At the age of 32, David Silva has announced his retirement from international football after collecting 125 caps and scoring 35 goals for the Spanish national team. Silva was a member of the squads that won Euro 2008, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2012. At Euro 2012, Silva started all six of Spain’s matches and scored the opening goal of the final against Italy.
Barcelona defeated Sevilla 2-1 in the 2018 Spanish Super Cup thanks to goals from Gerard Pique and Ousmane Dembele. Pablo Sarabia had given Sevilla an early lead in the ninth minute, but Barcelona’s comeback was complete when Dembele thundered in a crossbar down effort in the 78th.
Sevilla earned a penalty and had a chance to equalize from the spot in the 90th minute, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen saved Wissam Ben Yedder’s tame effort.
Just eight days after scoring his first competitive goal for Paris Saint-Germain against Monaco in the Trophée des Champions, 18-year-old American phenom Timothy Weah has scored his first Ligue 1 goal for the club. PSG opened the 2018-19 league season against Caen and goals from Neymar and Adrien Rabiot had the home side cruising at the half.
Bayern Munich ran rampant against Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2018 German Super Cup — the curtain raiser for the German season — by posting a 5-0 victory thanks to a 33-minute hat-trick from rumored want-away Robert Lewandowski.
This was a rematch of last season’s improbable DFB-Pokal final, where Eintracht shocked Bayern 3-1 with Niko Kovac in the dugout for die Adler. With Kovac now patrolling Bayern’s touchline as the successor to Jupp Heynckes, this match belonged to FC Hollywood from start to finish.
An annual friendly between the Juventus first team and the under-20 squad (that sounds rough) at the Agnelli family estate (the founders of FIAT motor company and owners of the club) saw Cristiano Ronaldo make his first appearance for the Old Lady. It took the Portuguese eight minutes to open his account after a ball over the top sent him through on goal.
The Juve U-20 keeper decided to stay on his line, and Ronaldo buried his effort inside the left post.
Hirving Chucky Lozano ain’t slowing down anytime soon.
After a torrid World Cup with Mexico, the 23-year-old winger scored yet again in PSV Eindhoven’s first league match of the season.
Chucky was a second-half sub in the 2018 Johan Cruyff Shield match on Aug. 4 against Feyenoord, which ended in a 6-5 loss on penalty kicks for PSV. The Mexico City native started and played the full 90 against FC Utrecht in the opener of the Dutch Eredivisie on Saturday.
After balling out at the World Cup — that performance against Germany still gives me shivers — and reportedly garnering interest from the likes of Inter, Real Betis and Fulham, Mexico international Hector Herrera spent the offseason outlining his love for FC Porto and executing his plan of becoming a more gorgeous man.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in UEFA Champions League history, but he’s scored less goals in Serie A than Alexi Lalas. Yes, the former USMNT defender has played 44 more games in Italy’s top division (44 to 0), but I’m not gonna let that stop my narrative.
Serie A is home to the most nefarious and stifling defenses on the planet — it’s the birthplace of catenaccio and Fabio Cannavaro placing you inside his back pocket.
Mbappé. Pogba. Griezmann. Giroud.
These are just some of the players who starred for France during its most recent World Cup victory, and they are now household names around the globe.