STOCKHOLM — AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been ruled out of Sweden's upcoming World Cup qualifiers with Kosovo and Greece and will be replaced by Viktor Gyokeres, the Swedish football association (SvFF) said in a statement on Saturday.
Truppändring
❌ @Ibra_official lämnar återbud och missar herrarnas oktobersamling✅ Viktor Gyökeres från Coventry City kallas in istället
MADRID - Barcelona's 17-year-old midfielder Gavi has been handed a surprise call up by Spain coach Luis Enrique for the Nations League Final Four tournament in Italy next month.
Gavi, who has only featured for Spain at junior levels previously and turned 17 in August, has made just two LaLiga starts for the Catalans this term. However, he has done enough across his six appearances in all competitions to impress Luis Enrique and earn a spot in the 23-man squad.
LISBON - Leaving her homeland Afghanistan was painful, says 15-year-old Sarah. But now safely in Portugal, she hopes to pursue her dream of playing soccer professionally — and perhaps meeting her idol, star striker Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sarah was one of several players from Afghanistan's national female youth soccer squad who fled their country in fear after the Taliban hardline Islamist movement seized power in August. Portugal has granted asylum to the young footballers.
I heard once, I can’t remember from where, that the greatest measure of your time remaining on this planet was in how many more World Cups you could reasonably expect to witness before death. Instead of saying “I am 30,” you could say “I hope to see 12 more World Cups.”
That struck me as a reasonable philosophy.
Birthdays start to come and go with an increasing desire to make less of what starts to seem like a doomsday countdown, but the World Cup — with its quadrennial rarity — stands out as a month-long celebration of the best of our outward reality.
Argentina vs Italia. Italia vs Argentina. Hoy la CONMEBOL y la UEFA anunciaron la disputa de un partido único, una especie de súper final entre los campeones reinantes de la Copa América 2021 y la Euro 2020 para el mes de junio de 2022.
Ambas confederaciones hicieron el anuncio en sus redes sociales, confirmando que después de esta habrá otras tres definiciones similares en el futuro.
CONMEBOL y UEFA amplían su cooperación
After missing the European Championship with a knee injury that lingered into the start of the new season, AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimović has been recalled to the Sweden national team for a pair of upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kosovo (Oct. 9) and Greece (Oct. 12). Ibrahimović celebrates his 40th birthday on Oct. 3, so we’ll get to see if transitioning into the "middle age adult" stage of life has any effect on his game.
You wouldn’t think so.
European Championship winners Italy will face Copa America winners Argentina in June 2022, the soccer governing bodies of Europe and South America said on Tuesday.
"The agreement reached by the two organisations currently covers three editions of this match between the respective continental winners," UEFA said in a statement.
No venue or competition title name was given for the match but a source told Reuters the game has been given the working title of the 'Finalissima'.
There was some good news and some bad news from UEFA on Thursday. The good: European football’s governing body announced it will double the prize money available for the 2022 Women’s Euros. The bad: The Women’s Euro prize money is a miniscule fraction of the men’s Euro prize money.
The U.S. women’s national team cruised to an 8-0 victory in a friendly on Tuesday night in Cincinnati, hometown hero Rose Lavelle providing a goal and three assists in the process. It was a second straight win over Las Guaraníes after a 9-0 triumph on Thursday in Cleveland, essentially part of U.S. Soccer’s bronze-medal victory tour after the Olympics.
After watching the USWNT twice destroy Paraguay by a combined 17-0 over the past week, I found myself wondering: What the fuck was the point of it all? Is this really good the U.S.? For Paraguay? For the game? For anyone?
The all-time leader in goals scored at a World Cup is not Pelé nor Ronaldo — it’s another Brazilian, the timeless Marta. The brilliant No. 10 added a 113th career international goal to her tally on Monday, a stunning free kick that stirred Pelé whilst the elder Brazilian watched from a hospital.