Speculation over the future of FC Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta was emphatically squashed Friday with the signing of a lifetime contract, keeping the Spanish international at the club for the remainder of his playing career and ostensibly into a non-playing capacity after retirement.
I gotta say, today was turning into a pretty standard Thursday.
Amid strong interest from clubs in Major League Soccer, it was with a view towards the 2018 World Cup that Andres Guardado decided to join Real Betis and continue pushing himself at the highest level in La Liga. After three starts for the Seville-based club, it’s apparent that the 30-year-old made the right decision. This is obviously his level.
FIFA has approved Sofia Huerta’s request for a one-time change of national association, switching her allegiance from Mexico to the United States after appearing competitively for El Tri at the U-20 level. Huerta was born and raised in Boise, Idaho, and currently plays for the Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL.
There’s an immediate hot take available here that I just can’t commit myself to: the departure of Neymar from Barcelona has had an uplifting effect on 33-year-old midfielder Andres Iniesta, and El Ilusionista is about to enjoy the consummate season because of a mixture of peak footballing intelligence and a proverbial unchaining on the left-hand side of Barca’s midfield.
For internet warriors that love calling people they don’t know fanboys and have a strange fixation with accusing others of different acts of oral sex, this is going to be nothing short of heresy, but I firmly believe it: Isco is the most mesmerizing footballer on the planet alongside Lionel Messi.
“Holy shit! You can’t draw a line between a Real Madrid player and a Barcelona player! You know nothing, Connor Fleming!”
Demetrio Albertini enjoys a legendary status amongst those who watched AC Milan and the Italian national team in the 90s, but the midfielder’s remarkable talent isn’t widely recognized outside of that sphere. As a ball-winning midfielder that orchestrated play from deep, Albertini doesn’t have a massive highlight reel with regards to goals, although he did score a number of long-range screamers and some gorgeous free kicks.
Eighteen-year-old American midfielder Weston McKennie continued his meteoric rise through the ranks at Schalke 04 by making his first competitive start in the 2017-18 DFB-Pokal on Monday. The USMNT U-20 prospect joined the German club in August of 2016, and he made a substitute appearance last May in the Bundesliga as a reward for his performances with the academy team.
McKennie has since gone on to impress over the course of the preseason, and injuries to first team regulars resulted in his first-ever competitive start for the club against BFC Dynamo in the DFB-Pokal.
30-year-old Mexico international Andres Guardado has transferred from PSV Eindhoven to Real Betis and signed a contract that’ll reportedly run until 2020, ending Los Angeles FC’s pursuit of the midfielder for their debut season in Major League Soccer.
21-year-old Pachuca and Mexican international Hirving “Chucky” Lozano has long been a subject of interest for European clubs. The winger has already appeared in over 100 Liga MX matches for his club, and he’s become a regular for El Tri.
Lozano’s form in the 2016 Apertura season, during which he scored seven goals and helped Pachuca finish in second during the regular season, saw him linked with Benfica, Ajax and PSV during the January transfer window.