As is customary after a summer of major tournaments, various international managerial jobs are now vacant.

As is customary, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive.

As is customary, there doesn’t appear to be any common theme across the names linked to major jobs.

Take the England job. According to the bookmakers’ odds, the four most likely names are Eddie Howe, Graham Potter, Lee Carsley and Mauricio Pochettino. Two are homegrown managers who have performed solidly at club level. One is the current England Under-21 manager, who has limited club-coaching experience. The other is a foreign manager — albeit one with considerable experience in English football — who has coached major clubs.

The apparent contenders for the United States men’s national team job are equally varied. There is a raft of MLS candidates — Jim Curtin, Steve Cherundolo, Wilfried Nancy. Then there is David Wagner, a former U.S. international who hasn’t coached in the country. There is Herve Renard, an international specialist currently coaching the France women’s side at the Olympics. There’s also Thierry Henry, who is doing the equivalent with the France men’s side, and…

Welcome to the 38th Media Mailbag for The Athletic. Thanks for sending in your questions via the website and app. There were more than 170 questions, so this is Part 1 of a two-parter. (Note: Questions have been edited for clarity and length.)

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Does hiring guys like Tom Brady to broadcast football games REALLY move the needle for viewership? Are there people out there who will say, “Yeah, let’s watch that game because ____ is calling it?” Don’t most fans prefer their own homer broadcasters anyway? Am I way off on this? — Kris A.

It’s an interesting question, Kris, and one that’s discussed within the industry all the time given the extraordinary salaries of the NFL analysts who call the top games for their respective networks. The core answer is that viewers watch games for the game itself; the viewership number would likely be close to the same if you and I were calling it.

But the presentation of the game and how viewers process the game matters greatly to leagues and broadcasters because they want you to leave the broadcast wanting to come back. With leagues specifically, they want people in the booth who they believe represent their product — and leagues have some veto power on broadcast hires, even if the networks don’t publicly admit that.

Now for Brady…

As the men’s European Championship is entering its latter stages in Germany, it is exactly one year until Women’s Euro 2025 begins in Switzerland.

In 365 days, the hosts will get things under way at St Jakob-Park in Basel and holders England will be hoping to defend their title.

In the bidding process to host the competition, Switzerland beat Poland and France as well as a combined bid from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. It is the Swiss’s first major tournament since 2008 when they jointly hosted the men’s European Championship with Austria.

“This is an historic day for Switzerland, the SFA (Swiss Football Association) and women’s football,” said Dominique Blanc, president of the SFA upon being confirmed as the winning bidder in April 2023. “This major step will shape the development of women’s football at all levels.”

Yet the lead-up to the tournament has been disrupted by concerns around the budget, so The Athletic looks at what the situation is now, with a year to go.

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What happened to Switzerland’s tournament budget?

In January, the Swiss government announced it would offer 4million Swiss Francs (£3.5m, $4.5m) to support the tournament. The…

Murat Yakin did look slightly surprised to be asked about his status as a sex symbol.

It was shortly after his Switzerland side had drawn with Scotland in their second group game at Euro 2024. In among all the questions about his team changes, tactical thinking and approach for the next game against tournament hosts Germany, it was slightly unusual.

But he’s a big hit on TikTok, apparently.

At a tournament where there have been some maverick touchline fashion choices, Yakin’s style is unfussy smart-casual: the sorts of clothes that aren’t immediately eye-catching but you can tell actually cost more than your car. He often wears a pair of large spectacles that, along with the streaks of grey in his swept-back hair, make him look a bit like Adam Driver playing Maurizio Gucci in the 2021 movie about the Italian clothing brand.

And for the thirstier corners of the internet, it clearly works.

When the question was asked, Yakin’s eyebrows rose towards the top of his forehead. Defender Manuel Akanji, sitting next to him, burst out laughing.

“I hope my wife isn’t listening to this,” said Yakin.

But it was probably a relief for Yakin to be fielding that sort of question, given what he had to deal with before the…

The last time Spain won a major tournament, technically speaking, was last year. Their women’s side triumphed in Sydney to win the Women’s World Cup playing a brand of football that was very familiar to the men’s side.

Arguably their key player in the knockout stage was Salma Paralluelo, which was unusual considering she wasn’t actually a regular starter. She was a substitute in the quarter-final and scored the winner. She was again a substitute in the semi-final and again scored the winner. She started up front in the final and didn’t score, but she was a surefire pick for the best XI of the tournament, despite the fact she wasn’t a surefire pick for her own team’s starting XI.

This seems strange but also seems increasingly common. Federico Chiesa, who started only four of Italy’s seven games at the last European Championship, was also voted into the team of the tournament despite being most effective as a substitute. Perhaps, in this era where managers can use five subs, we should also pick a ‘best bench’ of the tournament — not simply players who consistently started but weren’t quite good enough to get in the best XI, but players who made the biggest impact from the bench.

That is likely to be the role of Dani Olmo at Euro 2024. With Spain already…

Denmark’s Euro 2024 squad have refused a pay rise to ensure the women’s team receive equal pay.

