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RASMUS HOJLUND pointed to the Champions League badge on his Napoli shirt before winning man of the match in Europe’s elite competition.

While the current Manchester United squad watched from their Cheshire sofas, Hojlund and two other Man Utd cast-offs collected individual awards on Wednesday night.

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United failed to qualify for Europe after losing last season’s Europa League final to Tottenham – but several of their former players proved the doubters wrong this week.

The Red Devils have endured another dismal start, with the club 14th in the Prem after six matches, following three defeats, two wins and a draw.

Hojlund, who was dropped from Ruben Amorim‘s squad after the arrival of Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig at the start of the season, continued his impressive start to loan life in Naples.

The Denmark striker‘s two goals secured a 2-1 win over Amorim’s former side Sporting Lisbon at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

Hojlund, who joined United for £72m, opened the scoring in the 36th minute after racing onto a through ball from Kevin De Bruyne before calmly slotting home.

After Sporting equalised in the second half from the penalty spot, De Bruyne’s cross again assisted Hojlund’s header to restore Napoli‘s lead.

Ex-City rival De Bruyne praised Hojlund by offering a comparison to his former team-mate Erling Haaland, who is arguably considered the best striker in the world.

De Bruyne, 34, said: “We deserved the win today. I was trying to get into that space for the first goal and was waiting for the right moment to pass it to Rasmus.

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“Luckily he did the rest. I think Rasmus is growing a lot and is very similar to Haaland. I think they are very similar because they both like to attack the depth.

“Maybe Hojlund comes to play the ball towards us more, but he needs to attack the space a lot because he can score and give us a big hand.”

Hojlund has now scored three in his first five matches for Antonio Conte’s side since signing an initial loan, which carries an obligation to buy for £38million.

The 22-year-old, who would often become emotional after scoring for United, said: “It was the night you dream of, playing in the Champions League.

“I celebrated touching the Napoli badge because I’m happy to play here and the Champions League badge because I love to score in Europe.”

Hojlund wasn’t the only United reject to shine on Wednesday night.

Anthony Elanga and former loanee Marcel Sabitzer also scooped player of the match awards.

Elanga has continued his rise since leaving Old Trafford for Nottingham Forest for £15m in 2023, with the winger earning a £55m move to Newcastle.

The Carrington graduate played a key role in the Toon’s first two goals in their 4-0 thrashing of Union Saint-Gilloise.

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His cross to Sandro Tonali led to Newcastle‘s first goal with the Italian’s shot flicked in by former United target Nick Woltemade, before he earned a penalty after being brought down by Fedde Leysen.

Marcus Rashford also continued his superb form for loan club Barcelona to take his goal contributions to six in six games.

The England star’s quick thinking low cross assisted Ferran Torres’s opener against holders Paris Saint-Germain in the 19th minute.

Despite PSG fighting back to win 2-1, with Senny Mayulu and Goncalo Ramos scoring for the French side, Rashford was a constant threat before coming off for Robert Lewandowski with 20 minutes to go.

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Sabitzer, who had a short injury-ravaged loan spell at United in 2023, picked up the gong as Borussia Dortmund earned a 4-1 win over Athletic Bilbao.

Alejandro Garnacho, who started on Tuesday night, had played a big hand in Chelsea’s only goal of the game in their 1-0 win over Benfica at Stamford Bridge.

Meanwhile, SunSport exclusively revealed that United could consider organising midweek friendlies for their players to get more match-playing time.

The pressure is growing on Amorim ahead of their clash against an in-form Sunderland outfit at Old Trafford on Saturday.

But United are unbeaten in their previous 23 Prem meetings with newly- promoted teams – if that run were to end this weekend, it might prove fatal for Amorim.

Man Utd’s transfer deals

IN

• Bryan Mbeumo – from Brentford – £71m
• Matheus Cunha – from Wolves – £62.5m
• Diego Leon – from Cerro Porteno – £7m
• Benjamin Sesko – from RB Leipzig – £74m
• Senne Lammens – from Royal Antwerp – £18m

TOTAL – £232.5m

OUT

• Alejandro Garnacho – to Chelsea – £40m
• Marcus Rashford – to Barcelona – Loan
• Victor Lindelof – released
• Christian Eriksen – released
• Toby Collyer – to West Brom – Loan

TOTAL – £40m

MAN UTD TRANSFER NEWS LIVE

MEXICO CITY — To help justify a sweeping deportation campaign, an extraordinary U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and unprecedented strikes on boats allegedly trafficking drugs, President Trump has repeated a mantra: Tren de Aragua.

