The January transfer deadline window passed without the need for everyone to lose their collective minds over a deal like Karim Benzema to Burnley or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to PSG, Manchester City, Arsenal or any of the other clubs he really likes.
Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell have combined for 193 appearances for Australia and 76 goals (Cahill, 37, is still going). All three played a vital role in securing Australia’s 2006 World Cup appearance, their first since 1974, with a dramatic playoff victory over Uruguay.
China has big plans for 2017. The Chinese Football Association gathered in Beijing to go over financial details in hopes of transforming the country into a soccer powerhouse. President Xi Jinping is the country’s number one soccer fan and intends to have China perform in future World Cups, an achievement they've only managed once.
An Australian A-League match between Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory featured five first half goals, with the Victory ultimately winning 3-2. The goal of the match was scored by Roar attacking midfielder Dimitri Petratos, the 24-year-old absolutely lashing a swerving effort into the top corner from over 30 yards out.
Ashton Surber, a footballer who was born and raised on Guam and, according to an article on FIFA.com from 2013, serves in the US Air Force, achieved the remarkable hat-trick of scoring a bicycle kick, proposing to his now fiancee and receiving a caution for removing his shirt.
According to multiple reports, Chelsea have dropped Diego Costa for Saturday’s match against Leicester City amidst an argument between the Spanish forward and the Chelsea training staff and a lucrative offer from the Chinese Super League.
China is not a nation you’d list when thinking about the world’s footballing elite. But President Xi Jinping is hoping to change that. Last year, China unveiled a plan to “become a footballing juggernaut by 2050”. The country is spending more money to attract players, including some of the game’s biggest names, to move to China.
The exorbitant fees that the Chinese Super League has been willing to pay to land the world’s best look like peanuts compared to what one unnamed CSL club was willing to pay Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo to bring the Ballon d’Or winner to East Asia.
News of Carlos Tevez perhaps becoming the highest paid footballer on the planet by earning nearly $40 million with Shanghai Shenhua ($1.25 per second) was unfathomable. That kind of total, when dissected and attempted to be understood, is like standing on the beach and trying to fathom all the individual grains of sand or staring up at the night sky and quantifying your place in the universe.