If you want to know what Kobe Bryant is up to today, there’s a fair chance that he’s spending it watching El Clásico. Growing up in Italy, Bryant was a massive soccer fan and credits the game with helping shape him on the basketball court.
With the Super Bowl chalking up its lowest-scoring game in history, it’s only fitting that Sunday’s European football action was dominated by some equally adept defensive displays (apart from Manchester City’s dominant, 19-shot performance vs. Arsenal).
It’s that man again. AC Milan new boy Krzysztof Piątek scored in his first-ever Serie A start for the club during today’s 1-1 draw with Roma, this coming just days after he scored a brace during Milan’s Coppa Italia victory over Napoli.
And with those goals has come the customary celebration — the reason they call the 23-year-old Polish forward “El Pistolero.”
Krzysztof Piątek isn’t a household name just yet.
He should be.
Six months ago, Genoa bought Krzysztof Piątek from Cracovia in Poland for $5 million.
Last week AC Milan shelled out $40 million for Piątek.
At this rate, Piątek might soon be sold for $100 million.
When Milan made Piątek the most expensive Polish footballer of time with his $40 million move from Genoa, those who haven’t been following Serie A this season might have raised some eyebrows. So just who is this 23-year-old striker, the replacement for Gonzalo Higuaín?
Quick, who’s the most expensive transfer of the January window so far? You should know this — it’s the $75 million Chelsea paid Borussia Dortmund for Christian Pulisic. Now what about the second-most expensive? Any ideas? It’s the $41 million AC Milan paid Flamengo for 21-year-old Brazilian Lucas Paquetá.
If you’ve paid attention to internet trends over the past few days or so, you will notice something known as the #10YearChallenge. The basic premise of it is that people post pictures of themselves from 2009 and another from 2019 to show the world how much they’ve changed — in appearance or otherwise.
We live in an age when there is growing equality among all genders and all colors of skin — perhaps the best we as a species have ever been in treating everyone equally. But one look at the Italian Super Cup — and Serie A as a whole — and it’s easy to see we still have a really fucking long way to go.
Yesterday, 19-year-old AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made his 100th consecutive Serie A appearance for the club, a streak which began during the 2015-16 season. It’s a feat that doesn’t make much sense for a teenager plying his trade at the seven-time European champions. It's mind-boggling.
At the age of 37, Zlatan Ibrahimović's days as a professional footballer are numbered. But after scoring 22 goals in his first 27 appearances in Major League Soccer, the big Swede has reminded the world — and most importantly, himself — of his devastating return to power following his serious knee injury in April of 2017.
When Juventus paid Napoli over $100 million for Gonzalo Higuain in 2016, the belief was that the Argentine’s goals would fire the club to a continental title. However, after two seasons in the Champions League with a return of five goals in each campaign, Higuain was offloaded to AC Milan for about half the price this past summer.
Juve then turned to five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo for the goods. Ronaldo, of course, hasn’t hit less than 10 goals in a single UCL campaign since the 2010-11 season. You can tell what Juventus is trying to achieve with the 33-year-old.