Julian Nagelsmann has set up a kitchen control room to guide Bayern Munich while he remains away from the team after a COVID-19 positive test.

Assistant head coach Dino Toppmoller will lead from the touchline when Bayern host Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga on Saturday, having also stood in for the 4-0 win at Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Despite being fully vaccinated, Nagelsmann learned that the flu-like symptoms he was experiencing in Portugal were caused by coronavirus.

He said he feels a bit weak and is wary of getting in the way of the work being carried out by Toppmoller and fellow assistant Xaver Zembrod.

Still, I am trying to take control if possible, said head coach Nagelsmann.

In isolation, I have built myself a little …

Real Mallorca will face Deportivo La Coruna in the Segunda play-off final after seeing off Albacete 2-1 on aggregate, despite Sunday s 1-0 defeat at Estadio Carlos Belmonte.

Leo Suarez and Dani Rodriguez did the damage in the first leg for Vicente Moreno s men and, although Jeremie Bela made the tie interesting in Albacete, Mallorca just about did enough to cling on.

Bela opened the scoring with 16 minutes on the clock with a fine free-kick from just outside the area, filling the hosts with belief.

But they struggled to really control proceedings, as Mallorca offered plenty of attacking threat themselves.

Albacete piled the pressure on in the final stages, with Roman Zozulya heading wide from close range, but their efforts came to nothing.

Mallorc…

Manchester City are preparing a new contract for Raheem Sterling which would make him the best paid player in the Premier League in order to ward off interest from Real Madrid, according to the . Apparently, the deal would see the winger earn a whopping £450,000 per week.

Sterling was marked as a talented youngster to go on to have a great future during his Liverpool days, before his £49 million move to the Etihad in 2015. Since then, he s made 203 appearances for the reigning English champions in which he s scored 78 times, winning back-to-back Premier League titles in the last two seasons. He has become one of the most important players in Pep Guardiola s team, and such a prominent rise has attracted the attention of the Spanish giants who are always on the lookout for pote…

Many say penalty shoot-outs are a lottery , but plenty of goalkeepers would argue against that point, perhaps most notably Danijel Subasic.

Subasic has helped Croatia win two shoot-outs in the knockout stage of the World Cup as Zlatko Dalic s men moved into the final.

Perhaps the goalkeeper got lucky, but his record with penalties would suggest otherwise.

Former Croatia international shot-stopper Joey Didulica argues that suggesting shoot-outs are a lottery is amateur thinking.

With the help of Opta data, we take a look at the records of the final four starting goalkeepers at the World Cup – Subasic, France s Hugo Lloris, Belgium s Thibaut Courtois and England s Jordan Pickford.

Penalty save records in top five European leagues since 2011-12:
S…

Sporting Gijon have announced they will sign Xavier Torres from fellow La Liga outfit Real Betis. 

Torres, 29, will link up with Gijon on a one-year deal pending the results of a medical on Tuesday. 

The defensive midfielder came through the youth ranks at Villarreal, before moving to Alicante in 2006. 

In 2007 he was signed to Barcelona s B side, but managed to make two appearances in the first team under Pep Guardiola. 

Torres then moved on to Malaga in 2009, which included a two-year loan stint at Levante, before moving on to Betis in 2013. 

He has made a total of 140 appearances in La Liga and brings plenty of experience to the Gijon midfield, after they survived relegation on the final day last term. 

…

Dennis Praet of Leicester City has revealed that he had the chance to join Arsenal a decade ago as a teenager, but opted not to accept the offer.

The midfielder joined the Foxes this summer from Serie A side Sampdoria for €20 million, and he has steadily been growing more prominent in the plans of manager Brendan Rodgers. However, as quoted by the , Praet could have arrived to the Premier League a long time ago, following strong interest from the Gunners.

He was only 15 years old when he was invited to the Arsenal training ground, and a highly lucrative offer for his age was made to him. However, he chose to go sign for Anderlecht instead, also rejecting advances from Lille and Ajax.

Praet explained his decision, saying that the most important thing for him at…

A lot has happened at Manchester City since Argentinian international striker Sergio Aguero joined the Citizens back in 2011, with the main events being City winning the Premier League on three occasions.

Players and coaches have come and gone at the Manchester club, but the diminutive striker has been a constant in City’s rise to dominance in the English game.

Aguero is still a vital member of City’s team and the 30-year-old recently signed a one-year contract extension with the Citizens.

Guardiola has improved the striker

When Pep Guardiola first arrived at City in the summer of 2016 there was talk of Aguero leaving the club as he was not Guardiola’s sort of striker. He did not work hard enough to press or win the ball.

The speculation over his …

Alessandro Del Piero is open to helping Juventus as the Serie A giants begin their search for a chairman to replace Andrea Agnelli and an entire new board.

Juve announced after an emergency meeting on Monday that Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedved and managing director Maurizio Arrivabene have all quit their roles.

It comes amid an investigation into alleged tax fraud, which Juventus have denied, and on the back of the club registering a record loss of €254.3million for 2021-22.

Exor, who have a controlling stake in Juve, indicated on Tuesday that Gianluca Ferrero is in line to replace Agnelli as president.

Any decision over who succeeds Agnelli, Nedved and Arrivabene is expected to be made at a shareholders meeting on January 18.

In what is …

AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini admitted that transfer target Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has exceeded all expectations the club had of him when he came through the youth ranks at San Siro.

Borussia Dortmund striker Aubameyang wanted to rejoin Milan before the transfer window closed, according to Rossoneri director Massimiliano Mirabelli, and Maldini revealed the Gabon international loves Milan .

But the Bundesliga outfit refused all approaches for the 29-year-old and Maldini indicated that Aubameyang s stock may have risen beyond the point at which a return to his first professional club is possible.

After signing professional terms with Milan in 2008, Aubameyang spent time on loan at Dijon, Lille, Monaco and Saint-Etienne, before joining the latter in 2011 and th…

Jurgen Klopp is delighted by Liverpool s swift signing of Cody Gakpo but knows the forward will likely be made to wait for his debut.

The Reds concluded a transfer reportedly worth around £37million (€42m) for the Netherlands international as their first piece of business for the mid-season window, which opens officially on January 1.

With New Year s Day falling on Sunday, it means there will be a national holiday on Monday, and based on other dealings in the past, it is unlikely the move would be ratified in time for Gakpo to make his debut that day against Brentford.

Though he was delighted to get a deal over the line, Klopp knows it might not be until January 7, against Wolves in the FA Cup, that he can call on the 23-year-old.

There might be a cha…