There is a special group of teenagers etched into Premier League folklore. Wayne Rooney comes to mind, complete with the immortalized commentary “Remember the name!” when he scored for Everton against Arsenal at age 16. Cesc Fabregas broke through at Arsenal at age 17. Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Owen exploded onto the Premier League scene at 18 at United.

For longevity? There’s James Milner, who made his debut in 2002 at 16 and is still going. Every club’s fans hold fast to their memories of witnessing a homegrown youngster making their debut, all hoping he’ll be the next bright thing.

This season, the teenager generating the most Premier League headlines is Estêvão at Chelsea. The Brazilian, who arrived for £29 million, scored a wondergoal against Barcelona and has provided several jaw-dropping moments of skill to crown him the new wunderkind. But the 18-year-old whom sporting directors and agents are talking about as an outlier is over at Fulham: midfielder Josh King.

To break through in 2025 as a teenager is harder than ever, but out of all of them, it is King who has the most minutes in the Premier League this season (830).

“Boys that age don’t get given these sorts of opportunities with that regularity unless they’re incredible talents,” one agent said. “We saw it with Lewis Miley a couple of seasons ago, then Kobbie Mainoo, but he was a little older.

“More often, you see young players get a few minutes off the bench, or start matches out wide away from the spine of the team. But to be in the middle of the park? Well, that’s special.”

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Looking at the minutes for 17- and 18-year-olds last season, Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri (then 17) and Myles Lewis-Skelly (18) got 889 and 1,370 minutes, respectively. Tottenham duo Lucas Bergvall (1,206) and Archie Gray (1,743) impressed in first-team appearances, while midfielder Tyler Dibling played for 1,873 minutes at Southampton. Center back Dean Huijsen at Bournemouth was last season’s standout, playing over 2,000 minutes and then moving to Real Madrid in the summer. This season, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have been used more sparingly, Bergvall has 414 minutes to date and Gray has been struggling with injury. Defender Josh Acheampong has progressed well at Chelsea, but it’s King who has most impressed.

Back in 2018, at age 11, King was a child mascot for Fulham’s match against Derby and walked out holding captain Tom Cairney‘s hand. King had been in the academy for three years at that point, his parents making the frequent journey from their home in Wimbledon to drop him off at the academy in Motspur Park. They felt at Fulham that technically, he was ready for the first team at 16, but they gave him time to develop, pointing to Fábio Carvalho‘s example that patience works. Carvalho, now with Brentford, made 40 senior appearances for Fulham before moving to Liverpool.

On Dec. 22, 2024, King made his first Premier League start for Fulham at 17 in a 0-0 draw with Southampton. The captain? Cairney. King had already been training with the first team for three or four months, working on improving his strength but also fine-tuning his decision-making. He found the key difference between under-21s and senior level was the lack of time you have on the ball.

“There’s a big step up,” he said. “The step up is the speed you have pressure on you, the speed of play, the speed you have to think, the extra split-second decision which can affect the game between a goal and assist.”

He went on to play 127 minutes for the senior team in the Premier League last term, and when the summer transfer window opened, Fulham handed King a new deal through 2029. In his first interview post-signing, he was asked whether he hoped for more minutes in the 2025-26 season. His response: “I want to develop as a player and person — those opportunities will come if I keep working hard.”

When Andreas Pereira made it clear he was keen on a move to Brazilian club Palmeiras that summer, Fulham weighed up their options. Instead of signing a new No. 10, they turned to King.

Judging when a player is ready to make the step up is no exact science, but by and large, teams look to ability, temperament, personality and physical attributes. You also need a Pereira-sized opportunity. In short, it comes down to good decision-making on and off the pitch.

When you talk to people who know King, the first thing they mention are his parents. Michelle and Steve King have wonderfully steered their son’s career, not rushing him, nor getting sucked into the vacuum of peer comparison. They knew he would develop at different rates compared to his teammates. “If you think you’re in competition as a child, or even worse, as a parent, your child probably won’t make it,” Steve King said on the “Project Footballer” podcast.

