Toby Alderweireld has retired from Belgium duty, with the defender the latest member of their Golden Generation to hang up his boots.

The 34-year-old, who played 127 times for his country in a career spanning 13 years, is the third most-capped player in Red Devils history.

Former Tottenham and Atletico Madrid centre-back Alderweireld represented Belgium at five consecutive major tournaments, including three World Cups and two European Championships, and was a member of the squad that finished third at Russia 2018.

But following a disappointing group stage exit in Qatar last year, he has now become the latest experienced member of their squad to call time on his international career.

"As a little boy, I dreamed of playing for the national team," Alderweireld told the Belgium national team's official website. "I am very grateful and proud that this dream has become a reality.

"I can look back, 14 years later, on 127 international matches, three World Cups, two European Championships and countless beautiful memories.

"With pain in my heart, I announce that I will retire from the Red Devils with immediate effect I have given myself completely, physically and mentally.

"I want to thank all my team-mates and the staff for the unforgettable moments we shared together. Without them, none of this would have been possible."

Alderweireld made his debut in 2009 during a 1-1 draw with Chile, though he did not become a regular until 2013.

He subsequently was a member of their squad at the Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups, as well as Euro 2016 and Euro 2020.

His retirement follows team-mate Eden Hazard's decision to bow out following their disappointing Qatar campaign.

Belgium will play their first games under new coach Domenico Tedesco later this month, with a Euro 2024 qualifier against Sweden and a friendly against Germany.

Liverpool and Newcastle United are reportedly among the Premier League teams exploring a potential move for Bayer Leverkusen centre-back Jonathan Tah – and the interest could be mutual.

Tah, 26, is in his eighth season in Leverkusen after arriving ahead of the 2015-16 campaign, racking up 283 appearances in all competitions and earning 16 senior international caps for Germany.

After five consecutive seasons finishing in the Bundesliga's top-six, Leverkusen have struggled this campaign, with just seven wins and a negative goal difference after 19 games, leaving them 10th.

Facing an uphill battle for any European football next season, the club will reportedly struggle to convince Tah to stick around, especially with plenty of interest from his desired landing spot in the Premier League.

 

TOP STORY – TAH SETS HIS SIGHTS ON THE PREMIER LEAGUE

According to 90min, Tah is "keen to take his talents to England at the end of the season".

He has two more seasons on his contract, tying him to Leverkusen until 2025, leaving the club with a difficult decision about whether to hang on to one of their top players or cash in and use the funds to improve the squad.

As well as Liverpool and Newcastle, West Ham are also understood to have touched base with Leverkusen about Tah's availability in January, while his name also came up in discussions with Tottenham, but they are said to prefer his centre-back partner Piero Hincapie.

 

ROUND-UP

– The Mirror is reporting Tottenham are admirers of 26-year-old Leicester City midfielder James Maddison

– According to El Nacional, Real Madrid have held talks with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp about potentially taking over from Carlo Ancelotti at the end of the season, and Klopp is said to have requested the Spanish giants pursue Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe.

Milan have an interest in signing 27-year-old Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita, per the Mirror, while the Daily Mail adds the Italian side are also impressed by 21-year-old Arsenal loanee Folarin Balogun, who has 14 Ligue 1 goals for Reims this season.

Manchester United and Newcastle are said to be two of many clubs keeping a close eye on 18-year-old Royal Antwerp prospect Arthur Vermeeren, per the Daily Mail.

– Fabrizio Romano is reporting United, Arsenal and Liverpool have all held talks with the agent of 20-year-old Barcelona forward Ansu Fati.

Netherlands great Marc Overmars suffered a "mild stroke" and has been told to limit his Royal Antwerp duties while he recovers.

The health scare was revealed by the Belgian club on Friday, with former Arsenal, Ajax and Barcelona winger Overmars under orders to "take it easy".

Antwerp posted on their social media accounts: "Marc Overmars, director of football affairs at RAFC, became unwell last night and was admitted to hospital with a mild stroke. Marc is doing well in the meantime, but will have to take it easy for a while.

"Marc and his family are focusing on his recovery and do not wish to comment further. RAFC wishes Marc a speedy recovery!"

