South America

The South American Under-20 Women’s Football Championship (which serves as CONMEBOL’s qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup) is underway in Ecuador with Brazil looking to secure their eighth-straight championship in the tournament’s eighth edition. 

The junior Seleção are exceedingly dominant in this competition, and the 2018 staging of the contest has been carried out in much the same vein. Brazil topped Group B play with four wins from four matches, scoring 13 goals while conceding zero.

Club America has issued a statement regarding the latest boneheaded actions of attacker Darwin Quintero after the Colombian international attempted to smash a football at the back of ESPN reporter Marcelino Fernandez’s head during training.

After scoring only three goals in his last 29 appearances for America, it should come as no surprise that the 30-year-old missed the target. Las Aguilas were actively shopping Quintero before the start of the Clausura season, and his latest piece of work isn’t going down well at the club.

Philippe Coutinho, who became the second most expensive footballer of all-time after joining Barcelona from Liverpool on Jan. 6, looks set for his Barca debut after returning to full first-team training following a spell on the sidelines with a thigh injury.

The 2018 Copa Libertadores kicked off last night with the first legs of the first qualifying round. Over in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Oriente Petrolero defeated Peru’s Universitario 2-0 with goals from Ronaldo Sanchez and Maximiliano Freitas.

Sanchez’s goal came in the 28th minute, and both teams were down to playing with 10 men by the 77th via red cards. 

In the 79th minute, Freitas came on as a substitute. One minute later, he scored Oriente’s second. He was subsequently booked for excessive celebration and here’s why.

Just before the new year, Puebla announced the signing of 26-year-old Bolivia international Alejandro Chumacero from La Paz club The Strongest. At 5-4, Chumacero is as diminutive as they come in the midfield/wide areas, but his talent was enough to earn a short-lived spell at Brazilian club Sport Recife at the age of 22. 

This is the end of an era. Ronaldinho, the last remaining active player not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to have won the Ballon d'Or, one of the most joyous and fun footballers of all time, has officially hung up his cleats.

Dinho hasn't actually played competitive football since 2015, but his retirement rules out any chance of a return. Unless, of course, he returns.

Atlanta United is doing everything right. From hiring a new coach who has made astute signings to building a beautiful new stadium and filling said stadium up with raucous fans, the Five Stripes have hit the ground running as a model for future expansion franchises to follow. That continued on Friday with the reported record signing of 18-year-old Argentine Ezequiel Barco. 

Having last made a competitive appearance in 2014 for Atletico Paranaense, Inter Milan legend and former Brazilian international Adriano made a triumphant return in the world-renowned Maracana stadium for a friendly this week. The 35-year-old looked healthy and happy after years of troubling rumors concerning his alcohol abuse and falling in with Rio favela gangs. 

The reception he got from the stadium and his fellow players was heartwarming to say the least.

Rinson Lopez is a 30-year-old Colombian right back who plays for El Nacional in Ecuador. This is noteworthy because for his entire professional career, beginning when he was 17, it was thought that Lopez was an Ecuadorian right back. This is also noteworthy because, like Chivas Guadalajara in Mexico, El Nacional have a policy of only playing Ecuadorian nationals.

So.

It’s not an easy thing to break into the Paris Saint-Germain midfield as an attack-minded 21-year-old. With a guaranteed front three of Edinson Cavani, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe balanced by the automatic midfield selections of Adrien Rabiot and Marco Verratti, there’s only one remaining spot outside of defense for the likes of Angel Di Maria, Julian Draxler, Javier Pastore, Thiago Motta and Giovani Lo Celso (the 21-year-old referenced above) to battle for.