With MLS just announcing that the city of St. Louis will be the next to join the league, other cities are beginning to scramble to fill the final slots MLS has made for expansion teams. Of all the cities interested, here are five that we think deserve a franchise the most.
Multiple reports have emerged confirming that the city of St. Louis, Missouri, will be the proud home of the 28th club in Major League Soccer. The official announcement from MLS is set to come early next week.
The team will likely join the competition for the 2022 season, following Miami and Nashville in 2020 and Austin in 2021.
According to the Telegraph, Manchester City and England star Raheem Sterling has been offered a contract worth $120 million from Nike subsidiary Air Jordan to be face of the company’s upcoming soccer line.
Video footage has circulated around social media of construction workers in Qatar going on strike in response to the inhumane working conditions they have dealt with during stadium construction for the upcoming 2022 World Cup. The strike began on Sunday with thousands of workers protesting on the outskirts of one of their work-sites.
Apparently not everyone is on board with the USWNT equal-pay suit. In an interview with the news site TooFab, former USMNT player Jermaine Jones openly criticized the action, stating that some women are making more money in the NWSL than men in MLS, while also claiming that the NWSL is league where “you can say that you suck” and you still get paid.
Jones' comments stem from the fact that members of the USWNT receive a guaranteed extra bonus of around $60,000 for playing in the NWSL, an incentive to draw American talent to the league.
If the big-wigs of soccer are looking at the Forbes World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams 2019, you can bet your bottom dollar they’re thinking “European Super League.” Back in 2012, only one team across all sports was worth at least $2 billion, that being Manchester United. Now, 52 teams meet that criteria, including almost every NFL team.
Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaker and online betting site, found itself in the headlines again this week after announcing that Huddersfield Town's hideous new kits (which featured Paddy Power’s logo superimposed diagonally across the front) were a hoax and that Huddersfield’s actual jersey next season will have no visible sponsorship at all.
Despite having not scored more than 10 league goals in a season since 2014-15 (his first with Real Madrid), Colombian attacker James Rodriguez remains one of the game’s most recognizable and beloved footballers. The 28-year-old’s playmaking ability is world class (he dropped 13 assists during his first season on loan at Bayern Munich), and although he’s been deemed surplus to requirements by Zinedine Zidane, the likes of Atlético and Napoli are desperate to sign the 2014 World Cup Golden Boot winner.
The Premier League isn’t the only competition with deep pockets. La Liga has smashed its transfer spending record just two weeks into the summer transfer window, having already spent $1.13 billion. The previous record of $1 billion was set in 2018, with high potential players such as Thomas Lemar, Malcolm and Vinicius Junior all being sold for over 40 million to Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, and Real Madrid, respectively.
Following his $135 million transfer from Atlético Madrid to Barcelona, Antoine Griezmann became the fifth-most expensive footballer of all-time. The 28-year-old Frenchman immediately put pen to paper on a five-year contract at the Camp Nou that includes an astronomical release clause of $900 million.