He insists that the street gang, which was founded about a decade ago in Venezuela, is attempting an “invasion” of the United States and threatens “the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump described the group as “an enemy of all humanity” and an arm of Venezuela’s authoritarian government.

According to experts who study the gang and Trump’s own intelligence officials, none of that is true.

While Tren de Aragua has been linked to cases of human trafficking, extortion and kidnapping and has expanded its footprint as Venezuela’s diaspora has spread throughout the Americas, there is little evidence that it poses a threat to the U.S.

“Tren de Aragua does not have the capacity to invade any country, especially the most powerful nation on Earth,” said Ronna Rísquez, a Venezuelan journalist who wrote a book about the gang. The group’s prowess, she said, had been vastly exaggerated by the Trump administration in order to rationalize the deportation of migrants, the militarization of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, and perhaps even an effort to drive Venezuela’s president from power.

“It is being instrumentalized to justify political actions,” she said of the gang. “In no way does it endanger the national security of the United States.”

Before last year, few Americans had heard of Tren de Aragua.

The group formed inside a prison in Venezuela’s Aragua state then spread as nearly 8 million Venezuelans fled poverty and political repression under the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Gang members were accused of sex trafficking, drug sales, homicides and other crimes in countries including Chile, Brazil and Colombia.

As large numbers of Venezuelan migrants began entering the United States after requesting political asylum at the southern border, authorities in a handful of states tied crimes to members of the gang.

It was Trump who put the group on the map.

While campaigning for reelection last year, he appeared at an event in Aurora, Colo., where law enforcement blamed members of Tren de Aragua for several crimes, including murder. Trump stood next to large posters featuring mugshots of Venezuelan immigrants.

“Occupied America. TDA Gang Members,” they read. Banners said: “Deport Illegals Now.”

Shortly after he took office, Trump declared an “invasion” by Tren de Aragua and invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 18th century law that allows the president to deport immigrants during wartime. His administration flew 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they were housed in a notorious prison, even though few of the men had documented links to Tren de Aragua and most had no criminal records in the United States.

In recent months, Trump has again evoked the threat of Tren de Aragua to explain the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops and a small armada of ships and warplanes to the Caribbean.

In July, his administration declared that Tren de Aragua was a terrorist group led by Maduro. That same month, he ordered the Pentagon to use military force against Latin American cartels that his government has labeled terrorists.

Three times in recent weeks, U.S. troops have struck boats off the coast of Venezuela that it said carried Tren de Aragua members who were trafficking drugs.

The administration offered no proof of those claims. Fourteen people have been killed.

Trump has warned that more strikes are to come. “To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he said in his address to the United Nations.

While he insists the strikes are aimed at disrupting the drug trade — claiming without evidence that each boat was carrying enough drugs to kill 25,000 Americans — analysts say there is little evidence that Tren de Aragua is engaged in high-level drug trafficking, and no evidence that it is involved in the movement of fentanyl, which is produced in Mexico by chemicals imported from China. The DEA estimates that just 8% of cocaine that is trafficked into the U.S. passes through Venezuelan territory.

That has fueled speculation about whether the real goal may be regime change.

“Everybody is wondering about Trump’s end game,” said Irene Mia, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank focused on global security.

She said that while there are officials within the White House who appear eager to work with Venezuela, others, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are open about their desire to topple Maduro and other leftist strongmen in the region.

“We’re not going to have a cartel operating or masquerading as a government operating in our own hemisphere,” Rubio told Fox News this month.

Top U.S. intelligence officials have said they don’t believe Maduro has links to Tren de Aragua.

A declassified memo produced by the Office of Director of National Intelligence found no evidence of widespread cooperation between his regime and the gang. It also said Tren de Aragua does not pose a threat to the U.S.: “The small size of TDA’s cells, its focus on low-skill criminal activities and its decentralized structure make it highly unlikely that TDA coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling.”

Michael Paarlberg, a political scientist who studies Latin America at Virginia Commonwealth University, said he believes Trump is using the gang to achieve political goals — and distract from domestic controversies such as his decision to close the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Tren de Aragua, he said, is much less powerful than other gangs in Latin America. “But it has been a convenient boogeyman for the Trump administration.”

The Chargers were blindsided in the truest sense.

Eleven days after signing a contract extension that made him the NFL’s highest-paid offensive lineman in history, Chargers left tackle Rashawn Slater went down in training camp with a knee injury that ended his 2025 season.

