The Rugby Football Union is investigating an alleged incident between coaching staff and a player during the Premier 15s semi-final between Exeter Chiefs and Saracens.

Exeter and Saracens have declined to comment.

"Should a charge be brought, we will provide an update," an RFU statement said.

As the incident happened away from the field of play the RFU has more time to investigate compared to an on-field citing.

Exeter won the match 24-21 after a late try from Eilidh Sinclair.

The result means that Saracens will not be in the Premier 15s final for the first time since the league's inception in 2017.

Exeter will face Gloucester-Hartpury in the final on 24 June at Kingsholm after the Cherry and Whites beat Bristol in their semi-final on Saturday.

It’s mid-May, halfway through a long season, and Joel Dahmen is moving into his new pad in Scottsdale afforded to him by his consistent play and burgeoning profile. Located just a few miles from the raucous TPC, his backyard is an under-construction sports oasis with more toys and activities than he’d ever need. But these days, he’s thinking big. Bigger than himself.

This personal playground feeds right into Dahmen’s assumed reputation: uncommitted, unserious, unequivocally fun. At times, it feels like he has become a caricature – a White Claw-drinking, self-deprecating everyman who’s starring in a buddy-cop film with his caddie and best friend, Geno Bonnalie. On a tour full of arrogant alphas, Dahmen’s egoless relatability is refreshing – to the point that Netflix, in a stark departure in its star-driven docuseries, dedicated an entire episode to the 35-year-old journeyman.

The hook: his unexpected star turn at the 2022 U.S. Open. 

The title: “Imposter Syndrome”. 

“That’s actually, like, flip the ‘imposter’ back almost,” Dahmen says now, almost a year later. “Let’s just flip it around the other way.”

Because, sure, the Open was a moment. Dahmen had won on the PGA Tour before. He’d even previously top-tenned in a major. But never had he snagged the halfway lead at one of the game’s biggest events – and never had he been the center of attention like this. Over the span of four days, Netflix had its clean, neat narrative, ready to be packaged in 45 minutes: the unconfident overachiever (who almost didn’t bother trying to qualify) ended up proving himself against the top players in the game’s most tortuous test. It was TV gold, and Dahmen’s episode was widely lauded as the best of the series, a folk hero born.

But to the protagonist, at least, it felt incomplete, if not insincere. “It is better if you play the self-deprecating card, the I-suck-worse-than-everyone at tournaments, because then they’re just always cheering you on. They’re never going to say anything negative to you,” he says. “So I played right into it where I just have this following that thinks I’m just the Little Engine That Could.”

Only it’s not as simple as him underselling his talent.

“I’ve been through life and death,” he says, “and I’ve done a lot of things that are way harder than trying to compete for a golf tournament.”

So the real story isn’t whether Dahmen believes he’s good enough to win big.

It’s why, despite all of the loss and trauma and setbacks in his life, he never gave up trying.

* * *

THE GOAL WAS NEVER to claim a U.S. Open, or double-digit PGA Tour titles, or world No. 1. Growing up in Clarkston, Washington, a town of 7,500 near the Idaho border, Dahmen’s aspirations were much more modest.

“It was always just to get college paid for,” he says. “There was no benchmark for me.”

Few professional athletes have emerged from the region. There was an MMA fighter. An offensive lineman in the ’30s. A one-time WNBA player; another who toils in a Japanese basketball league. And then there’s Dahmen, a well-rounded jock who showed enough promise that his father, Ed, built the family a house near Clarkston Country Club, where his youngest son would play until dark and sharpen his scoring skills in weekly games against the members.

The Dahmens were a typical blue-collar, middle-class family: Ed first began sweeping floors at Clearwater pulp and paper mill in the valley straight out of high school and wound up working there for 38 years, while his wife, Jolyn, was a longtime kindergarten teacher. With summers off, Jolyn and Joel hit the road for tournaments, forging an unbreakable bond as they traversed thousands of miles together throughout the Pacific Northwest. Each round Jolyn dutifully tracked her son’s stats to report back home. By then Joel had established himself as one of the area’s top prospects, but to his mom, the score mattered little. If he answered affirmatively to her only post-round question – Did you try your best? – then off they’d go to Starbucks for a sweet treat.

At home, Jolyn was the glue of the family, taking care of all of Joel and brother Zach’s needs, from cooking to laundry to household chores. She was the students’ favorite teacher. The generous host for family gatherings. The life of any party. “She had it all,” Dahmen says. “I was the most spoiled kid alive.”

But one fall Friday in 2004, at the beginning of his junior year of high school, Dahmen was met at home by his parents. They sat him down, grim-faced.

“Your mom has cancer.”

Tests were ongoing to determine the severity, and Dahmen remembers crying and hugging her for 10 minutes, unable to let go. A week later, the dire prognosis was delivered: Stage-4 pancreatic cancer. Six months to live.

“When you’re a mama’s boy and you’re 16, 17 years old, it’s awful news, obviously, but I think it hit me particularly hard,” he says. “When you get that news when you’re in high school, there’s nothing you can really do.”

Just 17 at the time, he accompanied his mom to doctor’s appointments and chemotherapy sessions, witnessing the insidious disease up-close. Even as she grew weak, his mom encouraged him not to worry, not to dwell on the misfortune – to go hang out with his friends, to keep chasing his golf dreams. During the final few months of hospice care they’d lay in bed together and watch her favorite shows, “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune”. Only once has he visited her gravesite.

“That’s not where she is,” he says. “She’s with me. She’s in my heart.”

After she passed, Dahmen felt adrift. He traveled to tournaments alone, overwhelmed by grief, by the onslaught of paperwork, by the prospect of going away alone to college. For the first time, he had to learn how to take care of himself – even small, trivial things, down to making a PB&J.

“I was completely affected – so messed up that I didn’t know how messed up,” he says. “I was like a rudderless ship in the ocean. I was lost. I didn’t care about much anymore. I just didn’t really have a direction in my life.”

Dahmen had accomplished his goal – he’d earned a scholarship to powerhouse Washington – but now was in no position to capitalize on it. Despite playing every fall event his freshman season, he rarely went to class, partied like a college kid, and flunked out after one year. He worked valet at a high-end downtown hotel for beer money and briefly enrolled at a community college in a last-ditch effort to rejoin the Huskies. But it didn’t take him long to realize his heart wasn’t in it. 

“For a few years,” he says, “I was kind of floating around after that.”

A wakeup call didn’t come until spring 2011, when he was watching TV at home, his hands down his pants – and felt a lump. Immediately, he knew what it was, a familiar enemy returning. His brother had been diagnosed with testicular cancer two years earlier. His mom had endured her own battle with cancer. For two weeks he wished it away, partying like nothing was wrong, until he finally decided to head to the doctor.

“Hey, I have testicular cancer,” Dahmen announced upon arrival, explaining his family history. The doctor laughed at first and then ran some tests. The cancer was confirmed, and surgery was scheduled for two days later.

Driving home Dahmen sobbed so hard that he had to pull over. He was 23 at the time, a young pro, lost and unfocused but still enjoying life. “You don’t know how serious it is, and I just remember all of the emotions of it: If this is it, and this is the battle I’m going through, you’ve wasted the last five or six years of your life,” he says. “I had this special talent of playing golf, and I knew that I didn’t want to waste it.”

After a month of chemotherapy, Dahmen received a clean bill of health and resumed his career. He was playing the Canadian tour at the time, and after the scare he returned to the course with a fresh perspective.

“I vowed that I was going to try my best,” he says. “If my best was getting on the PGA Tour, great. If it wasn’t, that’s fine, too. But I wasn’t going to sit around and let all this just go by the wayside. I was going to find out.” 

* * * 

THE FIRST THING LONA Skutt noticed at 2 a.m. was the messy, curly hair that spilled out underneath Dahmen’s ball cap.

His chemo hair.

They were standing in line for a late-night slice in Old Town when Joel offered to buy if Lona got to the counter faster than he did. That pickup line at Gus’s was enough to get her number, he rang her a week later, and they’ve been together ever since.

Their love story never should have worked: Joel was an aspiring pro, a year into remission and trying to survive on the mini-tours; Lona was single and set to move to New York City, alone, to pursue a career in merchandising. Smitten, she never left.

“There’s definitely a line in the sand where I was surrounded by someone who made me better,” Dahmen says.

With another strong, confident, supportive female in his life, Dahmen’s play improved almost immediately. “She motivated me and pushed me to be good at what I was doing,” he says. “She wasn’t willing to just sit around.” A stranger to the golf world, Lona soon got a crash course in the realities of mini-tour life. That sponsors were the most important members of the team. That third-place finishes were little reason to celebrate. And that Q-School was a cutthroat, unforgiving hellscape.

After an encouraging season in 2013, Dahmen felt ready for a promotion, but he bombed out for the fourth time at the all-important second stage. Stuck in golf’s no-man’s land, he sank into a depression. He stayed on the couch for days. Didn’t change clothes. Didn’t shower. Didn’t clean the dishes. All while Lona was clocking 16-hour days as a cocktail waitress … as a scribe in a hospital … an assistant at a garage-door company … a sales associate for a retail store … an event planner … just to get by.

One day, around the holidays, she finally snapped.

“I don’t know if it was an ultimatum,” Lona says, “but I just looked at him and said, ‘I love you for who you are. I don’t care what you do. But you have to do something. We’ve gotta share the burden here, so get your s--t together.’”

Dahmen had about $15 in his account – for Christmas that year he bought her Tupperware – so Lona paid for him to get a lesson in the new year. The move jump-started his game during a year in which he won two of his first three starts in Canada, topped the Order of Merit and, at last, earned his way to the Korn Ferry Tour. After two years there, his persistence was rewarded in 2016 when he graduated to the big show, earning the final card by $975. It’s been his competitive home ever since.

“I think I’ve always just believed in Joel,” Lona says. “He has always said that if I can make it to the PGA Tour, I fully believe I can stay on the PGA Tour. His confidence in himself, and his willingness to bet on himself, makes it easy to stand behind somebody on that.

“I guess I just had a gut feeling that he meant it and was gonna do it, and so you make all the sacrifices to make the dream a reality and just hope for the best. He didn’t have a plan B, and I was OK with that because I don’t think you need a plan B unless plan A fails. And plan A didn’t fail.”

* * *

IT WAS HARDLY A concern at 23, but more than a decade removed from his diagnosis, Dahmen was starting to grapple with the long-term complications of his medical history. Testicular cancer survivors were more likely to develop long-term health effects – and in many cases, that meant infertility.

Dahmen always knew he wanted to be a father. He’d thought about the dad he aspired to be, and how it looked a lot like his own father: the one who worked and loved hard, who sacrificed everything for his children’s success, who coached him in T-ball and basketball, who played golf with him on those endless summer nights. 

Struggling privately for years, Joel and Lona searched for answers and tried multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization. Lona endured all of the needles and medications and hormones, and as a couple, they experienced the wave of emotions familiar to so many families: excitement, anxiousness, disappointment, determination.

They had scheduled another IVF implant the week before the 2022 PGA Championship. Dahmen was the first alternate at Southern Hills, but he thought about withdrawing to be with his wife for the crucial blood test. “We knew we at least wanted to be together,” Lona says, “because it’s not a great day if it goes the other way.”

But once Dahmen got the call on Monday of tournament week, she told him to pack for Tulsa and play: “It’s a major. And we don’t skip majors.” Lona found a lab in the area and booked an appointment for first-thing Thursday – the morning of the opening round.

Dahmen was last off, 3:42 p.m., which afforded Lona plenty of time to concoct a plan. At first, she thought about staying at the hotel all day – with one look, good or bad, she could doom her husband’s play – but decided she could use the emotional support. While Joel was in the physical therapy trailer, getting worked on before the round, Lona was “biting all my nails off” in family dining. Finally, about an hour before his tee time, Lona received the call from the doctor. She tracked down her hubby’s whereabouts and burst through the doors of the PT trailer with tears in her eyes. Happy tears.

“It was the coolest moment ever,” Joel says. “I still get choked up about it because it was such a hard process, especially for her.” 

“There were some tough moments,” Lona says, “but I found that I can do hard things. It’s what I keep telling myself.”

All Dahmen wanted was a celebratory beer, but his PGA was about to begin. He floated to the first tee, smoked a drive down the fairway and then hit a terrible wedge that finished a foot from the cup. For a moment, he thought some mysterious and wonderful forces were at work. “I was like, I’m winning the PGA this year!” he says. Reality set in soon after that (he missed the cut), but a month later, he authored his star-making performance at Brookline, where he shared the 36-hole lead and finished in a tie for 10^th – the Netflix cameras rolling the entire time.

Over his career a curious pattern has emerged between Dahmen’s upcoming life events and his results. He played well before his wedding. Before he moved into a new house. Before his first child, Riggs, arrived in January. And it’s likely no coincidence.

“A lot of his motivation comes down to him wanting to feel like he’s been successful and setting his family up for a good future,” Lona says. “It’s having smaller goals to get to where you want to be in life, and I think Riggs is a big motivator now. He wants to give Riggs the life that he has in his mind.”

A vision that is starting to become clearer.

* * * 

THIS GILDED LIFE ISN’T going to last forever, and Dahmen is the first to acknowledge that competitive reality. He’s a one-time Tour winner who has never cracked the top 50 in the world or reached the Tour Championship. He’s middle-aged, athletically, and possesses a solid-if-unspectacular skill set. He plays a sport that is skewing younger and more powerful. And he competes on an aspirational tour that once catered to the rank-and-file but is now being overrun by swaggering, hypercompetitive, legacy-driven assassins.

“The Joel Dahmens of the PGA Tour, we’re a dying breed,” he says, “and we’re dying quickly out there.”

So why, then, has he stuck around this long – seven years and counting – if he’s supposedly so unmotivated, so uncommitted, so riddled with self-doubt?

“As much as people think I’m self-deprecating and I don’t believe in myself – I almost have a fear of not being on the PGA Tour. I have a fear of losing my job,” he says. “It’s somewhere deep inside me. I want to do this until I’m 45; I don’t want to have to get a real job. I want to be able to provide for my family and don’t want them to ever worry about anything. But I’m going to have to push myself these next five, seven, eight years if I want to last out here.”

That timeline would be just long enough to provide the idyllic family life that he once enjoyed – before things got complicated.

Dahmen says he hasn’t really considered how the loss and trauma that shaped his formative years will affect the way he now parents. But his wife has. “Being through what he’s been through, it makes it even more important to be present and to soak up every moment,” Lona says. “He wants to be super involved. The simplest joy is being with your kids. I think he’s striving for that.”

