1. The whole of the moon or a shivery Sunday in an exposed park? This was the dilemma posed to a spotty, sullen 12-year-old from a broken home by the father who had remained there to lend an uncertain hand to parenting.

When children are faced with choices, they loom with an importance far beyond their consequence; at each turn, the decision seems like the weightiest consideration they will ever have to make.

And there was a further twist, another quandary which only served to heighten the seemingly inordinate magnitude of what was essentially a mundane rite of passage. Except it would arguably change this boy’s life.

The Irish Independent’s Dave Kelly on how we weren’t all part of Jackie’s Army at Italia ’90.

2. In 2010, David Coldrick’s final whistle brought an end to the football championship and the inter-county broadcasting career of Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh.

The veteran’s valedictory commentary had him declaring Cork as the new football champions before exiting the stage to a blizzard of tributes. He was 80 years old and his performance had lost none of its trademark vibrancy. He could still cut it. Had he wanted to, he could have gone on.

Dermot Crowe chats to Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh about the latter’s wealth of GAA memories.

3. Gina Akpe-Moses ends the interview with a sprinter’s flourish; her words bound by idealism and terrifying reality.

“I wish I could travel back in time and eradicate the idea of racism. Everyone’s life would be so different, everything would be a lot better. But I can’t do that. I have to live through the pain and try my best to make a difference, because I don’t want to raise my children in a world where I have to tell them to be careful just walking down the street or to be afraid of the police – who are meant to protect us.

“It’s scary to think about bringing a child into this world as a black female. I saw a little girl marching in the protest and I was like: ‘You are so small, you should be going to the park, you should be living a childhood, not having to protest to get the police to stop killing your people.’”

Irish sprinter Gina Akpe-Moses on why she feels it would be selfish not to speak out on the Black Lives Matter movement.

4. Sometimes in life you meet the most remarkable of people in the most unexpected of ways. Gabriel Clarke can testify to that given what happened after he tried to secure an interview with Louis van Gaal before Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final with Valencia in May 2000. Van Gaal was Barcelona’s manager and Clarke wanted the Dutchman to be part of the pre‑match package he was putting together for ITV.

“It was the day before the first leg in Valencia and we expected it to be fine but then Barcelona told us we couldn’t have Van Gaal because he wasn’t doing interviews,” Clarke says. “But they said we could have his assistant. We didn’t know who they were talking about. It was José Mourinho.”

An interview with ITV’s award-winning reporter Gabriel Clarke on his storied career in broadcasting. 

5. If you want to be picky, you could say Raheem Sterling chose an ill-targeted metaphor in his statement this week on racial prejudice and the need for a step-change in football’s power structures.

Comparing the spread of racism to the spread of Covid-19 is probably not the best way to change those minds most in need of changing. Let’s face it, a global Venn diagram of virus-deniers and bigotry-sceptics is likely to feature a fairly dense overlap, a concentration of people who don’t really think either of these things exist. You hear that? He just said racism is fake too! We’re home free!

In the meantime it is interesting the current protests have centred on visible symbols of oppression, and specifically on statues. There has already been some pushback against this from those who find themselves suddenly eager students of 18th century naval merchant culture. But there is good sense in looking at these things again.

The Guardian’s Barney Ronay on Fifa’s action against inequality and Qatar 2022.

6. Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight unification title contest with Tyson Fury could be the bloodiest fight in the history of British boxing. And that is before the two men even get into the ring.

This week, a smiling Fury shared a short video on his Twitter page to confirm that an informal agreement between the two men had finally been reached. “I’ve just got off the phone with Daniel Kinahan and he has informed me that the biggest fight in British boxing history has been agreed,” he said. The video was accompanied with a caption: “MASSIVE THANKS TO DANIEL KINNERHAN FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN.”

To some this meant nothing. To others it rang alarm bells.

The Independent give their take on the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua-Daniel Kinahan controversy.