The 30-year-old actor shouted out to the 29-year-old actress, calling her Maree, as she was being interviewed on the red carpet at Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s premiere in Rome, Italy.
Referring to what an ice cream place was called, Tom said: “Maree, what’s the name of that place?”
Zendaya replied, “Giolitti’s!”
She then told the reporter: “That’s where I’m going after this.”
Tom using his sweet nickname for Zendaya in public comes just over a week since he confirmed that the couple tied the knot following intense speculation.
The Odyssey star shared the news after revealing that his grandmother thought that she had not been invited to the ceremony because she had seen the infamous fake artificial intelligence wedding pictures that circulated online.
Asked by Esquire magazine if he had to send out similar messages to other family members who feared they may have missed the wedding, Tom said, “No, because they were all there.”
However, the Uncharted alum, who wants to keep his relationship with Zendaya private, refused to divulge any further details about the wedding.
He said, “That’s all you’ll get on that.”
Earlier this year, Zendaya’s 47-year-old stylist, Law Roach, suggested that she and Tom got married in private during an appearance on the red carpet at the Actor Awards in Los Angeles on March 1.
He told Access Hollywood, “The wedding has already happened. You missed it.”
When asked if that is “true” Law replied: “It’s very true!”
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming a decade ago and their relationship was not confirmed until 2021 when they were pictured kissing.
The couple confirmed their engagement in September 2025 when Tom referred to Zendaya as his “fiancee” during a panel event.
A Palestinian boy rides a scooter through archaeological remains in the ancient village of Sebastia, near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 4, 2026.— Reuters/File
An Israeli bill that would extend civil control over ancient sites in the West Bank has drawn criticism from Palestinians and Israeli rights groups who say it is tantamount to annexation of occupied land and would expand Jewish settlements.
The “Heritage Authority in Judea and Samaria” bill passed one of three votes by Israel’s parliament in May, but it is unclear whether the final vote will be held before parliament disperses ahead of an election expected by October 27.
The bill would bring management of Roman, Byzantine and Crusader-era sites under Israeli Ministry of Heritage management and allow related “expropriation and purchase of real estate” in the West Bank, which Israel calls by its Hebrew biblical name.
That in effect would strip away oversight of some ancient sites from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which under the 1990s Oslo peace accords has exercised limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war.
The PA’s tourism minister, Hani Al-Hayek, said “control over these antiquities is intended to expand control and expand settlements in these areas, deep inside Palestinian territories.”
Israel says the bill’s purpose is to protect ancient sites.
Village near ancient Sebastia site faces land confiscation
Peace Now, an Israeli settlements watchdog, said the bill “constitutes an annexationist measure in every respect” and would lead to broad-scale confiscation of Palestinian land.
Using archaeology to expand settlements is not a new practice, but the scope of the Israeli government’s measures has been unprecedented, Peace Now said.
One example is the Palestinian village of Sebastia in the northern West Bank where residents, many of whom trace their roots to the land back centuries, rely heavily on tourism to a nearby archaeological site.
The ancient site in Sebastia has ruins from the 9th-century BC Israelite kingdom as well as Roman, Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman remnants, archaeologists say. It is on a tentative list for inclusion as a Unesco World Heritage Site.
In late 2025, Israel announced a plan to seize about 1,800 dunams (445 acres) at the site, which it said was meant to develop the area, affecting around 5,000 olive trees growing in the village groves, village officials said.
“They are incorporating areas containing water resources, roads and antiquities, leaving us as residents without any resources. It is part of settlement expansion,” said Sebastia Deputy Mayor Nizar Kayed.
Business had already been suffering since late 2023 with tourism dropping because of war in the region, said Nahed Sakha, whose Sebastia restaurant is on land slated for confiscation.
“It seems that the Israeli plan (is) to isolate the archaeological site from the people,” Sakha said.
Israel cites ancient ties to the land
Israeli parliament member Zvi Sukkot, who has been key in advancing the new bill, says extending Israeli control over the sites is meant to safeguard ancient remnants dating back to biblical times.
“There’s nothing here that changes the legal status of Judea and Samaria,” he told Reuters.
“There are many people who are bothered by our desire to prove the ties between the people of Israel and this land,” he said. “All the stories of the Bible, all our history, the people (of Israel) were born in Judea and Samaria.”
