A quick-thinking football player rushed to the rescue of an injured seagull after it was knocked out by a goal kick during an amateur league match in Turkey.
The seagull was circling the pitch during a play-off final match between Mevlanakapi Guzelhisar against Istanbul Yurdum Spor, a tense conclusion to the season with the championship still up for grabs.
But disaster struck after 22 minutes when it was struck by a goal kick from the Istanbul goalkeeper, falling from the sky with a thud.
Play was immediately stopped by the referee with Istanbul captain Gani Catan immediately rushing over to tend to the fallen bird.
The skipper started performing CPR on the injured animal, pumping its ribcage as the rest of the players on the pitch gathered around him to watch on.
Catan’s quick actions appeared to do the trick with the seagull seen moving again as he carried it off the pitch to hand over to medical staff.
‘Something was falling and I realised it was a seagull. The first thing that came to my mind was heart massage, because it couldn’t breathe, so I tried my luck,’ Catan told state news agency Anadolu.
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Onur Ozsoy called the action in what was surely a first for football commentary. ‘Muhammet hit the seagull!” he gasped, referring to the Istanbul goalkeeper.
The seagull was struck mid-air during a goal kick.
Catan’s actions might have saved the gull’s life.
‘They’re doing chest compressions on the seagull right now, this is a moment rarely seen in footballhistory. The seagull is being carried off, he’s been taken to the sidelines with the medical bag where his treatment will continue.’
Ozsoy later claimed on the broadcast he had been informed the stricken seagull was ‘walking again’ after suffering wing damage.
Istanbul went onto lose the match but the hero of the afternoon Catan was satisfied with his day’s work.
‘We missed out on the championship, but it’s a wonderful thing to have helped save a life. This was more important than the championship.’
Snoop Dogg was in attendance for Swansea’s game against Preston (Credits: Alamy Live News.)
The Swansea City co-owner Snoop Dogg was greeted with twirling towels and a guard of honour on his first visit to the Welsh club.
The American rapper, who is a minority owner of the Championship club alongside the television host Martha Stewart and Croatia international Luka Modric, made his first appearance at the Swansea.com Stadium for Tuesday’s clash with Preston.
Snoop joined the Swansea ownership group last July and made his way to south-west Wales after attending the Winter Olympics, where he served as Team USA’s honorary coach as well as a special correspondent for broadcaster NBC.
The celebrity visit had created so much excitement that a sell-out crowd of 20,233 turned up. Snoop Dogg, who had arrived at the stadium nearly three hours before the 7.45pm kick-off, had requested the crowd to be in their seats ahead of the action to twirl the complimentary towels.
Snoop took to the field through a guard of honour for Snoop made up of 20 youngsters representing Wales at the 2026 Street Child World Cup in North America.
Dressed in the club’s all-white colours, with a Swansea crest on his jacket, dark glasses and a beanie hat, Snoop made a pre-match lap of honour as fans twirled their towels with rock music booming in the background.
The star saluted the fans, shook hands with some, and had photographs taken with others. The club mascot, Cyril the Swan, even got a hug. He eventually disappeared down the tunnel seven minutes later just before a light show started prior to kick-off.
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‘He’s someone that likes to be involved, not only with us but with the (United States) Olympic team as well.
‘He loves sports, loves sports people. He loves the club, loves the city, and wants to be here.
‘I think that’s all positive and he was really happy because he felt that the team had the right mentality. He felt that the team could push.’
Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom, meanwhile, downplayed the occasion and atmosphere created by Snoop Dogg’s walkabout before kick-off.
Snoop Dogg’s presence helped generate a record crowd at the Swansea.com Stadium (Picture: Getty)
Liam Cullen’s late goal rescued a point for Swansea (Credits: Aled Hopkins/Action Plus/Shutterstock)
Heckingbottom joked that the only difference to other Championship games was the smell of illicit drugs, with Snoop Dogg having built a public persona around his copious marijuana intake.
‘The only thing I noticed different was the smell of weed in the tunnel before the game,’ Heckingbottom quipped.
‘It’s only different for people who are here every week, isn’t it?’ We don’t play at Swansea every week, so it’s no different for us.
‘We go away to Ipswich the other week, they were at it, their fans were at it, and that was noise all game. I felt we kept everyone quiet here until the end.’
Lammens, 23, was expected to be United’s back-up goalkeeper but soon moved ahead of Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir in the pecking order.
While clean sheets have been hard to come by, Lammens has contributed to a Manchester United side who have won five of their last six games, climbing into the Champions League places under caretaker manager Michael Carrick.
Neville picked Lammens as his ‘man of the match’ at the Hill Dickinson Stadium and said the 23-year-old has a ‘big, big future’ at Manchester United.
Lammens has clearly won over Neville who was initially ‘concerned’ by his arrival at the club and feared he would get ‘eaten up’ in the Premier League.
