Sörling (centre) at OVO Arena Wembley (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images for Table Tennis England)

The centenary ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals offers the opportunity to not only reflect on the sport but also celebrate its future – as the worldâ€s best athletes compete in the UK.

With unprecedented global demand expected, fans are urged to register now at London-2026.com to ensure they donâ€t miss out on this historic return of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals to London – 100 years on from where it all began.

Sörlingâ€s visit comes as WTT Star Contender London 2025 takes place between 21 and 26 October at the Copper Box Arena, showcasing the readiness of Table Tennis England as preparations for the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2026.

Steve Dainton, ITTF Group CEO, highlighted: “What we are witnessing in London is a perfect example of synergy between the WTT Series and the ITTFâ€s most prestigious event. Over the past few years, Table Tennis England has successfully hosted several WTT events, building valuable experience and readiness to stage the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2026. This will be a landmark occasion, supported by the entire ITTF Group, to ensure its success and to celebrate 100 years of table tennis.â€

The milestone visit also serves as a springboard for positivity, inspiring new players and strengthening communities. To see the impact already being made, ITTF President Sörling visited Ilford Ping Hub on Wednesday afternoon in East London, a community space that offers free tables, equipment and open access for local people. The project is part of Ping for the People, the official social impact programme for the centenary event.

ITTF President Petra Sörling visited Ilford Ping Hub in London (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images for Table Tennis England)

Table Tennis is one of Englandâ€s fastest-growing and most inclusive sports, with an 11% increase in adults playing the sport regularly since 2022, according to Sport Englandâ€s Active Lives Survey 2023-24. 288,000 children and young people participate every week, with an impressive 5.2% of school-aged boys getting involved weekly. The Ping for the People project aims to deliver strong, social connections for children and young people, helping to improve the mental and physical health of everyone involved.

ITTF President Petra Sörling on the table at Ilford Ping Hub in London (Photo by Harry Murphy/Getty Images for Table Tennis England)

Sally Lockyer, Table Tennis England Chief Executive Officer, said: “The ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2026 is set to be a transformative moment for table tennis in the UK and globally. Participation numbers are already increasing in the UK and the landmark ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals 2026 will accelerate this trend. The UK is the home of global sports events and we are confident that the event will set a new benchmark for the sport.â€

Simon Morton, UK Sport Deputy CEO and Director Events, Sporting System & External Affairs, added: “The ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships promise to be a unique showcase for the sport and we are delighted that the event is returning to these shores for the first time in a century.

“We are looking forward to seeing the event positively impact lives of people in London and beyond and are committed to continuing to bring events to the UK that reach, inspire and unite the nation.â€

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said: “London is the sporting capital of the world and I am delighted that we will be staging the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in 2026.

“London hosted the first-ever World Championships a century ago and it is fitting that this prestigious tournament will be staged here in the capital on its 100th anniversary.

“We look forward to welcoming the worldâ€s best players, who will delight Londoners and fans while inspiring the next generation of champions, as we work together to build a better London for everyone.â€

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The Outer Worlds 2 from developer Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios brings a host of new to a budding RPG series wrapped in a familiar-feeling, cozy experience.Â

When The Outer Worlds launched back in 2019, the nostalgic vibe was a proverbial breath of fresh air, with Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas impossible to miss.Â

A mostly first-person, story-driven RPG sequel, Outer Worlds 2 pays careful attention to where the debut lacked, tacks on more player agency and appears to mindfully step around some of the landmines recent RPG releases have suffered, too.Â

Older-feeling in a good way but offering plenty of fresh, immersive RPG-goodness, Outer Worlds 2 appears to have just the right mix to put it in Game of the Year conversations.Â

On a sheer immersiveness level, Outer Worlds 2 hits all the right notes.Â

Upgraded to Unreal Engine 5, some of the lip-synching issues and charming jank from the first game is out, though it comes with the still-new, glossy sheen of the new engine. Whether players love UE5 or not, the graphical fidelity and surrounding lighting systems are clearly an upgrade.Â

