Business

The United States is used to being the best at everything, from income to athletics. When it comes to the economy of sports, there are two areas where America lags far behind its overseas counterparts: soccer and eSports.

In soccer, European leagues attract the biggest stars with the biggest salaries. In eSports, South Korean and Chinese players earn more per capita than those in the U.S. and are treated like rock stars.

This begs the question: Who is better paid, players in Major League Soccer or eSports? The answer isn’t quite clear cut.

Patrick Kluivert's 9-year-old son Shane has just signed a five-year deal with Nike. The youngest Kluivert has already made a name for himself with a massive social media following that includes 130K followers on Instagram and his own Youtube channel. Oh, and he’s also not bad at football.

The latest addition to the Allianz family of stadiums is Minnesota United’s new home in St. Paul, scheduled to open in time for the 2019 MLS season, Allianz Field. The 19,400-seat state of the art facility joins an impressive crop of stadia bearing the Allianz namesake — chiefly the homes of Bayern Munich, OGC Nice, Palmeiras and Juventus. 

Everton forward Wayne Rooney has long been one of the highest-paid players in world football, with a combination of Manchester United wages and many endorsements swelling his bank accounts considerably. Wayne Rooney's net worth has put him on lists of the richest footballers for many years.

If social media has done one thing for us, it’s certainly improved our one-way communication with the world’s biggest stars. Big names like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema are some of the most followed personalities online because when they do share with us, we like it. We like getting to know them personally. 

What’s going on in their lives? Just like watching our neighbor across the street, we can now peer in on the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. 

Chuck Blazer, the former FIFA Executive committee member and CONCACAF General Secretary who the FBI flipped into spilling the beans on FIFA corruption, passed away yesterday at age 72, his lawyers confirmed.

Chuck Blazer, a controversial former FIFA exec, has died. Statement from his lawyers here: pic.twitter.com/j1wOXORbWY

— Jim Dalrymple II (@JimDalrympleII) July 13, 2017

Mino Raiola, the architect of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan's moves to Manchester United last summer (and Romelu Lukaku's this summer!), is about one thing only: getting his clients (and by extension himself) that money.

As we traverse the long, hot and boring summer, we find ourselves lost amid a desert of dullness — a boring expanse of time in which no football is actually played. No club football. No proper international tournament. Even the youth football has finished. Teams are barely beginning their preseason. Quite literally, there is no football to talk about. But the machine never ceases. Which brings us to the transfer market.

Look guys, we're relatively certain that the mandatory hydration breaks during the 2017 Gold Cup match between the USA and Panama have nothing to do with CONCACAF's newly announced "hydration partnership" with sports drink maker BODYARMOR. We know it's tempting to think that there is some connection here, but settle down.