Sukkot is a member of the pro-settler Religious Zionism party. Like many in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and advocates annexation of the West Bank.
UN bodies and most countries view Israel’s settlements as illegal under international law, violating the Fourth Geneva Convention provision barring the transfer of civilian population into occupied territory.
Israel rejects this view, saying the West Bank, which it captured in the 1967 war, is disputed territory. It cites security needs and biblical and historical ties to the land.
But the new bill has also caused concern among legal officials in Israel’s defence establishment and Israeli scientists.
In an open letter to Netanyahu and Sukkot, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities called for it to be scrapped.
“This will undoubtedly lead to an immediate deterioration in Israel’s international relations in the field of archaeology, and it will also have an impact on other areas of science and research,” the academy said.
EasyJet has rejected a fourth takeover offer worth £4.93bn from Castlelake.
The low-cost Luton-based airline said the US investment firm’s bid was worth £6.50 a share, compared with the previous offers of £5.60, £6 and £6.25 a share.
A spokesperson said it was giving Castlelake until 17:00 BST on 5 July to make a firm offer or walk away.
“Having carefully reviewed it with its advisers, the board of EasyJet continues to regard the fourth proposal as substantially undervaluing the company and its prospects and continuing to give rise to significant questions of deliverability,” said EasyJet.
EasyJet said the takeover interest came at a time when its share price had been pushed down by concerns about the consequences of the Iran war.
The FTSE 250 firm’s shares had dropped by about 30% over the past year, before news of Castlelake’s interest.
EasyJet said it remained “concerned” about Castlelake’s ownership structure and ability to deliver any offer, adding the investor would need to provide “satisfactory assurances and commitments” on those issues.
Castlelake has assets under management worth $36bn (£27.3bn).
Under the deal, EasyJet would be 49% owned by Castlelake and co-investors including Brookfield Asset Management, and 51% owned by individual European Union investors.
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‘Toy Story 5’ bosses reveal if there will be a live-action movie
Toy Story 5‘s producer and director rejects the idea of a live-action Toy Story movie.
Lindsey Collins suggested Pixar is not interested in Disney doing a version of its animated intellectual property combining real-life actors and physical sets with Computer-Generated Imagery characters, as it did for The Lion King (2019), Lilo + Stitch (2025), Moana (2026), and others.
BAFTA asked Collins and Toy Story 5‘s director, Andrew Stanton, if a live-action Toy Story film is on the cards, but the pair were quick to shut down the concept.
She said, “Oh, God, no, I hope not. Please God, no. Don’t say that loudly! You know that Disney is going to be like [pulls silly face].”
“No. The answer is a hard no,” she confirmed.
Stanton added, “That’s like a hat on top of a hat. I hope not. A hard no.”
However, 69-year-old Tom Hanks, who has voiced Woody the Cowboy in all five Toy Story movies, thinks Disney could use artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate the sheriff’s voice should Toy Story 6 be made.
He told Entertainment Weekly, “Time is undefeated. The question would be whether or not we could cobble together some version of me. Every word we have ever recorded in time on Toy Story is on digital media somewhere, so they could put together anything they would want.”
However, the two-time Oscar winner believes Toy Story 6 should only be made if it is “worthwhile.”
Hanks said, “If you’re gonna do another Toy Story, it better be worthwhile.”
“It better be great. You better be examining some theme that is not just dragging it out because people like the title. I mean, it is a huge corporate business without a doubt, I’m not gonna discount that. But unless it’s good, new, fresh, there’s no reason to do it at all,” he added.
Although Disney and Pixar have not confirmed Toy Story 6, it may be likely, as the fifth instalment had a strong performance at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $312 million worldwide against its $250 million budget.
Israel reacted angrily over a new United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry report alleging the Jewish state had engaged in the “deliberate targeting of Palestinian children.”
Prior reports from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem, and Israel garnered accusations of antisemitism and incitement to violence.
