Benjamin Sisko, the Manchester United striker, is focusing heavily on his recovery from a recurring leg injury.
Cisco (23 years old) joined Manchester United in August 2025, coming from RB Leipzig, and scored 12 goals in his first season with the English team, but he suffered a leg injury in May, causing him to miss all of his team’s friendly matches in preparation for the new season.
Sisko scored two goals in the first 6 matches of this season, but his leg injury resurfaced, causing him to miss Manchester United’s 1-1 league draw with Fulham on Sunday, and he was excluded from the Slovenia national team roster.
Cisco wrote on his Instagram account: “I feel very sorry for my absence from the national team. Because I love representing Slovenia, and I will remain proud of that, and the most important thing now is to focus on the recovery process.”
The international striker continued: “I seek to return to the field as soon as possible, to help my team and my country again.”
Sisko stressed: “I have great confidence in my colleagues, and that they will continue to perform in high spirit. I am eager to wear the national team jersey again, and now I will be Slovenia’s biggest fan.”
The Slovenian national team will host its Scottish counterpart on Saturday, and conclude the three-week international break with a confrontation at Hampden Park, including a home confrontation against North Macedonia, and will be a guest against Switzerland in the European Nations League competitions.
As for Manchester United, it will resume its campaign after the break by hosting Tottenham on October 10, after which it will face difficult confrontations outside its stadium against Atletico Madrid of Spain, Leeds and Como of Italy.
Cisco's absence will represent a major blow to Manchester United's attack, given the failure of coach Michael Carrick's efforts to include a new striker during the summer transfer period.
Cisco entered a list of 4 Manchester United players who were excluded from their country's national teams this month, including the English duo Kobe Maino and Marcus Rashford, and the Welshman Karl Darlow.
Barcelona will have to leave Camp Nou again. This step was already included in the club's plans to complete the ongoing reconstruction work in its historic stadium, but the statements of Ferran Oliv, Barcelona's vice president, during the club's annual general assembly on Saturday, revealed for the first time clearly what the club expects to happen during the next stage.
Olive said that Barcelona will complete the 2026-2027 season at Camp Nou, but will then have to spend about half of the 2027-2028 season away from home, with the hope of returning to it in January 2028.
During the same meeting, Barcelona asked the club members to approve a new huge loan, adding 510 million euros (437 million pounds; 584 million dollars) to its debts, including 300 million euros allocated to completing the work of Camp Nou, and 210 million euros in the form of additional operating loans.
The members approved the proposal, which means that Barcelona's total debt is likely to rise to exceed two billion euros by a significant margin, and may reach 2.6 billion euros in total, depending on the loan repayment dates. This raises the budget of the “Espai Barca” project, which includes rebuilding the Camp Nou, to 1.8 billion euros, three times the cost estimated for the project when it was first proposed in 2014. Even this amount will not cover the entire project. Club president Joan Laporta informed members on Saturday that the additional 300 million euros allocated to Camp Nou will not include the construction of the “Palau Blaugrana”, the hall that will host the club’s teams in other sports apart from football.
The Athletic explains how Barcelona reached this point.
Why did Barcelona have to leave Camp Nou?
Because the construction work is not finished yet. Barcelona left Camp Nou in May 2023, and ended up playing away from home until November 2025, after a series of delays in rebuilding work.
The team was initially expected to return to its home stadium in November 2024. Barcelona played the entire 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons at the Luis Companis Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc, which is about 3.5 miles from the Camp Nou.
Last season, delays led to Barcelona having to play two home matches in the Spanish League in the small Johan Cruyff stadium, which has a capacity of 6,000 spectators and is located next to the club’s training headquarters, before returning again to Montjuïc until Camp Nou was ready to receive the matches.
The team's first match after returning to Camp Nou came on Saturday, November 22, 2025, when Barcelona achieved a 4-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish League, with a limited attendance, according to a capacity of about 45,000 spectators. Construction work on the stadium has continued since then, and its capacity has now increased to about 62,000 spectators, after the seats in the first and second stands were fully completed.
This number is expected to increase with the start of the opening of parts of the third stand starting in early 2027. But installing the stadium’s roof and completing it completely will force the team to leave again. According to the project's engineering design, the roof must be built from inside the stadium, which requires placing cranes in the area where the Camp Nou stadium is located.
What's the plan? Can further delays be expected?
Olive said work on the roof “will begin gradually once the team plays its final game of the season in May.” He added that the club has already reached an agreement with the Barcelona City Council to return to the Luis Companis Olympic Stadium, which hosted the 1992 Olympics, and whose capacity for football matches is about 45,000 spectators.
Olive also said: “When we return to Camp Nou in January 2028, we expect its capacity to reach 95,000 seats, which will return to us the full potential that will allow the financial side of the club to function in the best possible way.”
