American-born defender Eric Lichaj had a deal with his wife: Score a hat trick and she will finally let him get a dog. The Nottingham Forest defender came oh so close to scoring a hat trick against Arsenal during the FA Cup on Sunday. After Lichaj asked Twitter to bombard his wife with dog memes, she caved. Eric Lichaj finally has a dog.
Here's a nice holiday story: Christian Pulisic was back in the United States for a spell during the Bundesliga's winter break, and he wanted to see his dog. Unfortunately, said dog was in Hershey, Pennsylvania, 2.5 hours from Pulisic, who was staying in Washington D.C.
A macaque monkey (fun fact: the most widespread primate genus aside from humans) delivered the match ball in a Japanese J-League match over the weekend while threaded out in full Cerezo Osaka kit. The monkey attempted a brief session of free styling before picking up the football and delivering it to the referee.
It’s not as riveting as War for the Planet of the Apes, but you do get the feeling that an evolved chimpanzee like Caesar would absolutely hate something like this.
Lots of athletes pivot to different sports after their days playing their first-choice have come to an end. Rio Ferdinand just did it with boxing. This is the first time, though, we have heard of an athlete pivoting to being a jockey. Michael Owen, the 37-year-old former Liverpool, Newcastle, Real Madrid and Manchester United striker, has done just that.
Owen rode a horse called "Calder Prince" in the Prince's Countryside Trust seven-furlong flat raced, and impressed with a second-place finish.
This dog has extremely good close control, although I'm not sure the "popping the ball and carrying it in your jaws" technique deployed here is strictly legal.
Oh well.
The dog manages to avoid the footballers, but the police finally got him. It sure looked like he had a fun adventure though.