Tuesday marks MLS SuperDraft day, and while it's always fun to see who your team adds and to pore over their college bio page, you ultimately want your club moving in the direction of producing and signing more Homegrown Players through its academy. Real Salt Lake did just that Monday with the addition of 15-year-old midfielder Jude Wellings — who becomes the club's youngest-ever first-team signing.
After Sporting lost 3-2 to Santa Clara on Friday, Porto was presented an opportunity to open up a lead at the top of the Primeira Liga with a positive result against Estoril Praia on Saturday.
However, Estoril Praia, the league's fifth-place team, stormed to a 2-0 halftime advantage thanks to an André Franco penalty and a wicked deflection on Arthur's shot from the edge of the area.
FC Dallas completed the transfer of striker Ricardo Pepi to FC Augsburg of the German Bundesliga on Monday.
Dallas received a reported $20 million fee, a club record that also makes the 18-year-old Pepi the most expensive outgoing homegrown player in MLS history.
Pepi, the 2021 MLS Young Player of the Year, signed a five-and-a-half-year contract at Augsburg that includes a club option to extend the deal until the summer of 2027.
On Saturday, West Bromwich Albion and Orlando City confirmed that 21-year-old striker Daryl Dike was headed to the Championship side on a four-and-a-half-year deal for a transfer fee of $9.5 million.
Dike again joins forces with French manager Valérien Ismaël, who was Barnsley's boss last campaign when Dike scored nine goals in 19 second division appearances while on loan. Orlando is also in line to receive performance-based bonuses and 20% of any future sale.
The emergence of 17-year-old Pablo Páez Gavi for both Barcelona and Spain during the 2021-22 season has been criminally under-appreciated in the English-speaking world. It's a serious offense because just putting the La Masia product through the 90-minute eye test is enough to reveal a footballer of supreme talent, which is exceptionally rare when considering all the nuance and subtlety that comes with the midfield position.
After being linked with Inter Milan, Sampdoria, Ajax and Wolves, it looks like one club has distinguished itself as the clear front-runner for signing Ricardo Pepi this January.
As reported by the only guy that now reports this sort of thing, Fabrizio Romano, the 18-year-old USMNT phenom is on the verge of moving to the Bundesliga from FC Dallas with Wolfsburg currently leading the race.
Wolfsburg is 13th in the table because of an attack that's generated only 17 goals in 17 matches. Lukas Nmecha and Wout Weghorst both have six goals and no other player has more than two.
The Phenom Guy/LeBron James Of Soccer/Soccer Superstar/Center Midfielder/Captain America/Teacher's Exchange Program Standout/Top Player In The Premier League/Most-Watched On Chelsea FC Team/Favorably Compared With Messi + Ronaldo/Finest Soccer — Or "Football" — Player In The World, Christian Pulisic, went 90 minutes for only the third time this season against Wolves at the Molineux on Sunday, but the 23-year-old couldn't provide the magic in a match that finished 0-0.
The 10th annual NWSL Draft was held on Saturday evening, and with the No. 1 overall pick, expansion side San Diego Wave FC selected Stanford defender Naomi Girma, who was U.S. Soccer's 2020 Young Female Player of the Year.
Girma joins a San Diego backline anchored by USWNT veteran Abby Dahlkemper and former Stanford teammate Tegan McGrady. The 21-year-old can also play in midfield, where she may be needed after the club selected a forward, German international Marleen Schimmer out of Grand Canyon University, with its ninth pick in the first round.
On Tuesday, 16-year-old Landon high school junior Kristian Fletcher was named The Washington Post's All-Met Player of the Year after the forward recorded nine assists and 26 goals, including the winner in the Interstate Athletic Conference championship game, in just 17 games.
MLS needs more David Ochoas. It needs more players that “enjoy being the villain” and who aren’t — in a league that prides itself on providing the joyful unpredictably of parity — afraid of taking the spotlight and shining it firmly on themselves.
It makes the atmosphere in stadiums better. It makes matchups more intriguing. It creates headlines.