France

Having warded off interest from Barcelona and Sevilla to sign a rejuvenated Hatem Ben Arfa, Paris Saint-Germain appeared to be the perfect destination for the mercurial 29-year-old playmaker. Ben Arfa signed for PSG as a free agent after experiencing a renaissance last year with Nice, tallying 17 goals and six assists in Ligue 1.

This all, of course, followed a tumultuous four years in England where he was part footballing genius, part disinterested delinquent.

Mario Balotelli's move from Liverpool to Nice has been finalized, which has unleashed a takepocalypse among soccer writers jockying to say the most outlandish things in the world about the 26-year-old Italian like they think whoever comes up with the hottest Balotelli take gets to be king of the press box.

So here's one more, f*** it.

Take: this move is good for all parties.

BOOM.

This move is good for Liverpool because they got an expensive player who wasn't ever going to play off the books.

It’s the kind of scoreline out of France that we’d forgotten was even possible: Paris Saint-Germain, winners of Ligue 1 for four consecutive years now, were comprehensively beaten 3-1 by AS Monaco. It’s only the third match of the French league season, and it was Paris’ first loss, but the manner in which they succumbed to defeat was frighteningly sluggish.

Once again, Edinson Cavani struggled to impress in the limelight. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s departure to Manchester United has put Cavani in the position of having to effectively replace the Swede. It's not going well.

The devastating attack on Nice, France that resulted in the tragic loss of 85 people is still being painfully processed in the country’s fifth most populous city. Local club OGC Nice have now released a beautiful, touching kit paying homage to those victims whose lives were appallingly cut short on France's Bastille Day.

The Ligue 1 club released the following image of the shirt through their official Twitter page:

As far as debuts go, this is about as bad as it can get. We’re sure Jeremy Menez would’ve rather been sent off or scored an own goal in his Bordeaux bow, but he’s lost an ear. 

The 29-year-old transferred from AC Milan to Bordeaux, in his native France, and made his debut for the club against Lorient. Lorient midfielder Didier Ndong promptly asserted himself as the Mike Tyson to Menez’s Evander Holyfield, stepping on his head and tearing his ear off.

This is not a pretty sight.

The stage is set for the final of UEFA Euro 2016, and it’s France vs. Portugal at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Here's how to watch on TV, online and streaming the UEFA Euro 2016 Final between France and Portugal.

Over 80,000 spectators will watch Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann take on Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Renato Sanches. The match kicks off on Sunday, July 10 at 3 p.m. ET.

Fact: the sport of soccer is growing in the United States. Fact: there are still people who don’t like the sport and probably won’t ever like it. Fact: more professional athletes in the United States are getting into the world's game, especially American Football players. 

Karim Benzema has 20 goals for Real Madrid so far this season, but that's not what everyone has been talking about in regards to the French striker.

Instead, Benzema has mostly been in the news for various run-ins witht the law and various appearances in various courtrooms.

We thought everything was on its way to settling itself, but we were wrong. Benzema finds himself banned from the French National Team until his legal troubles sort themselves out, putting his Euro 2016 in doubt.

The French legend knows it will be hard, but believes that PSG has what it takes to come back and beat Barca in the 2nd leg.