Ajax recently agreed to sell winger Hakim Ziyech to Chelsea for $43.4 million, with the 26-year-old moving to Stamford Bridge in the summer. While this number doesn’t even break the top 50 most expensive transfers of all time, it would be a blockbuster deal in most other leagues around the world. This list consists of the 18 most expensive incoming transfers across different leagues.
It used to be a common sight in football, particularly if you had Arsenal on the television and midfield enforcer Patrick Vieira was out there crunching people: a gobshite stain between the nips of players that was actually a hearty application of Vicks VapoRub.
There was a common misconception that the lovely bit of goo was actually mucus, which is a decent enough shout given footballers’ love for blowing delicious snot rockets.
Next week Europe’s most anticipated annual tournament — the Champions League — begins the Round of 16 knockout stage. For the first time in the tournament’s history the last 16 only consists of clubs from Europe’s “Big Five” (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France).
Cristiano Ronaldo finalized his transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus back in the summer of 2018, bringing an end to his nine-year spell at the Bernabeu. Juve paid Real $117.25 million for the 34-year-old’s services, and Ronaldo signed a four-year deal worth around $35 million annually.
“If football has taught me anything it is that you can overcome anything if, and only if, you love something enough.” — Lionel Messi
For Jamie McGuinness, his life’s mantra has always been to live without regrets and to accomplish that by going all in each and everyday. It’s a mentality that served him well over the course of a 10-year professional career that began at the age of 16 with Luton Town in the English Championship and continued in America with stints in the PDL and USL.
The crowning achievement of Lionel Messi’s international career remains the gold medal he captured as a 21-year-old at the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was a loaded Albiceleste squad with further attacking firepower provided by Sergio Agüero, Ángel Di María and Ezequiel Lavezzi, but Messi and Argentina were hugely reinforced by the over-age inclusions of Javier Mascherano and Juan Román Riquelme.
There’s obviously no official record for the fastest shot in soccer. It’d be convenient if a man with a radar gun had been sanctioned to sit at every match played since the beginning of time, but that was an oversight on FIFA’s end.
Aston Villa defeated Leicester City 2-1 on Tuesday to advance to the final of the English Football League competition in hopes of lifting the Carabao Cup. The competition has seen many different sponsorships come and go as Carabao, a Thai energy drink, hasn’t always sponsored the competition. There once was a time teams raised the EFL Milk Cup.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane and review some of the fun EFL Cup names.
What does it mean to dream about soccer?
The most popular sport in the world has inspired players and spectators alike with waking dreams of glory. One would expect thoughts of the beautiful game to seep into our dreams at night from time to time. Maybe it’s a good dream about winning the World Cup with Pelé and Maradona by your side; maybe it’s a bad dream about missing a penalty kick to lose the big game.
But what does a soccer dream mean?
NBCUniversal unveiled the plan for its upcoming streaming service Peacock on Thursday. Comcast’s answer to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+ and Apple TV Plus is coming this year, featuring all the reruns of The Office and Law & Order you could ever want.
And there’s soccer.