Euro 2024: Dutchman de Ligt will probably leave FC Bayern

A transfer of Dutch defender Matthijs de Ligt (24) from FC Bayern Munich to Manchester United is apparently becoming more and more concrete. The German and English record champions are said to be in advanced talks about a transfer. This is reported by the TV broadcaster Sky and the Italian transfer expert Fabrizio Romano.

De Ligt is said to only want to leave Bayern for Manchester United this summer. The European Championship participant is said to have a contract until the summer of 2029. The sticking point is still the transfer fee, which is said to be around 50 million euros.

Will the transfer happen after the European Championship exit? Matthijs de Ligt during the semi-final match against England

Source: dpa/Tom Weller

De Ligt is considered the most lucrative candidate for sale from Munich’s central defense. He moved from Juventus Turin to Bayern two years ago for a transfer fee of around 70 million euros. The Dutch international, whose team was knocked out by England in the European Championship semi-finals, has not yet established himself as an undisputed regular at the German club. In Manchester, de Ligt would meet his former coach at Ajax Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag.

17:10: 17 injured after riots

A total of 17 people were slightly injured in clashes between fans during the semi-final between the Netherlands and England. This includes seven police officers, as the Dortmund police reported the day after the match. 23 Dutch and three English fans were taken into custody. They are now free again.

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In total, the emergency services intervened in 22 cases of bodily harm, among others. There was also an attack on law enforcement officers and four acts of resistance against the police.

15:20: Federal Minister of the Interior draws positive interim conclusion

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has drawn a positive interim assessment of the European Championship. “So far, we have experienced a largely peaceful tournament,” she said. For a sports tournament of this size, there have only been “few security-related incidents” – and “significantly fewer than we had previously expected.” The high presence of federal and state police paid off, said Faeser.

The minister announced that she would once again pool all her strengths for the final on Sunday. Security remains the “top priority”. Faeser stressed: “We remain focused and vigilant.” She hopes that the “European Championship, which has been so great so far, will come to a peaceful conclusion in our country”.

The SPD politician had previously described the European Championships as the “biggest operation in the history of the Federal Police”. According to her, 22,000 Federal Police officers are deployed every day.

14:35: Doppelgänger celebrated

English fans have made a police officer famous on social media. Because the officer resembles England’s national coach Gareth Southgate, some supporters surrounded the supposed doppelganger in downtown Dortmund before the Three Lions’ semi-final against the Netherlands and sang enthusiastically to him. Inspired by the hit “Whole Again” by the pop band Atomic Kitten from 2000, they sang “Southgate you’re the one, you still turn me on, football’s coming home again”.

In a video posted on X, the police officer can be seen enduring the fans’ chants with his arms crossed and a slightly tortured smile. His colleague, meanwhile, is clearly having more fun – like many of the English fans, he is also filming the scene.

Coach Southgate, who took over the national team after the 2016 European Championship, was heavily criticized in the domestic press for his unattractive style of play. However, success has now proven him right: Southgate is the first coach ever to lead the Three Lions to two finals of a major tournament. In addition, before Southgate, only the former German national coaches Berti Vogts and Helmut Schön had managed to reach two European Championship finals in a row with their teams.

12:30 p.m.: Frenchman leads the final

Referee François Letexier from France will referee the final between England and Spain on Sunday in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. The 35-year-old has refereed three tournament matches so far, including the Spanish team’s round of 16 match against Georgia (4:1).

Letexier, who has been refereeing matches on the international stage since 2017, will be involved in the second major final this season – he was the fourth official in the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund (2-0). In Berlin, he will be assisted by his two compatriots Cyril Mugnier and Mehdi Rahmouni, and the fourth official will be Szymon Marciniak (Poland), the referee of the 2022 World Cup final.

Francois Letexier

Source: Getty Images/Lars Baron

Should video evidence be required, Jérôme Brisard from France will have primary responsibility, assisted by Willy Delajod (France) and Massimiliano Irrati (Italy).

12:12 p.m.: Police after semi-final: “The majority of people were completely peaceful”

Despite isolated fan riots, the police in Dortmund are satisfied with the large-scale operation surrounding the European Championship semi-final between the Netherlands and England. The aim of enabling a football festival with the greatest possible security has been achieved, said the police commander of the operation, Achim Stankowitz. Well over 100,000 largely peaceful football fans were in the city from Wednesday afternoon onwards.