Antwerp hired Overmars in March, little over a month after he left Ajax after sending inappropriate messages to female colleagues.

Overmars sent messages and photographs to several women who worked at the Dutch club – behaviour he admitted was "unacceptable".

Ajax replied to Antwerp's announcement of Overmars' hospitalisation by posting: "Wishing you strength and strength with your recovery, Marc."

Overmars, 49, scored 17 goals in 86 games for the Netherlands in an international career that ran from February 1993 through to the 2004 European Championship.

Toby Alderweireld has joined his hometown club Royal Antwerp on a three-year deal.

Alderweireld only joined Al-Duhail from Tottenham for a reported fee of 65.34million QAR (£13m) on a three-year contract last July, but the Belgium defender's short stay in Qatar has come to an end.

Antwerp on Friday confirmed the 33-year-old has put pen to paper on a contract until 2025.

Alderweireld has never played professionally in his homeland, having joined Ajax at the age of 15.

The Antwerp-born centre-back spent five years with Ajax before joining Atletico Madrid and was loaned Southampton prior to a move to Spurs, where he made 236 appearances.

Alderweireld has won 121 caps for the Red Devils and is set to be back in Qatar to play in the World Cup this year.

Belgian side Royal Antwerp have appointed Marc Overmars as their new sporting director – little over a month after he departed Ajax after sending inappropriate messages to female colleagues.

Overmars left Ajax amid scandal after sending messages and photographs to several women who worked at the Dutch club – behaviour he admitted was "unacceptable".

Despite the lament that accompanied his departure from Ajax, Overmars indicated he was happy with what the new role represented.

"My departure from Ajax was very unfortunate," the 48-year-old said at his presentation. "I have to go through that and continue. I am going to do that now. I want to leave the Ajax page behind me and start a new chapter here. What happened at Ajax will not happen [here].

"The Gheysens family has convinced me of the project and where they want to go with the club. The ambitions are enormous. It is a great challenge and I see the growth potential of the city and the club."

Sven Jaecques, Antwerp's general manager, said he had not specifically consulted the club's female workers before hiring Overmars.

"Not in concrete terms, no," he said. "It is important to give people new opportunities and to turn the page. We spoke with Marc for a long time and listened to what happened and what our values are. That is a match.

"It never stands still at Antwerp. We are taking another very big step in the progress of our club."

Nathan Patterson repaid the faith shown in him by Steven Gerrard with a goal as Rangers beat Royal Antwerp 5-2 to reach the last 16 of the Europa League.

Rangers scored two late goals last week to take a slender lead into Thursday's reverse fixture and extended their lead inside nine minutes through Alfredo Morelos' strike en route to a 9-5 aggregate victory.

Lior Refaelov added to his goal and two assists from the first leg by equalising for Antwerp in Glasgow, but substitute Patterson - given a reprieve by Gerrard after his recent breach of coronavirus protocols - made an instant impact to put the Gers back in front.

Ryan Kent gave the hosts more breathing space nine minutes later and although Didier Lamkel Ze pulled one back another for Antwerp, Borna Barisic and Cedric Itten netted late penalties as Rangers reached the last 16 for the second year running.

Kent was among the scorers in the gripping first leg and was involved from the off here, testing Ortwin De Wolf with a low drive before picking Jeremy Gelin’s pocket and setting up Morelos for a simple finish.

Rangers had won just one of their four Europa League knockout matches at Ibrox and they were pegged back by Refaelov's deft finish following some good play out wide from Jordan Lukaku.

Gerrard replaced Leon Balogun with Patterson at the interval and that paid instant dividends as the teenage right-back, a surprise inclusion in the matchday squad, got in behind and picked out the bottom corner 16 seconds after being brought on.

Morelos then repaid the favour to Kent for the earlier assist by knocking the ball past Martin Hongla and crossing for his team-mate to finish, giving Rangers a three-goal advantage on aggregate.

Antwerp, competing in their first major European knockout match since 1994-95, gave themselves hope thanks to Lamkel Ze's tap-in following a comical coming together between Connor Goldson and Allan McGregor.

But Rangers extended their lead through Barisic's penalty - awarded for Maxime Le Marchand's trip on Morelos - which was followed up by another from the spot in the closing stages, converted by Itten.

