Rio Ferdinand heaped praise on 18-year-old English winger Jadon Sancho for his performance against Tottenham. 

The Borussia Dortmund youngster was a constant threat on the ball and proved to be a menace for the Spurs defenders. 

Ferdinand was in awe and told BT Sport: ‘I’ve seen Jadon Sancho and I’m just happy to be watching him. He is scaring the life out of seasoned Premier League players I love it. 

(L-R) Gary Lineker, Rio Ferdinand, Harry Redknapp and Jermaine Jenas praised Jadon Sancho

The young winger showed his class in a performance of great skill and trickery at Wembley

‘Every time he gets the ball he has the respect of the defenders. He twists people all over the place. Sanchez was turned inside out by him. He is just unbelievable to see. 

Jermaine Jenas added: ‘There is so much intelligence in what Sancho does and he gets his head up at the same time.’

Ferdinand then went on to say he has tracked Sancho’s progress from when he was a young boy with huge talent.  

‘I’ve known about Sancho from when he was a kid. He was always a driven and professional young man. There was pressure on him to decide what to do and he wanted to go on play first team football,’ he added. 

Sancho tormented the Spurs players with his pace and dribbling ability during the game

‘He believed the junior level was too easy for him. He’s gone there, assists galore and goals. He’s got the character and belief that he’s one of the best players.’ 

Before the game in an interview with BT Sport Sancho spoke about his desire to succeed and drive to provide a better life for his family.   

‘I feel like us England players just love football, the people I grew up around just want to help their mums and families live a better life, we’ll do anything to make them proud,’ he said. 

Caster Semenya’s right to compete without being forced to take medication will be tested again next week when the IAAF present a new case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Lawyers representing the global governing body for athletics will once again argue that ‘to preserve fair competition in the female category, it is necessary to require DSD athletes (differences of sexual development) to reduce their testosterone down to female levels before they compete at international level’.

The issue remains extremely divisive and is a subject that even splits the opinion of scientists who considers themselves experts in the field. But the outcome of a five-day hearing that is due to run next week in Lausanne could well conclude with South Africa’s double Olympic champion and other DSD athletes being made to take drugs against their wishes if they want to keep racing.

The IAAF will argue Caster Semenya and other DSD athletes must take medication to reduce their testosterone down to female levels before competing internationally

A statement issued by the IAAF on Wednesday night said: ‘The IAAF is not classifying any DSD athlete as male. To the contrary, we accept their legal sex without question, and permit them to compete in the female category. However if a DSD athlete has testes and male levels of testosterone, they get the same increases in bone and muscle size and strength and increases in haemoglobin that a male gets when they go through puberty, which is what gives men such a performance advantage over women.’

In 2015 Indian sprinter Dutee Chand won a case against the IAAF at the CAS which forced the governing body to abandon its rules on testosterone levels for intersex athletes.

And last year the United Nations’ human rights special procedures body said such regulations would ‘contravene international human right’.

On Wednesday Jonathan Taylor, the IAAF’s London-based lawyer, nevertheless said that a defeat for the IAAF next week would be a serious blow to women athletes with normal female levels of testosterone.

‘If the CAS rules that legal recognition as female is sufficient to qualify for the female category of competition, and the IAAF is not permitted to require athletes of female legal sex who have testes and consequently male levels of testosterone to reduce those levels down to the female range, then DSD and transgender athletes will dominate the podiums and prize money in sport, and women with normal female testosterone levels will not have any chance to win.’

The 800m final at the 2016 Rio Olympics fueled the debate on excessive testosterone levels

The IAAF have not helped themselves in the past, particularly when it has come to their dealings with Semenya. When an 18-year-old Semenya won her first world title in Berlin in 2009 it emerged she had been asked to undergo a gender test before the final.

And in 2011 the IAAF then announced new rules for female athletes with hyperandrogenism, setting a testosterone limit considered to be in the normal female range.

While these rules were in place Semenya was not as dominant and she is challenging the IAAF’s new eligibility rules.

Katrina Karkazis, Senior Research Fellow with the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University and one of the world’s leading experts in testosterone, on Wednesday night accused the IAAF of seeking ‘to create its own definition of sex based on erroneous beliefs about biology and gender. It is unfounded and cruel and well do even more harm by fostering misunderstanding and further discrimination.

‘They also claim that higher testosterone levels confer a performance advantage so they need to provide causal data showing a performance difference and the magnitude of any difference.’

The first VAR decision in Champions League history was made on Wednesday night, with Ajax controversially having a goal disallowed at home to Real Madrid.

Ajax thought they had taken the lead after Nicolas Tagliafico captialised upon a mistake from Thibaut Courtois and headed the ball into the net.

However, the goal was subsequently ruled out, with referee Damir Skomina using VAR to deem that Ajax’s Dusan Tadic was in an offside position. 

Ajax controversially had a goal ruled out by VAR against Real Madrid in the Champions League

Skomina took his time to assess the footage, and the decision was certainly a difficult one to make, with it not being entirely clear whether Tadic was offside. 

Boos rang out from the Ajax supporters at the Johan Cruyff Arena after Skomina made the decision.

Ajax’s Dusan Tadic was deemed to be offside by referee Damir Skomina, who reviewed footage

VAR is being used in the Champions League for the first time in the knockout stages of this season’s competition.

There were no major incidents in Tuesday’s games as Paris Saint-Germain beat Manchester United and Roma got the better of Porto. 

Ajax were left frustrated that they weren’t able to go into the break into the lead having produced an impressive first half display.