In their report after the football evening, the police spoke of one of the “biggest football operations of all time in Dortmund” – this time in a city completely bathed in orange. According to police, 100,000 fans took part in the march of Dutch fans from the city center towards the stadium and public viewing area alone. The fan zones in the city center and in Westfalenpark were already at full capacity early on.

The Dutch fan march

Source: AFP/INA FASSBENDER

Football fans clashed several times before the game in the city center. A total of 26 arrests were registered after the game. However, investigations are ongoing. In a bar, Dutch and English fan groups clashed and threw chairs and bottles.

The police were on site promptly and were able to immediately prevent any further escalation, explained the police chief. The majority of people remained completely peaceful, he stressed. “It is almost impossible to prevent clashes in a few places with such a large crowd and the emotions involved in a football match.”

10:17 a.m.: Palhinha moves to Bayern

The transfer of Portuguese international João Palhinha from Fulham FC to Bayern Munich FC is complete. The defensive midfielder signed a contract until 2028. The Munich team will pay Fulham a transfer fee of 46 million euros, which may increase due to bonus expenses.

John Palhinha

Source: dpa/Jens Büttner

“João Palhinha was already highly regarded at FC Bayern last summer – and rightly so! It was important that we never lost contact. João really wanted to join FC Bayern and we need players like him. He is an important building block for our future,” said sporting director Max Eberl. “At the European Championships in particular, he once again demonstrated his strengths on a big stage and brings a lot of experience with him, having previously played in a European Championship and a World Cup and around 300 competitive matches in the Portuguese and English leagues. He will give us even more stability in the center.”

Palhinha was already a target of FC Bayern last summer. The then Munich coach Thomas Tuchel had primarily wanted a defensive-oriented number six for the midfield. A signing of the 30-time national player, who moved to England in 2022, fell through on the last day of the transfer window because the London club did not release him without a replacement.

7:45 a.m.: King Charles III worries about the “blood pressure of the nation” after England’s victory

The British King Charles III has congratulated the English national football team on reaching the European Championship final – with a small request. “If I could encourage you to secure the victory before any last-minute miracle goals or another penalty drama are necessary,” the king wrote, according to a statement from the palace.

Then “the strain on the nation’s collective pulse and blood pressure would be considerably alleviated.”

King Charles III knows what is good for his country: low blood pressure, for example

Source: Action Images via Reuters

England had beaten the Netherlands 2-1 thanks to Ollie Watkins’ goal in injury time. In the quarter-final against Switzerland, a penalty shootout was needed to win, and in the round of 16 against Slovakia, England had equalised in injury time and won in extra time.

21:38: Kane shoots himself to become record holder in knockout games

England’s national team captain Harry Kane has become the sole record scorer in knockout matches in European Championship history with his goal in the semi-final against the Netherlands. The 30-year-old Bayern star scored the equaliser in Dortmund on the evening with a penalty in the 18th minute, making it 1-1 and with his sixth goal he surpassed the Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, who has scored five goals in knockout matches. Kane had won the penalty himself.

For Kane, who has been criticised for his poor performances at this European Championship, it was the third goal of the tournament. The captain had previously scored in the second group match against Denmark (1-0) and in the round of 16 against Slovakia (2-1). However, Kane was also substituted in the last two games.

Kane improved to joint third place in the all-time European Championship goal scorers list. With seven goals, he is now level with Spain’s captain Alvaro Morata, fellow countryman Alan Shearer and Griezmann. Only the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (14 goals) and Michel Platini (nine) are better in this statistic.

20:04: Lothar Matthäus honors Thomas Müller

Record national player Lothar Matthäus has praised Thomas Müller for his great services to the German national team. “Of course a great player is leaving the national team,” said Matthäus on MagentaTV.

“I think he just wants to concentrate on Bayern Munich,” said Matthäus. “His appearances, his successes, his goals and, above all, his leadership qualities leave big shoes to fill.” Müller played his 131st international match when the DFB team was eliminated from the European Championship in the quarter-finals against Spain (1:2 after extra time). Only Miroslav Klose (137) and Matthäus (150) played more often.

Thomas Müller

Source: dpa/Bernd Weißbrod

Müller’s former national team colleague Benedikt Höwedes (36) described the Bayern professional as an “incredibly great footballer”. The Englishman Owen Hargreaves, who had enjoyed great success with Bayern before Müller’s time as a Munich professional, said that he had “never met anyone who didn’t love Thomas Müller”. Müller is “also a very special person as a person,” said the 43-year-old.

All games of the home European Championship at a glance:

Schedule of the European Championship 2024 with all results
European Championship schedule as PDF to print