NYCFC may be the best team in Major League Soccer, but in the larger New York sports landscape, the club is often treated like an insignificant middle school chess club. How else can you explain the reigning MLS Cup champions playing their 2022 home opener 3,000 miles from home?
Los sueños mundialistas de Alan Pulido quedaron hoy completamente destrozados, luego de que su club, el Sporting Kansas City, anunciara que el jugador será operado de su rodilla izquierda el próximo 17 de enero y que su período de recuperación será de entre 9 y 12 meses, con lo que además se perderá la temporada completa de la MLS 2022.
Tuesday marks MLS SuperDraft day, and while it's always fun to see who your team adds and to pore over their college bio page, you ultimately want your club moving in the direction of producing and signing more Homegrown Players through its academy. Real Salt Lake did just that Monday with the addition of 15-year-old midfielder Jude Wellings — who becomes the club's youngest-ever first-team signing.
Back on Dec. 28, news broke that Napoli captain and Italian international Lorenzo Insigne was seriously considering joining Toronto FC in the summer following the completion of the 2021-22 European season. The rumor had a lot of clout, especially the bit about Toronto making him Major League Soccer's highest-ever paid player.
FC Dallas completed the transfer of striker Ricardo Pepi to FC Augsburg of the German Bundesliga on Monday.
Dallas received a reported $20 million fee, a club record that also makes the 18-year-old Pepi the most expensive outgoing homegrown player in MLS history.
Pepi, the 2021 MLS Young Player of the Year, signed a five-and-a-half-year contract at Augsburg that includes a club option to extend the deal until the summer of 2027.
LAFC will introduce former United States men's national team defender Steve Cherundolo as their next manager on Monday, ESPN reported.
Cherundolo, 42, replaces Bob Bradley, who left the team after his contract expired at the end of the 2021 season. Bradley was later named the head coach at Toronto FC.
Cherundolo managed the Las Vegas Lights, LAFC's USL Championship affiliate, last season.
On Saturday, West Bromwich Albion and Orlando City confirmed that 21-year-old striker Daryl Dike was headed to the Championship side on a four-and-a-half-year deal for a transfer fee of $9.5 million.
Dike again joins forces with French manager Valérien Ismaël, who was Barnsley's boss last campaign when Dike scored nine goals in 19 second division appearances while on loan. Orlando is also in line to receive performance-based bonuses and 20% of any future sale.
According to multiple sources, Napoli and Italy international Lorenzo Insigne has agreed to join Toronto FC in the summer after finishing out the 2021-22 season in Italy. It's an incredible coup for both Bob Bradley's Reds and MLS as the 30-year-old winger arrives at the height of his power.
After being linked with Inter Milan, Sampdoria, Ajax and Wolves, it looks like one club has distinguished itself as the clear front-runner for signing Ricardo Pepi this January.
As reported by the only guy that now reports this sort of thing, Fabrizio Romano, the 18-year-old USMNT phenom is on the verge of moving to the Bundesliga from FC Dallas with Wolfsburg currently leading the race.
Wolfsburg is 13th in the table because of an attack that's generated only 17 goals in 17 matches. Lukas Nmecha and Wout Weghorst both have six goals and no other player has more than two.
In Europe there's a pretty established pathway to becoming a professional footballer: get signed to the academy of a professional club at an early age and hope that one day you're good enough to make the first team.
For an American with European dreams, the route is similar: either have a rich family that can send you abroad or hope that a European club somehow spots you.