Those who have kept a close eye on King point to two moments when his maturity shone through this season. The first was the way he bounced back from an error against Brentford back in September. King dropped deep to receive the ball from the goalkeeper but sent his pass straight to Mikkel Damsgaard, who opened the scoring. King’s head dropped, but he played through it and made two positive actions with his next two touches. Then there was the way he responded to having his first goal for Fulham chalked off due to a controversial VAR call. Postmatch, King wanted to face the media, instead of letting more senior players speak on his behalf.

Fulham manager Marco Silva has been careful with his game time; King has averaged 61 minutes in the Premier League this season while starting ahead of Emile Smith-Rowe. Fulham have been impressed with how quickly he learns on the go in training, and how calm he is on the ball.

Those who’ve seen him play every match this season point to how he has adjusted to playing against physically superior players. He manages to hook his leg around or through them to get to the ball, rather than getting in a tussle. We saw that hook for his first Fulham goal against Wycombe in October as he scored via a midair back heel.

“I enjoy watching the most balletic player in a club side I have been associated with,” Fulham head of football development Huw Jennings said on the BBC podcast “More Than The Score.”

The key now? Patience and careful management. There will be bumpy roads ahead, but right now, he’s an outlier in the Premier League, dictating play in the middle of the park. No wonder his mates at Hampton School used to compare him to Andrea Pirlo.

Manchester City piled the pressure on Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso with a 2-1 win on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League.

Speculation about Alonso’s future dominated the build-up to the game, and there was no respite for the former Spain midfielder as City came back from a goal down to win at the Santiago Bernabéu. After Real Madrid saw an early penalty overturned by VAR, Rodrygo opened the scoring in the 28th minute when the Brazilian finished off a well-worked move which began deep in the home side’s half.

But City recovered from a slow start to score twice in eight minutes at the end of the first half.

First, Nico O’Reilly tapped in from close range after Thibaut Courtois slipped Josko Gvardiol‘s header from a corner. And then referee Clement Turpin was back at the screen to award City a penalty for a clumsy challenge from Antonio Rüdiger on Erling Haaland.

Haaland tucked away the penalty and although Real Madrid created plenty of pressure in the second half, they couldn’t find a way through as they slumped to a second home defeat in the space of four days. It’s now just two wins from eight games for Alonso’s team, with his position seemingly hanging by a thread. — Rob Dawson

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Madrid competed, but is it enough to save Alonso?

Pep Guardiola had one piece of advice for Alonso in his Tuesday news conference: do things your way.

A day later at the Bernabéu, in the biggest game of Real Madrid’s season so far, Alonso did exactly that. If Alonso is to lose his job as Real Madrid coach, he might as well do so by picking a team he believes in and playing the football he wants to play, without compromise. That meant Gonzalo García, Alonso’s FIFA Club World Cup favorite, coming in for the injured Kylian Mbappé. It meant Federico Valverde playing as a reluctant right back, whether he likes it or not.

It meant Dani Ceballos coming into the midfield, with Arda Güler benched. And on the wing, Alonso kept faith in Rodrygo, despite his 32-game goalless streak. For much of this defeat, the players at least appeared to be playing for their coach, although it probably helped that it was a Champions League night, against a big name in annual rivals City, and facing Madrid’s public enemy number one, Guardiola.

Right from the start, there was a noticeable, crowd-pleasing effort to work hard out of possession, pressing City, and looking to win the ball high up the pitch, an Alonso trademark which had been seemingly forgotten — whether by accident or design — in Madrid’s slump in form in recent weeks.

After just two minutes, Madrid won a free kick on the edge of the box — initially given as a penalty — which sprung from Jude Bellingham winning the ball in a dangerous position. Three minutes later, as City broke forward, Valverde raced back to cover. Four minutes after that, it was Bellingham working to dispossess Bernardo Silva.

Then came the first-half flurry of goals, as Madrid’s lead was cancelled out. The second half started with Madrid looking bright, although there were worrying opportunities for City, too.