The latest report, released Wednesday, said that, “based on the evidence reviewed, and consistent with its previous reports, the Commission finds on reasonable grounds that the Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces have continued to commit the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
A woman kneels by a memorial site in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, as the community commemorates members killed, taken hostage, or who died in captivity following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.(Hannah McKay/Reuters)
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, told Fox News Digital that “this is not an investigative report. It is a political blood libel disguised as a U.N. document. This commission reaches its conclusions before examining the facts and repeatedly publishes reports that serve one purpose only: to vilify Israel. Instead of addressing Hamas’ crimes, the October 7 massacre, the hostages, and Hamas’ cynical use of children and civilians as human shields, the commission has once again chosen to place Israel in the dock.”
Danon added that “Israel will continue to defend its citizens and fight terrorism, regardless of how many false reports are published by fringe actors within U.N. institutions.”
Representatives from the COI and Human Rights Council did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the concerns addressed about the report.
Asked for a reaction from U.N. chief Antonio Guterres to the report, his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, told Fox News Digital “it’s not his report to comment on.”
A bloodied handprint stains a wall inside a house in the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border after a Hamas attack days earlier.(Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Srinivasan Muralidhar, Chair of the Commission told reporters during a press briefing that, “The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces.” He said “Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law.”
Anne Bayefsky, President of Human Rights Voices and Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital that the COI’s “sham ‘inquiry’ makes the totally unjustified claim of legal authority, while at the same time systematically violating every conceivable legal rule of fairness, impartiality, and due process. Since its creation in 2021, every call for submissions, every consultation and every hearing held, has been contrived to take seriously the allegations of only one side – trashing literally millions of data points both historical and current to the contrary.”
She said, “the first COI report focused on children…fails to even mention the sickening murders of 9-month-old Kfir Bibas and 4-year-old Ariel Bibas.” She says that “also ignored in the COI report are the hundreds of thousands of Israeli children traumatized by October 7th, by the subsequent mass displacement, and by the excruciating longing for parents absent while defending their country against an inhumane foe.”
Photos of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz, 84, who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and later killed, are displayed next to candles in the dining room in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, on Feb. 25, 2025, the day of Lifshitz’s funeral after their bodies were returned under a ceasefire agreement.(Amir Cohen/Reuters)
Bayefsky complained that though the current COI report “was produced weeks ago,” the COI members “deliberately withheld” the report when appearing to discuss it before the Human Rights Council last week. “They didn’t publish it until June 23, minutes prior to holding a stage-managed press conference designed to avoid accountability for their wild, unverified accusations,” she claimed.
Another member of the commission told reporters in Geneva that, “There can be no doubt in anyone who reads today’s report that every international legal norm has been violated by the actions of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian children and they need to be held accountable.”
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York on April 18, 2024.(Yuki Iwamura/AP)
Jonathan Conricus, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, told Fox News Digital that the latest report contains “no evidence to support any of the claims against Israel” and is filled with “inconsistencies in methodology.”
He said the report represents “an escalation, and it marks maybe the most severe attempt by the U.N. ecosystem to delegitimize Israel.”
Salo Aizenberg, director of media watchdog group HonestReporting, who has researched and debunked many of the claims made by those claiming genocide in Gaza, told Fox News Digital that the COI’s “report is built on a fictional battlefield where Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] do not exist, and where hospitals are treated as purely civilian spaces despite extensive evidence of their military use and infiltration by Hamas operatives. It then accuses Israel of deliberately targeting children without producing a single incident supported by evidence of intent.”
Conricus said the report erases “Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from the battlefield to create the false kind of perception that Israel was operating out of wanton aggression in a vacuum without there ever being a need for Israeli operations and this is a reoccurring theme.” He also noted that this report and others “use the statements of medical professionals as evidence, even when it’s way beyond their medical expertise, specifically when it comes to how wounds were inflicted.”
Beth Bailey writes on the United Nations, worldwide antisemitism, and regions in conflict for Fox News.
A sign displays the prices of unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel at a Chevron gas station in Bay Harbor Island, Florida, US, on Monday, June 22, 2026.
Zak Bennett | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Chevron Chief Financial Officer Eimear Bonner told CNBC on Thursday that the oil major expects U.S. gasoline prices to fall as the Middle East situation continues to normalize.
Responding to Trump’s criticism, Chevron’s Bonner said energy majors were “doing everything we can” to resolve the situation, but that it would take time for fuel prices to come down.
