It was recently announced that Rafa Benitez will be leaving Newcastle when his contract expires on June 31.
This is a huge loss for the Magpies, unquestionably. With Mike Ashley still at the helm of the former Premier League title challengers, Benitez was rarely supported in the transfer window, and had to do his best with the players that he had.
Grant Wahl’s annual MLS Ambition Rankings have been revealed on SI.com, and there really aren’t any surprises at the top (Atlanta United and LAFC) or the bottom (Colorado Rapids and New England Revolution). And while there have been some feel-good moves (the Columbus Crew greatly rise thanks to new ownership), the list also captures some worrying trends around the league, most notably the malaise surrounding the Montreal Impact.
The latest football clubs’ valuation study has been released by KPMG, revealing the 32 richest soccer teams in Europe as of January 1, 2019. There’s been a shakeup at the top, where Real Madrid has climbed above Manchester United as the world’s most valuable club.
Despite president Gianni Infantino’s last-ditch visit to Kuwait in an attempt to coerce the nation into co-hosting the 2022 World Cup with Qatar in order to expand the field from 32 to 48 teams, FIFA has now admitted failure in its expansion plan.
The next World Cup will remain a 32-team affair taking place between Nov. 21 and Dec. 18 solely in Qatar.
Despite a 3-1 victory over Burnley at Turf Moor today, Arsenal finished outside the Premier League top four for the third consecutive campaign. A damning run of late-season form saw the Gunners ultimately stumble to fifth.
Following a 2-0 victory over Newcastle United back on match week 31, Arsenal sat third in the table, but over the final seven matches of the season, the Gunners won only two, drew one and lost four to finish one point behind fourth-place Tottenham.
Every four years, hundreds of thousands of fans descend upon a new country, laying waste to incomprehensible volumes of a pale, frothy liquid. The World Cup is a time to celebrate not just soccer, but humanity, and what better way than by consuming the same beverage many anthropologists believe to be impetus behind early mankind giving up its nomadic societies to create what we know today as civilization — beer.
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.
Despite UEFA opening an investigation of Manchester City for possible Financial Fair Play violations, the club is looking in glorious shape for the future following news today that midfield maestro Bernardo Silva has elected to renew his contract until the summer of 2025 with a deal that puts him amongst City’s highest earners.
The Portuguese midfielder’s deal quickly follows on previous news of extensions for Aymeric Laporte, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus — all players who are aged 24 and under who’ll lead the side for years to come.
Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, adidas announced that any sponsored players on the Women’s World Cup-winning team would receive the same bonus pay given to their male counterparts.
Equal pay for equal play.#WWC #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/F9UD7zvp6s
For the longest time, those that weren’t particularly enamored with the Abu Dhabi Royal Family Sky Blues steamrolling their way to three EPL titles in seven years had one piece of consolation: Since the club’s last First Division title hadn’t come since 1968 and since they’d spent so long in the shadow of neighbors Manchester United, City was viewed as a team without fans (at least when compared to United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea).