Harry Kane spent the 2011/12 season on loan at English Championship side Millwall F.C., a club known more for its associations with hooliganism and their supporter’s chant “No one likes us, we don’t care” than as the home of future England internationals.
Under the watchful eye of England’s then U-21 manager, Stuart Pearce, an 18-year-old Kane failed to impress.
Fernando Torres, Diego Costa and Juan Mata have all been omitted from Spain’s 25-man provisional Euro 2016 squad by manager Vincente del Bosque. In Torres and Mata, Spain have elected to drop players who’ve combined for 151 appearances, 48 goals, three European championships, and two World Cup winner’s medals.
Costa suffered a hamstring injury during Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool on May 11, putting his participation immediately in doubt. Costa’s consistent hamstring troubles, coupled with his subpar form this season, have seen him lose his place in the squad.
As the 2015-16 Premier League season draws to a close, it’s time to honor and award those whose performances have captivated us over the course of the last nine months. It’s also a great time to shame those whose performances call into question the morality behind million dollar contracts and the myth of the sporting superhuman. These are the players whose performances will stick with us for all the wrong reasons; the biggest underachievers and flops of the 2015-16 Premier League season.
PSV Eindhoven have successfully defended their Eredivisie title after a dramatic final day in the Netherlands. Ajax were on top by goal difference and only needed a win against 17th placed De Graafschap to seal the title. It seemed a simple enough proposition, but Frank De Boer's side faltered dramatically and only managed to draw 1-1, leaving the door open for Eindhoven to clinch it.
It's pretty safe to say that unless you're a Chelsea fan, you probably hate Diego Costa. His mastery of the dark arts of football tends to rub a lot of people the wrong way. He is the pantomime villain of the Premier League, the Loki of the world's game, the Iago to the Othello that is the Premier League referee.
Iker Casillas has married his longtime girlfriend Sara Carbonero according to reports. The pair’s relationship became a source of daily news throughout the 2010 World Cup, beginning with Spain’s shocking loss to Switzerland in group play and ending with an on air kiss between the two.
Casillas and Carbonero began dating in 2009, and their relationship was immediately thrown into the spotlight due to Casillas being Spain’s starting goalkeeper and Carbonero working as a sports reporter for Telecinco, a leading Spanish news source.
Karim Benzema has 20 goals for Real Madrid so far this season, but that's not what everyone has been talking about in regards to the French striker.
Instead, Benzema has mostly been in the news for various run-ins witht the law and various appearances in various courtrooms.
We thought everything was on its way to settling itself, but we were wrong. Benzema finds himself banned from the French National Team until his legal troubles sort themselves out, putting his Euro 2016 in doubt.
Miroljub Kostic just doesn’t care. His side are down 2-0 in the 53rd minute of the Serbian Cup, he’s scored less than 10 goals in his 10 year professional career and out rolls this damn ball into his path, nearly 40 yards from goal.
Miroljub can't stand this effrontery. Who does this orb think it is? Should he just tackle the living hell out of it?
If you're going to attack a referee, make sure he isn't a terrifying badass first.
Otherwise, you might end up like this dude in the Italian ninth division, who picked the wrong referee to mess with.
The ref's rection reminded us of this scene in the movie Wild Wild West, starring Will Smith. He became that much scarier and tougher by not reacting.
It's called the triple punishment. When a goalkeeper or defender brings down an attacking player in the box, and is punished with a red card, a penalty, and a ban for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. It has been a subject of debate for a long time, with most thinking that the law is overly harsh especially in cases where the defending player is genuinely going for the ball.
It appears that the International Football Association Board, or IFAB, has listened and that is all about to change this summer.