On June 17, before he was about to face Harry Kane in Croatia’s opening World Cup fixture against England in Dallas, Luka Vuskovic was taking an important phone call.

He was speaking to Serbia-based Nenad Sarcevic, his personal analyst, to prepare him for the challenge ahead. It is part of Vuskovic’s pre-game preparation that often takes place close to kick-off — on the team bus or in the dressing room, for example.

Marco Boskers is Sarcevic’s boss at Smart 11, the Netherlands-based self-analysis app. He explains: “There are a few players that want to do analysis on matchdays. Luka will still do it when he’s on the massage table before the match. When the coach is already speaking to the players about what the plan is, he’s still doing sessions. That’s how crazy he is about getting sharp right before the match.”

The England game did not go to plan for Vuskovic or Croatia. The 19-year-old centre-back was substituted midway through the second half of a 4-2 defeat (Kane had scored twice by that stage), but one of the hottest defensive prospects in world football was already well on the way by then to completing a £49million ($65.4m) move from Tottenham Hotspur to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Brighton broke their transfer record — which stood at £40m for French forward Georginio Rutter from Leeds United in the summer of 2024 — to land Vuskovic. He did not kick a ball for Tottenham in a competitive fixture, but will be meticulously briefed for the tests awaiting him in the Premier League.

It has been this way since October 2024 when Vuskovic linked up with Smart 11. At the time, Vuskovic was on loan to Belgian Pro League club Westerlo from Hadjuk Split — Tottenham had announced his signing in September 2023 when he was 16 years old, but he could not move to the UK until reaching 18 years of age in 2025.

Vuskovic played just 66 minutes of Croatia’s World Cup campaign (Paul Ellis/Getty Images)

Boskers went to Westerlo to watch client Edisson Jordanov, a German-born Bulgarian international, in a home game against Beerschot. He had previously known nothing about Vuskovic, who scored both goals for Westerlo in a 2-2 draw. “I thought: ‘This is crazy, a 17-year-old centre-back scoring two worldies’,” Boskers says. “Everybody in the stadium was speaking about him.

“I asked Edisson about Luka. He said he was in the gym every morning with him before training sessions, trying to develop, trying to be a better player, so he would be interested in working with us.”

Sarcevic is in contact with Vuskovic on a game-by-game basis. The general rule of thumb for players that work with Smart 11 is pre-packaged clips of 15 defensive situations and 15 offensive situations, with calls lasting from 45 minutes to an hour.

“We go through the clips, but it’s not like a lot of services where the coaches say: ‘In this situation, you should do this’. We think the best observations and conclusions come from questioning,” said Sarcevic. 

“We watch a clip. The player would maybe be totally unaware of what we want to show him. But then through the details to the questions — What really happened? What were the dangers? What were the goals in this situation? — the player would get the image in his mind.

“I would never say, for example: ‘You should pass this ball with your left foot’, but then we would get to that conclusion through simple questions. And we think that’s the best way, because he will play the match and I won’t be there to tell him. He would need to have that map in his brain.”

A bespoke approach has been developed with Vuskovic to cater for his unusual wish for the information and feedback to be fresh in his mind as kick-off approaches.

“We are focusing on a few game actions in a period of time,” Boskers says. “Because otherwise, you’ll get an information overload. So, when Nenad is working with Luka, for example, he is working on preparing aerial duelling or something else. They will just speak about those subjects before the game.”

Vuskovic was a huge success during his loan spell at Hamburg last season (Joern Pollex/Getty Images)

In his third outing of an impressive loan with Hamburg in the Bundesliga last season (including six goals in 28 league appearances), Vuskovic was on a call with Sarcevic in the away dressing room before a game against Union Berlin, preparing for what he was about to face. He went on to accumulate a record-equalling 18 aerial clearances in a 0-0 draw — the first player to do so in a single match in Europe’s top five leagues over the last five seasons.

Smart 11 have a select group of 20 to 25 players as clients, mainly from the Netherlands, including Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber and his brother Quinten, who plays for Marseille. They also work with coaches and clubs such as PSV, Vitesse Arnhem and Bayer Leverkusen, providing a range of services from software and nurturing sustainable development environments to educating coaches.

Vuskovic is one of a kind. “We had Bram Nautink, who is playing at Nijmegen and before that was at Anderlecht and Udinese,” said Boskers. “He was doing matchday analysis as well, but at nine o’clock in the morning before leaving to play in the afternoon or evening. So close before the match, Luka is unique.”

