Spanish Clubs

Vinícius Jr’s transition to Real Madrid has by no means been easy. The young Brazilian joined Madrid from Fluminense for $50 million in 2017, making him the second-most expensive transfer from Brazil behind only Neymar. Unlike Neymar, Vinícius Jr has not found immediate success in LaLiga.

Vinicius, while showing incredible dribbling ability and ball control, has lacked the final product of his Brazilian compatriot, scoring just one goal in LaLiga in his first season at Real Madrid compared to Neymar’s nine goals.

Zinedine Zidane handed 26-year-old goalkeeper Alphonse Areola his first Real Madrid start in Wednesday’s LaLiga match against Osasuna at the Bernabeu. 

Areola made 75 appearances with Paris Saint-Germain before joining Los Blancos on loan (Real sold Keylor Navas to PSG). 

Uli Hoeneß is acting like a child, threatening to take his toys and go home if he doesn’t get his way: The Bayern Munich president is suggesting a Germany boycott if his players don’t receive preferential treatment.

The German national team has been embroiled in a goalkeeper debate of late. While Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer is the long-term No. 1 keeper, many believe Barcelona’s Marc-André ter Stegen deserves more opportunities.

Tuttosport officially narrowed its Golden Boy (best young player under 21) shortlist to 40 candidates, and before the list gets any smaller I thought it’d be fun to rank the candidates who I believe will end up in the top 10.

My Top Ten Golden Boy Nominees 2019:

#10  Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid)

Lionel Messi made his first start of the season against Villarreal on Tuesday and normalcy was restored to Barcelona for 15 minutes. Barça raced to a 2-0 lead over that period, but then Messi went down and the Camp Nou went quiet.

It certainly didn’t appear to be a recurrence of the calf injury that’s plagued him so far, and he carried on through the remainder of the first half — just long enough to see Villarreal pull one back through Santi Cazorla.  

The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019 went down in Milan today, and you can rest assured that The18 tried its best to watch on YouTube, but good lord, this stuff is mostly unwatchable. It's remarkably drawn out, full of self-aggrandizing nonsense from FIFA and the forced banter between hosts Ilaria D'Amico, Ruud Gullit and the guests makes you search for the mute button while your skin crawls.

But other than that it's pretty good! 

Let’s go to the green carpet for some select photos before the ceremony. Here’s Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe looking fly. 

A lot of the pregame hype for Juventus vs. Atlético Madrid surrounded the matchup between Portugal’s past-and-current king, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Portugal’s future king, João Félix.

But the match was decided by the matchup between Mexico’s Héctor Herrera and former Arsenal man Aaron Ramsey, two second-half substitutes.

An excellent Ángel Di María brace spearheaded PSG to a 3-0 victory over Real Madrid on Wednesday night, giving belief to Parisians that this is finally their year. On the other side of things, Zinedine Zidane’s greatest nightmare came to fruition as he was forced to watch James Rodríguez and Gareth Bale attempt to orchestrate an attack that finished with zero shots on goal.  

After sitting on the bench in Euro qualifying for Germany over the recent international break, Marc-André ter Stegen expressed frustration in being stuck behind Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer in the pecking order to be Germany’s No. 1. After watching Ter Stegen vs Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday, it’s hard to argue he shouldn’t usurp Neuer.

Ter Stegen made four saves, including one on a penalty kick and a massive double save to help Barcelona draw Borussia Dortmund 0-0 in the Champions League group-stage opener for both clubs on Tuesday in Dortmund. 

A video of Juventus’ training session Tuesday has taken social media by storm. The clip features a frustrated Gonzalo Higuain lashing out during a game of rondo (monkey in the middle).

Higuain lost it in training today pic.twitter.com/k6BaXEyS6c

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 17, 2019