From these statements, it appears that the stadium will not be completely completed even when Barcelona returns to it. The final planned capacity for the new Camp Nou is 105,000 spectators, compared to the previous official capacity of 99,354 spectators, which was already the largest among all European football stadiums.
Barcelona now expects to complete the stadium and reach its maximum capacity by the start of the 2028-2029 season. Last week, the European Football Association (UEFA) announced the selection of Camp Nou to host the 2029 Champions League final, scheduled to be held on June 2 of that year.
Regarding the possibilities of delay, Olive said: “We expect to complete all the main parts of the roof by October or November 2027, but we do not want to again enter into a conflict with the timelines.” He added: “That is why we put it in our budget to return the following January, because that gives us margin to deal with any potential delays.”
The delays have already cost Barcelona huge sums of money. Playing away from Camp Nou for a longer period than planned deprived the club of the additional revenues expected from the new stadium. Barcelona also announced spending 17 million euros on “operating expenses,” in addition to 24 million euros in the form of “investments related to this stage.” A Barcelona City Council spokesman confirmed that the club had reached an agreement to play its matches in Montjuïc until January of the 2027-2028 season.
How much will it all cost?
The costs of rebuilding Camp Nou have risen dramatically compared to the original plans agreed 12 years ago. In April 2014, club members, known as “Socios” in Spanish and “Socius” in Catalan, voted to approve a budget of 600 million euros to renovate and expand Barcelona’s stadium, along with developing the surrounding facilities and facilities.
These works were initially supposed to be carried out between May 2017 and March 2021, but the project did not actually advance. When Joan Laporta returned to the presidency of the club for a second term in March 2021, before being re-elected again in March of this year, that budget was cancelled, while the project had barely begun. Modifications were made to the design and construction plans, before a new reconstruction budget of 1.5 billion euros was approved.
Barcelona contracted with the Turkish construction company Limak, which the club said was the option among all applicants that guarantees a lower cost and greater speed in carrying out construction work. In 2023, Limak and Barcelona said they expected the stadium to be fully completed by summer 2026.
Earlier this month, financial forecasts were presented to Barcelona members, indicating the need to borrow about 300 million additional euros for rebuilding, with the project budget raised to 1.8 billion euros, but members were asked on Saturday to approve a larger total of new loans, amounting to 510 million euros. This amount is divided between 300 million euros for Camp Nou’s business, and another 210 million euros of operating debt that Barcelona will bear, with the latter guaranteed by future television broadcast rights revenues.
The Espai Parsa project gets the bulk of the money and media headlines, but taking on more debt unrelated to the project is another concern. Despite the huge debts of “Espaya Barça”, they are supported by the revenues that are supposed to flow in the future from owning a world-class stadium, and these debts were incurred in order to build that stadium. As for the other debts, they were obtained for the first time for purposes related to providing liquidity in 2021, and do not serve a similar long-term purpose.
Debts not linked to the “Espaya Barça” project amounted to 597 million euros out of Barcelona’s total loans amounting to 1.840 billion euros at the end of June 2026. Therefore, the additional 210 million euros will raise the volume of these loans to more than 800 million euros. In fact, 105 million euros of this amount were already issued during July, and it appears, as The Athletic recently detailed, that it was used to finance player transfer installments that are still due.
Barcelona pointed to the pressures on its cash flow as a result of the delays at Camp Nou, when asked about these additional loans. Although this provides a logical explanation for resorting to borrowing, it does not make the continued accumulation of debt any less worrying. Barcelona obtained the first tranche of 105 million euros of new debt not linked to the “Espaya Barca” project, at a fixed interest rate of 5.14 percent. This is a higher interest rate than some of Barcelona's other debts and, remarkably, about two percentage points higher than the weighted average interest on Real Madrid's large loans as well. This means paying millions of additional euros in interest over the coming years. Even before taking on this new debt, Barcelona spent a net €91 million on interest payments during the 2025-2026 season. The interest rate for the second tranche of 105 million euros, which is expected to be issued before Christmas, is not yet known.
Debts may exceed 2.6 billion euros
If the maximum financing for the Espai Barça project, amounting to 1.8 billion euros, is added to the operating debt, the club’s total loans could exceed 2.6 billion euros. This number does not include the 25 percent of Barcelona’s revenues from the television broadcasting rights of the Spanish League, which the club sold to the private investment company “Sixth Street” in 2022. It also does not include the way Barcelona will now finance the “Palau Blaugrana” project, the new hall designated for the club’s teams in other sports.
When the budget of “Espai Barça” was adjusted for the last time in 2021, the cost of “Palau Blaugrana” and the surrounding area was estimated at approximately 420 million euros. Regarding this file, Laporta informed the club members on Saturday that Barcelona is looking for solutions, but assured them that the project will not lead to an increase in the level of debt, which already tops the debts of football clubs by a large margin. “This will not lead to debts,” the Barcelona president said. “We are looking for alternatives.”
