On Monday, Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon celebrated his 41st birthday. The man with 176 international appearances to his name is now chasing his personal Holy Grail — the UEFA Champions League title — with Paris Saint-Germain, but recent reports suggest that the birthday boy will carry on playing past his 42nd birthday.
We entered the FA Cup Fourth Round with three massive underdogs to cheer for — fourth division sides Newport County and Oldham Athletic and fifth division Barnet, the only non-league side remaining in the competition. Unfortunately, Oldham got dumped out by Doncaster, but Newport forced a replay against Middlesbrough.
Salomón Rondón is an absolute unit of a man. At 6 feet 2 inches and 200 pounds, the Venezuelan is a menacing presence when leading the line — which he typically does by his lonesome in Rafa Benítez’s preferred 5-4-1 formation at Newcastle United.
And goals have been hard to come by for the Magpies. Heading into Saturday’s relegation six-pointer with Cardiff City, the Toon had managed only 16 in 22 games, which makes Rondón’s remarkable display of sportsmanship during the match all the more impressive.
The USWNT is hard at work preparing to defend its World Cup title from four years ago. The players arrived for the first camp of the year in the first week of January, and their first match is Saturday against third-ranked France. Before the World Cup kicks off in June, the U.S. women will play 10 matches in 10 different cities.
Simo Valakari is no Pep Guardiola. He’s no Jurgen Klopp. He’s definitely no Jose Mourinho.
But he is the most inspirational manager I’ve ever seen.
Simo Valakari isn’t exactly a household name. The manager of Tromsø IL in Norway’s Eliteserien since 2017, he’s trying to get the club back into the Europa League, where it competed in five of six years from 2009-14 or even the Champions League.
Mesut Özil has struggled to find playing time in the last couple of months with Arsenal, starting just two Premier League matches since November. But he’s found a way to win off the pitch, and this time it’s not in Fortnite, it’s for winning the #10YearChallenge.
According to the latest reports, Paul Pogba has become a father for the first time. The rumors began after Pogba and his girlfriend Maria Salaues were spotted at a celebratory dinner in Manchester on Tuesday night, and the news was all but confirmed when the midfielder was absent from United’s training session on Wednesday (as too was Nemanja Matic, whose wife gave birth earlier this week).