Between the closing of the Premier League transfer window and last Friday's match between Manchester United and Leicester City, we learned that the Red Devils intend to keep Paul Pogba. We also realized that Jose Mourinho is finally doing something right — Pogba captained the team. What we have yet to learn is this: Is Pogba set on staying with United?
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.
The Premier League opener between Manchester United and Leicester City failed to live up to the high-flying opener of last season. But the Friday night lights didn’t fail to elicit fantastic banter — from clubs outside of England.
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.
In a huge piece of investigative journalism, Madrid daily newspaper Marca reported the Cristiano Ronaldo Instagram account unfollowed Real Madrid on Friday. What a scoop!
More importantly, The18 can now confirm that Cristiano Ronaldo will not be back with Real Madrid this season, instead moving to Juventus. Because we all know a breakup isn’t official until social media accounts are unfollowed.
So, um, does any of this matter?
You thought Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus would be the biggest transfer of the summer? You were wrong.
Two of Italy’s biggest clubs have been busy cooking up something far more interesting and — because this is Serie A — something infinitely more complicated. Juventus and Milan have decided to lock themselves into a three-player exchange deal involving loans, buy-outs and big, big wages. So, what’s actually happening?
The AS Roma Malcom transfer failed miserably as Barcelona FC hijacked the Brazilian for $48 million. Adding insult to injury, Swedish furniture company IKEA trolled Roma with a subtle kick to the Italian club’s fallen body.
Roma announced Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen’s signing via an IKEA-inspired tweet:
Cristiano Ronaldo reported for his first day of preseason training with Juventus yesterday, and although the Portuguese legend looked pretty chummy in photographs with fellow striker Gonzalo Higuain, the arrival of The 120 Million Dollar Man obviously spelled the end of the Argentine’s two-year stay in Turin.