The 2026 World Cup across the US, Canada, and Mexico is barely four days old, yet it has already proved to be an absolute pressure cooker, delivering ruthless boardroom verdicts and massive corporate moves behind the scenes. While the action on the pitch is just heating up, the tournament is already claiming its first casualties and acting as a convenient backdrop for Europe’s elite to conduct their summer business.
Tunisia have grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons, having been utterly dismantled in a 5-1 thrashing by Sweden. It seems that heavy defeat was the final straw, with national team manager Sabri Lamouchi reportedly given his marching orders following a hastily convened crisis meeting. The French sports journalist Romain Molina broke the news on X, bluntly confirming Lamouchi’s tenure had come to an end. It paints a picture of a squad in absolute disarray, something Molina’s colleague, Matteo Trabelsi, wasn’t shy about pointing out. Sharing Molina’s update, Trabelsi essentially took a victory lap, noting that the pair had previously flagged Lamouchi’s toxic dressing room antics and utter failure to get the players pulling in the same direction. Back then, they were accused of peddling lies to destabilise the camp. Now, with Lamouchi out the door after a single group game, Trabelsi couldn’t resist a sarcastic sign-off, adding that people will probably still find a way to blame the press.
British reporter Ben Jacobs has corroborated the sacking, and while we are still waiting on the official rubber stamp from the Tunisian FA, local outlet Radio Mosaïque FM suggests the federation were the ones demanding the crisis talks in the first place. The word is that former Sunderland man Wahbi Khazri could be stepping into the dugout as an interim fix to see out the rest of the tournament. To be brutally honest, the writing was on the wall long before they touched down in North America. Lamouchi’s incredibly brief five-game stint was a disaster class. A scrappy 1-0 win over Haiti on his debut was as good as it got, followed by a 1-0 loss to Austria and a humiliating 5-0 battering by Belgium in their final warm-up. Cutting their losses now feels like the only sensible move.
But while Tunisia are busy picking up the pieces of a ruined campaign, Bayern Munich are using the North American spectacle to get some massive deals over the line. Having lost out in the race to sign Anthony Gordon, the Bavarian giants have swiftly pivoted and are now on the verge of hijacking the headlines with a brilliant acquisition from PSV Eindhoven.
Bayern are in the final stages of snapping up Ismael Saibari. Both Bild and Foot Mercato are reporting a verbal agreement between the German heavyweights and the Dutch champions, with a transfer fee sitting just shy of the €55 million mark. Fabrizio Romano has chimed in to say it’s practically a done deal, pending a medical. In a rather neat twist of geographical convenience, that medical is going to be conducted right there in the States. Saibari is currently out there representing Morocco—he actually found the back of the net in their 1-1 opening draw against Brazil—and Bayern’s chief medical officer, Dr Jochen Hahne, is also stateside with the German squad.
The 25-year-old attacking midfielder, who has a contract with PSV until 2029, has already hammered out personal terms to keep him in Munich until 2031. It’s easy to see why Bayern moved so decisively. Since breaking into the PSV first team in the summer of 2022, following a two-year stint with their reserves after signing from Genk’s U21s, Saibari has been tearing it up. Last season, he boasted a return of 15 goals and 8 assists in 27 Eredivisie outings, and proved he can do it on the biggest stage with three goals in seven Champions League appearances. He’s a highly versatile operator who can do a job out wide or straight down the middle as a striker, though he naturally gravitates towards the number 10 role.
The rapid conclusion of this deal does raise some rather interesting questions about Bayern’s bank balance. According to Kicker, the club’s summer transfer kitty was strictly capped at €100 million, earmarked for a new attacker and a full-back. Saibari ticks the first box, but takes a massive €55 million bite out of that budget. That leaves the maths looking incredibly tight, especially given the deafening noise surrounding a move for Eintracht Frankfurt’s Nathaniel Brown. The German international put in a thoroughly assured performance in his country’s World Cup opener, and reports suggest Bayern have already struck a deal with Frankfurt for another €55 million package. If those numbers are accurate, Bayern are seriously stretching their financial limits, betting big that a successful stateside shopping spree translates to domestic dominance next season.
