This former soccer prodigy made his debut at 16. 11 years later, he was left feeling suicidal
CNN
Matthews Briggs was still at school when he made soccer history, becoming the youngest player to feature in the English Premier League.
Matthews Briggs was still at school when he made soccer history, becoming the youngest player to feature in the English Premier League. The teenage sensation was just 16 years and 65 days old when he made his debut in arguably the toughest league in the world, coming on as a second-half substitute for Fulham in a 3-1 win in 2007. That “surreal moment” seemingly was the start of an exciting career in the game – Briggs was once tipped as a future England captain. Instead it was the beginning of a tumultuous journey which hit rock bottom as he stood on the edge of a hotel balcony in Dubai. “I had pushed myself from my family and my friends. I felt like I had nobody,” Briggs tells CNN Sport, reflecting on how he felt in 2018. “I was thinking, ‘What’s the point? I might as well just end it all now because all that I’m feeling will stop.’” Briggs was one of the country’s most exciting young talents as a teenager and he progressed quickly through the youth ranks.
Here we are, at the best three weeks of the sporting calendar. CNN Sports has everything you need to know to be ready for March Madness.
In a season of ticking off accomplishments, the Cornhuskers bull their way into March taking dead-eye aim at the elephant sitting square in the middle of their locker room: Their school is the only one power conference team that has failed to win an NCAA Tournament game.
Team USA avoided a World Baseball Classic disaster on Wednesday when Italy pulverized Mexico, ensuring the Americans advanced to the quarterfinals.
Cinderella is a funny girl when her glass slippers are Nike issued. We are amused by her as a lead-up to the ball, love her if earns a party-crashing admittance and then goes on to trash the place in the first weekend. But not everyone is so eager to hand her one of the coveted 37 extra tickets held in reserve.
New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch is requesting his ownership stake in the team be transferred to his children, according to an internal NFL memo.
Team USA is on the verge of one of the most embarrassing exits in World Baseball Classic history and, at this point, there’s nothing they can do about it.
Rick Barnes has been a head coach for 48 years. Won 857 games, been to the NCAA Tournament 29 times. He is not a man who needs to explain or even create a culture around his team. It sort of just exudes from him at this point.
Seven members of the Iranian women’s soccer team have remained in Australia, while the rest of the squad has now left the country for Iran, a source has told CNN Sports.
After their final defeat in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Sunday, supporters of the Iranian women’s football team crowded around their bus shouting at police to “save our girls” as it pulled away.
The Iran women’s national soccer team was forced to salute and sing its anthem on Thursday ahead of its Women’s Asian Cup group stage match against host Australia, sources close to the team tell CNN Sports, just days after the squad refused to do so in its tournament opener.
Lou Holtz, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who led Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship and won 249 games over 33 seasons at six schools, has died. He was 89.
North Carolina runner Molly Born won the USA Track & Field (USATF) women’s half marathon championship by a slim margin of just over four seconds on Sunday in Atlanta – but the result is only half the story.
It’s now 100 days until the FIFA World Cup is set to begin in North America, and the intensifying war in the Middle East has raised further questions around what is already a controversial tournament.