Vuskovic’s thirst to improve is accompanied by a temperament to deal with setbacks, indicating a maturity beyond his years. The England match was his only appearance under national manager Zlatko Dalic at the World Cup. He was an unused substitute for Croatia’s other three games as they went out 2-1 to Portugal in the last 32 of the tournament.

Sarcevic had a session with Vuskovic before Croatia’s second group fixture following the England defeat, a 1-0 win against Panama.

“He knew that he wasn’t starting, but he was still happy,” said Sarcevic. “He didn’t get his soul crushed. As a 19-year-old, to handle those things that well and just keep going, that’s something you don’t often see. You can see a good centre-back, you can see a leader, but for those things to be gathered together, that’s a package.”

Vuskovic described Brighton during an in-house interview after completing his move as “the biggest machine in the world for producing young players”. Success is not assured with any signing, but maximum preparation from Vuskovic for the challenges of the Premier League is at least guaranteed.

Jose Mourinho is back at Real Madrid — and, as ever, it is on his terms.

During Madrid’s recent presidential election campaign, just moments after challenger Enrique Riquelme had finished speaking on Spain’s leading entertainment show El Hormiguero on June 3, viewers across the country were greeted by an advert featuring Mourinho alongside the slogan: “Florentino Perez 2026.”

The 63-year-old coach had not yet been officially announced as agreeing to a second spell at the Bernabeu, but simply saying “Yes” while wearing a Madrid shirt was enough to reveal his return — and publicly back the man who first brought him to the club for that initial reign between 2010 and 2013.

Five days later, after Perez had been re-elected with 65 per cent of the vote, Mourinho appeared in another campaign video.

His message was even shorter: “Yes, of course” — he would be returning to Madrid from then employers Benfica.

Despite playing such a visible role during the election campaign, Mourinho has yet to be formally presented to the supporters. There has been no unveiling or introductory press conference — the kind of events that normally follow every high-profile appointment and signing at Madrid.

Sources close to Mourinho, who, like all others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, even suggested at the time that there may not be a presentation at all. Club sources say the situation remains unresolved, with no decision yet on when — or if — one will take place.

What is certain is that Mourinho and his coaching staff have spent two weeks working at the Valdebebas training ground. Officially, almost everything we know about the start of his second spell as manager has come from the club or from Mourinho through social media.

That is nothing unusual for Mourinho but in the absence of a public appearance, those posts have become one of the clearest windows into how his return to Madrid is unfolding.

A blurred selfie posted by Mourinho on July 10 may not have been his finest photograph, but it struck a chord with Madrid supporters.

Whether driven by admiration or nostalgia for his first spell, the club’s fans flooded the comments section welcoming back their hero. The post attracted more than 27,500 comments — more than any other Mourinho has placed on Instagram in recent months.

People close to Mourinho say he works with Polaris (a PR company linked to Portugal’s Gestifute management agency and his representative Jorge Mendes), although mainly on the commercial side. His social-media accounts, they insist, remain his own work: “Everything is very natural. Nothing is forced.“

That fits with the image Mourinho has cultivated for years. During his time as Roma manager from 2021 to 2024, he regularly posted informal snapshots of his everyday life in Italy — from eating pizza to sharing a picture of himself asleep.

Only a few hours after Mourinho’s selfie appeared, Madrid uploaded a gallery featuring the Portuguese coach alongside members of his backroom staff: assistant coach Joao Tralhao, technical assistant Sami Khedira (the former Madrid midfielder), head analyst Roberto Merella and fitness coaches Antonio Silva and Antonio Pintus.

That gallery was accompanied by a short video interview with Mourinho lasting less than three minutes.

“Words aren’t enough, because this feels like a mission,” he says in it. “This isn’t about me or whether I win more or less. I’m here to help everybody become better.”

When Mourinho took charge of his first on-pitch session on July 13, as many as 14 of Madrid’s first-team squad were still away after playing — or were still competing — in the World Cup finals in North America.

It was little surprise, then, that Mourinho had been keeping a close eye on that tournament, as another Instagram post showed. That image captured the coaching staff at Valdebebas, with a bespectacled and barefoot Mourinho reclining on a sofa while watching Spain’s 2-0 World Cup semi-final win against France.

Among those on the pitch in that match was Marc Cucurella, a player highly regarded by Mourinho’s staff, who were the driving forces behind Madrid’s move to sign the Spain full-back this summer from Chelsea.

The training pitches at Valdebebas have provided further insight into Mourinho’s return.

