After going scoreless in 10 matches with Nice to begin the 2018-19 season, Mario Balotelli now has four goals in six games since joining Marseille over the January transfer window.
The 28-year-old Italian’s latest strike was an incredible effort against St-Etienne today, and he celebrated in true Balotelli fashion — it’s bound to piss a lot of people off.
When Claude Puel was fired by Leicester City over the weekend, there were no more French head coaches at a top-flight Big 5 league outside of France. It got us thinking, which country produces the best coaches by nationality?
Is it Italy, with its highly tactical league? Or England, the inventors of the sport? How about Germany, with the largest population in Europe? Spain’s gotta be up there with the deepest league in Europe, right? Or maybe France, which just won the World Cup?
It’s tough being a soccer fan, sometimes. You spend all your effort and energy trying to keep an eye on two tantalizing Champions League Round of 16 matches and then the best goal of the day is scored in a league match in France. But damn, did you see that Angel Di Maria free kick?
PSG star Kylian Mbappe is already way ahead of his time. The 20-year-old sensation has a Ligue 1 leading 19 goals in 18 appearances, a World Cup title and, to cap it all off, he has officially scored his 100th goal in practice.
What a legend.
19 goals in 18 league games for @KMbappe
France is a country with incredible footballing talent and the country won last year’s World Cup partly due to its remarkable squad depth. The depth of France’s talent starts in its domestic leagues. An example of this talent would be Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappè, Nicolas Pépé and Tanguy Ndombélé.
Paris Saint-Germain's Edinson Cavani left the pitch moments after scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win against Bordeaux on Saturday. An Edinson Cavani injury is the last thing the club needs right now.
PSG travels to England to face Manchester United in first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 on Tuesday.
Serie A doesn’t get the same attention that it used to anymore, especially when big clubs like Inter, AC Milan and Roma have been losing the Serie A title to Juventus year after year. On top of that Juventus is the only Italian club regularly advancing to the later stages of the Champions League every year.
As a result, TV coverage of Serie A has shifted to other countries. Because of the TV deals with the Premier League, LaLiga and Bundesliga, a lot of interesting information can slip through the cracks.
Up in Minnesota, the polar vortex came, dropped temperatures to minus-28 degrees and went. Up next was some overnight freezing rain that left everything caked in ice on Monday morning. Some people took the opportunity to play ice hockey in the streets, some went about attempting to fix the situation — I'm talking about that hero the salt truck driver.
But just as we can ask who watches the watchmen, who salts for the saltmen?
With the Super Bowl chalking up its lowest-scoring game in history, it’s only fitting that Sunday’s European football action was dominated by some equally adept defensive displays (apart from Manchester City’s dominant, 19-shot performance vs. Arsenal).
Here is exhibit 1,503,340 on why soccer is the beautiful game.
Emiliano Sala left FC Nantes to become Cardiff City’s most expensive signing ever on Jan. 19. Sala never played for Cardiff City, as his plane disappeared on his way back to Cardiff after saying goodbye to his teammates in France.