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).
And just like that, Marouane Fellaini has gone from indispensable Manchester United siege tower — a man who could’ve put rivals City in “big, big trouble” — to Shandong Luneng. We shouldn’t feel bad for the 31-year-old Belgian because he’s reportedly signed a contract worth $12.5 million per year after tax.
You’ve heard this before: A broken foot is threatening to prematurely end Neymar’s club season, and he could be facing a race for fitness ahead of a major international tournament.
Last season, Neymar sustained a crack to the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot during a match against Marseille on Feb. 25. The injury was worse than first expected, required surgery and Neymar missed PSG’s Champions League Round of 16 return leg against Real Madrid before sitting out the rest of the season.
Manchester United has one of the largest fan bases in the world for any sports team. With that comes one of the largest anti-fan bases — fans who love nothing more than to see Man U lose.
But those Red Devils haters are finding it harder and harder to hate on this team since Ole Gunnar Solskjær took over for Jose Mourinho in December. And we’re not just talking about the team’s unbeaten run since the Special One was shown the door.
According to the Deloitte Football Money League 2019 study, Real Madrid is now the richest club in the world after generating a record revenue of $867.7 million over the course of the 2017-18 season. Last year’s number one, Manchester United, has fallen to number three in the rankings and been overtaken by Barcelona as well.
In the soccer world, one of the best sights for sore eyes is the return of the Champions League.
Sometimes, watching Champions League teams playing league cup matches against weak opposition can be really dull after a while. For example, Manchester City’s 9-0 drubbing of Burton Albion a few weeks ago. In a lot of ways, European soccer without Champions League becomes kind of monotonous. At some point between the last Champions League group stage match and the start of the Round of 16, soccer fans will be wondering when the tournament will start up again.
If you’ve paid attention to internet trends over the past few days or so, you will notice something known as the #10YearChallenge. The basic premise of it is that people post pictures of themselves from 2009 and another from 2019 to show the world how much they’ve changed — in appearance or otherwise.
Although Nani never lived up to his billing as “The Next Cristiano Ronaldo,” take nothing away from the man who currently has 112 Portugal caps to his name and is still going strong in his 14th year as a professional.
The 32-year-old made his name with Manchester United — where he won four Premier League titles and the 2007-08 Champions League — but he’s gone on to have successful stints in Turkey (Fenerbahce), Spain (Valencia) and Italy (Lazio) before returning home to boyhood club Sporting.
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).
It’s been said before, but Paul Pogba, at his best, is akin to a Medieval English siege tower. He’s unassailable in possession, and he’s here to decimate your last line of defense while preying on that most primitive of human emotions — fear.
He’s a contortionist with the ball at his feet, a skill set made all the more bewildering by his imposing 6-3 frame.