This past Sunday saw not only the closing night of Parklife and Outbreak Festival here in Greater Manchester, but also Soccer Aid 2025, which raised yet another incredible amount for charity.
It was also one of the highest-scoring games Old Trafford has seen in a while.
This year’s edition of the fundraising match for UNICEF, which has now been running for more than two decades, saw a record-breaking 14th win for the World XI, who have also emerged as champions from the last five Soccer Aid games.
Nevertheless, with more than £15 million raised in charitable donations to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which helps protect children’s rights, provide humanitarian and all-around support to kids across the world in developing countries, that was the real victory.
As you can see, the exact amount generated following donations during this year’s Soccer Aid fixture is £15,280,163, essentially matching the record-breaking figure raised in 2024.
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Better still, this now takes the total raised for UNICEF thanks to the charity match, which became annual back in 2018, to beyond £115m. Incredible stuff.
Top performers on the night included Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney, who got the goals underway, ex-Man City Women’s star Toni Duggan and retired England striker Jermain Defo, who managed to score a brace on the night.
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However, despite taking a two-goal lead, it was the World XI’s star man who happened to be both a once-friendly face at the Theatre of Dreams and a familiar foe.
Speaking on the staggering 2025 total, pop star Robbie Williams, who founded the event back in 2006, said: “As an original founder of Soccer Aid, I couldn’t be more proud of UNICEF…
“From the volunteers, organisers and talent, to the team on the ground; everyone who buys a ticket or makes a donation. Together, over the years, we’ve raised over £121m. Here’s to many more games and even more fundraising.”
Well done to everyone involved with another fantastic year for Soccer Aid and UNICEF, including local comedian Paddy McGuinness, who celebrated a record ninth appearance playing between the sticks for England. Big likey, big lighty.
You can watch the game back in full HERE or all the big highlights from Soccer Aid 2025 down below.
Cracking scoreline that. Man United vs Lyon, eat your heart out.
New Amazon Prime Video docuseries to show Pep Guardiola’s final seasons at Manchester City
Emily Sergeant
A new all-access docuseries featuring Pep Guardiola’s final few seasons at Manchester City is set to air this summer.
Coming exclusively to Prime Video in the UK and Ireland, the four-part documentary is set to take Manchester City fans and neutral viewers alike inside the club as the players and manager – who delivered an era of dominance -make way for a new generation.
Filmed over the past two seasons, this is the ultimate account of an emotional farewell that marks the end of an era in English football, and will offer unfiltered access to Guardiola, his squad, and the City boardroom.
After 10 trophy-filled years – which included six Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League, three FA Cups, and five EFL Cups – Pep Guardiola called time on his tenure in Manchester last month, alongside fan favourite players Bernardo Silva and John Stones, as well as Kevin De Bruyne the season prior.
This new docuseries was there to follow them every step of the process.
Fans can follow City from a disappointing 2024/25 campaign right through to a domestic double the following season, charting the raw emotion of a squad in transition.
The series is directed by Academy and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald, alongside City Studios’ John De Caux, and is produced by Kevin Macdonald for Plan B/KM Films and Gavin Johnson and Ged Doherty for City Studios.
“This is the ultimate account of an emotional farewell that marks the end of an era in English football,” Amazon Prime Video said in a statement.
Joining Prime Video’s wide selection of sports programming, the series will be available to watch at no additional cost to Prime members this summer.
It’ll be ready to stream on 19 August.
Featured Image – Prime Video
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Here’s our petition for ‘Wonderwall’ to become England’s new football anthem
Danny Jones
All things considered, England have made a great start to the 2026 World Cup, pitching themselves as one of the great entertainers this tournament, and the scenes of the supporters and players alike serenading an entire stadium with ‘Wonderwall’ after the full-time whistle gave us chills.
So why not time for a change?
After all, that feels a lot like what this World Cup squad is about: a new manager, new teammates, not clinging to the previous ways of playing – and perhaps it’s time to put ‘Sweet Caroline’ to one side.
Now, we’re by no means saying that we’re ‘done’ with the John Denver anthem that has been reborn as a Three Lions anthem, but look at how good it was watching England belting out Oasis with the fans.
“Today is gonna be the day that England beat Croatia 4-2”, as BBC’s Match of the Day cleverly quipped.
Obviously, we’re biased as Mancs, but we also think there’s something special about having that particular track feel so good to hear again.
As much as we love Oasis, for a long time, it felt like we couldn’t enjoy arguably their biggest-ever single anywhere near as much as we once did.
We assume it’s something akin to hearing ‘Mr Brightside’ non-stop for what felt like millennia, and in truth, hearing those repetitions of “ba, ba, ba… SO GOOD, SO GOOD!” over and over again at sporting fixtures beyond just national team games has taken the magic out of it at times.
Perhaps it’s just a case of saturation in certain settings and songs simply being overplayed – FIFA’s co-hosts over in the US certainly helped see to that when it came to ‘Wonderwall’ for a long time.
On the other hand, it feels like we’ve now come full circle; singing those famous lyrics at the top of our lungs in a sea of Mancs and fans travelling from all over to Heaton Park for Live ’25 last year felt better than ever, and like we’d all remembered how great a tune it’s always been. So did this…
In fact, this felt so emotional that you’ve got people who aren’t even English praising both those on the pitch and up in the stands for the moment online.
Even the admittedly rather American Man vs Food himself, Adam Richman (though he does have British ancestry), felt compelled to write a moving response on social media: “Shut up. You’re the one that’s crying. Bravo, England.”
He’s far from the only one who was left bowled over by the atmosphere – us included.
What do you think? Is it time for a new go-to tournament anthem for the Three Lions moving forward?
Danny Jones -
16th June 2025 
