According to the latest reports, Mario Balotelli is on the verge of joining Marseille from Nice in Ligue 1. Despite the timing being pretty perfect to join Major League Soccer, it’s not happening. We’re just as disappointed as you are.
With Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Balotelli all in MLS, we could’ve replayed our own version of Euro 2012.
Thank you @StatsBomb. Thank you, thank you. When it comes to statistics, dribbles, key passes and xG tell us some, but they don’t tell us enough — namely, (Ronaldinho, Ronaldinho on the wall) who is the filthiest of them all?
But thanks to StatsBomb.com, we can now discern which footballer earns his keep in a metaphorical pigsty, living amongst the grime and fetid squalor like Jack London in “The People of the Abyss.”
Kylian Mbappé sure loves his birthday.
The French starlet turned 20 on Thursday, Dec. 20, having already accomplished more by that age than most footballers can only dream of in their entire careers.
Before turning 20, Mbappé won a World Cup, two Ligue 1 titles and one French Cup. He scored nearly a goal per game (73 in 150 for club and country) and became the first teenager since Pelé to score in a World Cup final.
The winter-break period separating the first half and the second half of the season in Europe’s top five leagues is a great time for clubs to reflect on a club's season (although winter break doesn’t exist in England). Even before Christmas, but Europe’s top clubs are preparing for their second half of the season push. Here are some New Year's resolutions for Europe’s top clubs in the big five leagues.
No one is going to deny Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the greatest footballers of the last 20 years — perhaps even all time. But what if they didn’t play for the best clubs in the world? What if they played in smaller leagues? What if Messi and Ronaldo played in Ligue 1 and Liga NOS?
Well, they’d be Hatem Ben Arfa and Bas Dost, respectively.
Let’s be honest, divers ruin a lot of what’s great about soccer. Flops slow the game down, they win undeserved free kicks and generally just create more annoyance than enjoyment.
But sometimes, the diver’s acting is so unbelievably poor that the dive itself becomes a work of art. Usually, it’s some of the best players in the world that are doing the diving, which seems counterintuitive.
It was a wonderful moment back in May when Mario Balotelli, after a four-year absence from the national team, scored his first goal for Italy since June 14, 2014, and his return to form with Nice in Ligue 1 was cemented. Fast forward seven months and it’s all turned sour again for the 28-year-old.
With findings from MARCA, we now know the latest effective minutes per game from Europe’s big five leagues for the 2018-19 season.
Hatem Ben Arfa — football’s notorious l’enfant terrible — is now 31. If you’re thinking “Hey, there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while,” it’s because he took an entire year off while collecting $12.3 million. Much like how he burned his bridges at Lyon, Marseille, Newcastle United and Hull City, he found himself ostracized during the final year of his contract at PSG.
Tuesday's blockbuster friendly between France and Uruguay (a World Cup quarterfinal rematch) at the Stade de France was supposed to be a chummy occasion, as evidenced by Antoine Griezmann’s half-and-half boots. However, the match was marred by a gruesome-looking, albeit totally accidental, shoulder injury to Kylian Mbappe.
The 19-year-old phenomenon came off following the injury and then attempted to resume playing, but he ultimately succumbed to a substitution in the 36th minute.