The reaction from the Bernabéu crowd to Alonso’s substitutions suggested the fans have doubts about the coach. His first change, after an hour, withdrawing fan favorite Garcia for midfielder Güler, was met with a bemused, questioning silence, with the team chasing a goal.

The noise when Ceballos was withdrawn for Brahim Díaz was similarly subdued. Only when Endrick was thrown on for a defender, Raúl Asencio, with 10 minutes left, did the Bernabéu roar. Madrid pushed for an equaliser to the end. They competed with City. This was a defeat, but it wasn’t an embarrassing one. And that might just be enough to keep Alonso in his job, at least for the time being.— Alex Kirland

City prove Pep’s point

Guardiola said at his news conference in Madrid on Tuesday that City are “in a little bit of transition.” You can understand why.

So often for big games in the Bernabéu, he’s had Éderson, Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gündogan and Kevin De Bruyne. Now, they’ve all moved on.

Only three players who started the Champions League final in 2023 — Haaland, Silva and Rúben Dias — also started against Real Madrid on Wednesday. This is a new-look team and ahead of the game, Guardiola said he wanted his players to “prove” they could perform on the big stage.

They answered with City’s first win here since 2020.

O’Reilly, only 20, was superb at left back up against Rodrygo, who had a good game. Jérémy Doku, 23, was a constant menace on the left wing and caused Valverde, stepping in at right back for Real Madrid, a lot of problems, particularly in the second half. Guardiola’s feeling is that the Bernabéu is a great test of a team, and City passed the examination. — Dawson

No Mbappé, but Rodrygo belatedly steps up

Mbappé was on the bench, but speaking prematch, Alonso made it clear there was little chance of him making an impact tonight. “Kylian isn’t fit to play,” Alonso told Spanish television. “There’s a risk.”

Without him and his nine Champions League goals this season, Madrid’s prospects of finding the back of Gianluigi Donnarumma‘s net looked slim. Rodrygo hadn’t scored in nine months going into Wednesday’s game. Garcia hadn’t scored in five months. Even Vinícius Júnior hadn’t scored in two months.

But if Rodrygo — who has looked completely lost in recent weeks — was going to score against any team, it had to be City. He’s always found another level in the Champions League, scoring twice as frequently in the competition as he does in LaLiga, and he’s scored more goals against City than any other side, with two goals when the teams met in 2022, and another two in 2024.

Now add 2025 to the list. His goal was a vintage Rodrygo finish, struck low across goal from the right-hand side, a position he personally doesn’t enjoy. A 32-game drought over, you could see the relief in his celebration. There was a hug for Alonso too, a recognition that the coach had kept faith, when few others had.

But the goal didn’t disguise Madrid’s lack of attacking threat. Garcia’s all-around play was good, but he had no shots in his hour on the pitch. Rodrygo had two shots, and Vinícius had four. This was nothing like the volume of chances that Mbappé usually guarantees.

Madrid looked most dangerous in the last few minutes, with Endrick on the pitch — his header hitting the bar — but it wasn’t enough. Any team would miss Mbappé’s quality, and Madrid here were no exception. — Kirkland

Set pieces taking the pressure off Haaland

It was a slow start for City’s new set-piece coach, James French, who arrived from Liverpool in the summer. There was a point at the start of November when City were the only Premier League team not to have scored from a set-piece, but that’s all changed in the last few weeks.

When Josko Gvardiol headed in Phil Foden‘s corner against Sunderland on Saturday, Guardiola immediately turned and pointed to his coaches on the bench with a beaming smile.

The goal against Real Madrid wasn’t quite as clean, but they all count. It was Gvardiol again who won his header from Rayan Cherki‘s corner and O’Reilly was in the right place at the right time to finish it off after the ball had come back off Courtois.

Courtois should have done better, but Guardiola and French won’t care.

