Don Garber is a storyteller.

Over lunch at a Midtown Manhattan rooftop restaurant last month, as he chronicles his journey from Bayside, Queens to the NFL offices on Park Avenue to MLS commissioner, it is clear he knows it is the little details that make a story sing.

He didn’t just work at a gas station in high school, it was Barney’s Gulf, a sponsor of the Tony DePhillips Little League baseball team he played for. He didn’t just deliver newspapers, he learned how to properly fold up the Long Island Press to toss while riding his Stingray bike. He reels off the names of characters he has met along the way, like his wife Betsy’s boss at public relations firm Ruder and Finn, who told her she could find Betsy a better match “than this knucklehead”. “We’ll be married 39 years,” he notes. Or the man who ran the farmstand he worked at during summer break while a student at SUNY Oneonta.

He drops a few surprises, too. Garber’s resume may start at a vocational school near LaGuardia Airport, but his first year and a half after college was spent sleeping in a Ford van, working at bars and installing irrigation lines to pay his way across the U.S. and Mexico with some buddies.

“Old guys have great stories,” Garber says, with a smile.

Next month will mark 25 years for…

The crowd outside the St. Regis hotel in downtown Washington DC had grown in the hundreds. Fans clad in Argentina’s home blue-and-white kit waited outside the team hotel of the world champions for nearly three hours, hoping to catch a glimpse of Lionel Messi. 

The flashing lights of the police patrol cars confused passersby who had no idea Messi was in town. There was yellow crime scene tape that blocked off the intersections, which further disoriented tourists. 

Andy Pendoley, 50, his wife Elaine, 48, and their two adolescent children were visiting from San Diego and had feared the worst.

“There are so many horrible things that you could come across among a crowd,” Elaine said. “It’s so exciting and such a relief to see something positive and fun that people are celebrating.” 

“We don’t mind if we can’t get to our hotel,” added Andy. “We’re on vacation. It was fun and unexpected to get a glimpse. It’s wonderful to just be in the crowd with people who are passionate about the (Argentina) team.” 

One year after his U.S. arrival with Inter Miami, Messi still garners a unique adoration in nearly every city he visits. The scenes in DC on Thursday night are a sign of what the Copa America will be like when Argentina travels throughout the East Coast as…

This year’s Copa América will be closely watched, but the ensuing Olympic Games in Paris will have just as much to say about the broader state of the U.S. men’s player pool. Unlike the women’s side of the Olympic tournament, the men’s competition relies on players under the age of 23, though every team is allowed to bring up to three over-age players in the 18-man squad.  

If the team that U.S. Olympic coach Marko Mitrović selects comes close to matching the program-best 4th place finish in 2000, it would be a potential indicator that the U.S. can now consistently produce top-end talent. If the U.S. is embarrassed in Group A, though, some will fear that 2026 will be the program’s high point for quite some time.

After the draw in March, Mitrović touted a “big pool of players that we are following” for potential inclusion. He stressed that he wants to bring “the best 18 players” he can, and didn’t show his hand yet about areas where he feels he can sacrifice depth given the squad limitations of an Olympic tournament.

GO DEEPER

USMNT to play France in Olympic tourney opener

With that in mind, here’s a crib sheet of Olympic-eligible players to track in the coming months. This list focuses on MLS players, and with good reason: A full half of the most recent…

Major League Soccer will kick off this season with stand-in referees when Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami hosts Real Salt Lake on Wednesday.

The MLS Players Association (MLSPA), the labor union that represents MLS players, said the lockout of the league’s match officials was a “backward step,” adding in a statement on Tuesday that “the use of replacement referees will not only negatively impact the quality and results of our matches, it may also jeopardize the health and safety of players.”

The move comes after PSRA, the union that represents professional referees across MLS, the second- and third-tier United Soccer Leagues and the National Women’s Soccer League, and PRO, the MLS-funded body that manages professional officiating in the United States and Canada, failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in January.

The Athletic explains what’s going on…

---

So, who is going to referee the opening MLS games?

On February 17, The Athletic reported PRO had commitments from 66 replacement officials. Of those, 26 can be assigned as a referee or fourth official, and 29 can be assistant referees.

Cristian Campo Hernandez will be the center referee for Inter Miami vs. Real Salt Lake. The Spaniard officiated matches in the second-division USL Championship last year…

Negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement between the Professional Referees Organization (PRO) and the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA) have not resulted in a new deal and, barring changes over the next 10 days, a work stoppage feels “imminent,” said once source briefed on the negotiations. Another source characterizes the negotiations between the two sides as being “a very discouraging process so far.”

If it drags on, a work stoppage could leave MLS needing to find replacement officials at the start of its season and preseason. The current CBA between the PSRA and PRO, which has been in place since early 2019, expires on Jan. 15. The MLS season begins on Feb. 21 when Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami hosts Real Salt Lake.

The PSRA is the union that represents professional referees across Major League Soccer, the second and third-tier United Soccer Leagues and the National Women’s Soccer League. PRO, founded in 2012 by MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation, oversees the professional officiating landscape in the United States, including assigning games, assessing and educating officials, and identifying new talent. An associated organization, PRO2, oversees officiating in the NWSL, USL, and MLS Next Pro. The PSRA and PRO2 ratified a CBA of their…

Not even the rain — biblical, unrelenting — could hide the tears.

