Italian Clubs

ROME - Ten years have come and gone since a Milan Derby in Serie A mattered this much.

When the two storied Italian clubs go head to head at San Siro on Sunday, it will be the first time since April 2, 2011 that the fixture represents a clash between the league’s top two teams. The 2010-11 season proved to be the end of an era for football in the city. Milan lifted the title to halt Inter’s five-year Scudetto stranglehold, but Inter were consoled with a Coppa Italia triumph. Neither club has won either competition since.

There was a thought — an expectation even — that Cristiano Ronaldo would return to Portugal and put on a show in his home country. Juventus, the only Italian champion in the last 10 years, would be expected to take care of business against a club from outside of Europe’s top five leagues. After all, the last time Ronaldo played Porto, he scored a goal that won him a Puskás Award.

But Porto does not care for your expectations. Porto has its own plans in the Champions League. 

NAPLES, Italy — Lorenzo Insigne's first-half penalty earned Napoli a 1-0 home win over Juventus in Serie A on Saturday, with a first defeat in eight in all competitions leaving the champions seven points behind league leaders AC Milan in the standings.

Veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini was penalised for a foul on Napoli's Amir Rrahmani in the penalty area to concede a 31st-minute spot kick, which Insigne converted to score what proved to be the winner and his 100th goal in all competitions for Napoli.

AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli insists he is not surprised by Zlatan Ibrahimović's remarkable longevity and hinted that he would like the Swede to extend his contract with the Serie A club.

The 39-year-old striker scored the 500th club goal of his career in a 4-0 Serie A win over Crotone on Sunday to send Milan two points clear at the top of the table.

The Swede fired the opening goal into the top corner to hit the landmark before adding a second after the break, taking his seasonal tally to 16 goals in 17 games in all competitions.

The cliché suggests Cristiano Ronaldo is aging like a fine wine. But we might have to rethink that aphorism to say fine wines age like Cristiano Ronaldo. No matter how old he gets, he just seems to keep getting better. Before turning 30 he scored 0.64 goals per game; since turning 30 he’s scoring better than 0.92 goals per game. 

The great grandson of former Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is a member of Lazio’s U-19 team, it came to light this week. Romano Benito Floriani Mussolini is an 18-year-old right back for I Biancocelesti. 

Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, and there’s something troubling about his kin playing for a club with a history of neo-Fascist fans. 

There’s nothing quite like the madness of transfer Deadline Day. Top European clubs rushing to get last-minute deals done creates an exhilarating 24-hour news cycle. In the latest winter transfer window, European clubs invested their stock in USMNT transfers.

Here’s a list of every transfer, loan or signing in Europe from Deadline Day that involved a USMNT player.