He has regularly been seen leading sessions, directing drills or standing, notebook in hand, under the intense Spanish summer heat, watching his new charges go through their paces.

Valdebebas sources describe Mourinho as demanding but approachable — someone who pushes players hard while remaining involved in every detail of training. The same sources say sessions have been performed at a high tempo, with frequent double training days and a strong emphasis on strength and conditioning work.

Mourinho dishes out his instructions in training (David S. Bustamante/Real Madrid via Getty Images)

Madrid’s World Cup players gradually began to return as their countries’ campaigns came to an end, including Federico Valverde after Uruguay’s miserable group-stage exit.

Following Valverde’s two training-ground altercations with team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni last season, there had been considerable curiosity over how the club would handle his situation, with the pair having been fined €500,000 (£427,000; $569,000) each in May.

This week, Madrid seemed keen to highlight the mutual admiration between Valverde and Mourinho. The two of them embraced on the midfielder’s first day back at training, which happened to be his 28th birthday.

The new boss welcomes Federico Valverde back to training (Helios de la Rubia/Real Madrid via Getty Images)

The images reinforced another message too: despite the issues that clouded the end of last season, Valverde remains in line to become Madrid’s next captain following the summer departure of previous skipper and long-serving full-back Dani Carvajal.

More broadly, the atmosphere around training has been described as overwhelmingly positive, with excitement surrounding Mourinho’s arrival.

The much-travelled coach has used these opening weeks of pre-season to assess several academy players — there were initially 12 of them training with the first team — including some whose futures at Madrid remain uncertain, such as Raul Asencio (23), Franco Mastantuono (18) and Gonzalo Garcia (22).

For now, with those situations unresolved and Mourinho yet to make his first public appearance, his Instagram account continues to offer the best insight into these early days of his second spell in charge.

And if the first few weeks are anything to go by, it is unlikely to disappoint.

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“He is changing what length means in the modern game.”

Those are the first words offered by Zubin Bharucha, a coach and mentor to Indian cricketers Sanju Samson, Dhruv Jurel and others, when asked by The Athletic about what makes Vaibhav Sooryavanshi so good.

It is not often that a 15-year-old alters the landscape of a sport spanning centuries. Sooryavanshi has managed that in just two Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons.

He was called-up to the Indian team for their Twenty20 series in Ireland, England and now Zimbabwe, and while he only offered glimpses of his talent during his outings in England, scoring 42 runs in three innings, he did become the youngest cricketer to represent India, at 15 years 99 days.

In Harare on Thursday, back on the ground where he hit an 80-ball 175 in the 2026 Under-19 World Cup final, he smashed his first T20 international half-century as the visitors won their first T20 game since lifting the World Cup back in March.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi reached his 50 off 18 deliveries in Zimbabwe, but was dismissed next ball (Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images)

The teenager’s 50 came off just 18 deliveries, with four sixes and four fours, before he was caught at third-man off the 19th ball he faced. He is now the youngest player to score a T20I half-century, and the youngest among full member nations to score an international 50 across formats.

It was a reminder that all kinds of records are at his mercy — apart from the ones he has already broken for the Rajasthan Royals.

The numbers tell a story.

Sooryavanshi racked up 776 runs in 16 games in the 2026 IPL season at an average of 48.5. Only four players in the history of the league have scored more runs across a single season.

Then there is Sooryavanshi’s strike rate (runs per 100 balls played) of 237.3, the highest by any player to have batted in five or more innings. For him to do so while opening in all 16 games was unprecedented.

As seen in the scatterplot below, he stands alone among the 249 players to have scored 400 or more runs in a season and is one of only four to manage a strike rate over 200.

Sooryavanshi’s ability to clear the boundary is a big reason he is out on his own.

He hit 72 sixes in 2026, breaking Chris Gayle’s record of 59 set in 2012, a year after Sooryavanshi’s birth in March 2011. The previous highest from an Indian cricketer was 42 by Abhishek Sharma — with whom Sooryavanshi opened in his three games in England — in 2024 (a personal best he surpassed with 43 in 2026).

Gayle, the former West Indies opener, often took his time to read the pitch and bowlers before going on the attack. Those concepts do not seem to matter to Sooryavanshi, whose 619 minutes at the crease in IPL 2026 would historically rank 54th among batters across a season. He goes on the attack from ball one.

In this batter-friendly era, only three types of balls have put the brakes on scoring in the IPL: hitting a good or hard length at about the midway point of the 22-yard pitch, yorkers aimed at the crease line and slower balls.

