Tuttosport officially narrowed its Golden Boy (best young player under 21) shortlist to 40 candidates, and before the list gets any smaller I thought it’d be fun to rank the candidates who I believe will end up in the top 10.
I know of no greater natural human curiosity than the one that demands we discover the ball’s final resting place. One of our most beloved sports, golf, is entirely based on this premise. So when a ball actually exits the field of play, the novelty of it all can lead to some of the greatest moments in all of sports.
But sometimes, you don’t want to know the end. Because how can the end be happy when so much random chance is involved?
Paco Alcácer has fit in quite nicely at Borussia Dortmund since leaving Barcelona. The Spanish striker has scored 27 goals in 37 games and found his way back to the Spanish national team with his performances.
But Alcácer has brought more than just goals to Dortmund (though he’s brought plenty of those); he’s brought an unselfish mentality for a striker that fits perfectly into BVB coach Lucien Favre’s style of play.
“I was really wasted.”
Those are the first words from Jürgen Klopp in Episode 3 of Inside Borussia Dortmund, Amazon Prime’s docuseries on the German club, which came out last week.
It only got better from the current Liverpool coach.
Josh Sargent has opened his 2019-20 Bundesliga account with Werder Bremen in absurd fashion. After missing out on the Gold Cup and being restricted to an eight-minute cameo over the course of Werder’s opening two league fixtures, the well-rested 19-year-old was given his first start of the Bundesliga season today against FC Augsburg.
Borussia Dortmund suffered a shock defeat to Bundesliga newcomers Union Berlin on Saturday. Dortmund lined up with Julian Brandt, Marco Reus, Jadon Sancho and Paco Alcacer leading the attack; on paper, this match should be won by Dortmund every time.
But a win for Dortmund was not in the cards. Union struck first via Marius Bulter’s low strike. Alcacer equalized for Dortmund three minutes later to breathe some life back into the match.
Do you ever look at Wikipedia pages to see what age people accomplished things and think, “Hey, Charles Bukowski didn’t publish his first novel until 50, I’ve got plenty of time,” but then you see that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at the age of 18 and you say, “It’s over, bury me out back.”
Is that a thing you do?
24-year-old USMNT goalkeeper Zack Steffen is two matches into his Fortuna Düsseldorf career, and so far he’s helped his club into the second round of the DFB-Pokal and collected Bundesliga Player of the Week honors after recording 10 saves in Düsseldorf’s league-opening victory over Werder Bremen on Saturday.
That’s one helluva start for a man who’s just beginning a year-long loan move from Manchester City, the club he officially joined from the Columbus Crew back in July for a transfer fee of $9.12 million. He’s already surpassed Landon Donovan’s achievements in Germany.