A new four-year agreement has been reached with the Danish Football Association that will see both male and female national team players receive the same fee for representing their country.

To enable this the men’s team accepted a reduction in insurance coverage as well as refusing a pay increase, global players’ union, FIFPRO, said.

“The men’s team chose not to demand any changes in the conditions in their new agreement,” Michael Sahl Hansen, director of the Danish players’ union, Spillerforeningen, said in a statement published by FIFPRO.

“It’s an extraordinary step to help improve the conditions of the women’s national teams. So, instead of looking for better conditions for themselves, the players thought about supporting the women’s team.”

Senior players were consulted before a deal was struck that will come into effect following this summer’s tournament in Germany and run until 2028.

“When we presented the plan to the negotiations team, which consisted of Andreas Christensen, Thomas Delaney, Christian Eriksen, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Simon Kjaer and Kasper Schmeichel, they were very happy,” Sahl Hansen said.

“This was what they wanted: it showed that…

You don’t need to be a sports television programmer to predict the dream of Fox Sports executives when it comes to this month’s UEFA Euro 2024 and the Copa América 2024 — both of which will be telecast on the networks of Fox Sports.

But we decided to ask one anyway.

Zac Kenworthy is the vice president of production for Fox Sports and one of the point persons for the network’s presentation of soccer. He naturally dreams of a long run for the U.S. men’s national team in Copa América — the top men’s soccer tournament for national teams in South America, plus additional invitees from the Americas — as well a famed team making its way to the final at the Euros — the quadrennial men’s tournament for European national teams.

Friday kicks off one of the most ambitious stretches in Fox Sports’ soccer history as the Euros run from Friday through July 14 while the Copa América runs from June 20 through July 14. Fox owns both properties.

“I think when the U.S. men’s national team is doing well, the audience checks in, and I’m not just talking about the sports audience, but an audience in general,” Kenworthy said. “We saw that in 2015 with the incredible numbers that the U.S. women’s national team put up for that World Cup in prime time. A U.S.-Argentina…

Dear readers,

The Premier League and Champions League are over for another season but the summer of 2024 is packed full of live action and transfer fun and games — and we’ll cover it all in detail on The Athletic.

From Europe’s major clubs travelling across the world (and to the United States in particular) to all the moves (and nearly moves) of the summer transfer window, plus two major international tournaments, Emma Hayes starting her reign as USWNT head coach and the Olympics, our team of reporters will bring you in-depth coverage of the things you care about.

We’ll be on the ground in Germany for Euro 2024; across the U.S. for Copa America, MLS, NWSL and Premier League pre-season; in Paris, France for the summer Olympic Games’ football action, and everywhere in between — ensuring you don’t miss a thing when it comes to the beautiful game.

The club content you know and love won’t stop either. Our trusted team of reporters will hit the phones to bring you the latest moves in the transfer window as we embark on an ambitious project to cover the summer ins and outs like never before.

And it doesn’t stop there.

You might already follow our NFL, NBA or NHL coverage, but did you know we also cover a range of other sports, including golf, Formula 1 and tennis? Mark out…

The German national team is ending its long-standing partnership with Adidas and has signed a deal that will see Nike make its kits from 2027.

Adidas last signed an eight-year contract with the Germany Football Federation (DFB) in 2018, meaning the men’s 2026 men’s World Cup will be one of the last times the German team’s kit is manufactured by the country’s most famous sportswear company.

During Adidas’ partnership with Germany, which has spanned more than seven decades, the team has won four men’s World Cups, three men’s Euros, two women’s World Cups and eight women’s Euros with the collaboration responsible for many iconic shirts during the 1980s and 1990s.

The DFB’s contract with Nike will run until 2034. “We are grateful to be able to look forward to an economically stable future again as an association thanks to Nike’s commitment,” DFB treasurer Stephan Grunwald said.

“The award to the future supplier partner Nike is the result of a transparent and non-discriminatory tender,” DFB chairman Holger Blask added.

“Nike made by far the best economic offer and also convinced with its content vision, which also represents a clear commitment to the promotion of amateur and popular sports as well as the sustainable development of women’s football in…

The season is less than a month old yet England manager Gareth Southgate cut a strangely fatigued figure as he announced his first squad of 2023-24 at St George’s Park.

He certainly has plenty on his plate right now.

Before a European Championship qualifier away to Ukraine next Saturday (September 9), to be played in Poland because of the Russian invasion, and a friendly against Scotland in Glasgow three days later, Southgate is dealing with an injury crisis in defence and a lack of game time at club level for some of the 26 players he selected.

He also had to field questions about misogyny in football, Mason Greenwood’s international future, whether England women’s counterpart Sarina Wiegman could manage in the men’s game, the decision to backtrack over wearing the OneLove armband in support of the LGBTQI+ community at the World Cup last year in Qatar, and the decision by one of his senior players, Jordan Henderson, to swap the Premier League this summer for the Saudi Pro League.

GO DEEPER

OneLove armband u-turn is a reminder that men’s football will not stand up for LGBT people

At one stage as he faced the media on Thursday afternoon, Southgate seemed to be looking down, searching for some inspiration as the questions about everything but the two games of football kept…