Video footage has circulated around social media of construction workers in Qatar going on strike in response to the inhumane working conditions they have dealt with during stadium construction for the upcoming 2022 World Cup. The strike began on Sunday with thousands of workers protesting on the outskirts of one of their work-sites.
Gareth Bale came inches away from cashing in on his career and his profile as a big figure in the soccer world as he looked set to earn $1.22 million per week at Chinese club Jiangsu Suning. With that kind of money being offered, it makes you wonder where it all comes from.
If you’ve ever wondered what life is like for footballers on the road, this PSG video featuring a day with superstar striker Edinson Cavani in China is about as honest as it gets. You see the glamor — the five-star hotels, the adoring fans, the massage therapy — but you also see the rigorous monotony of it all.
Cavani is reduced to FaceTime to see his four-month-old daughter, he moves from one lonely hotel room to another, always eating an omelette with one egg, cheese, tomatoes, ham and onions, drinking maté and following a highly individualized training routine.
Imagine, for a second, that your entire being is driven by a primal urge to enter into Cristiano Ronaldo’s proximity. Try as you might, you cannot shake the feeling that your existence absolutely, positively must be acknowledged by Ronaldo, and so your feet lead you on a happy dance that constantly pulls you ever closer to the 34-year-old's orbit; damn the consequences.
This is the plight currently facing some individuals in Singapore and China, who’ve risked it all to smell the CR7 eau de toilette from its source.
After making his Chelsea debut as a 65th-minute substitute against Kawasaki Frontale on Friday, Christian Pulisic was handed his first-ever Chelsea start Tuesday as the Blues defeated Barcelona 2-1 in Saitama, Japan.
Well, what do we do now? Instead of, as the old saying goes, saving some for the real games, Harry Kane went and used up all the insane, last-second, match-winning goals from the halfway line allotted to us for the 2019-20 season during an International Champions Cup match in Singapore today.
Tottenham defeated Juventus 3-2 at the National Stadium thanks to Kane’s hammer drop in the 93rd minute, leaving Wojciech Szczesny buried in the net and giving Matthijs de Ligt an excellent memory on his debut for the Old Lady.
Well, that wasn’t how the Christian Pulisic Chelsea debut was supposed to go.
Pulisic made his long-awaited debut with the Blues on Friday in Yokohama, Japan, coming on in the 65th minute against Kawasaki Frontale of the J-League. He then proceeded to pick up his first loss as a member of Chelsea, as Leandro Damião scored the lone goal in a 1-0 victory for the Japanese club.
True to his word, Christian Pulisic began training with Chelsea FC on Tuesday, July 16, just nine days after the USMNT’s defeat to Mexico in the Gold Cup final. His decision to join-up with the squad in lieu of an extended holiday break earned praise from Blues boss Frank Lampard, and he now has three full training sessions under his belt following today’s open practice in Yokohama, Japan.
If you don’t believe me, just look at his feet.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is, on the whole, unfathomable. The mind boggles at an expenditure of $200 billion, while a current reported death toll of over 1,400 migrants is like combining the casualties of the Falklands War and 2011 Egyptian revolution. All this to kick that ball around.
It’s with great sadness that our summer of soccer 2019 draws to a close. The USWNT lifted the World Cup, Brazil triumphed on home soil at the Copa América, Mexico reclaimed the Gold Cup and we’re into the final week of the Africa Cup of Nations. Unless you’re eagerly anticipating the ICC, our glorious summer is at an end.