Obsidian games and similar have never been about sheer firepower backing the experience, anyway. More importantly, there’s charming character throughout the experience, in a corporations-ruling-the-galaxy-with-advertisements-everywhere sort of way, anyway. The overarching theme is pervasive and fun, though the game does take its brief moments to explore some beautiful locations, again begging a No Man’s Sky comparison.Â

It helps that sound design is once again fantastic, whether it’s ambient noise or some seriously impressive voice-acting found throughout. Conversations and personality are the backbones of these games and this might just be Obsidian’s best in that regard.Â

Unlike the first, Outer Worlds 2 lets players pull back the perspective into third-person at the press of a button. It’s not a bad option to have, but players who see the option and purposely forget it can’t be blamed.Â

Players start the game by picking a background, which comes with certain benefits. They also pick traits. In what will feel familiar to many, the first is free. The second offers benefits, but also comes with drawbacks. Think, offsetting base health for a bonus elsewhere. There’s a robust character creator in there, too.Â

Outer Worlds 2 hasn’t been afraid to boast that it is more combat-focused than the first, and improved in that area, too.Â

And darn if it isn’t right.Â

Combat is just smooth and fun. That’s especially the case with overall movement, which is quicker than before and comes with plenty of great mid-fight options, like sliding and firing. We’re not talking Call of Duty silliness, but a notable, good-feeling improvement from the first.Â

The game’s Time Dilation mechanic (TTD for short) is essentially VATS from Fallout, but better.Â

Like the first game and Fallout, stealth is a very viable option, if not even more fun for those with Sam Fisher-like leanings.Â

This time, stealth feels similar in a lot of ways, but with the added wrinkle that enemies can and will find fallen foes and go on alert.Â

Where the first game struggled with weapon weight and the impact of damage dished out, there’s a more methodical, heavier-feeling experience here. It’s not the top FPS on the market by any means, but decisions made in combat almostfeel as consequential as decisions made while chatting.Â

Outside of combat, there are more dialogue skill checks than players might expect, too, plus a whole range of companions to influence. They’re a nice all-around help too within level and mission designs that clearly have been built from scratch to give players as many ways as possible to creatively tackle them.Â

Tasked with serving as a mediator between Earth and communities in space, players go to the Isolated colony of Arcadia and stumble into a factional war.Â

Said war pits the local government against a megacorporation. Up for grabs? Access to FTL travel, and therefore all of the very important trade routes in space. Oh, and there’s also unexplained rifts tearing things up in space and cutting off settlements from Earth itself.Â

The series’ intense focus on megacorporations as a backdrop and antagonist remains. In short, the series takes place in an alternate timeline where Theodore Roosevelt never became president, creating a branch of reality where corporations boomed and colonized space.Â

This sequel very proudly continues to lean into satire as a storytelling device and it works super well. It helps that most of the characters encountered are fully realized with their own motivations and the environments themselves do plenty of heavy lifting in the storytelling department through sheer detail.Â

Dialogue trees are once again massive and the skill checks throughout really feel like players have a big impact on how the story plays out.Â

Which, given the presence of a branching story, is totally true. Scuffing a save just to see how things play out differently on small things is proof enough of that. Companions react to the player, have their own things they need help with and can perhaps permanently part from the player over time, too, should things go a certain way.Â

All of that is to say there’s a serious, actual role playingthing going on here, when combining the mind-boggling amount of build and background story options with actual in-game choices.Â

Progression follows a similar flow to the last game, giving players the freedom to experiment with all sorts of builds while leaving up specific skills.Â

What’s perhaps more impressive than anything else is the presence of roughly 90 perks. Not to get cliche, but it’s going to be hard to find two players who do the exact same builds, which is fantastic. And the replayability factor, then, is frankly massive.Â

