Zlatan Ibrahimovic is coming to MLS. After previously stating that his aim was to eclipse Napoleon by crossing the Atlantic and conquering the States, the Swedish striker is now en route to Los Angeles and aiming for a spectacular debut on March 31 against LAFC (“El Tráfico”) at an already sold out StubHub Center.
For the last two months, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has reportedly been on the verge of joining Major League Soccer. For the last two months, he has not. However, with less than four months remaining on his Manchester United contract and with Jose Mourinho more than obliging with regards to letting the Swede go, it’s only a matter of time until we see Ibrahimovic in MLS (the Los Angeles Galaxy being the ultimate destination).
Joan Gaspart, the former FC Barcelona president from July 2000 to Feb. 2003, used some pretty choice words with regards to former players Luis Figo and Neymar when speaking with Radio Marca on Monday.
Gaspart was a hugely successful vice president when serving under Josep Lluis Nunez at Barca, but his short-lived stint as president was immediately rocked by the departure of club captain Luis Figo to eternal rivals Real Madrid.
Colombian forward Jackson Martinez was one of the first Europe-based players to make a lucrative move to China. The former Porto and Atletico Madrid player was snapped up by Guanzhou Evergrande for an amount of money that seemed like far too much at the time.
A 23rd season of Major League Soccer will kick off with a record 23 clubs on Saturday. The league continues to grow in both number of teams and amount of money being spent on players. An increase in allocation money has made for a busy offseason and the new 2018 MLS signings will have an outsized impact on the upcoming campaign.
The part of professional soccer that young players continually fail to understand as much as they should is the business part. The part in which they make their money. For example, how does one go about negotiating a contract in a manner that gets one as much money as possible? Most footballers have no idea, but we here at The18 are here to help with five easy tips to get that big new contract, big move (remember that moves to bigger teams almost inevitably come with higher salaries), big raise or big benching (probably the latter).
Last season, Toronto FC took their game to another level with the signing of La Masia product Victor Vazquez. The 31-year-old Spanish midfielder was named to the 2017 MLS Best XI while adding a degree of quality and composure rarely seen in MLS.
Liverpool are reportedly sizing up a move for Roma's bearded Brazilian goalkeeper, Alisson Becker.
(Please ignore the reports from today that the move is off. We will be over here pretending they do not exist.)
With three months still remaining in Europe’s major leagues, four of the five most-watched competitions are pretty much already decided. In Germany, Bayern Munich have ostensibly been crowned champions with an 18-point lead over their nearest rivals. In England and France, it would be shocking to see Manchester City and PSG throw away their respective 13-point and 11-point advantages. Spain is tighter, but Barcelona comfortably sit nine points clear of Atletico Madrid.