Premier League clubs paid a total of 272.2 million pounds ($375.1 million) to agents in the year to Feb. 2021, with Chelsea heading the list of top-flight spenders, according to data released by the Football Association (FA) on Wednesday.
Despite suffering major losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier League clubs spent nearly nine million pounds more on agent fees than in the previous year.
The offside trap is a rarity in professional soccer these days. While youth soccer in the U.S. employs this strategy all the time, it’s rarely seen at the highest level.
The last time an offside trap was used on a big stage and worked correctly was when Japan caught nearly all of Senegal’s team napping in the 2018 World Cup.
Manchester City announced on Monday that iconic striker Sergio Agüero would be leaving the club at the end of the season. The Argentine joined Man City from Atlético Madrid in 2011 on a $44 million transfer, winning four (and possibly one more this year) Premier League titles in the process.
He is the highest-scoring non-Englishman in Premier League history and will be a highly sought-after transfer target come the summer when his contract expires.
Argentine striker Sergio Agüero will leave Manchester City when his contract expires at the end of the season, the Premier League club announced on Monday.
Following are some reactions to the news:
Former England Striker Gary Lineker
"You have given football fans in this country so much to remember: goals, guile and the greatest Premier League moment of them all. Well played and good wishes for whatever comes next."
STAGGERING.
JUST.STAGGERING.
According to a report by David Ornstein of The Athletic, Liverpool is in the process of finalizing a move for RB Leipzig central defender Ibrahima Konate.
Everton's planning application for a 52,888-capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in the north of Liverpool has been approved by the government, the Premier League club said on Friday.
The Merseyside club have played at Goodison Park since 1892, but with a capacity of only 40,000 the team has struggled to compete with the match-day income of their rivals.
BREAKING NEWS⁰
In the strangest of club seasons, the race to be the English Premier League’s top marksman has been a competition between trusted standbys — Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah have both finished top of the chart before — and emerging stars hungry to take the throne, like Bruno Fernandes and Dominic Calvert-Lewin. England’s top division is unmatched in its quality and global reach and the Premier League top scorers 2020-21 list justifies the hype.
On the surface, the rivalry between Sheffield United and West Ham United seems to be one of the most obvious derbies in English football; Sheffield is nicknamed the Blades because of the city's connection to the steel industry, while West Ham is known as the Hammers for its roots in the local ironworks of London.
But the rivalry between these two clubs extends beyond the metalworks and is centered around another important resource: money.
CARDIFF - Gareth Bale intends to return to Real Madrid for the final 12 months of his contract next season, he said on Tuesday.
Bale has been at Tottenham Hotspur on loan this season, initially struggling with fitness but playing regularly in recent weeks, but said ahead of the start of World Cup qualification with Wales this week that he plans to head back to Spain next season.
“The main reason I came to Spurs this season was that I wanted to play football, first and foremost, but going into the Euros I wanted to be match fit too.”
Watching March Madness over the weekend has made me realize that the world of sports is incredibly cruel. Talent is often not enough to defeat an opponent, and sometimes outplaying the other team isn't even good enough to earn a victory.
In the Premier League, the teams on the receiving end of this bad luck are usually found in the lower reaches of the league table. Generally speaking, the relegation zone contains three of the worst teams in the league, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are the three clubs that deserve to be relegated.