Now that he’s a parent himself, Dahmen finds himself thinking often about his mom. How amazing of a grandmother she’d be to Riggs. How she’d follow the sun with them on Tour. How much fun he’d have spoiling her with the lavish dinners and fun excursions she never had growing up.

Last fall, Dahmen penned a beautiful tribute to his mom that ran on the Players Tribune website. With his profile growing, he wanted the world to know how special she was and what she meant to him. But the story also read as personal affirmation – a reminder that he’s a helluva lot tougher than he’s often given credit for.

The loss. The trauma. The failure. 

The doubt, fear, love.

All of it.

“Each person was built for this,” Dahmen says. “Life isn’t gonna throw any more at you than you can’t already handle.” 

Back in his living room in Scottsdale, his work-life balance is once again on display: contractors arriving every 10 minutes, Riggs testing out his vocal cords, an afternoon range session during another long year on Tour. Dahmen unhooks his mic and the whole family waves goodbye, little Riggs swinging cheerfully in Lona’s arms. After two hours away, there was much to check on, beginning with the crews outside crafting his desert paradise. His vision for his family’s future was coming together. But it was far from complete.

Vinícius Júnior will wear Real Madrid's iconic No. 7 shirt -- previously worn by Cristiano Ronaldo -- next season after the departure of Eden Hazard, the club confirmed Monday.

Vinicius, 22, is now listed as Madrid's No. 7 in the first-team squad section of the club's website.

In addition, fellow Brazil international Rodrygo Goes will now wear the No. 11, after Marco Asensio left the club.

Vinicius wore the No. 20 shirt last season, while Rodrygo wore the No. 21.

2️⃣0️⃣ ? 7️⃣
?? @vinijr #RealFootball pic.twitter.com/1IcSwkmYcw

— Real Madrid C.F. ???? (@realmadriden) June 12, 2023

Both players are now key members of the first team, scoring a combined 19 LaLiga and 12 Champions League goals last campaign.

Hazard wore Madrid's No. 7 from his arrival at the Santiago Bernabeu in July 2019 until his departure this month.

The Belgian agreed to rescind his contract a year early, after a disappointing four years in Spain.

Ronaldo wore the No. 7 for eight seasons between 2009 and 2018, becoming Madrid's all-time record scorer with 450 goals, and winning four Champions League trophies.

Previous high-profile Madrid No. 7s have included Raul Gonzalez, who currently coaches the club's reserve team, Emilio Butragueño, who is Madrid's director of institutional relations, Amancio Amaro, who was Madrid's honorary president until his death in February, and Juan "Juanito" Gomez.

Madrid's No. 9 shirt is also currently vacant, after Karim Benzema joined Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad.

Madrid introduced their first signing of the summer, left-back Fran García, in an event at their training ground Monday.

"It's a dream that I've been chasing," said Garcia, a Madrid academy product who returns after spending three years at Rayo Vallecano.

"My dream was to come back, and I'm happy to have the opportunity. ... The [January transfer] market was busy and there was interest [from Bayer Leverkusen], but in the end, Madrid had an option to bring me back, and I'm happy with how it turned out."

Pep Guardiola does not expect to sign a new contract at Manchester City when his existing deal ends in 2025, sources have told ESPN.

According to sources, Guardiola, 52, has not yet made a decision on his future but is leaning towards ending his time in charge at the Etihad Stadium after two more seasons.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Sources have told ESPN that Guardiola could then look to take up a national team job, having previously been courted by Brazil and the United States.

Guardiola signed a new deal with City in November, after travelling to Abu Dhabi during the break for the World Cup.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has dismissed suggestions he could walk away this summer after completing the treble, assuring City fans in May that he will be in charge at the start of next season.

But sources have told ESPN that he has already stayed at the club longer than he envisioned when he took over in 2016 and has doubts about whether he will want to negotiate a new contract next summer.

Next season will be his eighth in charge of City. He spent four years in charge at Barcelona and three years as manager of Bayern.

City, according to sources, have not given up hope that Guardiola could decide to stay longer but will respect his decision if he does want to leave.

- Marcotti: Guardiola, Man City suffered for their UCL glory
- Ranking every treble-winning team: How do Man City compare?

Guardiola has won 12 major trophies in charge of City, including five Premier League titles and the Champions League.

He led City to the English domestic treble in 2019 and this season oversaw an historic treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League, matching a feat only achieved once before in English football by Manchester United in 1999.

City's 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Istanbul on Saturday saw Guardiola lift the Champions League for the first time since winning the trophy with Barcelona in 2011.

The summer transfer window isn't open yet in Europe, but teams are getting ready for it, and there's plenty of gossip swirling around. Transfer Talk brings you all the latest buzz on rumours, comings, goings and, of course, done deals!

TOP STORY: Kim attracts interest from Newcastle, Chelsea and PSG

Manchester United continue to see Napoli defender Kim Min-Jae as a priority this summer, but talks between the two parties have stalled amid Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Newcastle interest, per Foot Mercato.

Man United manager Erik ten Hag has identified defensive reinforcements as a priority, and Kim is a favourite for centre-back following an exceptional season in Italy where he helped Napoli to their first Serie A title in 33 years.

While it has been reported that Kim is keen on a move to Old Trafford, talks between the player and Man United are reported to be stuck, which has opened the door for other clubs in Europe to make an approach for the 26-year-old South Korea international. Kim has a release clause in his current contract at Napoli in the region of €50 million, which is valid for the first half of July and has garnered the interest of many top clubs in Europe.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga & more (U.S.)
- Read on ESPN+: How far are Man United from Man City?

The report suggests that Newcastle are alert to the lack of progress in negotiations and are monitoring the situation. Manager Eddie Howe is set for a busy transfer window after the Magpies qualified for the Champions League for the first time since 2002-03.

Meanwhile, Chelsea have also shown interest in the Napoli standout. However, the lack of European football and instability at the club has the Blues lagging behind their Premier League rivals in the race.

PSG also hold an interest in the centre-back, with Sergio Ramos departing the French giants, alongside injuries to Presnel Kimpembe and Nordi Mukiele limiting the defensive options at the club last season. However, Les Parisiens' chances of landing Kim are hampered by the defender's reported desire for a Premier League move.

LIVE BLOG

15.21 BST: Real Madrid and Chelsea will need to overcome a considerable difference of valuation if they are to negotiate a deal to send forward Kai Havertz to the Spanish capital. Bild reports that the Blues are demanding an €80m transfer fee, while Los Blancos are only prepared to spend €60m including bonuses. Such a figure won't work for the west London outfit, considering they sent upwards of €100m to Bayer Leverkusen to sign the now-24-year-old Germany international in 2020.

14.48 BST: Could Neymar be the next big name to move to Saudi Arabia?

14.26 BST: West Ham boss David Moyes will remain as manager next season, sources have told ESPN, after guiding the club to win the Europa Conference League last week.

Moyes has managed over 1,000 matches in his 25-year career but won his first major trophy on Wednesday after Jarrod Bowen's 90th-minute winner helped West Ham to a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina in the final in Prague on Wednesday.

British media reports had said Moyes, who has one year left on his contract, was close to being sacked during a season that saw West Ham embroiled in a relegation battle before finishing 14th in the Premier League due to a late upturn in form.

13.54 BST: Pep Guardiola does not expect to sign a new contract at Manchester City when his existing deal ends in 2025, sources have told ESPN.

According to sources, Guardiola, 52, has not yet made a decision on his future but is leaning towards ending his time in charge at the Etihad Stadium after two more seasons.