For the most part, Outer Worlds runs well and addresses some complaints from the first game, such as the slog that was the game’s map. There’s a strong suite of options to pick through, too, letting players tweak the experience.Â

Outer Worlds 2 is a sequel done right.Â

Simple description, sure, yet fitting. The game takes the best bits of the series debut, upgrades them, listens to feedback and enhances key things like the feel of combat to an impressive degree.Â

Those who bounced off the first game might not find themselves wooed, sure. But Outer Worlds 2 is a smashing success for those who want that old-school-feeling immersive RPG that harkens back to the glory days of Fallout and a handful of others.Â

At a time when games like Starfield have struggled to capture that golden era in modern times, Outer Worlds 2 does so almost effortlessly, creating one of the better, deeper RPG experiences with broad appeal to enter the market in a long time.

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When Brazilian winger Denilson made his world record £21.5million move from Sao Paulo to Real Betis shortly before his 21st birthday in 1998, he was heralded as the Selecao’s next superstar.

And while Denilson would go on to win 61 Brazilian caps and make more than 500 career appearances, he never quite reached his potential, with FourFourTwo ranking him at No.1 in a 2015 rundown of disappointing club record signings.

But a 17-year professional career that took in six major tournaments is not bad going for a player who learned his trade on the streets, as he recalls to FourFourTwo.

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“Beyond the street kickabouts, I grew up in the varzea – the gritty, uneven dirt pitches of Sao Paulo’s amateur football scene. It’s where I learned two priceless lessons. The first was losing any fear.

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International superstars Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe are both in the top four dribblers in Europe’s top five leagues but the front-running front-runner is making his presence felt in England, not Spain.

Barcelona teenager Yamal has completed the fourth-highest number of successful dribbles, with Real Madrid talisman Mbappe second on the list.

Yamal’s 21 dribbles and Mbappe’s 30 are split by the 22 successful dribbles by Real Sociedad’s Ander Barrenetxea but all three are looking up at the number of attempts and completions by the continent’s runaway runner.

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Analysis for the Premier League by Adrian Clarke has revealed that new Tottenham Hotspur signing Mohammed Kudus has produced 30 successful take-ons in 2025-26, more than any other player in the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga and Ligue 1 in France.

Noting that Kudus has primarily attacked defenders on Spurs’ right flank since moving from West Ham United in the summer transfer window, Clarke writes: “In Premier League terms, Kudus’ 30 successful dribbles put him 11 ahead of his nearest rival, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Yankuba Minteh (19).”

Lamine Yamal has his own argument to be the best dribbler in Europe (Image credit: Getty Images)

Regular observers of Kudus throughout his career will know that this season is no fluke in dribbling terms.

The Ghana international was a nuisance for defenders while playing for Danish Superliga side Nordsjaelland, though he was often deployed more centrally in what was at the time an incredibly fluid set-up.

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After joining Ajax, he was the Eredivisie’s top take-on man in 2022-23 before leading the Premier League and Europe’s top five leagues as a West Ham player in 2023-24.

He was second in the Premier League behind Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku (and both were miles behind Yamal) last season but has started life at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as he means to go on, making sure to contribute with his final ball too.

Kudus emerged as one of Europe’s top take-on men during his time at Ajax (Image credit: Nesimages/Michael Bulder/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

Only Jack Grealish of Everton has produced more goal-creating actions than Kudus this season, with the Ghanaian level on five in total with Riccardo Calafiori, Antoine Semenyo and Spurs teammate Pape Matar Sarr.

Kudus and Grealish top the Premier League assist rankings with four, while no player has attempted more crosses than Kudus. Pedro Porro, also of Spurs, is second in the Premier League in that category.

Dribbling isn’t everything. Mbappe has scored nine goals in La Liga this season and Yamal, while Kudus has one more assist so far, is the continental leader for assists per 90 minutes.

“Head coach Thomas Frank has encouraged Kudus to express himself, and the talented winger has certainly been fun to watch, showing good degrees of confidence,” offers Clarke.

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