Shortly after taking charge of Liverpool in October 2015, Jurgen Klopp invited the team's players to a meeting in the media room at the club's training complex at Melwood. The German coach had noticed that the group of players he inherited from the era of Brendan Rodgers seemed burdened by tremendous pressure and with high expectations. The torrent of criticism and negativity surrounding the team had left a significant impact on them. Klopp told his players during the meeting: “The only criticism that really matters is my criticism.” According to my understanding of things, you are responsible for the victories, and I am responsible for the defeats.
As Klopp insisted, both publicly and behind closed doors, on praising the abilities of his players in a team that was then widely criticized, the atmosphere gradually began to change. Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino were among the most prominent examples of players who were freed from the restrictions that bound them, after both had previously seemed unable to express their full potential. In addition to his tactical prowess and intelligence in the transfer market, Klopp's famous player management abilities were an essential element in the successes he achieved during the nearly 9 years he spent as Liverpool coach at Anfield.
The man had an exceptional ability to find the right words at the right moment to instill confidence in his players. With the strength of his personality, he was able to push those around him to follow him and get the best out of them.
Klopp rarely signed a player who had already reached his final stage, but he succeeded in taking many to the elite level by helping them reach their full potential. In return, he was extremely loyal to those who gave him full commitment; Therefore, Liverpool now hopes that the “Klopp influence” will extend to Florian Wirtz during the current international break. The Germany national team player will get a chance to breathe this week, before meeting with his new coach in the national team in preparation for the two European Nations League matches against Serbia at home on October 1, then Greece away from home three days later.
Klopp, who succeeded Julian Nagelsmann after a disappointing World Cup campaign, which ended in a round-of-32 exit to Paraguay, had chosen a huge roster of 44 players, and allocated half of them for the first two matches against the Netherlands away from home on Thursday and Greece at home on Sunday. Liverpool coach Andoni Iraola told reporters before facing Bournemouth last weekend: “Jurgen did something that I think is very smart.” Two lists means he will be able to see more players, and it will also give some of them time to rest. Flo will have a few days of rest during the first part of the break, and this will be very good for the player and Liverpool, as well as for the German national team.”
A difficult start and more pressure
Certainly, a change in atmosphere could be beneficial for Wirtz, after his difficult start to the season continued during Sunday’s match at the Vitality Stadium. After being rested during the win over Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup in midweek, the player who joined from Bayer Leverkusen for 116 million pounds was supposed to return refreshed. But he wasted the ball a lot, and appeared clearly lacking in confidence, before Iraola brought on teenager Trey Nyony in his place midway through the second half. Wirtz has only one assist during the 6 matches he played with Liverpool in all competitions during the 2026-2027 season. The last time he scored a goal, whether for his club or his country, was Germany’s victory over Finland in May.
Liverpool legend and Sky Sports analyst Jamie Carragher gave a harsh assessment of Wirtz's performance on the south coast. Carragher said: “This was one of the worst performances I saw from him in a Liverpool shirt. I criticized him for not providing the required numbers, but usually when you watch Wirtz, you find him an elegant and organized player who keeps the ball, and there are things you like about his performance. He added: “The reason I am concerned is that I do not think Wirtz has gone through a period of decline in form since his arrival to Liverpool. I actually think what we're seeing is the reality of his level. We expected him to lead Liverpool to another league title and a new Champions League.” He continued: “The gap that he needs to fill in order to come close to justifying what people expected from him seems, in my opinion, to be very large. I don't think he can reach that level. Even if he improves a little, this will not be what Liverpool thought they had signed.”
He added: “I think that Iraola will have a decision to make in the future.” Wirtz will not be in my Liverpool squad. "It's not because I don't like Wirtz, I really hope this young man succeeds, but I just want Liverpool to win."
Wirtz divides Liverpool fans
Wirtz has become a divisive topic among Liverpool fans; Some believe that he is being unfairly criticized, while others view him as a weakness that lacks physical strength within the team’s offensive system. It can already be debated whether he deserves a place in the strongest lineup currently available to Liverpool, especially since Iraola can rely on Dominik Soboslai in the No. 10 playmaker position, with Nyony or Ryan Kravenberg included alongside the brilliant Alexis McAllister.
Carragher was not ignoring what Wirtz had already achieved during his career, whether by winning the German League with Bayer Leverkusen or reaching 45 international matches with Germany at the age of 23, but he was simply wondering whether his technical characteristics would one day allow him to reach the enormous ceiling of expectations surrounding him in the English Premier League. There is no doubt that the value of the huge deal, over which Wirtz had no control, affects the way his performance is judged, as