Sources have told ESPN that Guardiola could then look to take up a national team job, having previously been courted by Brazil and the United States.

Guardiola signed a new deal with City in November, after travelling to Abu Dhabi during the break for the World Cup.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has dismissed suggestions he could walk away this summer after completing the treble, assuring City fans in May that he will be in charge at the start of next season.

13.23 BST: Barcelona are closing in on the €5m signing of Senegal defender Mikayil Faye, according to multiple reports.

Fabrizio Romano and Diario Sport are among those to detail an agreement between Barca and Croatian second division side NK Kustosija for the young centre-back to move to Spain.

Faye, 18, only joined Kustosija from Diambars FC in his native Senegal earlier this year, but his performances in Croatia have been enough to draw interest from some of Europe's biggest clubs.

Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund have also been credited with an interest in the teenager, but it looks like Barca will win the race for his signature.

If the deal goes through, Faye will initially link up with Barca's reserve team, who compete in the Spanish third division, although he will get the chance to train with the first team regularly.

Barca are currently well-stocked in defence, with Andreas Christensen, Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde and Eric Garcia all jostling for just two positions and sources confirmed to ESPN that Athletic Bilbao's Inigo Martinez will join as a free agent this summer.

12.38 BST: Neymar has said Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami will be a game-changer for Major League soccer.

Messi announced last week his decision to join Inter Miami once his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires at the end of this month.

"I'm certain that Leo is going to change the league in the United States," Neymar said. "I believe the league will become a lot more popular. So everyone has to take advantage and enjoy watching him play because unfortunately nothing lasts forever."

Messi had offers to return to former club Barcelona and could have moved to Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal, but ultimately decided to join Inter Miami -- the MLS team co-owned by David Beckham.

11.55 BST: Chelsea have landed themselves a USWNT superstar.

11.11 BST: Barcelona will move for Atletico Madrid winger Yannick Carrasco if Ferran Torres leaves the Catalan club this summer, according to Mundo Deportivo.

Barca maintain an option to sign Carrasco for around €20m as part of the deal which saw Memphis Depay move to Atletico in January. However, Mundo Deportivo says they will only execute it if Torres moves on first.

Torres only joined Barca from Manchester City at the start of 2021, but the Spain international has lost his place in the team this season, with Xavi Hernandez preferring Raphinha or Ousmane Dembele alongside Robert Lewandowski.

Therefore, the Catalan club are said to be ready to cut their losses on a player they paid €55m to sign, with the report claiming they will listen to offers of around €40m.

If the find a suitor for Torres -- Premier League clubs Newcastle United and Aston Villa have both been linked -- Barca will then activate the option they have to sign Belgium international Carrasco, who would offer another option on the left-side of their attack.

10.18 BST: Espanyol forward Joselu has said he "can't say anything right now" about joining Real Madrid this summer, but added that "it's always positive to be linked with the world's best teams."

ESPN has reported that the 33-year-old -- who scored 16 goals in LaLiga this season as his team headed for relegation -- is close to joining Madrid on loan.

The Spain international is a former Real Madrid youth product, who is also Dani Carvajal's brother-in-law, and was spotted with fans in Paris last year watching Madrid win the 2022 Champions League final.

"Right now I can't say anything," Joselu told AS on Monday, in an interview carried out with Spain, who face Italy in the UEFA Nations League on Thursday. "But it's always flattering that it's in the press. I hope that good things come in the future but right now I'm focused on the national team and the Nations League."

09.57 BST: Bild names Toni Kroos among a list of top German players who were asked about a move to Saudi Arabia this summer, saying that the Real Madrid midfielder turned the approach down in favour of staying at the Santiago Bernabeu for another season.

Kroos, 33, confirmed last month that contract talks with Madrid were "on the right track" and that he was set to stay, having earlier weighed up whether to continue playing or take an early retirement.

According to Bild, Kroos, Thomas Muller and Mario Gotze all received enquiries from Saudi Arabia in the hope that they might join Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in the Saudi Pro League, but all three turned them down.

09.16 BST: Alvaro Morata has agreed to extend his contract with Atletico Madrid until June 2026, according to El Larguero.

Morata, 30, is under contract with Atletico until June 2024. The Spain international returned to Atletico last summer after spending two seasons on loan at Juventus.

He had offers from AC Milan, Juventus as well as clubs from Saudi Arabia and from Major League Soccer, but has opted to stay with Atletico.

08.55 BST: Inter Milan are on the verge of signing Denmark U18 international goalkeeper Theo Sander from Aalborg BK, according to Sky Italia.

Sander, 18, will join Inter for an undisclosed fee and will sign a contract with the Nerazzurri until June 2027.

08.30 BST: Sevilla president Jose Castro is hopeful club sporting director Monchi will reconsider his decision to leave this summer.

Under contract with Sevilla, Monchi, 54, has told the Europa League winners of his wish to step down from his post and is a target of Premier League clubs, including Aston Villa.

"After winning a European title a few days ago, it [Monchi's decision] is unexpected," Castro said. "We hope and expect that Monchi will reconsider and that he continues with us, which is what we all want.

"We've worked together many years and we can't forget he already left Sevilla once [to join Roma] and it was me that told him that Sevilla's doors were open for him to return."

PAPER GOSSIP (by Rajan Hothi)

- Midfielder Luka Modric will be allowed to depart Real Madrid for Saudi Arabia, per CalcioMercato. Despite reports suggesting the Croatia international was close to signing an extension with Los Blancos, the 37-year-old looks unlikely to stay at the Bernabeu, with manager Carlo Ancelotti able to boast a stacked midfield following the €103m signing of Jude Bellingham. The report indicates that there has been a substantial offer from Saudi Arabia, which could lead Modric to join former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema in the Middle East.

- Aymeric Laporte is set to leave Manchester City in the summer, however Barcelona are unlikely to sign the defender, per Football Insider. While the 29-year-old is reportedly admired by Barcelona, the cash-strapped Catalan giants are not in a position to bring the Spain international to Spotify Camp Nou because of the financial restrictions the club face from LaLiga. Laporte has struggled for first-team action this season, making just four starts in all competitions for the Citizens, leading to the centre-back to look elsewhere this summer.

- Arsenal have reached a full agreement with Reiss Nelson over a new deal that will keep the winger at the club until 2027, reports Fabrizio Romano. The Hale End graduate featured 18 times for the Gunners last season, and sees his contract expire at the end of the month. Despite being linked away from North London, the 23-year-old looks set to commit his long-term future to the club, with Romano revealing that there is an option of extending the deal to 2028, as Arsenal are keen to secure Nelson's signature as quickly as possible to avoid bids from rivals.

- Barcelona are keen to offload Ansu Fati, however the forward is reluctant to leave the Spanish champions, reports Mundo Deportivo. The Catalan club are eager to allow several players to leave Camp Nou this summer as they try to raise funds for transfer targets of their own, and while Fati has been identified as one player free to leave, the 20-year-old believes he still has a future at the club. The report suggests Fati has informed his agent, Jorge Mendes, that he has no intention of leaving the LaLiga outfit this summer despite significant Premier League interest.

-Al-Ahli Saudi are preparing to offer winger Riyad Mahrez a contract going until 2026, according to Foot Mercato. The 32-year-old had a stellar campaign with the Citizens, contributing 15 goals and 13 assists to the club's treble-winning season, and while the Algeria international is under contract at the Etihad until 2025, there is significant interest from Al-Ahli Saudi. The report indicates the club are willing to offer Mahrez a three-year deal, however, there have been no discussions between the club and Manchester City, with no official bid as of yet for Mahrez.