“What I would say is, we’re all concerned about prices. So, there is a lot of empathy, whether it’s in the U.S. or here in the U.K. or in Europe for consumers,” Bonner told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.
“It’s going to take time though. There is a lag between, you know, oil prices and reductions in oil prices and when that shows up at the pump, but we expect that prices will come down as things continue to normalize.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump named the likes of Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP and said gasoline prices “should be much lower at the pump.”
The U.S. president added that prices should be at $2.25 per gallon, “and we are higher than that.”
Asked whether the energy majors could do more to get gas prices down in the near term, Bonner replied: “Well, I think the majors are doing everything that we can. I’ll talk for Chevron, and we’re growing this year. We’re going to grow production at 7% to 10%.”
“We’ve optimized through the conflict and continue to optimize the levers that we have to deliver the energy the world needs and to deliver products to consumers,” she added.
Trump said Wednesday that he had ordered the Department of Justice (DoJ) to “immediately” start looking into the situation.
“The price of fuel is not only national security issue, it impacts the wallet of every American. We will always commit to ensuring affordability in this nation,” a DoJ spokesperson told CNBC by email.
South Africa, against all expectations, pulled off a 1-0 win against South Korea in Monterrey on Wednesday, gathering all three points they needed to advance to the round of 32 at the FIFA World Cup.
Bafana will face Canada in the next round, on June 28 in Los Angeles, thanks to Thapelo Maseko‘s second half strike, and the team’s renewed sense of energy and attacking flair, which had been missing against Mexico and Czechia,.
Before the match, South Africa head coach Hugo Broos answered the call from Bafana fans to start Orlando Pirates starboy Relebohile Mofokeng, which proved critical on the night (on the early hours in SA).
Mofokeng came off the bench in Bafana’s 1-1 draw against Czechia, and did not feature at all in the tournament opener against Mexico, which Bafana lost 2-0. Also handed a start was striker Evidence Makgopa, who proved a handful off the bench against Czechia too.
South Korea made the interesting call to leave superstar striker Son Heung Min on the bench, seemingly content with their passage into the round of 32, and this proved fatal.
Bafana started off as they had in the previous matches, sticking to the backfield and keeping Ronwen Williams busy with passes to the keeper.
Their first real chance came in the 7th minute, when Mofokeng found himself in the middle of the area and on the receiving end of a cross from Oswin Appollis, but his shot was deflected wide of goal.
The Koreans didn’t hang about and responded immediately, but Lee Kang In fired just wide, though Mbokazi was likely in the way had the ball gone slightly to the left.
Makgopa’s inclusion was also a revelation, as he very nearly came onto the end of a cross from Aubrey Modiba, but his glancing header went just wide of goal, as Bafana looked significantly more lively than in previous fixtures.
Bafana’s best chance came after the ‘hydration’ break in the 28th minute, when they made a superb team effort run up the field, and Maseko timed his shot beautifully… right at the goalkeeper. The rebound fell beautifully to Thalente Mbatha, who also shot it right at Kim from close range. Broos’s dismayed reaction on the sideline told the entire story.
By the time half time arrived, Bafana would have been disappointed to still be at 0-0, given their dominance across the half. But it was symptomatic of their recent struggles in front of goal, with scoring hard to come by since AFCON at the start of the year.
Credit had to go to Yaya Sithole, though. He was objectively bad against Mexico before being sent off, had to miss the Czechia match because of that red card, and took some heat from the fans. But he bounced back well, and was influential in the midfield in the absence of the suspended Teboho Mokoena.
Bafana’s efforts in the first half had an immediate impact on the South Korea bench, as they brought LAFC‘s Son on after the break, having seemingly assumed he wouldn’t be needed.
The Boys were right back into it though, as Maseko had another excellent chance on the 49th minute. A looping pass from the back landed at his feet and he did well to bring it down, but his delay in taking the shot, opting to get the ball onto his dominant left foot, cost him all the space he had. Broos was furious on the sidelines, once again.
His strong left foot finally paid off in the 63rd minute, when a nifty cut back and jink fooled the Korean defenders off newly subbed in Tshepang Moremi‘s pinpoint pass. It was Bafana’s first non-Penalty goal since 2010 at the World Cup, and the bench was in raptures.
