On the face of it, soccer and MMA have little in common. One relies on teamwork, creativity and knocking a ball around; the other relies on strength, power and endurance. But there are more soccer players who are UFC fans than you might think, despite their differences.
From Cristiano to Zlatan, footballers have been inspired by UFC fighters (and sometimes vice versa).
We’ve previously presented you with The 18 Best FIFA Songs Of All Time and a FIFA-inspired soundtrack for your New Year’s Eve party, but we’ve been one-upped by Spotify user Ross Hyland, who’s compiled every FIFA song, including music from the FIFA Street series, into one epic playlist for our listening pleasure.
Football is the world’s game. But the world, unlike football, doesn’t have straightforward rules. For this reason, there are countless soccer clubs around the world competing in leagues that geographically or politically don’t make much sense at first glance.
These are the weirdest football clubs in terms of the leagues in which they play.
Back in 2001, Major League Soccer almost folded. After six seasons, millions of dollars in operating losses and with two clubs on the verge of contraction (the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion), the league was really only kept afloat by the vision of Lamar Hunt (who owned the Columbus Crew, Kansas City Wizards and Dallas Burn in his lifetime).
If you’re pondering the life of a professional, then you’re also probably wondering how soccer players get paid. Essentially, it’s dictated by the terms of the contract agreed to between the player and his or her club. Like most professions, wages are either paid on a semi-monthly (twice per month) or biweekly (every two weeks) basis.
However, as well as the earnings that players get from their annual contracts, there’s also added income through various bonuses (appearances, goals scored, trophies won), as well as image rights and other commercial endorsements.
As a competition that traces its roots back to 1930, not many sporting events do trips down memory lane quite like the World Cup. The history of the World Cup, like history itself, is written by the winners, and you won’t lift the most prestigious trophy in sports without a bonafide goalscorer. So who are the FIFA World Cup top scorers of all time?
While the likes of James Rodriguez, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan have dazzled at recent tournaments, none of them feature in this list of the 20 most prolific World Cup top scorers of all time.
With a total of 17 titles in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, no country comes to close to matching Spain’s level of dominance on the continent. By extension, La Liga is often viewed as the world’s premier league competition. When looking at the La Liga top scorers of all time, the level of quality throughout the history of the competition is evident.
Americans loves celebrities like apple pie and making fun of baseball. It’s why late night TV shows constantly barrage us with uninspired interviews of famous actors trying to get us to watch their new thing.
But occasionally, a late night show does something truly inspired. They bring on a soccer player, someone who can actually keep the viewers who aren’t in states where marijuana is legalized awake.
Soccer lends itself to comedy. It is, after all, a game of failure and one in which supporters are required to accept a degree of fatalism with their fandom. Certain aspects of the game require us to adapt a gallows humor, while the overwhelming popularity of the sport also makes it an extremely suitable subject matter to lampoon. The funniest soccer comedy sketches of all time highlight the absurdity of it all.
#1. Monty Python — Philosophers’ World Cup
While the statistics that attackers generate greatly lend themselves to the formulation of lists such as this, things get a little more ambiguous where defenders are concerned.