Steven Gerrard praised the "quality and character" of his Rangers side after they scored a couple of late goals to edge a 4-3 thriller with Royal Antwerp in their Europa League last-32 first leg.

The Scottish Premiership leaders trailed 2-1 and 3-2 at Bosuilstadion but won the seven-goal classic through substitute Ryan Kent's strike and a second Borna Barisic penalty in the final seven minutes.

Rangers, who lost captain James Tavernier and attacker Kemar Roofe to injury in the first half, are now unbeaten in all seven matches in this season's competition proper and have tasted defeat just once in their last 40 games overall.

And while Gerrard admitted to being concerned about the poor defending on show - the Gers conceding as many goals in Thursday's match as in their last 11 matches combined - he was pleased with the way his side dug deep to pick up the win.

"I am just waiting for the heart rate to come down," he said. "It was a fantastic game. I am sure all the neutrals enjoyed it. But from a manager's point of view there is certainly a lot to analyse.

"Obviously, defensively we haven't been at it tonight, we haven't been at our very best. We have conceded three goals and that is the second time at this level that we have done that. That tells me we have a lot of work to do in terms of our organisation.

"But it is very difficult to win away from home in Europe. Experience of Scottish teams going out in Europe tells me that.

"It is very difficult to win at this level way from home. I have got to give the boys credit for winning the game. I thought we were much better in the second half."

Felipe Avenatti's header and a contentious Lior Refaelov penalty late in the first half gave Antwerp, competing in their first European knockout tie since 1994-95, the lead after Joe Aribo had opened the scoring.

Barisic was making his 100th appearance for Rangers and levelled up with the first of his two penalties, before Martin Hongla found the bottom-left corner with a deflected shot to put the visitors back in front.

But substitute Kent, who was not deemed fit enough to start the game, scored a third away goal for the Gers and Barisic converted from a last-minute penalty awarded for handball against Abdoulaye Seck, who was red carded as a result.

"I said to them at half-time not to panic," Gerrard added. "We were 2-1 down, but even if the game stayed at 2-1 it wasn't the end of the world, because we had got the away goal.

"I had seen enough in the first 45 minutes to tell me we could cause this team problems.

"Obviously, the injury didn't help us when it happened. I thought we lost a bit of our rhythm at the time. But I always knew I had quality on the bench to add to it. I thought Ryan showed his freshness coming on. 

"He scored a wonderful goal. Over the course of the 90 minutes we deserved to win the game. We could have scored a few more goals. It's a crazy football match to analyse just now because it has only just finished.

"But it shows we have got quality and character in our team."

Rangers are now the favourites to progress from next week's second leg at Ibrox as they aim to reach the last 16 of the competition in successive seasons.

However, they may be without Tavernier - arguably their key man - and Roofe after both players limped off in the first half.

Providing an update on the pair after the game, Gerrard told BT Sport: "Kemar's got another calf so that's a concern. He's getting too many of those calves at the moment so we're going to have to look into that and maybe get him to see the right people.

"He's very down and frustrated at the moment so that's a blow for us. Obviously James going off as well - he never goes off the pitch so that worries me a bit as well.

"We'll look at both situations, analyse them over the next couple of days and hopefully they're not as bad as first feared."

Rangers scored twice in the final seven minutes to salvage a 4-3 victory in Thursday's thrilling Europa League last-32 tie with Royal Antwerp. 

The Gers, who progressed through the group stage as one of six unbeaten sides, survived a scare at Bosuilstadion in the first leg to take a big advantage into next week's return fixture in Glasgow. 

Felipe Avenatti's header and a contentious Lior Refaelov penalty late in the first half followed on from Joe Aribo's opener for the visitors, before Borna Barisic levelled up from the spot just before the hour. 

Antwerp regained their lead through Martin Hongla's strike to put Rangers, who lost influential captain James Tavernier and attacker Kemar Roofe to first-half injuries, on the brink of a first defeat in 13 games. 

However, substitute Ryan Kent scored a third away goal for the Scottish Premiership leaders and Barisic kept his cool with another penalty to mark his 100th appearance for the club with a double, sealing a remarkable victory in Belgium.

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