City have now scored four goals from set-pieces in their last four games. It’s a big bonus for Guardiola, who admitted earlier in the season that his team had to find ways to take some of the pressure to score goals off Haaland’s shoulders. — Dawson

Madrid pay for defensive injury list

You can’t criticize Madrid’s defending in this game — which was often found wanting, with Courtois getting them out of trouble, making six saves — without mentioning the absentees. And it’s a long, long list.

Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, Dean Huijsen and Ferland Mendy would be an elite first-choice back four, and that’s without mentioning Trent Alexander-Arnold and David Alaba. Of Madrid’s starting backline, only Álvaro Carreras was expected to be a weekly starter at the beginning of the season.

That said, Rudiger is still a vastly experienced, international defender. Valverde can be an exceptional stand-in right back, and Asencio has mostly performed adequately when called upon. And here, they had to deal with Haaland, plus the pace and trickery of Doku and Cherki.

Of the four, Carreras excelled, delivering one of the most impressive performances of his Madrid career to date, offering composure on the ball and helping the team progress up the pitch when he wasn’t focused on defending. Valverde did his job, and Asencio just about coped. But Rudiger committed a characteristically needless foul on Haaland, for the penalty that ultimately cost Madrid the result.

City had 12 shots, creating two “big chances”, for an xG of 2.54. Given Madrid’s injuries, perhaps that isn’t really too bad a showing. And they’ve relied on Courtois to get them out of trouble in even bigger, more consequential games than this. — Kirkland

City still looking for defensive stability

There’s no question that this City team is capable of scoring goals. They’re the Premier League’s top scorers with 35 and have found the net 13 times in their last four games in all competitions.

The problem they’ve got is keeping them out at the other end.

Guardiola’s team have kept just two clean sheets in their last 11 games. They kept out Sunderland on Saturday — despite some shaky moments early in the second half — but Manchester United are the only team in the top six who have conceded more than City’s 16.

They were fortunate to get away with the penalty incident in the opening two minutes — overturned by VAR — after both Gvardiol and Silva were caught on the ball in the same passage of play.

Rodrygo’s goal was poor, too. It started when Silva lost out to Carreras in the corner before Real Madrid were able to work the ball from back to front without City making a challenge.

City deserve credit for withstanding Real Madrid pressure at the end, but Guardiola will want to cut out the sloppiness which was on show for the first 30 minutes. — Dawson

Michigan Wolverines head football coach Sherrone Moore was reportedly detained by police in Saline, Michigan Wednesday, hours after the university announced he was fired for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.

The City of Saline Police Department told ESPN officers assisted in locating and detaining Moore, who was later turned over to the Pittsfield Township Police Department “for investigation into potential charges.”

Hours earlier, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel wrote in a statement that “credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.”

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“The conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior,” Manuel added.

Following the news of the police investigation, the University of Michigan Athletic Department told Fox News Digital it “cannot comment on personnel matters” and had “nothing to share beyond the initial statement.”

The Saline Police Department referred inquiries to the Pittsfield Township Police Department, which did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional information.

Francis Xavier “Biff” Poggi was named the interim head coach and will be on the sidelines when Michigan takes on Texas in the Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31. Earlier this season, Poggi took over for Moore in two games as the head coach served a suspension for his role in a sign-stealing scandal.

Moore is married to his wife, Kelli. The two wed in 2015 and have three daughters together.

Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leads his team onto the field against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich, Nov. 29. (IMAGN)

He took over as the team’s head coach in 2024 when Jim Harbaugh left for the Los Angeles Chargers job. The Wolverines were 8-5 in his first season and won the ReliaQuest Bowl. 

This season, the Wolverines improved to 9-3, but lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes.

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Moore has not yet commented on his dismissal.

Before he became head coach at Michigan, he was the team’s tight ends coach from 2018 to 2020 and three years as the offensive line coach from 2021-2023. He was the team’s offensive coordinator 2023 and served one game as a head coach when Harbaugh was suspended.

Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leaves the field following his team’s loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 29. (IMAGN)

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He was a part of the coaching staff when the team won the national championship.

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