Chinese Super League clubs have used the winter transfer window to break Asian spending records on a near daily basis. And unlike most other leagues outside the European elite looking for rapid growth, they’re doing it by snagging valuable players in their primes from top clubs rather than stars pushing back retirement or young unknowns from South American leagues.
Kingsley, the confusing new mascot unveiled by Scottish club Partick Thistle last summer, has gotten a lot of attention this season. Sadly, that attention has not translated to steamy romance.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in PSG’s 3-1 win over Lorient before he was substituted in the 71st minute. So to pass the time until the final whistle, he decided to take off his boot and carefully place it on the head of PSG assistant coach Zoumana Camara, who didn’t seem to mind. Presumably because he had an idea of who did it.
When we last saw Denis Cheryshev, he was being hastily substituted at halftime of Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey round of 32 first-leg match against Cadiz once everyone realized that he was ineligible to play due to a suspension he incurred the year before with Villarreal. That got Real Madrid disqualified from the competition, delighting rival fans (and clubs) everywhere.
In an attempt to hide the embodiment of this embarrassment, Real Madrid loaned Cheryshev to Valencia, giving him another crack at the Copa del Rey as his new side had to face Barcelona in the semifinals of the competition.
Cheryshev came off the bench in the 58th minute of the first leg and Valencia ended up losing 7-0 with the Russian being shown a yellow card in the 79th minute. So, all together, this Copa del Rey appearance was even worse than his last one (at least he scored in the last one).
And to make the whole thing even worse, the Barcelona fans gave him a rousing mock ovation when he came on, as thanks for the shame he brought upon Real Madrid.
As of this moment, no one on the planet hates the Copa del Rey more than Denis Cheryshev.
Of all the candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, Donald Trump might be the last one you would expect to have a long history with the world’s game.
Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he had Jurgen Klopp, the man who replaced him as Liverpool manager this season, over to his house for a friendly chat when the German first took the job.
“Whatever help he needed going into the job as manager, I was there for that,” Rodgers told BeIN Sports.
The following is a transcript of that chat.
Little is going Iker Casillas’ way these days — from Spain’s 2014 World Cup embarrassment to his Real Madrid exit to his current form at Porto — and that has now extended to the virtual world of FIFA 16.
Casillas was so disturbed by a screenshot from the video game that had him announcing his retirement in 2018 at the age of 36 that he shared it on Instagram and told EA Sports “too soon” and “not yet” with a bunch of thumbs down emojis to really drive his point home. It is not entirely clear that he knows this is an entirely fictional video game future and not evidence of EA Sports teaming with Jose Mourinho to force him into retirement against his will.
Anyway, that rumbling you hear is David De Gea’s groan upon seeing this Instagram post and realizing that he will never start for Spain in a major tournament.
Francesco Totti was an unused substitute for Roma’s 2-0 win against Sassuolo, but he did still manage to keep himself entertained. First, he enlisted a ball boy to help him warm up, giving the kid a story to tell for the rest of his life in the process.
Growing bored with taking prominent jobs out from under other managers, Pep Guardiola is now considering taking other things from them, like pets, family heirlooms, and their souls, as well.
Immediately after Chelsea’s 5-1 win against MK Dons in the FA Cup, arguably the team’s finest performance of the season and one that further broke down the intense anger that followed the sacking of Jose Mourinho in December, John Terry opted to make a major announcement.
