Hirving Lozano scored on his debut with Napoli on Saturday, netting the second in an ill-fated three-goal comeback against reigning Serie A champion Juventus. It was a remarkable start to Lozano’s career in Italy, becoming the first Mexican to score in Serie A, even if it came in a heartbreaking, last-minute loss.
Racism in Italian football is rampant. Incidents in the last year have highlighted how little Serie A and the Italian FA are doing to curb racist chants toward black players. Now, Curva Nord, an Inter Milan ultras group, is defending the right of Cagliari fans to racially abuse Inter players.
This is the world in which we live.
Humanity should not expect progress to be expeditious or even linear. But when racist chants are commonplace in Italian soccer stadiums, the world takes notice.
The European transfer window slammed shut yesterday with Paris Saint-Germain at the center of everything. Neymar, reportedly the subject of three different bids from Barcelona, is staying put for another season, and the club further strengthened its ambitions by adding three-time Champions League-winner Keylor Navas from Real Madrid for $14.3 million and Mauro Icardi from Inter Milan on a season-long loan. PSG could sign the striker permanently next summer for a total of $76.8 million.
Chucky Lozano didn’t take long to make an impact with new club Napoli. Unfortunately for Gli Azzurri, a shocking own goal wiped out an epic three-goal comeback against Juventus.
Lozano scored in his debut in Serie A, helping inspire Napoli back from a three-goal deficit in what appeared to be a storybook first appearance with the Mexican winger’s new club.
But Kalidou Koulibaly accidentally turned the ball into his own net in the 92nd minute to allow Juventus to escape with a 4-3 victory on Saturday in Turin.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær is finally getting his wish of getting the “deadwood” out of Manchester United. The Red Devils had a few high profile players leave the club this summer, with both Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku going to Inter, Ander Herrera going to PSG and Antonio Valencia returning to Ecuador to finish his career. Matteo Darmian looks set to leave as well, returning to Italy. Now that Harry Maguire is in the team and Axel Tuanzebe is staying with the club after his loan at Aston Villa, United has a ton of defenders available.
Despite Inter Milan’s new manager Antonio Conte being widely considered a defensive coach, Inter put on an offensive masterclass during its Serie A opener Monday. Its opponent, Lecce, which was just promoted to Serie A this year, was left hanging its heads as Inter cruised to a 4-0 win thanks to some world-class finishing from the Black and Blues.
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After a fifth-place finish last season led to the resignations of head coach Gennaro Gattuso and sporting director Leonardo, AC Milan’s opening fixture of the 2019-20 Serie A campaign outlined just how difficult the task of improving on that record will be for replacements Marco Giampaolo and Paolo Maldini.
Udinese, 12th-place finishers last year, recorded a shock 1-0 victory over Milan at the Stadio Friuli on Sunday, condemning the Rossoneri to an opening day defeat for the fifth time in the past eight seasons.
It’s that time of year again: FIFA has announced the 10 finalists for the annual Puskás Award, the trophy given to the player, male or female, “judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant, or ‘most beautiful,’ goal of the calendar year.”
This most certainly wasn’t the case last year when Mohamed Salah scooped the award after Liverpool and Egypt supporters spammed the fan vote. The goal Salah scored against Everton back in December of 2018 hadn’t even won the Premier League’s Goal of the Month, so it was an awful joke to see it given the prestigious Puskás Award.
Hirving “Chucky” Lozano is about to join Napoli from PSV Eindhoven for a reported fee of $47 million with his medical scheduled in the coming days, according to NBC Sports. Lozano will sign a five-year deal at the San Paolo and attempt to take his game to the next level under the guidance of manager Carlo Ancelotti and alongside a vaunted attacking unit containing Dries Mertens, Lorenzo Insigne and Arek Milik.
What’s the difference between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi? It’s the time-honored question that’ll be debated long after both you and I are altered into cosmic dust, although I’ve personally maintained that the difference between the two is the empanadas they’d serve at a social gathering.