Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has officially signed with the LA Galaxy and will join his new MLS club in July. Though Gerrard is far from the first aging superstar to join the league, what does make his situation more unique is the fact that he’s played his entire career so far for his hometown club. Going from Liverpool to Los Angeles will be a colossal change for the 34-year-old both personally and professionally. So to help him out, we’ve put together a guide to aid in his transition.
Tag: Dirty Tackle
In defense of selfie sticks: football’s latest enemy
There is a new outrage in football and clubs are quickly starting to take action in order to stop it before it completely ruins the game forever. No, it’s not something actually important like racism, sexism, homophobia, or xenophobia — it’s something worse than all of those things combined, wrapped in a suit and named Sepp Blatter. It’s called a “selfie stick” and it is somehow a thing that people care about.
Ball boy celebrates Atletico goal in Madrid derby by jumping into Diego Simeone’s arms
Atletico Madrid broke the scoreless deadlock from the penalty spot in 58th minute of the first leg of their Copa del Rey tie against Real Madrid (thanks to the blatant foul stylings of Sergio Ramos). One ball boy at the Vicente Calderon celebrated the goal by jumping into the arms of Atletico manager Diego Simeone. Because when you get Fernando Torres back and take a lead against Real Madrid in the same week, hugs are going to happen.
The ball boy wasn’t just some random kid, though. It was Giuliano Simeone — Diego’s son. They did the same celebration last week against Levante and again when Atletico scored a second goal against Real in the 76th minute.
Anyway, this also proves that Jose Mourinho’s theory about the ball boys being against Chelsea is true. Somehow.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic once told Carlo Ancelotti that he was Jesus
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has made a habit of publicly declaring himself to be God (in multiple languages), but it turns out he proclaims his messiah status behind closed doors, too.
Dante asked Thomas Muller to stop making jokes about Germany 7-1 Brazil
We all know people who like to take a joke too far and run into the ground and for Brazilian defender Dante, Bayern Munich teammate Thomas Muller is that person. In the wake of Germany’s 7-1 win against Brazil at last summer’s World Cup — the loss that devastated the host nation and plunged it into a chasm of unending despair and sadness — Muller apparently decided it would be super funny to repeatedly stab Dante in his open wound.
In an interview with Globo, Dante said, “After [Germany] were champions and we came back, Thomas Muller, who always likes to play here and there, made some jokes. Then I came to him and said, ‘We can joke, but for me that’s not cool, it’s not time yet.'”
Dante added that Muller then apologized to him and the jokes about that game ended right there. Or Muller and the rest of the German players just started saving their jokes about it for after he leaves the room.
And now that Dante has made this known, opposing fans in Germany will probably make whatever Muller said to him seem comparatively compassionate.
Everyone at Sampdoria is taking crazy pills
Last month, we discussed the possibility of Sampdoria owner Massimo Ferrero being a crazed hobo. And now we have confirmation that at least the first part of that is true not only for him, but the entire club.
Several likely explanations for Lionel Messi following Chelsea on Instagram
Lionel Messi’s official Instagram account is now following Chelsea FC’s official Instagram account. This is somehow both important news and evidence of something. Since everyone remembers when Messi followed Manchester City on Instagram in March of last year and then immediately joined the club and won 17 trophies with them, including the World Series of Rugby, before returning to Barcelona and pretending it never happened.
Obviously, there are a number of perfectly reasonable explanations for Messi’s sudden interest in Chelsea’s official social media presence. These are a few.
The madness of Wimbledon v Liverpool in pictures
League Two side AFC Wimbledon — the club built from the ground up by fans in 2002 after Wimbledon FC were relocated to become MK Dons — hosted Liverpool in the FA Cup third round in front of a record crowd of 4,785. Even without the requisite Magic of the FA Cup, the match was a reward for more than a decade of hard work and passion from a group of fans betrayed by the game they love who had the determination to turn that into something positive.
As a result, there was a unique atmosphere at Kingsmeadow even before kickoff. And it fueled a wonderful brand of madness that lasted until the final whistle. Let’s take a look…
David Moyes politely sticks it to everyone after beating Barcelona
David Moyes, a once widely respected football manager who unwittingly signed up to become a clown pinata when he took charge of Manchester United, claimed a sliver of redemption with relegation threatened Spanish side Real Sociedad by beating Barcelona 1-0. He even managed to get Barca to score the match’s only goal against themselves (Jordi Alba in the second minute).
As the world sang his praises for the first time in a long while, Moyes was rightly feeling pretty wonderful after the match. But being the good sport that he is, he still took the time to shake hands with several key Barcelona players. Here’s what he said as he did so…
This behind the scenes video of Fernando Torres’ Atletico unveiling is adorable
Following a great reception at the airport earlier in the week, more than 40,000 people turned up at the Vicente Calderon on Sunday to officially welcome Fernando Torres back to the club where his career began. The video above shows some of the emotions of the day. The hugs, the joy, the familial warmth, and the importance of not putting your hands in your mouth.