Anthony Elanga has confessed to feeling frustrated towards his reduced role at Manchester United this season.

The 20-year-old winger was a regular starter towards the end of last season but has tumbled down the pecking order under Erik ten Hag, starting just five Premier League games and struggling for minutes in cup competitions as well.

There were plenty of rumours suggesting Elanga could leave United in January, with the likes of Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund both touted as suitors, but a move ultimately failed to materialise and the Sweden international has remained on United’s bench.

“It is frustrating,” Elanga told Afton Bladet. “You want to play. It is important. But if you don’t play, it’s not up to me but up to the coach.

“I have spoken to Erik and it is private between the two of us. I know what he wants me to do and I can just keep training hard. When the opportunity comes, I just have to be ready to take it.

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“We have a lot of dialogue, not only about it but also what is happening around. That’s the good thing about the club, we talk a lot and they help me a lot.
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Elanga also confessed that talks were held over a move away from Old Trafford in January.

“There was talk about it, but right now I’m focusing on United,” he stressed. “We still have a big season ahead of us and need to finish it as well as possible.

“That was in January, now I can’t focus on it. The best I can do is focus on the rest of the season, then I get to talk to the club. I love the club, but it’s important for me to play. I’m still young. We have spoken to the club and they know what is required and I know what is required.”

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The Argentina FA have confirmed that their training base, the Ezeiza Housing Complex, will now be named after Lionel Messi.

Previously named after former FA president Julio Humberto Grondona, the complex hosted a ceremony on Saturday to comemorate Messi in front of a selection of his previous teammates.

“Welcome to the house of the world champion,” FA president Chiqui Tapia told the crowd. “Welcome to the house of all our National Teams, the house that gave identity to Argentine soccer around the world.

“Today is a very special day for our house, I think one of the most important in terms of management. In 2017 we had to start to re-found Argentine football, and within what we had to re-found was building management, and we found ourselves with this building that was not closed, with unfinished projects. Today we know what it is for, we started with the internal enclosure, external structures…, without a doubt it will become the new home of our National Teams.

“This building will have three hotel floors for our National Teams; it will have a training and high-performance centre with medical equipment; it will also have amenities, wet and dry recovery rooms, an auditorium for 360 people. It is propitious that today we all share together the uncovering of the foundation stone of this building and this property.

“Some leaders said that we did it late, but I think not, like the moment we recognised our house in Viamonte as ‘Diego Armando Maradona’. Today is not only the inauguration of this project, but also that of this Sports Housing Complex in Ezeiza that from today will carry a new name: ‘Lionel Andres Messi’.”

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Messi later took to the stage to thank those in attendance for the tribute.

“Thank you all very much for being here,” he began. “I am grateful to Chiqui for this recognition, it is very important to me.

“I have been coming to this property for 20 years and since I entered I felt a very special energy. Until today, every time I enter, I feel a very particular energy in this property. I have had hard times, but even in those moments, entering here meant forgetting everything, it was arriving and feeling happiness for being in this place, the same thing I still feel.

“I feel very I am happy that after so long this is going to bear my name. I am one of the people who think that tributes have to be made in life, and I think this is a very special recognition for all that this property means, for the amount of players who pass by. Passing by here and knowing that it will bear my name is something very nice.”

Ahead of the 2023 NWSL season, the Kansas City Current confirmed Sam Mewis is not expected to feature in the upcoming campaign due to her ongoing injury. 

“Midfielders Sam Mewis and Claire Lavogez, along with defender Mallory Weber remain on the Season Ending Injury list, although Lavogez and Weber are expected to return at some point this season,” the update said.

The midfielder continues to nurse a knee injury she sustained during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, undergoing an initial surgery following the international tournament and a second in January. 

“I don’t have a timeline for my return to soccer,” Mewis said in January, before revealing she would need a third procedure done. 

The player has featured in just two games since the Olympics in the summer of 2021, most recently in a Challenge Cup fixture last March. Now, she remains “focused on her recovery and future.”

“Mewis will be focused on her recovery and future as she works her way back from her progressive injury to her right leg,” the team said in its news release.

“I’ll be starting my rehab at home where my family can support me,” added Mewis in a statement posted to her Twitter account. “I gave everything I had after my last procedure in 2021. This has been a really difficult time for me personally and I’ve been devastated to be away from soccer for so long.”

Internationally, US women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski confirmed earlier she will not take part in the upcoming World Cup this summer in New Zealand and Australia. 

“At this point I don’t want to guess what the time is or if she is going to be back at all,” Andonovski said ahead of the team’s two January friendlies against New Zealand. “With Sam, it’s a long-term injury and at this point, you know, we probably would not go into details for that.”

Her absence is a huge blow to the team, after she played a major role in the 2019 edition of the tournament to inspire the USWNT to its second consecutive trophy. The midfielder started five of the team’s seven matches in France, including the final against the Netherlands.

Overall, Mewis has earned 83 caps with the USWNT in her career, scoring 24 goals.