The game was done, but Luis Suarez was not. For the best part of 15 minutes, he circled the pitch, clapping and sobbing, his team-mates reverential in the background. After a while, his wife and children ran on to smother him in hugs. In the stands, 50,000 more loved ones screamed his name.

A video played up on the big screen. It was a compilation of the moments that led to and explained this one: the passes, celebrations and goals that have made Suarez a Gremio icon, just 11 months after he arrived at the club.

Now, after one final match — and one last winning goal for the road — at the Arena Gremio, he was saying goodbye. Three days later, it was revealed he was set to sign a one-year deal with Inter Miami, where he will link up with Lionel Messi.

On Saturday, though, it was all about Gremio.

“I will carry this moment with me,” said Suarez, the emotion writ large on his face. “This is more than I ever expected.”

That sentiment will be shared by everyone connected to the club. Gremio were only promoted back to the Brazilian top flight a year ago but they are on the verge of qualifying for the 2024 Copa Libertadores, thanks largely to Suarez. He has contributed 27 goals and 17 assists this year (all…

The Portland Timbers hiring Phil Neville as their new head coach was met with nothing short of animosity from large swaths of the club’s fan base. Supporters’ groups quickly put out a statement urging the club to reconsider when The Athletic broke the news a deal was close to name Neville head coach. “We are deeply disappointed that the club has reportedly settled on a finalist for head coach who has a history of sexist public statements that run counter to our ethos as a club, city and supporters’ group, and who also lacks a proven track record as a manager,” the statement read, in part. 

The public statements they referenced were several sexist tweets written by Neville in the early 2010s, which he first described as “wrong then and wrong now,” when he initially addressed them while in charge of the England women’s national team in 2019 and reiterated again this week. 

Undeterred by the cold welcome and aiming to win over the fans, Neville sat smiling, confident and affable as he addressed questions from the local and national media on Tuesday for the first time after officially taking the job. 

“The statement (the Timbers Army) put out showed this club cares about their people,” Neville told the media. “In reference to the tweets I made in 2011 ……

The new Portland Timbers head coach Phil Neville says that his series of sexist tweets from 12 years ago “were wrong in 2011 and are wrong today.”

This comes after the club’s independent supporters group, the Timbers Army, issued a statement earlier this month urging the team to reconsider its decision to hire the 46-year-old.

Neville, who formerly managed fellow Major League Soccer side Inter Miami until June of this year, previously addressed the tweets that resurfaced shortly after he was named England women’s manager in 2018.

Speaking at his unveiling, Neville said: “The big part of this city is the supporters, and the statement they put out showed that this club cares about their people.

“In reference to the tweets I made in 2011, I addressed these in 2019 when I was named the head coach of the England women’s team.

“(They are) by no means a reflection of me as a person, of my character, and without a shadow of a doubt, the way I was brought up by my mother and father in terms of the values they instilled in me.

“The tweets I put out were wrong in 2011, and they’re wrong today. I want to get to know the Timbers Army, I want to get to know everybody in the city, and I want them to get to know me as a person, as a character. And I want to make sure there is…

The Portland Timbers hired Phil Neville as their head coach, the team announced Monday.

Neville was previously the manager of Inter Miami, going 31-41-11 across two-and-a-half seasons before being let go in June. Portland parted ways with longtime coach Gio Savarese this summer. Portland is in talks to potentially bring Jason Kreis with Neville as an assistant. The club is also in talks to retain Miles Joseph on the staff as well. Joseph served as interim coach following Savarese’s departure and was among the finalists to be named head coach.

A new era in Portland.

Phil Neville is #RCTID

— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) November 6, 2023

Neville was hired by Miami, where his former England teammate David Beckham is a co-owner, in January 2021 and led the club to the playoffs in 2022. He previously managed the England women’s national team as well. He was a candidate for several other MLS clubs’ head-coaching vacancies this year, including the New England Revolution’s.

After firing Savarese, the Timbers narrowly missed the playoffs, finishing just one point below the line. Portland went 5-2-2 under Joseph, including a run of seven consecutive games unbeaten before falling in the season finale and missing out on the postseason. The club is headed for an overhaul this…

Tonight, Lionel Messi is fancied to win the Ballon d’Or, which will be the eighth time the Argentinian has walked off with the award, while fellow World Cup winner Aitana Bonmati is favourite take the Ballon d’Or Feminin.

It’s the highest individual honour that a footballer can receive, and while the physical manifestation of it — a quite literal golden, 18-carat, 22cm football that weighs around 12 kilos — is impressive enough, the real prize is the kudos and glory that comes with it.

Why is it so prestigious? How do you win it? Who decides who wins it? When did the people behind it discover that women play football too? Do players care? And what is the plural of Ballon d’Or?

We invite you to find out all of this, and possibly more, by reading on…

---

What is the Ballon d’Or?

The Ballon d’Or is an annual award given to the best men’s and women’s footballers in the world. Basically, it’s world football’s MVP award.

Whose bright idea was it?

The first Ballon d’Or was awarded in 1956, and back then was widely known simply as the European Footballer Of The Year award. It was the brainchild of Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, two journalists from France Football…