Sooryavanshi struggled against yorkers, with a strike rate of just 16.7 (two runs in 12 balls in IPL 2026, according to Cricbuzz) but feasted on good-length deliveries, striking at 268 while the rest of the league averaged 148.

That is what Bharucha, a former first-class cricketer who played for Surrey in the 1990s, was referring to.

“He has a superbly coiled upper half, combined with a considerable bend in his torso at the top of his swing,” Bharucha says. “This allows his head to get outside the line of most deliveries. As a result, he is seeing balls well outside off stump directly in front of his eye line — for most batters, that same ball exists outside their eye line and is more difficult to judge.”

Indian batters often encounter spinning tracks in domestic cricket that require patience and skill in the early stages of their careers, along with a more dominant front foot, focusing on accumulating runs through the ‘V’ (covers, past the bowler and midwicket).

The growing prominence of T20 cricket has changed that — and nobody epitomises it better than Sooryavanshi.

“His weight is almost completely loaded into his back leg. He is effectively operating on one leg,” Bharucha says. “If you are in this position and then do not move your hips forward in the traditional batting sense that has been taught since the inception of the game, your front foot cannot really go forward.”

The back-foot-dominant approach with limited hip movement means Sooryavanshi has a wider hitting range against any ball, except low full tosses or yorkers (often considered the hardest to execute, especially in the first six overs with a new ball). He averaged a six every 4.54 balls faced in IPL 2026, the best rate by any batter in the competition’s history.

Sooryavanshi’s 2025 season, when he struck 24 sixes, ranks fourth. Of the 42 runs he managed in England, 30 came in sixes. He struck Zimbabwe’s bowlers over the ropes four times.

In 2026, he struck 474 runs in 10 matches when Rajasthan batted first, with two half-centuries, a hundred, 42 sixes and a strike rate of 222.5. When the Royals were chasing, Sooryavanshi scored 302 runs in six games, striking at 264.9 with 30 sixes and three half-centuries.

There were signs of maturity beyond his years during the play-offs, when Sooryavanshi bided his time as wickets tumbled before exploding for a 47-ball 96 in a loss against the Gujarat Titans.

“You can’t play every game in one mode; you need to read the game situation and play according to the team’s requirements. These are my learnings from this season,” he said after collecting multiple awards at the end of the season, including a Tata Sierra, an SUV, that he cannot drive before 2029.

Vaibha Sooryavanshi after scoring a century in his debut IPL season for the Rajasthan Royals in 2025 (Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images)

Sooryavanshi carried a fear factor, with teams rarely giving their spinners the ball when he was at the crease. Only 56 of his 327 balls faced across the season were against spinners and he struck 128 runs from those at a strike rate of 228.6.

Nearly 74 per cent of his runs (572 of 776) came against right-arm fast bowlers at 244.4, while he punished left-arm spinners, scoring 64 off 22, striking at just under 300.

Left-arm pace bowlers and right-arm spinners did give him problems. Lucknow Super Giants quick Mohsin Khan conceded just two runs in 12 balls against Sooryavanshi, dismissing him twice and even bowling a maiden over. The Kolkata Knight Riders’ wily spin duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine conceded only eight in 10 combined balls.

The rest suffered as Sooryavanshi became the joint-second-fastest player to reach 1,000 IPL runs, taking just 23 innings (level with Lendl Simmons and behind only Australia’s Shaun Marsh with 21). He was the quickest in terms of balls faced, taking just 440 — 105 fewer than West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell in second place.

The sky is the ceiling for Sooryavanshi, particularly in the shortest format of the game. But India have shown an affliction for ensuring their brightest stars are successful in Test and 50-over cricket, too.

Sooryavanshi’s first-class record is pedestrian, with 207 runs in 12 innings at an average of 17.3. His 50-over record is better, with 564 runs in 13 games, including an 11-ball half-century for India ‘A’ against Sri Lanka ‘A’, the fastest 50 in the history of the format. He pummelled England’s under-19 side for that 80-ball 175 in the Under-19 ODI World Cup final in February.

Sooryavanshi did not feature as India lost the Ireland leg of their tour 2-0, but will have learned from the frustration endured in those first three appearances against England. He was accompanied on the tour by his parents, and changed in a separate room to his team-mates because of his age, but will have to learn to live with the expectations that pursue him.

In Harare, albeit against a Zimbabwe side ranked a lowly 12th in the world by the ICC, he began showcasing his qualities on the international stage.