Ashley Williams is facing a fight to save his international career after being dropped from the Wales squad for the first time. The current captain – his side’s inspirational leader at Euro 2016 in France as Wales reached the semi-finals – has been left out by manager Ryan Giggs for the crunch Euro 2020 qualifier against Azerbaijan next month. No new captain has yet been confirmed by Giggs, but the team is expected to be led by Gareth Bale who has worn the armband in the past when Williams was in the squad, but left out of the starting team.

Rob Page has joined Ryan Giggs’ coaching staff with Wales in a shake-up prompted by the departure of Osian Roberts. Page, who has been managing the Wales U21 squad, has stepped up to fill the void left by Roberts after the long-serving No.2 left to take up a job in Morocco. Page will join Giggs and his assistant, Albert Stuivenberg, as a coach for the senior men’s national side, starting with the matches against Azerbaijan and Belarus next month.

Wales manager Jayne Ludlow has included a 15-year-old in her squad for the first stages of their UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 qualification campaign. Carrie Jones – who plays for Cardiff City Ladies – has been named in a squad of 22 for the matches against Northern Ireland and the Faroe Islands. The midfielder from Newtown is uncapped but has previously trained with the senior squad and had captained Wales at Under 17 level.

Gareth Bale appears to have had the slate wiped clean in his stand-off with manager Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid. The Wales star was omitted from Zidane’s squad for a pre-season friendly with RB Salzburg, having also previously missed the club’s trip to Germany for the Audi Cup. That came after the collapse of Bale’s proposed transfer to Chinese club Jiangsu Suning amid widespread speculation his six-year stay in Spain was about to end.

Harry Wilson has revealed he was inclined to join Bournemouth because of their reputation for attractive football. The Wales winger has moved from Liverpool on a season-long loan and will help fill the gap left by his Welsh teammate David Brooks, who is facing three months on the sidelines with the Cherries following an ankle operation.

Osian Roberts has stepped down as assistant coach of Wales to become technical director at the Royal Moroccan Football Federation. Roberts, who also leaves his position as technical director of the Football Association of Wales Trust, worked as assistant to Gary Speed, Chris Coleman and current national team boss Ryan Giggs. The 54-year-old was part of the backroom team which guided the Dragons to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and was interviewed for the manager’s job prior to the appointment of Giggs in January 2018.

Wrexham are going for goals in their quest for National League success during 2019-20. The Dragons had one of the best defences in non-League football last season, but failed to score enough goals. Wrexham failed to score against Crewe Alexandra in their latest pre-season fixture, but manager Bryan Hughes believes he has an attack which […]

Cardiff City 1, OGC Nice 0 Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds finished their pre-season fixtures with an unbeaten record and now focus on next Saturday’s opening Championship match at Wigan Athletic. Warnock’s men gained a win against a Nice team managed by former Arsenal and Manchester City player Patrick Viera and the manager will be delighted with […]

More than 700 homeless people from all over the World will walk from Principality Stadium to Cardiff Castle on Saturday morning and launch their 2019 World Cup. The launch parade will go to Cardiff Castle via Westgate Street and St Mary’s Street with the opening ceremony, which is open to all, held inside the grounds. […]

Under-18 football: Cardiff City 1, AFC Bournemouth 2 Fast and silky raider Siyabonga Ligendza caught the eye for Cardiff City during their under-18 pre-season match against AFC Bournemouth at Cardiff International Sports Stadium. Wales junior international Ligendza, who played for Talycopa AFC in Trallwn, Swansea, before joining the Bluebirds is gaining a reputation as a player […]

Barry Town United have pulled off a signing coup by snapping up National League midfield player Keyon Reffell for the new season. Playmaker Reffell, a former Cardiff City trainee, turned down a contract offer from Hereford FC to sign for Welsh Premier League Barry. “This move has probably been 10 years in the making,” says […]

  Merthyr Town FC 2, Swansea City U-23 0 The Martyrs used 21 players during their first pre-season fixture at the MetCoaches Stadium including manager Gavin Williams. Kieran Lewis and Lee Lucas scored first half goals for the Martyrs, who were without new signing Ben Swallow. Goalkeeping duties for Southern League Premier team Merthyr were […]