Germany

Soccer's European Championship kicks off on Friday with the 24 teams' battle for glory accompanied by off-field conflict over the anti-racism gesture of "taking the knee".

England were booed by some of their fans in two friendlies while Ireland were jeered in Hungary for kneeling before kickoff in a move borrowed from American NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and popularised by the Black Lives Matter movement.

If you’re a fan of a Bundesliga club without a retractable pitch that transforms your ground into an NFL stadium, it’s time to worry. On Wednesday, the NFL announced that it was looking for a partner city for regular-season games in Germany.

BERLIN - VfB Stuttgart striker Silas Wamangituka has revealed to his club that his name and birth date are different and that the data had been changed years ago by a former agent who was controlling him as a teenager, the Bundesliga club said on Tuesday.

The forward told the club he had been living in fear since leaving the Democratic Republic of Congo at the age of 17 to play for French lower league club Alès.

"It was a difficult step for me to reveal my story," the striker said in a club statement. "Only through the support of my new advisor did I dare do this."

Former AZ Alkmaar golden boy Guus Til has secured a return to the Netherlands after agreeing a loan move to Feyenoord.

Borussia Dortmund has today completed the signing of goalkeeper Gregor Kobel from VfB Stuttgart. 

The 23-year-old Swiss completed an $18.2 million move to the Westfalenstadion after making 65 appearances for Stuttgart. He arrived in Germany in 2014, signing with Hoffenheim's under-19s, before eventually moving on loan to Augsburg in January 2019. Stuttgart first signed Kobel on a season-long loan last year, when he kept 11 clean sheets in 33 appearances as the Swabians secured promotion back to the Bundesliga.

Schalke endured a historically bad season in 2020-21, but the rot actually began far earlier. There were clear signs about midway through the previous campaign. The Royal Blues' last win of 2019-20 was a 2-0 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach on January 17, 2020. Manager David Wagner was then unable to prevent Schalke ending the season on a winless streak of 16 games. 

Across Europe, there are still games to be played and honors to be won. Besides the Champions League, several leagues are still in the midst of promotion playoffs. But the mayhem of managerial turnover is well underway.

After watching Brentford finally claw its way into England’s top flight for the first time in 74 years, you could be excused for sticking around to see the trophy presentation. However, if you did so, you missed a barnstorming start to the other major playoff taking place on Saturday, as four goals were scored in the opening 13 minutes of the Bundesliga promotion/relegation playoff second leg. 

The 2020-21 season was a banner year for Americans abroad. USMNT players have been winning trophies all over Europe, including regulars at Barcelona, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund; in a week, we’ll see an American win the Champions League for either Chelsea or Manchester City. But Saturday was not a great day for keeping U.S. internationals in Europe’s top flights, with a number of Americans relegated to lower tiers or unable to gain promotion.