The summer transfer window for the Premier League officially opens on June 14, and clubs have almost three months to reshape their squads before it closes at 23.00 BST on Sept. 1.

Some deals have already been finalised, with Liverpool signing Brighton midfielder Alexis Mac Allister for an initial fee of £35 million (potentially rising to £55m), while Brighton have landed Watford winger Joao Pedro for a club-record fee of around £30m and Crystal Palace have confirmed an agreement is in place to sign Jefferson Lerma when his Bournemouth contract expires on June 30.

The biggest deals are yet to be done, though, with Tottenham's Harry Kane, West Ham's Declan Rice and Chelsea's Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Romelu Lukaku (yes, he's still a Chelsea player) facing uncertain futures.

There are also question marks over Manchester United's Harry Maguire, David de Gea and even Marcus Rashford, while Mohamed Salah's decision to go public over his frustration at not qualifying for next season's Champions League has raised the prospect of the Liverpool forward being targeted by a rival club.

So who are the players at the centre of speculation in the Premier League this summer? Will they stay, go, negotiate a new contract or opt to leave as a free agent in 2024?

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Harry Kane

Not for the first time -- and maybe not the last -- Kane will be at the centre of the biggest "stay or go" saga of the summer. Two years after failing to force a move from Tottenham Hotspur to Manchester City in search of silverware, the England captain is now in a much stronger position to dictate the outcome due to his contract having 12 months left to run.

Kane, whose transfer could still cost upwards of £100m, is attracting attention from Manchester United and Real Madrid, while Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain also have a long-standing interest. And while Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is regarded as one of football's toughest negotiators, he knows keeping the 29-year-old to his contract is a risk given he can leave for nothing next summer. This is a much tougher scenario to contend with than two years ago.

Ultimately, if Kane wants to leave, he has to force the issue and make it clear to Levy that he won't sign new terms. Or he could sign a new contract and commit the rest of his career to the club. One thing is for certain: once England's Euro 2024 qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia are out of the way next week, it will be decision time.

Declan Rice

The West Ham captain was diplomatically noncommittal when asked about his future after helping the team win their first major trophy since 1980 in last week's Europa Conference League final. But chairman David Sullivan has since said that the midfielder will leave after rejecting a new £200,000-a-week contract.

Rice's contract also expires in 2024, albeit with the option of an extra 12 months, but Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Bayern Munich are all interested in signing the 24-year-old. Arsenal are in pole position, with manager Mikel Arteta identifying the England midfielder as his prime target this summer.

Hammers boss David Moyes said in February that it would take a British-record transfer fee -- more than the £106.8m it cost Chelsea to sign Enzo Fernandez from Benfica -- to prise Rice from the London Stadium. But expect him to leave this summer.

Marcus Rashford

Manchester United activated a 12-month extension in Rashford's contract last December, keeping the forward at the club until June 2024. But negotiations over a new long-term deal have yet to result in an agreement, so this summer has become a pivotal point in his United career.

If new terms can't be agreed, the 25-year-old would be free to speak to overseas teams in January and United risk their star player leaving for nothing six months later. Manager Erik ten Hag wants Rashford to stay, and the club are confident a deal will be agreed. But with uncertainty over United's ongoing takeover, persuading the player to commit won't be easy, and they might have to offload him to obtain the maximum transfer fee.

Bernardo Silva

Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are interested in Manchester City's treble-winning midfielder, and Silva has been linked with a move away from the Etihad for the past two summers.

The Portugal international signed a six-year extension to his contract in 2019 so has two years remaining on his existing deal. But with the former AS Monaco player previously expressing an interest to play in LaLiga, a good offer this summer could prompt City to agree to let him go.

Ilkay Gundogan

City are making renewed efforts to keep their treble-winning captain at the Etihad but, with his contract due to expire on June 30, Gundogan is also weighing up offers from Barcelona, Arsenal and clubs in Saudi Arabia.

The 32-year-old Germany international has been at City for seven years, and the club had expected him to leave at the end of the season. But his impact over the closing weeks of the campaign, including two goals in the FA Cup final win against Manchester United, have prompted manager Pep Guardiola to ask him to stay for another year. City's director of football, Txiki Begiristain, has held talks with Gundogan about a new contract, but the player is taking his time to decide on his next move.

Harry Maguire

Maguire is four years into a six-year contract at Old Trafford, but Manchester United are prepared to offload their captain, an £80m signing from Leicester back in 2019, this summer.

He started just eight Premier League games this season and is now fourth-choice centre-back behind Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof. He has also had to watch left-back Luke Shaw start games ahead of him in central defence.

Tottenham are interested in signing the 30-year-old, with West Ham also considering a move, but United face taking a huge financial loss on the player due to the transfer fee they paid and the outstanding value of his £200,000-a-week contract.

Christian Pulisic

The United States international forward is one of several players made available for transfer at Chelsea due to the need to cut costs and reduce squad size after the club's £585m spending spree over recent windows.

Serie A sides Juventus, AC Milan and Napoli are all in the running to sign the 24-year-old, who could be available for around £20m, while Manchester United and Newcastle have both been approached by the player's camp about a possible move to keep him in the Premier League. Turkish champions Galatasaray have also shown an interest.

One thing for certain is that Pulisic will leave Stamford Bridge this summer and is likely to have plenty of options.

Romelu Lukaku

Lukaku could have made himself a hero at Inter Milan if he had taken his chances in the Champions League final against Manchester City, but instead he will head back to Stamford Bridge in disappointment after his loan spell.

Inter have expressed an interest in keeping the Belgium international, but the 30-year-old is one of the Premier League's top earners with a £325,000-a-week salary after his £97.5m transfer from Inter to Chelsea in 2021.

No team outside the Premier League can afford to sign Lukaku unless Chelsea heavily subsidise a deal, while the player has little interest in returning to England. However, he might have no option and, with Chelsea needing a centre-forward, Lukaku may yet find himself back in the team under Mauricio Pochettino at the start of the season.

Mohamed Salah

Salah tweeted his frustration at missing out on Champions League qualification with Liverpool last month, but what did he hope to achieve by doing so? The Egypt forward might have simply been voicing his true feelings to the widest possible audience, or it could have been a more strategic play at inviting interest from a major team looking to make an offer for him.

He signed a new three-year contract 12 months ago, but with both Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain needing to replace outgoing star forwards (Karim Benzema and Lionel Messi, respectively), don't rule out a transfer saga surrounding Salah this summer.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp won't want to lose him, but if the numbers stack up and the 30-year-old pushes to leave, with two years left on his contract, the Anfield hierarchy will have a major dilemma.

James Maddison

The Leicester midfielder is due to become a free agent at the end of next season, but relegation from the Premier League means the Foxes will offload the 26-year-old on the cheap this summer.

Manchester United, Tottenham and Newcastle are in the hunt to sign the England international, and although Liverpool were sounded out about a move, they informed Leicester they had other areas of priority.

Leicester are now on a sound financial footing after the club's owner wrote off almost £200m of debt earlier this year, but relegation has damaged their ability to hold out for a £50m fee for Maddison and he could move for a lot less.

