US Soccer will never be a successful program as long as they continue to ignore the nation’s most talented players and prioritize the players whose parents can afford travel fees, tournament registration, summer camps and everything else involved in the sham that is youth soccer.
Hector Bellerín:
“The war in Palestine was completely ignored, no one talked about it. In Yemen, in Iraq too. Russia was excluded from the World Cup… And yet other countries did the same than Russia for many, many years."
Glad to see Joe Biden finally admitting that his body and mind have been devastated by Father Time and that he can’t risk sacrificing the future of the nation any longer.
A certain Portuguese forward on Al-Nassr should take note.
I’ve seen players get scolded by their own supporters after a heavy loss, but Cagliari’s Flamingo mascot being subject to this dressing-down after a 4-0 loss to Napoli has absolutely finished me
When this AFCON is over, the Premier League should call up each of the tournament’s referees and have them give the Prem refs a seminar in how to use VAR without taking up 15 minutes to come to a decision and making yourself into the main character.
Bayern Munich were willing to sign a CONVICTED domestic abuser two weeks ago until their fans put pressure on them to back out of the deal, but when Noussair Mazraoui says "free Palestine," they're suddenly the club of morals and standards.
What an absolute joke.
Gareth Bale took Wales to the Euros semifinals, took Real Madrid from zero Champions Leagues in 11 years to five Champions Leagues in 8 years, and has just taken Wales to their first World Cup in 64 years. Legend of the game.
Emiliano Martínez has one of the most reliable penalty takers in Europe writing five-paragraph essays with a thesis statement and three areas of support. That man’s mind games need to be studied in military academies.
No excuses for my penalty miss today. I’m my biggest critic but as always I’ll use it to drive me forward. More than my disappointment though, the team’s loss today is the most important. I’ll be ready next time.
Juventus reached two Champions League Finals from 2015-2018 — the other two years, they lost to Pep Guardiola’s Bayern and Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid.
After signing Cristiano Ronaldo, they got knocked out by Ajax, Lyon and Porto.
Oleksandr Zinchenko: “I would go to fight for Ukraine.”
Serge Aurier: “Stop your cinema and go there right now [to Ukraine]. A real volunteer doesn’t need anyone to call him up.”
I'm probably in the minority here but I thought Lionel Messi wearing a bisht was a nice touch.
Bishts are given to Arab warriors after a victory in battle or to royalty...Messi just won the greatest battle of them all and confirmed himself as the king of football.
Real Madrid didn’t furlough their staff. Instead, they’ve continued to pay them their full salaries, donated health care equipment and money, and loaned out their stadium to store medical supplies.
It’s easy to say “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It’s not easy to act like it.
Solskjaer - £145,000 a week
De Gea - £300,000 a week
Jones - £120,000 a week
Lingard - £100,000 a week
Shaw - £195,000 a week
Young - £110,000 a week
Mata - £140,000 a week
There isn’t a club that rewards mediocrity as kindly as Manchester United does.
Achraf Hakimi was born and raised in Madrid to Moroccan parents, spent the first years of his life in Spain, and rejected approaches from Spain to play for the Morocco national team.
Today, he scored a panenka penalty against Spain to send Morocco to the quarterfinals.
He won’t get the headlines, but I thought Julian Ryerson did a fantastic job against both Mbappé and Vinícius. For just €5m, BVB have found a brilliant, hard-working right back.
Kylian Mbappe turns 24 today.
He's 5 goals away from becoming the all-time leading scorer in the history of the World Cup.
He's 18 goals away from becoming France's all-time leading scorer.
He's 11 goals away from becoming PSG's all-time scorer.
Pinuccio Milli, legendary Lecce ultra, on Samuel Umtiti:
“He came to the deep south of Italy and was like a messiah for us. Without him, we wouldn’t have stayed up. He's not only the best defender we've seen here, he's the best player in Lecce's history. [
@lequipe
]
Nottingham Forest don’t get enough credit for selling Brennan Johnson for €55m and signing Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga for €21m. Both significant upgrades on Johnson and capable of doing far more than just running up and down the touchline and going out wide.
In terms of leveling the playing field, no competition in world football comes close to AFCON.
You’ll have guys making £250k a week in the Premier League getting outplayed by guys on a minimum deal in Cyprus. It’s sheer, unadulterated chaos. It’s unexplainable.
The French authorities are investigating a case of “attempted extortion by an organized gang” with regards to Paul Pogba.
Pogba has told police that he was trapped by childhood friends and two hooded men with assault rifles, who demanded €13m from him.
Ivan Toney had 232 gambling breaches. He received an eight-month ban and a £50,000 fine.
Harry Toffolo had 375 gambling breaches. He received a five-month ban and a £20,956 fine.
Szymon Marciniak, the referee for the World Cup Final, has responded to
@lequipe
’s criticism that Lionel Messi’s second goal shouldn’t have counted:
"The French didn't mention this photo, where you can see how there are seven Frenchmen on the pitch when Mbappé scores a goal.”
