The story arcs that football provides us with are both fascinating and absurd. Who could’ve guessed that, come 2016, Brad Guzan would be doing battle with Victor Valdes to be named the starting goalkeeper for Middlesbrough?
Guzan, the 31-year-old Illinois native with 50 USA appearances to his name, is expected to join the newly promoted Premier League club on a free transfer following Aston Villa’s relegation.
It's the offseason, which means the soccer news cycle is dominated by unsubstantiated transfer rumors and pictures of players on boats. As little as most people care about how everyone's vacation is going, we feel compelled to report it anyway because we're a soccer website and our rent isn't going to pay itself. That's why we're going to tell you about Cristiano Ronaldo going to a Jennifer Lopez concert.
Yes, Ronaldo went to a Jennifer Lopez concert in Las Vegas. Kim Kardashian was there too. And Calvin Harris.
You may remember that we previously wrote about CD Deportivo Leganes and their rather bizarre scratch-and-sniff kit. Now, you're probably thinking that it couldn't get any weirder than that. We have something to show you.
See, for whatever reason, Spanish lower-league clubs seem to be in some sort of intense competition over who can make the most eye-punishing travesty of a kit. We've made fun of plenty of kits over the years, from all across the world. But the Spanish, well, they're just on another level.
Lionel Messi has had enough of sitting on his yacht in Ibiza presumably replaying his Copa America penalty miss over and over. Messi wasn’t due to join his Barcelona teammates in preseason training until August 1st, but the former Argentine international has forgone his extended break in favor of returning to training.
Messi is back https://t.co/mTyGZGGOz5
We have to hand it to Cristiano Ronaldo, he's much braver than us.
Ronaldo showed up at Conor McGregor's gym in Las Vegas and took some pictures and put them on Instagram.
Soccer players have a long and proud history of looking like they should be in boy bands, and the current best player in the world is carrying on the tradition like a champ. Look at what this dude Lionel Messi did to his hair.
This La Liga season promises to be a hugely entertaining one, as the Spanish first division boasts three of the best club teams in the world, and also possibly the smelliest. CD Leganes, recently promoted to the first division for the first time ever, will introduce themselves to the world's top teams with a kit that features a scratch 'n sniff badge. Really.
We promise we are not making this up. They made a video about it and everything.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son who abandoned his roots and wasted his inheritance only to later return is one of the oldest tropes used in books, movies, and television. Guess what, soccer has had more than its fair share of prodigal sons, and here are two of the best examples in the world’s game.
#1: Fernando Torres | Atletico Madrid
By January of 2004, Barcelona was a club in deep crisis. Since the 1999-00 season, they’d finished further and further down the LaLiga table — second in 2000, fourth in 2001, fourth in 2002 and a disastrous sixth in 2003.
The 2003-04 season looked to be even worse yet. Club president Joan Gaspart had been forced to resign because of the decline, and his young replacement, Joan Laporta, had begun his presidency in farce after promising Barcelona supporters David Beckham only to see him land at Real Madrid.
17-year-old phenom Martin Odegaard’s standing with the Real Madrid first team just became that much more confusing. The latest reports from the Santiago Bernabeu allege that Real Madrid club president Florentino Perez has forced manager Zinedine Zidane to include Odegaard in the club’s pre-season tour against Zidane’s wishes.