Phenoms

Eighteen-year-old American midfielder Weston McKennie continued his meteoric rise through the ranks at Schalke 04 by making his first competitive start in the 2017-18 DFB-Pokal on Monday. The USMNT U-20 prospect joined the German club in August of 2016, and he made a substitute appearance last May in the Bundesliga as a reward for his performances with the academy team.

McKennie has since gone on to impress over the course of the preseason, and injuries to first team regulars resulted in his first-ever competitive start for the club against BFC Dynamo in the DFB-Pokal.

Kieran Tierney has done everything for Celtic. The 20-year-old signed with his boyhood club as an adolescent and worked his way up through the youth development program. During that time, he served as a ballboy at Celtic Park, in Glasgow’s East End.

Over the past three-plus seasons, Tierney has forced his way into the Hoops’ starting XI at left back. And now, he’s added to his growing legend with a performance for the ages during Celtic’s League Cup knockout fixture against Kilmarnock. 

Christian Pulisic’s World Cup year starts now, and the wall-to-wall coverage of the 18-year-old American’s season with Borussia Dortmund couldn’t have started with a bigger bang. In the starting lineup for DFB-Pokal winners Borussia Dortmund against Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich in the curtain-raising DFL-Supercup, the host side raced out to an early lead behind Pulisic.

Believe it or not, there's news out of Ligue 1 this week that doesn’t involve Neymar. Did you know the league started play today? Yes, before Neymar makes his anticipated debut with Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday, Ligue 1 opened with defending champion Monaco facing off against Toulouse.

If Reiss Nelson played for Monaco, he’d probably be worth $60 million. But Nelson, 17, is on the Arsenal books and hasn’t seen much first-team playing time. Until this preseason.

Nelson impressed during preseason friendlies and sent Emirates Stadium into a frenzy on Thursday during an open training session. The winger scored an absolutely filthy goal that included a nasty nutmeg. 

Easy 1-2  pic.twitter.com/72sfwHitf5

Meet Amine Harit, a French U-20 attacking midfielder who just arrived at Schalke 04 via Nantes for $9.5 million. He's not a global sponsor for Nike, Gillette, Panasonic or Beats by Dre, he's never had his own custom Air Jordan sneakers or been featured on the cover of Pro Evolution Soccer, but he remains one of the brightest attacking talents in world football today.

Leave it to Sandecja Nowy Sacz coach Radoslaw Mroczkowski to produce one of the most damning statements of Freddy Adu’s absurd career.

“What is the point of having such a player?” Mroczkowski asked rhetorically. 

Ouch.