David de Gea

Manchester United have offered the goalkeeper a new contract on reduced terms, but Ten Hag has refused to confirm that the former Spain international will be his first choice next season. After 12 years in Manchester, de Gea would prefer a return to Spain to be closer to his family, but there are no viable options open to him in LaLiga, so signing the deal on offer is the most likely outcome.

But with his contract expiring at the end of this month, he could appeal to clubs in Saudi Arabia looking to sign high-profile free agents. A departure from Old Trafford is still a possibility.

Mason Mount

Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal are all interested in signing the Chelsea midfielder, who is prepared to leave Stamford Bridge this summer.

With one year remaining on Mount's contract, Chelsea must either offload the 24-year-old this summer or lose him for nothing next year, and the latter is not an option due to the need to balance the books. But with Chelsea looking for a £70m fee, the England international might be forced to wait for his move.

Moises Caicedo

Arsenal tried and failed to sign the Brighton midfielder for around £70m in January, and he committed to a new contract after first trying to force an exit. But the Gunners have maintained their interest and are expected to move again for the 21-year-old Ecuador international if they fail to negotiate a deal for Rice.

Having emerged as one of the Premier League's outstanding midfielders last season, Caicedo is likely to attract wider interest if Brighton give any indication that they would let him go.

An Argentine corporation has filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against the LIV Golf League and its HyFlyers GC team captained by Phil Mickelson, accusing them of copying its 20-year-old logo for popular skateboarding and lifestyle apparel brand Fallen.

In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, attorneys for Cool Brands Supply wrote that the "defendants' adoption and use of their knockoff logo nearly twenty years after Plaintiff commenced use and in the face of Plaintiff's federal trademark registration is not just reckless and inexplicable -- it is willful infringement and unfair competition."

Aside from Mickelson, a six-time major champion, HyFlyers GC's roster also includes James Piot, Brendan Steele and Cameron Tringale.

Cool Brands Supply said it has sold footwear and apparel bearing its trademarked logo with back-to-back F's since 2003. The company argued LIV Golf uses a similar logo on hats, shirts and sweatshirts. Mickelson wore the HyFlyers logo while finishing second at the Masters in April and while competing in last month's PGA Championship.

"The similarities between the two marks, particularly when used on clothing, are striking, and are confusing consumers and causing damage to Plaintiff's senior mark and brand," Cool Brands Supply's attorneys wrote in the complaint. "Plaintiff previously demanded that Defendants cease use of their infringing logo, and they refused."

In the complaint, attorneys noted that the HyFlyers didn't use the nearly identical logo on their uniforms and merchandise during LIV Golf's inaugural season in 2022. The "infringing mark" was first displayed after the team's rebranding in February.

Mickelson, who is competing in this week's U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, wasn't immediately available for comment.

Last week, the PGA Tour announced a stunning partnership with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which is financing the LIV Golf League. Mickelson was among 11 LIV Golf players who filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, alleging it used its monopoly powers to quash competition.

Mickelson and the other players later removed themselves as plaintiffs in the case. The tours' new alliance ended all legal action against each other, according to a news release announcing the partnership.

THE MOST UNLIKELY union in professional golf history -- the PGA Tour's stunning partnership last week with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund -- started with a WhatsApp message. The fact the sender was James Dunne III, a Wall Street dealmaker, makes the alliance even more improbable.

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, with about $620 billion in assets, is financing the rival LIV Golf League, which has traded blows with the PGA Tour during a bitter two-year battle to topple each other for supremacy in the sport. As the game's best players gather this week at Los Angeles Country Club for the 123rd U.S. Open, the fractured sport seems closer than ever to reuniting.

Dunne, an independent director on the PGA Tour's policy board, was one of the founders of Sandler O'Neill and Partners, an investment banking firm that lost 40% of its employees when hijackers crashed a plane into the south tower of the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. All but four of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudi citizens, and the Saudi kingdom was the birthplace of Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the attack.

Dunne would have been in the south tower that day if he hadn't been on the back nine of his Wall Street career. Instead of going to work, Dunne was trying to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Bedford Golf and Tennis Club, about 40 miles north of Manhattan. A golfer with an impressive 1 handicap at the time, Dunne was 1 under after four holes when a United States Golf Association official told him he needed to call his office because a plane had crashed into the twin towers. Dunne watched the skyscrapers collapse on TV in the club's pro shop.

Of the 171 Sandler O'Neill employees who worked on the 104th floor of the south tower, 66 died that morning, including two of Dunne's partners: his best friend, Chris Quackenbush, and his mentor, Herman Sandler.

Quackenbush, who Dunne had known since they were teenagers growing up on Long Island, had encouraged him to play in the U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier at Bedford Golf and Tennis Club instead of one the day before in Greenwich, Connecticut, because the course better suited his game.

Dunne put his head down and rebuilt Sandler O'Neill. The firm had built its foundation on mergers and acquisitions involving small and medium-sized banks, but its deals kept getting bigger and bigger. Dunne was an adviser on TD Ameritrade's merger with Charles Schwab and dozens of other billion-dollar acquisitions. Sandler O'Neill and Partners grew into the largest investment banking firm focused on the financial services sector. The company was acquired by Wall Street investment bank Piper Jaffray in 2020. CNBC reported the merger was worth about $485 million.

Dunne is president of Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, home of the most famous pro-member tournament in the sport (LIV Golf players weren't invited this year). He's a member of several clubs, including Augusta National Golf Club and Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York, where he set the course record with a 63 in 2010 (Tommy Fleetwood tied the mark in the final round of the 2018 U.S. Open). He is a close friend of PGA Tour stars Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and others. When Dunne qualified for his first USGA event, the 2018 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, Justin Thomas sent out a congratulatory tweet. Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady considers Dunne one of his most important mentors.

"When you've been around people a long time, you see the 360," Brady told Sports Illustrated in 2021. "Jimmy is an amazing leader, a great dad, a great husband ... honest as the day is long. You don't do amazing things by taking three knees and punting, hoping someone else makes a decision for you."

Even before joining the PGA Tour's policy board Jan. 1, 2023, Dunne had been working behind the scenes, talking to players and agents, in hopes of repairing the fractured sport, which had splintered like never before when two-time Open Championship winner Greg Norman launched the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League and poached many of the PGA Tour's biggest stars with guaranteed contracts reportedly worth as much as $200 million.

With the Public Investment Fund (PIF) investing more than $2 billion into the breakaway circuit in its inaugural season in 2022, Norman was able to lure past major champions Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and others away from the PGA Tour. Commissioner Jay Monahan suspended more than 30 players for competing in LIV Golf tournaments without conflicting event releases.

In August, 11 players filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour in federal court, alleging it was using its monopoly power to quash competition. The PGA Tour countersued, accusing LIV Golf of interfering with its contracts with players. It was a full-blown golf civil war.

Enter Dunne, who is known as Jimmy to his colleagues and friends. His Wall Street pedigree in bringing sides together and making deals work made him a likely mediator to cool tensions between the sides. But he would have to put aside his personal feelings about 9/11 and Saudi Arabia's role in the terrorist attacks.

Once Dunne joined the PGA Tour's policy board, he wanted to reach out directly to not Norman but Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the sovereign wealth fund. After an arbitration panel in London ruled April 5 that the DP World Tour could impose sanctions on its members for competing in LIV Golf events, Monahan gave Dunne permission to contact Al-Rumayyan.

