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.
First David Beckham. Then Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Now Chicharito.
With Ibrahimovic gone, LAFC looking stacked ahead of 2020 and no global stars on the current squad, the LA Galaxy needed to do something to maintain their status as the MLS glamor club. So they did.
Cristiano Ronaldo is arguable the biggest and most well-known athlete on the planet. He dominates on the field, in business and on social media. On Instagram alone, if Ronaldo’s followers were a country it would be the eighth most-populated country. With such fame comes questions. Here are the most-asked Cristiano Ronaldo questions and some of the answers.
I’ll never forget the buildup to Chipotle’s first restaurant in London. I was studying there at the time and the “COMING SOON” signage on Charing Cross Road would hit hard around lunchtime on a Saturday afternoon. A cohort of Americans would stand outside the scaffolding and strain to see inside the darkened edifice for any signs of that spar, industrial interior design coming together. It’s hard to tell how much progress is being made when the piping is always exposed.
Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen could soon have his wish of leaving Tottenham granted. Eriksen has voiced his displeasure with the club and intends to leave the Premier League to go elsewhere. Serie A side Inter Milan has focused its sights on the 27-year-old and is prepared to offer him quite the lucrative deal. Eriksen could be earning $130,000 a week after taxes according to The Times.
Deyna Castellanos, perhaps the biggest international college soccer player in the history of the game, has no interest in playing in the NWSL.
The Venezuelan international who starred at Florida State for four years, will instead join Atlético Madrid. The 20-year-old inked a two-and-a-half-year contract through the 2022 season on Thursday.
Throughout the top European leagues, capital cities are home to ambitious clubs that strive for success. London exemplifies this through Chelsea, Arsenal and, to a lesser extent, Spurs. Perennial winners Real Madrid and neighbors Atletico call the Spanish capital home. In Paris, PSG has turned Ligue 1 into a monopoly since its takeover by Qatar Sports Investment. Heated rivals AS Roma and Lazio compete for dominance of Italy's capital in their shared home, Stadio Olimpico. The only league which does not conform to this trend is Germany's Bundesliga.
There are many ways to define a club’s ambition. Perhaps the easiest is a straightforward look at which club spends the most money.
As the 2010s come to a close, we at The18 looked at which 18 clubs spent the most money over the last decade. No surprise, Manchester City is at the top having spent $1.71 billion. (Note: All numbers used in this article are from TransferMarkt.com.)
Major League Soccer announced Charlotte, North Carolina, will be home to the 30th franchise in the league on Tuesday. The Charlotte MLS expansion bid was led by Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, with a reported expansion fee of $325 million.
Kicking into gear in pic.twitter.com/woFr645A45
— charlottemls (@CharlotteMLS) December 17, 2019