It was the latest crushing blow to a franchise with a withering track record of losing key players at the most inopportune times.

“It’s like a gut punch to the solar plexus,” coach Jim Harbaugh said in the aftermath of the July 27 injury. “Takes the wind out of you.”

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Sam Farmer talks about the impact Rashawn Slater’s season-ending injury will have on the Chargers.

This is where coaching and creativity kick in. It’s musical chairs along the offensive line as the Chargers scramble to protect the blind side of franchise quarterback Justin Herbert without handcuffing their offense by committing too many resources to doing so.

The challenge is profound but not unique. Teams have navigated these choppy waters before.

“The basis of your pass [protection] basically is, you pay a ton of money to somebody that’s just going to lock down that end, the blind side,” retired NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “The blind side. They made a whole movie about it. That’s where you spend your money.”

When quarterback Rich Gannon was preparing for an opponent, the first offensive meeting of the week was about protections. How are we going to block these guys?

“We’d start by drawing five guys on the board, our offensive line,” Gannon said. “You’re just like, ‘OK, we’re going to build an offensive line.’ And we’d start with the left tackle, right? We’d just draw a big dollar sign. That’s the guy you have to pay. That’s the guy you have to have.”

In the case of the Chargers, erase that dollar sign from the board.

“When you lose a guy like that, there’s a trickle-down effect,” Gannon said. “You have to find someone to replace him. Now, what does that mean for our protection plan?

“Very few teams have a guy that can step in without a drop-off. And you’re talking about a Pro Bowl-caliber player at left tackle, there’s usually a significant difference when the backup goes in.”

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, left, and offensive tackle Rashawn Slater walk off the field after a win over the New Orleans Saints in October.

(Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

Even in this abysmal situation, there are flickers of positivity for the Chargers. First, they are moving Joe Alt from right tackle to left, where he spent his illustrious college career at Notre Dame. The Chargers used the fifth overall pick in 2024 on the 6-foot-8, 322-pound Alt, who Harbaugh says has Hall of Fame potential. Having Alt in the mix is a huge bonus for the club.

Still, switching from right to left tackle is no small feat.

“People think it’s just easy to play on the offensive line, and if you’re a right tackle you should be able to play on the left, but it’s not the same,” Hall of Fame defensive end Dwight Freeney said. “Everything is different. You have muscle memory and different repetitions that you’ve done constantly. Doing something the same way all the time. One way.

“It’s not easy to pick up, switch your feet and go to the other side. The guard positions and center are more interchangeable, but when you start messing with your tackles, especially your left tackle, that’s a problem.”

More good news for the Chargers is that swing tackle Trey Pipkins is a blocker who can play on both ends of the offensive line. He too is returning to a familiar spot, as he was a right tackle at the University of Sioux Falls.

The Chargers will be tested right away. Their first three games are against division opponents, and their third is against Denver, which led the NFL last season with an average of 3.6 sacks per game.

“You’re going to have to start the season making sure you’ve got a back over there on the left side, or a tight end in passing situations just to make sure the quarterback doesn’t get whacked,” said Mike Tice, the onetime Minnesota Vikings head coach whose specialty is coaching offensive lines. “You’ve got to have a plan going into the season. If you don’t have a plan going in, you’re truly [doomed].”

Gannon said the Chargers are especially fortunate to have Greg Roman as their offensive coordinator, because Roman showed exceptional creativity in Baltimore beefing up their front with extra linemen and fullback Patrick Ricard, nicknamed “Pancake Pat” for his ability to flatten people in his path.

“They dressed it up with the Ravens,” said Gannon, an analyst for Sirius/XM NFL Radio. “Seven offensive linemen on the field. You’d get the defense to go big, then throw it.”

Gannon sees the versatile Scott Matlock playing the Ricard role for the Chargers. Matlock, listed on the roster as a fullback, is 6-4 and 296.

“His role is going to expand,” the retired quarterback predicted. “That’s how you do it. That’s how you build in protection when you’re down a left tackle.”

And though Harbaugh described the setback as a gut punch, Hasselbeck noted there’s a thread of a silver lining.

“From the front-office part of it, this is actually not the worst timing,” he said. “Not that there are great left tackles on the street, but at least you can do something now in training camp.

“It’s not as dire as losing your star guy on Friday before Week 1, or losing him during Week 1. Also, when guys get hurt early in the year and you lose them for the season, they’re more ready to go earlier in the offseason the next year.”

Big blocker. Small consolation.