There are many ways to define a club’s ambition. Perhaps the easiest is a straightforward look at which club spends the most money.
As the 2010s come to a close, we at The18 looked at which 18 clubs spent the most money over the last decade. No surprise, Manchester City is at the top having spent $1.71 billion. (Note: All numbers used in this article are from TransferMarkt.com.)
Major League Soccer announced Charlotte, North Carolina, will be home to the 30th franchise in the league on Tuesday. The Charlotte MLS expansion bid was led by Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, with a reported expansion fee of $325 million.
Kicking into gear in pic.twitter.com/woFr645A45
— charlottemls (@CharlotteMLS) December 17, 2019
Major League Soccer announced Charlotte as Major League Soccer’s 30th club on Tuesday. Awarded to Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, the team will begin play in 2021.
Charlotte. 2021.
You got next, @CharlotteMLS! pic.twitter.com/bSJPP0vJJX— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 17, 2019
Monterrey Femenil claimed the 2019 Liga MX Femenil Apertura title with a 2-1 aggregate win over UANL in front of 38,251 fans on Saturday. Las Rayadas had lost in the 2018 and 2019 Clausura finals before finally earning their first-ever title.
But the celebrations were dulled this week when it became apparent Monterrey would only reward players with iPads instead of a verbally promised financial bonus. Last I checked, you can’t pay rent with a tablet.
When Jim Frank first started volunteering as a Withrow High School soccer coach in Cincinnati, he and head coach Tyler Barrott had to base their substitution pattern on the players’ shoe size.
The soccer program had 40 players, almost all international students and most of them refugees, but only 23 pairs of cleats.
“The disdain or pity on our opponents’ faces as we had to take the time to remove shoes and shin guards during substitutions was the emotional ‘aha’ moment that told me that I needed to do more than just coach these players,” Frank said.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is just saying what we’re all thinking, and, often, talking, writing and complaining about. Soccer in America is broken because of one key aspect: pay to play.
Ibrahimovic has left the United States, trading Beverly Hills for Milan after one-and-a-half years with the LA Galaxy. But his time in America left a mark on the Swedish striker.
Four days ago, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp ruled out a move for PSG’s Kylian Mbappé while lamenting the fact that no club could possibly afford the 20-year-old phenomenon. On Tuesday, Real Madrid reportedly said hold my beer and began preparing a $440 million bid for the World Cup winner.
We’re just six days away from the 2019 MLS Cup Final between the Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC at CenturyLink Field, and although the entire capacity of the 68,740-seat stadium will be open, the match is already a sellout and the cheapest tickets you can find on the resell market are for $300 up in the 300-level.
The National Women’s Soccer League, which just finished its seventh season by crowning the North Carolina Courage as champions, is overhauling its pay structure to try to stay relevant on the global state.
It’s sad, really. The U.S. Soccer Federation has done so much good for women’s soccer, but when it comes to paying the best team in the world more money, it is dragging its feet worse than a kid being taken to the dentist.