Not every gift needs to be good. Not every gift needs to be well-received by its owner. Not every gift needs to make the receiver feel joy and good cheer. Some gifts must enrage the person who gets them, in turn causing the giver to laugh themselves silly. Some gifts must necessarily be bad, because are you really friends with someone if you don't spend every waking second trying to annoy them?
The most expensive buyout clauses prove there is good money in soccer. Think about how many millionaires (and now billionaires) from across the world invest in football clubs. Perhaps one of the most immediate parameters to understanding just how much dough is going around the soccer market is to consider the most expensive buyout clauses in world football.
Lionel Messi was never a little-known quantity. When he scored nearly 500 goals for Newell’s Old Boys as a young boy, people took notice. That’s why Barcelona made the highly unusual decision to sign a 13-year-old foreign player. That’s why, aged 17 years, three months and 22 days, he became Barcelona’s youngest-ever representative in an official competition. It’s why he represented La Albiceleste, the two-time world champions, at 18.
The Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC will contest MLS Cup 2017 on Saturday, December 9, at BMO Field in a rematch of last season’s final. In 2016 the Sounders won on penalties despite not registering a shot on target after 120 minutes of scoreless action. Goalkeeper Stefan Frei provided the highlights, but many left feeling like a goal or just a couple more shots would’ve done the showpiece event a world of good.
Ah, Thanksgiving. You know what that means: IT'S TIME FOR FOOTBAWL. Time for out of shape middle-aged folks to try to play contact sports. What could possibly go wrong?
Scrutinizing the goalkeeper position, more so than any other, requires us to expand the metric of analysis to incorporate the one asset that’s valued above all others in a shot-stopper: consistency. That’s why, although a plethora of recent statistics might tell us otherwise, many would still pony for Gianluigi Buffon over, say, Marc-Andre ter Stegen as the world’s finest keeper. One’s been at the top of his craft for over 20 years, the other for just a few.
The list of the 32 nations competing in the World Cup was finalized on Wednesday night. That also meant the list of 179 nations not competing in the World Cup was also finalized. While 15 percent of the countries who compete in FIFA will be preparing for the World Cup draw on Dec. 1, the remaining countries, constituting most of the world’s population, will be wondering “What if…” for the next four years.
Generation Z . . . psh. Am I right my Baby Boomers? Baby Boomers . . . cripes. You feel me my Gen Z-ers? But not so fast — I’m here to bridge the incommunicable divide between those that’ve had the same job out in the ‘burbs for 50 years now and those that’ve hopped between three jobs over the past week in Gentrified City.
Football will be our olive branch, and footballers turned managers will be our common ground. For boomers, sit back and enjoy the nostalgia. For Generation Z, look at Antonio Conte without any hair!
FIFA’s international breaks can be full of thrilling competition between the world’s best. This break will see some of the most intense matches outside of a major competition you’ll ever see in the UEFA and intercontinental playoffs to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
While Pelé is often considered the greatest goal scorer of all time, he does not top the charts on any one league’s all-time scoring list. Lionel Messi hasn’t been able to equal Pelé or Diego Maradona by winning a World Cup, but he does sit on top of the all-time scoring list for one of the best leagues in the world.