"What I always felt is that I didn't understand what the LIV Tour was really trying to accomplish," Dunne told ESPN. "And so at some point in time, between the legal expense and them basically recruiting our players, I thought it was important that we would speak to the main guy and not to anybody else. Over time, and after we had gotten some good legal victories, I was able to convince Jay that we should go over and try to find out if there is a middle ground here. Is there something we can do so that we can put the legal battle and the whole sort of conflict behind us?"

On the morning of April 18, Dunne sent Al-Rumayyan a message on WhatsApp. Al-Rumayyan responded a few minutes later. They spoke on the telephone for a while that day and agreed to meet in person in London later that month. It was the beginning of one of the most complicated deals in Dunne's career.

IN LATE APRIL, Dunne met Al-Rumayyan at a hotel outside London. They had dinner and smoked cigars together that night.

"He was approachable," Dunne said. "We spoke about golf, his career and his view of what he wanted to grow in the game of golf. My impression was that we can work together. He really loves the game of golf. He's very thoughtful and very calm, and I found him to be extremely decent."

The next day, Al-Rumayyan, a 12 handicap, and PGA Tour policy board co-chairman Ed Herlihy beat Dunne, a 5 handicap, and PIF attorney Brian Gillespie in a round of golf at Beaverbrook Golf Club in Surrey, England.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and 9/11 Families United, heavily criticized the PGA Tour's decision to do business with the Saudis in statements Tuesday.

Dunne raised eyebrows last week when he told the Golf Channel that he is convinced the Saudis he dealt with weren't involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "I am quite certain -- and I have had conversations with a lot of very knowledgeable people -- that the people I'm dealing with had nothing to do with it," he said. "If someone can find someone who unequivocally was involved with it, I'll kill them myself."

Dunne returned to the U.S. and told Monahan he believed there was a chance they could come to some sort of compromise with the Saudis. Monahan told reporters last week that Dunne and Herlihy's early conversations with Al-Rumayyan and other PIF officials got the ball rolling in negotiations.

"The first conversation that I was not a part of was what was the most important conversation because of the position I've been in and what we've been trying to do with our tour," Monahan said. "But when they came back and said it was a positive conversation and that I should have a follow-up meeting, I think that's when things started to develop."

In May, Dunne, Herlihy and Monahan flew to Venice, Italy, where Al-Rumayyan was attending a wedding. Monahan spent time with Al-Rumayyan the night they arrived, and the entire group met for several hours the next day, hammering out the framework of what a potential alliance might look like.

On May 28, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the men met again in San Francisco, where they finalized a formal plan. The next day, Monahan and Al-Rumayyan signed a two-page framework agreement for a partnership that would stun the golf world.

"I think there was a desire for both sides to come together to some kind of peace," Dunne said. "It was extremely complex and difficult, but people really wanted, in my mind, to do something that was going to be good for the game of golf."

ACCORDING TO DUNNE, Monahan will oversee the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf League under the agreement. At the end of LIV Golf's season in November, Monahan will evaluate whether the team-focused circuit of 54 holes, shotgun starts and no cuts will continue or fold. Dunne said it will be Monahan's decision alone.

It's unclear what Norman's role will be going forward, although he told staff last week that his circuit is a stand-alone entity and is making plans for 2024 and beyond. A LIV Golf spokesperson said Norman wasn't available for comment.

"In the end, it's really one person that will decide, and the PGA Tour will never fund any aspect of LIV," Dunne said.

According to Dunne, the PGA Tour will also control the new yet-to-be-named for-profit entity, which "combines PIF's golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial business and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour," according to the release.

Monahan will serve as the new company's CEO; Al-Rumayyan will be chairman. Dunne said the entity will consider future "strategic opportunities and evaluate if they'd be useful for the PGA Tour." It might be the purchase of a golf course, another tour or a media network. PIF will be the initial investor and will have the exclusive right to further inject more money into the company.

"The PGA Tour is the controlling partner of the new company," Dunne said. "It is extraordinarily unlikely that [Al-Rumayyan's] going to be involved in the day-to-day. No, he would not be involved in day-to-day. But if we were going to look for a strategic opportunity, we would obviously involve him and he'd help evaluate it and decide whether or not it would be worth them investing in it. It could be very possible that we could go a long period of time before there's any investment of any type."

The Saudis will be a bank for the new entity, according to Dunne, but only if money is needed. Dunne doesn't know how much the Saudis are willing to invest; Al-Rumayyan told CNBC he is prepared to spend "whatever it takes ... that's what we're committed for."

Dunne said PIF will invest in the new company, but not in the PGA Tour and won't pay its members. The PGA Tour will remain a 501(c)(6) tax-exempt organization and retain its own operations, including scheduling, sanctioning of events, rules and competition.

What will the Saudis get out of the deal? They'll make money if the new for-profit venture grows, and they'll get a seat at the table in the new global golf ecosystem. Dunne said Aramco, Saudi Arabia's public petroleum and natural gas company, could become a PGA Tour sponsor. Al-Rumayyan will join the PGA Tour policy board. As one person familiar with Al-Rumayyan told ESPN, "He wants to be standing under the tree at Augusta National on Thursday at the Masters."

ON JUNE 5, officials from the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF gathered at investment banker Michael Klein's office in New York to piece together a strategy in announcing the partnership. A news release was written and a media strategy was developed. Monahan and Al-Rumayyan would announce the deal together on CNBC the next morning, minutes after PGA Tour and DP World Tour players would be notified of the alliance in memos.

Dunne texted McIlroy, one of the PGA Tour's most loyal supporters, on Sunday night, asking if they could talk the next morning. Dunne called McIlroy at 6:15 a.m. ET Tuesday to tell him the news.

"He seemed pleased that there would be peace coming," Dunne said. "He was pleased that there was the potential for peace. He was aware that there had been some contact back and forth, but had no knowledge, intentionally on both parties, where dialogue was."

McIlroy said Dunne told him, "Rory, sometimes you got 280 over water, you just got to go for it."

"I still hate LIV," McIlroy said. "Like, I hate LIV. I hope it goes away, and I would fully expect that it does. I think that's where the distinction here is. This is the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF -- very different from LIV."

Players have criticized Monahan and DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley for keeping them in the dark about perhaps the most important decision in the circuit's history. Dunne said confidentiality was paramount in such a controversial deal.

"We wanted to treat all the players equally because a deal like this has so much emotion in it," Dunne said. "I didn't want to be in the situation where we told some players and not others. If you told 20 or 30, you would have no confidentiality. People had their own particular interests, could do what they would want to do, [and] some might try to derail the deal. What we tried to do is get what we thought was a very good deal for the PGA Tour and then present that to the players."

Shortly after the agreement was announced, Monahan flew to Toronto, the site of last week's RBC Canadian Open. He met with more than 100 players for longer than an hour. Monahan described the meeting as "tense," and a few players called for his resignation.

"The reason why there was so much backlash during the meeting was we were just all kind of in a state of shock," said longtime PGA Tour member Brandt Snedeker. "Nobody knew it was coming. I think inevitably with these kinds of deals, you never know they're coming, otherwise, they'd never get done."

Australia's Geoff Ogilvy said Monahan only provided players with "broad strokes" and few details because the plan hadn't been formally approved. Ogilvy said he was a "little bit grumpy" with Monahan, but "generally felt for him because he clearly can't tell us anything."

"He said, 'Hang in there. This is actually a good deal,'" Ogilvy said.

