Netherlands international Justin Kluivert has joined Champions League semifinalists Roma for a reported fee of around $24 million after a breakthrough season with Ajax. Supporters of the Amsterdam club will be livid with Kluivert after the 19-year-old spurned the advice of his father, Barcelona legend Patrick Kluivert, to join the Serie A giants.
It’s been made well aware to soccer and non-soccer folks alike that Orlando husband and wife soccer stars Sydney Leroux and Dom Dwyer have an adorable son named Cassius. When they are not banging in goals for their respective teams and taking ridiculous adorable family pics, these parents are known to joke around and pull pranks on each other.
After calling time on his professional career back in December at the age of 37, Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky celebrated his 20-year professional career — which included stints with Sparta Prague, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal — by playing a testimonial match on Saturday featuring a Czech XI and World XI. The likes of Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Jens Lehmann and Mathieu Flamini were on show, but it was Rosicky’s young son, Tomas Jr, who stole the show.
England traveled to Leeds for its World Cup send-off match against Costa Rica Thursday, and 20-year-old Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford wasted no time in delighting a capacity crowd at Elland Road.
Rashford was just a 16-year-old when Costa Rica and England played to a 0-0 draw in Belo Horizonte back in 2014 (England were already eliminated at that point following defeats to Italy and Uruguay), but the Mancunian played like a man possessed to open the proceedings today.
Mexico is through to the final of the prestigious Toulon Tournament, and it’s 19-year-old striker Eduardo Aguirre who’s captured the headlines in France. Only one player has managed more than two goals throughout the tournament, and that’s Aguirre — he’s got SEVEN.
Germany’s “Snubbed XI” just added one of the most electric talents in all of world football. A few weeks ago, the “Snubbed XI” began assembling itself with a preposterously strong attacking core spearheaded by the dropped Borussia Dortmund duo of Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle (the two players who expertly combined to sink Argentina in extra time back in 2014).
Last August, we delved into Neymar’s absurd $265 million transfer to Paris Saint-Germain by comparing it to Amine Harit’s own transfer from Nantes to Schalke 04 for $9.5 million. The question, in essence, was how could the Brazilian star possibly be 28x more expensive than the precocious Moroccan?
In what all USMNT fans had hoped would be a World Cup tune-up game, the friendly between the USMNT and Bolivia had a decidely different narrative. Interim manager Dave Sarachan selected a number of USMNT young players against Bolivia, and their performances showed promise.
With Serie A coming to a close this past weekend, the name on everyone’s lips was that of Juventus legend Gianluigi Buffon. Buffon played his last match for Juve on Saturday and is set join a new club this offseason. The latest speculation has him linked with a switch to Paris Saint-Germain, although it was not too long ago that another Italian keeper named Gianluigi was being linked with a move to Paris.