Players change their style all the time — I swear Neymar is on his 10th hairstyle by now. To avoid the mundane, people enjoy switching it up and acquire a new look from time-to-time. Eventually someone won’t even resemble their younger self and that’s what nearly all the players on this list of biggest football player transformations have done.
Next week Europe’s most anticipated annual tournament — the Champions League — begins the Round of 16 knockout stage. For the first time in the tournament’s history the last 16 only consists of clubs from Europe’s “Big Five” (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France).
Roberto Carlos built his reputation off winning everything and stonking thunderbastards wherever he went. He was like that new species of dinosaur they just discovered, the “Reaper of Death,” because going toe-to-toe with him marked the endpoint of your existence.
The crowning achievement of Lionel Messi’s international career remains the gold medal he captured as a 21-year-old at the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was a loaded Albiceleste squad with further attacking firepower provided by Sergio Agüero, Ángel Di María and Ezequiel Lavezzi, but Messi and Argentina were hugely reinforced by the over-age inclusions of Javier Mascherano and Juan Román Riquelme.
There’s obviously no official record for the fastest shot in soccer. It’d be convenient if a man with a radar gun had been sanctioned to sit at every match played since the beginning of time, but that was an oversight on FIFA’s end.
Aston Villa defeated Leicester City 2-1 on Tuesday to advance to the final of the English Football League competition in hopes of lifting the Carabao Cup. The competition has seen many different sponsorships come and go as Carabao, a Thai energy drink, hasn’t always sponsored the competition. There once was a time teams raised the EFL Milk Cup.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane and review some of the fun EFL Cup names.
Depending on your viewpoint, the 1990s-era MLS shootout was either a great quirk or an embarrassing experiment. Some prominent American players want to bring it back.
When Major League Soccer first burst trickled onto the scene in 1996, the powers that be were convinced Americans would never suffer such indignity as allowing a match to end in a draw. Eccentric MLS shootout rules were devised to ensure every game concluded with a winner.
The 2019 MLS runner-up Toronto FC has decided to invest in youth as it announced the signing of 15-year-old Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty on Wednesday morning.
If you're good enough, you're old enough.
15-year-old Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty becomes the youngest signing in club history.@jahkeelerutty | #TFCLive
The world lost a comedic genius on Tuesday night as Terry Jones, founder of Monty Python, passed away at the age of 77 following a battle with a rare form of dementia.
The 1958 World Cup Final remains an iconic match due to the fact that a 17-year-old Pelé spearheaded Brazil’s 5-2 beatdown of host nation Sweden with two fantastic goals. But rather than turn the page there, why not take a closer look at the Seleção’s first-ever world title?
Having just watched the entire 90 minutes for the first time myself, I’m happy to report that the showpiece event of the sixth World Cup definitely didn’t disappoint. It was a different era — one full of strange skills, uplifting sportsmanship and a certain nostalgic sense of the human collective.