Barcelona cannot register any new signings, not Memphis Depay, Sergio Agüero, Eric García or Emerson Royal, after exceeding the La Liga salary limit.
Despite selling Konrad de la Fuente, Jean-Clair Todibo, and Junior Firpo, Barcelona need to reduce their wage bill by €200,000.
Going from Manchester United to Al-Nassr all because you wanted to do an interview with one of the most shameless ‘journalists’ in the world…this is what happens when you have nobody in your inner circle who’s going to tell you no and give you a much-needed dose of reality.
Spain’s squad announcement for the Euros is simply incredible:
1) Getting one of the greatest Spanish athletes of all time (Rafael Nadal) to narrate it
2) Getting each of the players’ family members to announce their selections
10/10, no notes.
Ferdi Kadıoğlu is my candidate for best left back of the tournament. Been a constant menace going forward, drifting into central areas and creating danger from wide positions, but hasn't neglected his defensive duties either. Really formidable defender.
September 11, 2001: Al-Qaeda terrorists carry out coordinated suicide missions after hijacking four airliners, killing nearly 3,000 people.
October 30, 2001: Diego Maradona dresses up as Osama Bin Laden to celebrate his 41st birthday.
Diego Forlán was 16 when he gave up tennis to focus on his football career.
Now 45, he’s playing tennis outside of Uruguay for the first time in his career and has dropped just three games in his last two matches on the ITF circuit in Lima.
Let me get this straight:
-Mainz sign Anwar El Ghazi as a free agent, then suspend him after he voices support for Palestine
-Mainz LIE about him repenting and reintegrate him into the squad
-El Ghazi publicly denies apologizing for his post
-Mainz rescinds his contract
Portugal need to make their mind up: Do they want to win another major trophy, or do they want to feed Ronaldo's ego and continue pretending that he isn't a completely useless footballer.
You can either chase silverware or chase shirts sales. You can't have both.
Lyon sold Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso in 2017 for a combined €95 million — they’re set to sign both of them on free transfers 5 years later.
There is absolutely zero explanation for Cristiano Ronaldo to still be a starter for Portugal in 2022. Not when there's Rafael Leão, Pedro Neto, João Félix and so many other talented players waiting in the wings. Another anonymous performance from him today.
I will never forgive Elon Musk for allowing this app to deteriorate into a cesspit of racism, transphobia, and abuse. The amount of bigots who’ve been emboldened and allowed a platform to spread their hateful lies is just insane.
Iago Aspas scores a golazo vs. Valencia and injures himself in doing so, realizes he's a yellow away from a suspension, and takes off his shirt in order to get booked and miss Friday's match vs. Mallorca while he recovers.
Not even Einstein reached these levels of intelligence.
Emerson Royal has spent £800,000 on trying to become a better footballer since joining Tottenham.
He has commissioned a scouting report of Achraf Hakimi, purchased his own hyperbaric oxygen tank, and hired a neuroscientist to help him deal with pressure.
Villarreal accepted Tottenham's offer of €45 million + €5 million in add-ons for Pau Torres, but the player rejected the move, per
@pedromsepulveda
.
Torres stated that his desire is to play in the Champions League.
Erling Haaland choosing a club that has developed Lewandowski and Aubameyang into elite center forwards, a club where he’ll be fed by Sancho, Reus, Brandt and co, and most importantly, a club where his every move and mistake won’t be scrutinized by the press. Great move for him.
I don’t think there’s a single Premier League player whose reputation has been influenced more by one game than Kai Havertz. Take away the Champions League Final, has he really been that much better than Werner/Pulisic/Ziyech? I’m not so sure.
Chelsea have given Callum Hudson-Odoi £120k per week, Christian Pulisic £150k per week, Kepa £150k per week and Romelu Lukaku £325k per week, but when it’s time to pay Rüdiger they turn into the father from Everybody Hates Chris. I honestly don’t get it.
-Arsenal sign Dani Ceballos on loan
-Arsenal sign William Saliba for €30m
-Mesut Özil bodies a Spurs fan on Twitter
-Sead Kolašinac protects Özil, fighting off two knife-wielding cowards with his BARE HANDS
July 25, 2019 will go down as a truly insane day in Arsenal history.
Martin Braithwaite is the second-richest player on FC Barcelona after Lionel Messi, per Forbes.
Braithwaite owns a real estate business with his uncle that has a market value of €250 million as well as a clothing business with his wife and a smart house project in Philadelphia.
If you told me before this match that Real Madrid would be 10 minutes away from going out of the UEFA Champions League, only for a 34-year-old backup striker who got relegated last season to come off the bench and score a brace, I’d have said: “Yep, sounds like Real Madrid.”
Iker Casillas managed to alienate millions of homophobes, millions of LGBT people, millions of people who think that coming out shouldn’t be “banter,” and probably discouraged a lot of pro footballers from coming out as well.
41 years old.
Salt Bae really finessed a viral video of sprinkling salt on a steak into a worldwide chain of overpriced restaurants and VIP access to the World Cup Final…hard to think of anyone who’s done so much with such little talent.