A very long 20 minutes remained for Bafana fans, as Maseko was subbed off for Iqraam Rayners and South Korea pushed harder and harder. Bafana essentially parked the bus, which was risky given the time remaining.
Hearts were in mouths in the 93rd minute when Williams was called upon for his most pressing save yet, and a glancing header off a Castrop cross from Park landed right in his chest. After a quick surprised bobble he managed to save both the ball and South African tears.
Drew Barrymore reveals secret behind decades-long friendship with Cameron Diaz
Drew Barrymore has nothing but love for her longtime pal Cameron Diaz.
The 51-year-old actress and talk show host took to her Instagram account on Wednesday to share a heartfelt confession about her bond with Cameron.
In the candid post, Drew shared three snaps with Cameron with text over it sharing rare insight into their friendship that dates back to their teenage days.
On the first slide, Drew expressed her love for Cameron and revealed, “Cameron and I have been best friends since we were teenagers.”
In the second slide, featuring Drew and Cameron’s sweet selfie, as they beamed smiles, Drew wrote, “She’s been there for me in good and bad times.”
On the third slide, which showed another selfie of the duo while lying on a bed, Drew mentioned, “That’s my why.”
Drew added in the caption, “Hey @camerondiaz, I love you.”
She also encouraged her followers to show love to their loved ones and she noted in the caption, “Who has been there for you? Let’s show people the love they deserve!!”
Drew once talked about her decades-long friendship in an Instagram Live back in 2021, revealing they became friends when she was 14 and Cameron was 16.
”I was working at a coffee house and she was a junior model,” Drew recalled at the time. “She’s still my bestie and sistie—sistie? That’s a new word. It’s Cameron Diaz. We’re here to talk and we have things to talk about!”
”Cameron and I tend to text each other while we’re getting ready for things.
We send each other videos of ourselves from our closets of us getting dressed, dancing around and sharing information,” Drew shared. “That’s our form of communication.”
Meghan Markle has seemingly taken a big U-turn with her decision to join Prince Harry for a UK visit, but how she will be welcomed by Britons remains quite uncertain.
Since stepping back from royal duties and publicly attacking the royal family and UK lifestyle, the Duchess of Sussex is reportedly accompanying her husband and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, for a much-awaited return.
The family is set to take part in Invictus Games promotional events in mid-July. However, the confirmation is still pending.
Now, a royal expert, Ingrid Seward, believes that there are possibly two main reasons behind Meghan’s decision to make a UK comeback despite her years of ‘moaning.’
First, it is to end Prince Harry’s divorce rumours by supporting her partner. Secondly, to get the royal approval of her lifestyle brand, As Ever, in times of financial crisis.
The royal author claimed, “They need to come, or more accurately, Meghan needs to come. She really needs a bit of royal stardust sprinkled on her and her business if she wants it to succeed.
“She’s probably hoping a visit to the UK would give her that, so she has to make it work somehow.”
However, the Duchess is in crisis about thinking how Britons receive her, as they ‘rejected’ her before.
“It could be a very good move for her business, but it leaves her with a bit of a crisis because coming to a country where she is so disliked won’t be easy,” Ingrid said.
In truth it’s a bit more complicated, as a Häcken spokesperson told Reuters that the fee was more than the $1.5 million Orlando Pride paid to Tigres for the signing of Mexico playmaker Lizbeth Ovalle last August, yet FIFA documentation shows that London City Lionesses actually set a world record when they acquired the signature of France midfielder Grace Geyoro from Paris Saint-Germain for around $1.9 million in September.
Whatever the actual fee — which multiple Swedish sources have assigned as 15 million Swedish kronor (about $1.54 million) — Madrid have paid big money for a teenager who doesn’t have much experience, let alone at the top level. But her goal record is impressive.
Madrid are in desperate need of some firepower up front, as they look to compete with rivals Barcelona both in Liga F and the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) and stole a march on Chelsea and others to do a deal for a player who has scored 52 goals in 74 games since breaking through in 2023.
So can Schröder help Madrid in their quest to reach the top?
Position
Primarily a central striker, Schröder often finds and attacks space early, and has versatility to play anywhere across the front line.
She likes to use her pace to slip in behind the opposition lines, while her movement in and around the box allows her to ghost in behind defenders and position herself perfectly for crosses, cutbacks and rebounds.
