Fresh off scoring an excellent goal in Mexico’s 3-1 friendly win over Chile last Friday, El Tri boss Gerardo “Tata” Martino is confident that now’s the time for Hirving “Chucky” Lozano to make a move to one of Europe’s bigger leagues.
This story is only going to dominate the entire summer transfer window from start to finish, so we might as well keep abreast of it now. We know that Real Madrid has its eyes on both Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, but which PSG star will ultimately makes his way to the Santiago Bernabéu?
The latest reports say that it won’t be Neymar.
Presently, it looks like Real will turn to Chelsea’s Eden Hazard — who only has one-year remaining on his current contract at Stamford Bridge, so the club might have to sell this summer — to remedy the left-hand side of the attack.
The bidding war for center back Milan Škriniar has officially gone berserk.
While teams have been bidding on the defender for a few months now, his agent has come out with some numbers.
“Real Madrid and Barcelona both want (Škriniar); Manchester City offered €55 million but he’s worth €100 million,” Škriniar’s agent Mital Halis said.
It’s a bit strange, but for the likes of Real Madrid, PSG, Atlético and Napoli, there’s not much to play for with two months remaining in the season. Maybe a Coupe de France here and a triggering of an Arsenal crisis there, but it’s really silly season time for the aforementioned giants of the European game.
Alexis Sanchez, right now, is a disappointment, and that’s not up for debate.
Since signing for Manchester United, his performances have been inconsistent and for the most part poor. While he has contributed to some important goals for United, Sanchez still makes the Red Devils play like they have 10 men on the pitch. United’s recent injury crisis could have been Sanchez’s chance to prove himself, but yet again he has fallen short.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been rumored to want to offload the Chilean in the summer, as he’s racking up quite the wage bill in Manchester.
Trend meets trend: Another U.S. national team or youth prospect makes the jump to Major League Soccer as Sporting Kansas City signs a talented, young player off the radar of most clubs. That's what we got today when Sporting officially announced that Gedion Zelalem had signed from Arsenal. The 22-year-old joins Kansas City for the 2019 season, with club options for two additional years.
According to Portuguese media outlet Record, Wolverhampton has agreed to a deal with Benfica and Raúl Jiménez to sign the on-loan striker permanently in the summer.
Real Madrid stayed at the top for 1,012 days. That’s probably at least 1,005 days more than any of us have managed (I’m not forgetting that week you found $20 in a rarely-worn coat pocket and someone brought bagels into the office). But now the great Real Madrid Crisis of 2019 is upon us, and HEADS WILL ROLL!
Take away the knowledge that, at 15 years and 253 days, he’s the youngest international footballer in Norway’s history and, at 16 years and 157 days, the youngest debutant in Real Madrid history, and you’re left with a more appropriate picture of Martin Ødegaard: A 20-year-old playmaker that immediately passes the eye test with his sublime technical skills and game-changing flair.
The Galaxy had a Designated Player problem. With four LA Galaxy DPs — and only three allowed by MLS rules — the league’s flagship club had to do something before the start of the 2019 season.
Last year when Zlatan Ibrahimovic signed with the Galaxy, he signed a smaller contract to keep him under DP status because the club already had three DPs: Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan dos Santos and Romain Alessandrini. But Zlatan re-upped his contract in the offseason, putting him in DP money despite the fact the three others remained under contract.