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Senne Lammens joined Manchester United last summer (Picture: Getty)
‘The goalkeeper, I thought, was my man of the match tonight – not necessarily because he made loads of amazing saves, but everything he did he just did really calmly and well,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
‘The tip over the bar at the end, there was a shot that just bounced in front of him and he just held it, and then Everton had 10 corners.
‘He didn’t deal with every single one but he dealt with a lot of them, and I think having a goalkeeper of composure who just does his job calmly, isn’t frantic, isn’t sort of rushing around, I think makes a big difference in moments like that when you come into a place like this and they’re putting enormous pressure on you.
Does Šeško need to be appreciated more? 🤷♂️ After scoring against Everton to help Manchester United win 1-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, Benjamin Šeško has the most non-penalty goals in the Premier League in 2026, but still hasn’t started a single game under Michael Carrick. 🎥 / @@mufchants #manchesterunited#sesko#everton#premierleague#carrick
‘I’ve said it before, people get tired me saying it, I do think [the goalkeeper] is the most difficult position and most scrutinised position in English football.
‘I had my concerns when he came in, I thought: “Why would you take a chance with a goalkeeper who’s young, who’s not got the pedigree, he’s played in a different league, he’s going to come to Manchester United and it could eat him up”.
‘It is early, but he looks like he’s got the temperament and he’s got the technical quality, he’s doing the right things – he holds the ball when he should hold it, he punches when he should punch, but even when he punches it’s not one of those wild punches – everything seems under control.
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‘This kid, he’s come in and I really have been impressed with him. He looks like he’s got a big, big future.
‘If you think about it, the clouds were circling under Ruben Amorim and I still thought that [Lammens] was doing quite well in that period, so now in a team that’s winning he looks even better.
‘I think overall throughout the whole period, coming in at a challenging time [with] an ever-changing defence [under Amorim], I think he’s done brilliantly well.’
‘He’s doing well,’ Van der Sar, who won four Premier League titles at United, told Sky Bet.
‘Of course, it’s only been seven or eight months, but it certainly looks like he knows the physicality of the Premier League – I see him coming for balls in the penalty spot and he claims them with confidence, makes saves when needed, not looking to make saves when not necessary.
‘I’m not here day-to-day and I don’t see all of the games, but he looks like he has a good package with him to be here [at Manchester United] for a long time.’
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has been urged to leave the club this summer as he is no longer an ‘influential’ player for Mikel Arteta.
Odegaard has been one of Arsenal’s standout players since his £30m move from Real Madrid in 2021, making over 200 appearances for the Gunners.
The Norway international was once arguably the most important member of Mikel Arteta’s squad but his stock has fallen over the past 18 months.
Odegaard only contributed three Premier League goals last season and has endured another underwhelming campaign this term, starting less than half of Arsenal’s games.
His reduced role at Arsenal can partly be explained by injury issues but Odegaard’s form has also been criticised by a number of pundits.
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Martin Odegaard after Arsenal’s win over Tottenham (Picture: Getty)
Odegaard, in contrast, only came on as a late substitute and this was further proof of his increasingly bit-part status at Arsenal, according to Liverpool legend Steve Nicol and ex-Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf.
Asked how Arteta should use Odegaard for the rest of the season as Arsenal chase a long-awaited Premier League title, Nicol said on ESPN: ‘Odegaard might be leaving Arsenal.
‘If you’re Odegaard, the club captain and 18 months ago you were the guy. All of a sudden – and I know he’s had some injuries – but there’s question marks over whether he actually starts because of Eze.
Eze buries Spurs AGAIN 🤭 Arsenal beat Tottenham 4-1 in the North London Derby thanks to two goals from Eberechi Eze and two from Viktor Gyokeres, as the former Crystal Palace midfielder has now scored five out of his six Premier League goals against Spurs. #arsenal#tottenham#northlondonderby#eze#premierleague
‘And maybe because of the way he’s been playing, someone else might get ahead of him as well. So if you’re Martin Odegaard, do you stick around? I don’t think you do.’
Leboeuf added: ‘I agree, I agree. I’ve always liked Martin Odegaard and the way he plays because he’s very elegant, but he’s not influential anymore.
‘He’s there to start the action, to distribute the ball horizontally. But with Eze right now the moves are not the same, he’s more vertical, more influential and he’s going to help [Viktor] Gyokeres too.
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‘He has scored five goals in the last two games against Tottenham, which is extremely difficult to do, but I could see that he wanted to prove something,’ Arteta said in his post-match press conference.
‘He was upset, even with me, because I didn’t play him in the other day from the beginning and some of the decisions that I made. And I start to understand how we’re going to get the best out of him now.
‘He had that belief and I’m really happy with him. He’s really trying to mould and adapt into what we want from him.
‘You just have to look at his face and the way he was in the dressing room and with that big smile and his eyes are just expressing everything that you need to.
‘He came here for a reason and we need those moments from these players. I think him and the front players today, I think they’ve done what we expect from them.’