Strengths
The 19-year-old already has a phenomenal goal-scoring record and she is a fine finisher. Her stamina and excellent positioning enables her to consistently get into goal-scoring positions.
In 2025, she scored 30 times and assisted another 11 goals in the Swedish Damallsvenskan; she finished the season as the top scorer and was voted the best player in the league as well. On top of this, she scored eight goals in the inaugural UEFA Europa Cup, including a hat trick in the final against Hammarby.
In 2026, she already has seven goals to her name, and recently netted against Rosengard and Hammarby in back-to-back games.
Schröder is an explosive forward and a high-volume shot taker, with a proclivity to test the goalkeeper from any range. She has almost every finish in her repertoire, making her a threat from multiple situations, while one of her standout qualities is her ability to set up and shoot almost instantly.
She doesn’t overcomplicate things in the box, and is able to let a shot fly with minimal touches during a sequence, which doesn’t allow the goalkeeper time to react and often catches them off guard. She is able to generate tremendous power with minimal backlift, adding an element of surprise to her shots.
Things to work on
Schröder is still developing her physique and is quite diminutive in stature, as she stands only 5-foot-4 tall, which instantly puts her at a disadvantage in ground and especially aerial duels.
She can struggle with protecting possession under pressure and holding the ball high up the field. Indeed, her back-to-goal play in its current state needs a lot of work and limits her as a central striker target.
Her high volume of shots also has an underlying element of eagerness, which can translate into frustrating shot selection at times. Schröder will pounce on every opportunity to have a crack at goal, often picking up sub-optimal options, though this trait is likely to be ironed out by playing at a higher level more consistently.
Meanwhile, her 11 assists in 2025 belies her actual chance-creation ability. She isn’t a brilliant ball carrier who can beat an opponent on a whim, which limits her ability to influence play from certain situations, and is too reliant on the transition to work opportunities for her teammates; opportunities that will seldom come playing for better sides.
Who else was interested?
Chelsea held early interest in Schröder, especially after Khadija “Bunny” Shaw snubbed them to sign a new contract to stay at Manchester City. But they were not alone.
Her impressive goal record saw top European clubs — which sources told ESPN included Barcelona, OL Lyonnes, Bayern Munich and City — make offers to sign her, while some also arrived from clubs in the NWSL.
Chelsea, who played most of the 2025-26 campaign without a main striker due to injuries, offered a fee of more than $1 million and appeared to be leading the race to sign the 19-year-old before the deal collapsed, with Madrid able to offer her more certain game time following Caroline Weir‘s departure.
The Blues are still in the market to sign a pacey center forward, capable of carrying an attack in one of the most competitive leagues in the world, and Schröder seemed a good fit. But they will have to look elsewhere now. — Emily Keogh
How will she fit at Madrid?
Real Madrid failed to put pressure on Barcelona for yet another season, finishing second in the Liga F and losing 12-2 on aggregate against them in the quarterfinals of the UWCL. Despite appointing Pau Quesada as manager last summer, nothing much changed, but they do seem to be ambitious this summer and have already brought in Andreia Jacinto and Elisa Senss, while saying farewell to the last remnants of their first-ever squad, with Misa, Tere Abelleira and Rocio all leaving.
But with the departure of Weir to OL Lyonnes, the team are lacking goals. Weir has scored 10+ goals in the league in three of her four years at the club (she missed one season with ACL injury) and outscored the central striker option in two of those seasons. With Alba Redondo often switching between roles and Signe Bruun‘s unavailability due to a head injury, Madrid need options at No. 9.
Lineth Beerensteyn‘s arrival on a free transfer from Wolfsburg is a step in that direction, however the 29-year-old can be hit and miss in front of goal and wasn’t able to reach the highs of 2024-25 season.
Schröder, with her style of play and age profile, is a perfect fit for Las Blancas. She will spearhead the attack, can feed off the creative abilities of Caicedo and Keukelaar, and will share the goal scoring burden with Beerensteyn.
The weight of her “record” fee will definitely attract some unwanted pressure, but her quality should allow her to make the leap between the leagues and with some other Swedish players (Filippa Angeldahl, Hanna Bennison,Bella Andersson) at Madrid, settling in should be easy.