There was a heated exchange during the meeting between McIlroy and Grayson Murray, the 232nd-ranked player in the world, who shouted for Monahan to resign, saying, "We don't trust you, Jay. You lied to our face."

Two days after the meeting, Murray told ESPN that he hadn't changed his mind about Monahan.

"What I said in the meeting about [how] I hope he resigns and the people underneath him [resign], I stand by that," Murray said. "I haven't talked to Jay. I've known Jay for a long time, and I think this whole thing just has been handled the wrong way. I think we just need a new face.

"I think there are some things going on internally that we don't know about, and I don't think they'll ever come out, which just seems fishy. It's all happening so quickly without the players' knowledge. It's something so important, like the biggest thing that's ever happened to our tour, and we find out the morning it comes out."

Murray said others in the room were upset about the PGA Tour's lack of transparency. Players don't have the power to force Monahan out. Only the policy board can make that decision, and Dunne and Herlihy helped him broker the deal with the Saudis.

The full policy board, which consists of three other independent directors, five players (Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, McIlroy and Webb Simpson) and PGA of America director John Lindert, must still formally approve the alliance. Al-Rumayyan told CNBC that the deal should be approved in the coming weeks.

"I think some people agree with me, definitely," Murray said. "But you know, there's no way to get on the board and say, 'Hey, you're fired.' We don't have that power. That's why I think a union would be great for our sport. I don't know why we haven't come together with that. I think any other sport that has a union is doing great. They have power. They make decisions. It's a players' tour. At least they keep saying it's a players' tour."

Former world No. 1 golfer Justin Rose, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour, said Monahan has a "hung jury" or "split camp" among his membership.

"I think some players maybe understand the pressure that he was under, and maybe the business side of things where some things just have to transpire the way they transpire," Rose said. "But, you know, other guys are not willing to accept the way it went down. It's a little muddy right now for sure."

Lucas Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open winner, said many PGA Tour players "want a pound of flesh right now."

"I think [Monahan's support] is probably pretty minimal right now because of just the reaction and it just hasn't played out yet," Glover said. "On its own head, it looks pretty awful. But I think a lot of people cooled off after the meeting and got some questions answered. I think the end result needs to be beneficial to the guys that stuck around, and that will go a long way to earn back trust."

One of the biggest concerns among most players, according to Ogilvy and Snedeker, is that LIV Golf League players won't be allowed to simply rejoin the PGA Tour. Dunne said a committee of players and administrators will decide on potential punishment for players who left and want to rejoin. He said golfers who left also won't be allowed to participate in a planned equity sharing in the new entity.

"I think you'd get a pretty strong consensus amongst the players that nobody really wants any of these guys to come back who went to LIV," Ogilvy said. "They would feel a bit cheated because we all chose the tour. Those who stayed, we chose the tour and were told that this is the right side to be on. 'Don't do this. You'll never come back. If you go, you'll never be able to come back.' That's the one thing I think that really was triggering all the boys is these guys, they've gone off and got their piles of money."

Snedeker said some LIV Golf players might have a more difficult time being accepted back than others.

"Most of those guys left on relatively good terms," Snedeker said. "I think there'll be some animosity towards the guy that sued us and drug us through the mud and tried to tell us how bad this tour is and how awful it is. I think there'll be some animosity towards them. But the majority of those guys just made a financial decision, business decision, so I don't think there'll be a ton of that."

ALONG WITH EARNING back some of his players' trust, Monahan has to get the deal across the finish line. That won't be easy, according to legal experts. The agreement might have ended all legal disputes between the PGA Tour and PIF, but the U.S. Department of Justice was already investigating the PGA Tour's alleged antitrust behavior. Federal regulators will undoubtedly scrutinize the new company as well, according to antitrust experts. The 1914 Clayton Act prohibits mergers and acquisitions that eliminate competition.

Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and former special assistant to President Joe Biden for technology and competition policy, said there is a "100% chance" DOJ enforcers take a close look at the new alliance. Wu said regulators in Europe also might take a hard look.

"If PIF had just invested in PGA when they were a monopoly, that would be a totally different story," Wu said. "The challenge here, and this could be any industry, is if you have a monopolist and you have a startup, some kind of competitor to it. [The startup] starts to get some traction, or not. Then you decide to just like, 'Hey, let's agree not to compete and share the profits.' That's what the antitrust law bans you from doing."

The agreement hasn't been finalized and paperwork hasn't been submitted to the federal government. The deal could be restructured, or PIF and the PGA Tour could simply try to ram it through. When ESPN asked Dunne if the new company would pass the antitrust test, he said, "I'm not a lawyer."

Wu noted that the Department of Justice recently blocked an announced merger between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways. Last month, a federal judge upheld the ruling and ordered the airlines to separate.

"They tried to say it wasn't a merger," Wu said. "The airlines said, 'Well, it's not a merger. We're just an alliance and combining.' But the Justice Department said, 'Look, if you stop competing on prices and stop competing for customers, you're no longer competing, and that's what we care about.' So, the Justice Department cares whether you're agreeing not to compete, whatever laws you want to put on it. That's what they care about."

Northwestern law professor Gerald Maatman, one of the country's leading antitrust lawyers, said PIF's lawyers will have a difficult time walking back their previous comments about the PGA Tour being a monopoly and using its power to quash competition.

"In essence, it's like, 'Forget about all the allegations we made in our lawsuit. We didn't mean it,'" Maatman said. "From a legal standpoint, it's very hard to unring the bell when you make those allegations. They're called judicial admissions by the law. Truth is not a weathervane that turns when the wind blows towards your self-interest. And when you say something in court, it's kind of hard to weasel out of it down the road."

Monahan will also have to clarify his comment to reporters last week that the deal was "ultimately, to take the competitor off of the board -- to have them exist as a partner, not an owner -- and for us to be able to control the direction going forward."

"That's surprising he would say this, that one of the benefits of the deal is eliminating competition," said Craig Seebald, a partner and antitrust expert at Vinson & Elkins law firm. "This is just the heart of it. I probably talked to 30 or 40 antitrust lawyers, and everybody's just scratching their heads saying, 'Why would you say that?' I mean, that'd be the last thing you'd want your client to say."

Several U.S. politicians, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, have expressed concerns about the proposed alliance and said they'll be watching its structure closely. In a statement to Time, Warren said the PGA was "selling out to the Saudi regime to draw attention from its atrocious human rights record with a new golf monopoly."

Blumenthal said in a statement, "The PGA Tour has spent two years lambasting Saudi sports-washing and paying lip service [to] the integrity of the sport of golf, which will now be used unabashedly by the Kingdom to distract from its many crimes. The PGA Tour has placed a price on human rights and betrayed the long history of sports and athletes that advocate for social change and progress. I will keep a close eye on the structure of this deal and its implications."

It could be months before the alliance between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF is finalized, if it's approved at all -- passed by the policy board, signed off on by lawmakers, cleared by the DOJ and of course, if the terms are as described. There's also the possibility of the Saudis making the biggest leverage play of all: a Trojan horse and leaving the PGA Tour and DP World Tour alone at the altar.

"I'm choosing the bullish side of this thing," Ogilvy said. "If it is how it could be, it could be incredible. I feel like [PIF is] in it for the long haul. I mean, if they hang around with their checkbook, it futureproofs it a little bit. This arms race of how much money can we pay all these players, the PGA Tour was going to lose eventually. So, to come together, however that looks in the end surely is better than bickering about it and pulling half the good players over there and half the good players over there.

"Nobody wins when that happens."