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• Zirkzee left out of Netherlands' Euro 2024 squad as De Jong makes the cut

  Joshua Zirkzee was a surprise omission from Ronald Koeman's Netherlands squad for Euro 2024, as Frenkie de Jong made the selection.

  A 30-man preliminary squad was confirmed on Thursday, with that pool to be whittled down to 26 for the tournament, which starts on June 14.

  The Netherlands have been drawn against France, Austria and Poland in Group D, and Koeman somewhat surprisingly did not include in-form Bologna attacker Zirkzee, who has scored 12 goals this season, propelling his side towards Champions League qualification.

  Koeman has preferred to go with the experienced Wout Weghorst, along with Memphis Depay and Brian Brobbey.

  De Jong, though, did make the cut despite having not played for Barcelona in close to a month due to an ankle issue.

  Ryan Gravenberch has earned a recall after a year away, and he is joined by Liverpool team-mates Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo.

  Micky van de Ven, who has impressed for Tottenham this season, has also been selected, as has wing-back Jeremie Frimpong, who has been in sensational form for Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen. Arsenal's Jurrien Timber, who sustained a serious injury in August, does not feature.

  Georginio Wijnaldum, the former Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder who now plays in Saudi Arabia, has been included.

  Koeman will confirm his 26-man squad by the end of May.

  Netherlands squad

  Justin Bijlow (Feyenoord), Mark Flekken (Brentford), Bart Verbruggen (Brighton & Hove Albion), Nick Olij (Sparta Rotterdam); Nathan Ake (Manchester City), Daley Blind (Girona), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan), Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen), Lutsharel Geertruida (Feyenoord), Matthijs de Ligt (Bayern Munich), Ian Maatsen (Borussia Dortmund), Micky van de Ven (Tottenham Hotspur), Stefan de Vrij (Inter); Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool), Frenkie de Jong (FC Barcelona), Teun Koopmeiners (Atalanta), Tijjani Reijnders (Milan), Marten de Roon (Atalanta), Jerdy Schouten (PSV), Xavi Simons (RB Leipzig), Quinten Timber (Feyenoord), Joey Veerman (PSV Eindhoven), Georginio Wijnaldum (Al Ettifaq); Steven Bergwijn (Ajax), Brian Brobbey (Ajax), Memphis Depay (Atletico Madrid), Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), Donyell Malen (Borussia Dortmund), Wout Weghorst (Hoffenheim).

• Ronaldo motivated to keep playing at top level

  Cristiano Ronaldo has no intention of stopping as he says he is still motivated to compete with the "young lions" coming through in the game.

  Ronaldo is reportedly considering signing a contract extension to keep him at Al-Nassr until June 2026, taking him past his 41st birthday.

  The Portugal international has scored 42 goals in 41 appearances for the Saudi Pro League club this season, and he insists he is still motivated to keep going.

  Speaking on the Whoop podcast, he said: "I feel proud to have this age and still compete at the highest level. It's great, and it gives me motivation to carry on.

  "If you look at my career for the last 20 years, my level is high. If you are top for 20 years, it's unbelievable.

  "I do that, and I continue to do that. For me, it's a big achievement."

  Ronaldo has scored an incredible 891 goals in his career and is the all-time leading scorer in men’s international football with 128 goals.

  "My biggest motivation is to carry on," he added. "It's not easy to be at this level.

  "To still push, to still motivate, to carry on, to score goals, to be in good shape, to compete with the young lions that are coming and that when they play against me, they want to show me that they are stronger and faster than me.

  "You have to prepare very well, not just physically but mentally, too. This is the challenge.

  "Talent without work is nothing and work without talent is nothing. They have to work together at the same time. I have both. I can't say that I have more of one than the other.

  "Small details will make the difference. Consistency is the most difficult thing.

  "Are you willing to do that? That's the main point, because everyone wants to be Cristiano, but doing it is difficult. Discipline is the most difficult thing."

• Busby aiming to reset culture, objectives ahead of World Cup Qualifying campaign

  A reset of the culture as well as objectives of the Jamaica Senior Women’s National Team or “Reggae Girlz” is of paramount importance to returning Head coach Hubert Busby Jr.

  Busby Jr was rehired last week after previously serving in the role in 2021 and won’t have a lot of time to settle back into the role as his first assignment will be to navigate a pair of international friendlies with global football powerhouses Brazil on June 1 and 4.

  The two teams last met at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup where a 0-0 draw secured the Reggae Girlz spot as the first Caribbean nation to ever advance from the group stage at a World Cup.

  

  The squad for these two friendlies can be looked at as a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, 18 of the members of the squad were in that history-making World Cup squad but, on the other hand, they haven’t played together since that tournament which was nine months ago.

  “I think coming back in with two weeks to go, there is a lot of work to do in a short period of time and the idea that the core of this particular group hasn’t been together in nine months so there’s a lot of work that we’re doing now behind the scenes to get up to speed in terms of watching Brazil and getting the players organized,” he said in an interview with JFFLive on Wednesday.

  Busby Jr then went into detail on two of his major objectives in his second stint as Head coach of the Reggae Girlz.

  “More importantly, I think, some of the objectives for us is to reset the culture, reset the objectives in terms of what we’re looking to do and understand, I know it’s the most used cliché in sports, but whatever we do, we really have to stick to a process of how we look to get back to the next World Cup in 2027,” explained Busby Jr.

  “This is just the first part in utilizing each and every window, making sure that, regardless of the results, we are hitting our targets of what we want to accomplish heading into the World Cup Qualifiers,” he added.

  Brazil will be using these friendlies as preparation for the Olympic Games where they won consecutive silver medals at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

  These two friendlies will also be the last home international appearances for perhaps the greatest female footballer ever, Marta, who has announced that she will retire after the Paris Games.

  

  “This is going to be a little bit of a send-off match for them. It will also be Marta’s last game in Brazil in front of her home crowd before she retires and there’s a little bit of a revenge factor from what happened at the World Cup so we’ve got to manage all of that,” Busby Jr said.

  “We’re going to have these three training sessions and prepare the team for these matches,” he ended.