This is a genocide, pure and simple.
I don’t care if I lose all of my followers, I don’t care if I lose my entire career, we are witnessing the extermination of an entire people.
I refuse to remain quiet and be complicit in the mass murder of innocent civilians.
Not a single phone in Gaza can be reached right now. Israel completely cut off all communications to Gaza. No internet, no landlines. This is a total blackout. Every person you know from Gaza has completely lost contact with their loved ones.
We know what comes next.
In order to protest against the club’s lack of recruitments following their relegation to the Spanish third tier, Málaga fans went to the airport and greeted random strangers as if they were new signings.
[
@carliyolenervio
]
Alphonso Davies really came over from Canada as an 18-year-old winger from a mid-table MLS side, came into the Bayern first team due to an injury crisis, benched the club record signing, and is now one of the best left backs in Europe....at 19.
Let's not take that for granted.
José Fonte: "I just want to understand the Financial Fair Play in France. Every single club is restricting their spending. They can’t buy a lot, they can’t get players on big wages but then PSG comes and it looks like there’s no law." [
@talkSPORT
]
I have never seen a player drag their club to their first league title in three decades, only for that club to turn around and make fun of him on social media for his hair and missed penalty.
As much as I wanted to see Victor Osimhen to stay at Napoli…this crosses the line.
There is absolutely zero way that Kevin de Bruyne had a better 2021 than Romelu Lukaku, Erling Haaland, Nicolo Barella or Rúben Dias. These "awards" have always been and will continue to be nothing more than a publicity contest.
Juventus paid a €117 million transfer fee and a €31 million net salary for Cristiano Ronaldo with the goal of winning the Champions League — they never even made it past the quarterfinals.
Calling his time at Juve a failure is harsh, calling it a success isn’t accurate either.
Harry Maguire may get away with a hefty fine for his criminal indiscretions in Mykonos, but he’s already being given something that black footballers are never afforded by the media: the benefit of the doubt.
Whilst Callum Hudson-Odoi and Raheem Sterling continue to be scrutinized by the press, Harry Maguire has been defended as a “model professional” since being arrested for assaulting a police officer in Mykonos.
@Harry8__
on the UK media’s double standard:
Yesterday, a young Borussia Dortmund fan was killed in Gaza whilst taking shelter in a mosque.
Today, Borussia Dortmund paid tribute to a murdered Israeli supporter, whilst making no mention whatsoever of their murdered Palestinian supporter.
Chelsea actually completed the signing of Romelu Lukaku for a club-record fee and still ended the summer with a negative transfer spend. That's genuinely impressive.
Frenkie de Jong will earn €16 million a year at Barcelona, Matthijs de Ligt will earn €14 million a year at Juventus, yet apparently De Ligt chose money, while Frenkie chose to “fulfill his dreams.”
Will Still:
“We have to stop with this FM myth! [Nice manager] Didier Digard and I have the highest diplomas possible or attainable so far. At our age, it is very very complicated to have the BEPF or to enter the course.
I'm not just a Football Manager geek.”
Jorge Mendes has asked Manchester United to renew Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract, per
@partidazocope
. In return, Ronaldo would leave on loan and be able to play for a Champions League side.
Simeone putting on Marcos Llorente for Diego Costa is one of those subs where you first think “What the hell is he doing, they need a goal,” and then you wait an hour and realize why he’s one of the greatest managers of his generation and you’re just some lad on Twitter.
1) Your team lost to Lyon and drew to them last season
2) Your team got knocked out by Monaco three seasons ago
3) The man in your profile pic got his breakthrough in that league
You don’t have to take Ligue 1 seriously, but the people who understand football will.
Oblak: 5 years at Atleti.
Juanfran: 9 years.
Giménez: 6 years.
Godín: 9 years.
Luís: 8 years.
Rodri: 6 years at Atleti’s academy.
Thomas: 8 years at Atleti.
Koke: 19 years.
Saúl: 11 years.
Costa: 9 years.
Griezmann: 5 years.
Brotherhoods of warriors aren’t built overnight.
A journalist asks Moisés Caicedo a question about Qatar's human rights record, and Ecuador manager Gustavo Alfaro interrupts and says "Don't get him into trouble...they are footballers, they have their talents and dreams and they should be respected."
You have to seriously question the mental fortitude of a man who sends a talent like William Saliba out on loan to gain experience before lining up with a back three of Sead Kolašinac, Rob Holding and Callum Chambers.
The NBA can tweet as many hashtags for mental health as it wants; they’re forcing players who grew up idolizing Kobe, who played alongside him, and who loved him to play through enormous pain tonight.
Don’t let these companies fool you. They care about money, not mental health.
Felipe Melo on Robinho and Dani Alves’ sexual assault cases:
“I have a 15-year-old daughter…if they did that to my daughter, I don’t think I’d be here to give you this interview.
They have to pay for what they did. It should serve as a lesson for others to not do it.”