Liam Rosenior back in French soccer as coach of Ligue 1 side Paris FC

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Liam Rosenior back in French soccer as coach of Ligue 1 side Paris FC

2026-07-07 17:51 Last Updated At：18:00

PARIS (AP) — Liam Rosenior is back coaching in French soccer after Paris FC hired him on a two-year contract on Tuesday.

Paris FC announced Rosenior's arrival in a statement on X and the 41-year-old Englishman spoke in a brief video message.

“I'm so happy to be the coach of Paris FC, I can't wait to get started with the new players,” he said. “It's a fantastic project.”

Rosenior was coach of Ligue 1 side Strasbourg until he left midway through last season to take charge of Chelsea, which handed him a six-year deal but then fired him less than four months into the job amid poor results in the Premier League. Chelsea was also crushed 8-2 by Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League.

He replaces Antoine Kombouaré at Paris FC. The veteran coach, who did well when taking charge in late February, reportedly fell out with the club over the terms of a new contract.

Paris FC plays at Stade Jean-Bouin, which is literally across the street from Champions League winner PSG's home, Parc des Princes — 44 meters away according to Paris City Hall. Last season saw the first capital city derby in French men’s league soccer since 1990.

Rosenior also experienced Jean-Bouin as coach of Strasbourg.

“I was in this stadium not long ago," he said. "There was a great atmosphere when I has head coach of Strasbourg and I can't wait to sample the atmosphere as the home head coach.”

PSG has been bankrolled by Qatari investor QSI since being taken over in June 2011. France’s richest family, the Arnaults of luxury empire LVMH, bought Paris FC two years ago.

After winning promotion from the second tier, Paris FC finished 11th in Ligue 1 last season and beat French champion PSG twice at home; once in the French Cup and on the last day of the league.

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NATO unveils billions in arms deals to prove its firepower to Trump

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — NATO on Tuesday showcased a series of military projects worth billions of dollars in an attempt to persuade President Donald Trump that U.S. allies are converting fresh defense spending into real firepower.

“It’s money well spent,” an energized NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told government ministers and defense industry officials on the sidelines of a summit in Turkey. He was speaking at a defense industry forum billed as NATO’s “big reveal,” to the thrum of techno music and a slick video display.

Trump, who is slated to arrive in Ankara later Tuesday, has branded NATO a “paper tiger” that would cease to function without American arms and leadership.

NATO as an organization does not own any weapons — these are the property of the 32 member countries — but it does have a fleet of 14 AWACS early warning radar surveillance planes that are about 50 years old, along with some newer surveillance drones.

A deal to replace the aging planes was announced Tuesday. Swedish manufacturer Saab will be supplying up to 10 new GlobalEye surveillance aircraft for a 10-nation consortium, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced.

“It’s a moment of great pride,” he said, noting that the twin-engine aircraft would be “made within the alliance for all the alliance.”

Some of the projects will be paid for with funds from a system of cheap loans for defense purposes set up by the European Union, comprising up to $170 billion raised on capital markets.

“We need to ensure that we are translating our economic might into military capabilities, putting the cash to work from defense plans to drones, from money to missiles and interceptors,” Rutte said.

Representatives from 15 nations shook hands and patted shoulders on a vast podium under the NATO logo as they announced a multinational effort to buy air-to-air refueling and transport planes from Airbus.

Then Rutte announced a four-country effort to purchase as many as five new Triton surveillance drones to add to NATO’s small fleet.

“It is genuinely made in NATO, and creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.

Rutte told reporters on the eve of the military alliance’s two-day summit in Turkey that “we will announce tens of billions in new contracts that will provide the crucial kit we need to deter and defend.”

However, at Tuesday's event, no dollar figures were given and the display included some projects long since agreed.

The defense industry splash comes a few weeks after Rutte tried to ease U.S. concerns about military spending at NATO with a new pitch using a chart labeled “The Trump Trillion” — showing $1.2 trillion in spending by European allies and Canada since 2017.

Far from being impressed, Trump appeared unmoved, saying he was still disappointed at some NATO allies’ refusal to join the Iran war, which he had launched alongside Israel without consulting them.

“We don’t need their money — we don’t need anything,” Trump said. “I just want loyalty.”

The summit is being held in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s sprawling palace compound in Ankara, and Trump has suggested he would come bearing gifts for the Turkish leader.

Speaking Monday on the morning show “Fox & Friends,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the U.S. not to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, saying that Erdogan “calls openly for the annihilation of Israel.”

Turkey and Israel have acrimonious relations. Erdogan frequently accuses Israel of committing genocide in its war in Gaza, triggered by the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

Turkey was barred from the F-35 program in 2019 after it purchased Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. However, Trump, who has warm relations with Erdogan, has hinted ahead of his planned visit to Ankara that the sales could soon resume.

Netanyahu said selling Turkey F-35s would “upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also, I think, by America’s posture in the Middle East.”

Israel’s Air Force depends on hundreds of U.S. fighter jets, including F-35s, F-16s and F-15s.

Turkey beefed up security and banned protests in Ankara during the summit, but a small group of demonstrators gathered on Tuesday in the capital. They were quickly surrounded by police, and a legal association said 22 students affiliated with the leftist Turkish Workers Party and three lawyers had been detained.

The focus of the summit is a stronger Europe for a stronger NATO. The Trump administration has warned the allies that they must handle Europe’s security alone as the United States focuses on China and the Indo-Pacific region.

The Pentagon wants a reboot and is promoting what it calls “NATO 3.0,” a vision of the alliance in which Europe assumes greater responsibility for its own defense, freeing the U.S. to concentrate on other priorities.

But hiking defense spending means increasing taxes or diverting resources from other priorities. U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey unexpectedly quit last month, saying the British government was not willing to spend at a time of rising threats.

Concern is mounting among some northern and central eastern countries that Russia might be preparing a hybrid attack — a combination of conventional warfare with tactics like cyberattacks — on the continent as Russian President Vladimir Putin struggles to secure victory in Ukraine.

Keir Starmer’s office said the British leader will be “focused on building a stronger and more European NATO” on what is likely to be his last foreign trip as prime minister.

Starmer, who announced his resignation June 22, has faced criticism from military leaders, opposition politicians and some in his center-left party for the slow rate of increase in U.K. military spending.

His government has committed to reach the NATO budget target of spending 3.5% of gross domestic product on defense by 2035 but does not have a concrete plan to get there. Its current spending plan will see that spending hit 2.7% of GDP by 2029.

Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London and Andy Wilks in Istanbul contributed to this report.