LONDON — Chelsea have signed Germany's highly-rated attacking midfielder Kai Havertz from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen on a five-year contract, the Premier League club announced on Friday.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed but British media reported the fee for the 21-year-old was in the region of 71 million pounds ($94.34 million).
There’s a common trope in science fiction where aliens come to Earth and the world comes together to stop the invading menace. As we’ve seen over the last eight months, if an alien force came to our planet today, humanity would be as divisive, vitriolic and hate filled as ever, turning on each other in an instant just to save themselves.
At least, that’s the impression I get after seeing hate-related incidents rose a startling 42 percent during the 2019-20 season, even with fans unable to attend matches for the last third of the campaign because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
After miraculously finding a way to finish top European competitions and leagues amid a pandemic, the after-effects are already being seen. The 2020-21 seasons of European competition won’t be a walk in the park with major match congestion. One rule that leagues are disagreeing on is the question of "are 5 substitutes still allowed?"
With a $47 million transfer to Manchester United confirmed on Wednesday, Donny van de Beek was the latest Ajax star to make a high-profile move to a European power. He follows in the footsteps of Hakim Ziyech, who made a $47 million move to Chelsea this summer, as well as Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Light, who made high-profile moves last summer.
"He was what I called a ball-playing defender," long-time friend Dave Bassett said of Sam Allardyce, "If he wasn't playing with the ball he was playing with your balls."
Allardyce was a feared center back during his 20-plus years in English football due to his propensity to clatter opposing strikers and leave them moaning in pain on the turf. He was even given the nickname "Super Sam Bionic Man" for his ability to quickly ascend from these tackles and continue playing.
Gareth Bale will consider a return to the Premier League if his current club Real Madrid allow him to end his stint in Spain, the Wales international has said.
The 31-year-old was on the verge of leaving for Chinese club Jiangsu Suning last year before the deal fell through and he barely featured for Real in their run to the LaLiga title when the campaign resumed after the COVID-19 stoppage.
Despite winning four Champions League titles with Real, Bale has divided opinion in Spain because of a perceived lack of commitment and poor injury record.
The Premier League has cancelled its contract with Chinese broadcasters PPLive Sports International after just one season, the league said in a statement on Thursday.
The broadcasters, part of retail group Suning, paid around $700 million for three years of English Premier League (EPL) streaming rights from the 2019-20 season.
There are some famed transfer policies in the world of football: Real Madrid’s Galácticos, Athletic Bilbao’s cantera, Guadalajara’s Mexican-born only and Newcastle’s annual $0 push for survival. But my favorite, without a doubt, is Everton’s.
Without doing any research whatsoever, I’d venture to say that Everton has no scouting department. It’s entirely unnecessary with this approach. Instead, the club’s policy is a mixture of the nostalgia evoked from the remembrance of things past and the demand that you’ve played for a club on the Forbes rich list.
I can’t be the only one who believes that the new Premier League kits for the upcoming season were a majority of flops. Perhaps I need to give them more time to grow on me. Either way I heed this warning to those who dare to continue scrolling: your eyes will soon transform into blazing infernos when thou gaze upon the 10 worst new Premier League kits.