WTF

Giuseppe Rossi has had a tumultuous career in and out of the spotlight since his days as a highly-touted youngster at Old Trafford back in 2004. Though he never really broke through for the Red Devils and went on loan a couple of times, we saw him at his best during a six year stint at Villarreal. The Italian enjoyed a handful of quality seasons for the Yellow Submarine and was widely regard as one of their most important players.

Luka Modric has claimed The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2018 award ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah (and dare I say it at risk of being murdered, Lionel Messi), but that contentious decision pales compared to everything else that unfolded at a star-studded gala (sans Messi and Ronaldo) in London on Monday evening.  

I don’t know how we got here.

I mean, there’s no denying the popularity of eSports games like Overwatch, Dota 2 and League of Legends, but a Swiss league match between Young Boys and FC Basel was halted in the 16th minute yesterday while fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch, a PS4 controller (damn, that’s like $50) and unfurled massive banners in protest of eSports . . . things have escalated so quickly.

It’s the headline you did not expect today: Patrice Evra once defecated in Gerard Pique’s shoes at Manchester United. The reason for it, however, is totally understandable. 

According to Spanish daily sports paper Diario AS, Evra once waited months for a pair of boots from Nike that had the names of his kids and other details on them. When Evra finally received them, Pique went to the showers, made a small bonfire and burned them. Nice one, Pique.

Volodymyr Chesnakov has one of the oddest pregame rituals we have ever seen. 

The captain of Vorskla Poltava, Chesnakov and his teammates were in London to face Arsenal in the Europa League on Thursday. Before coming out onto the pitch at Emirates Stadium, Chesnakov spit all over his own face.

And it worked. He scored a great goal for Vorskla, the fifth-place team in the Ukrainian Premier League.

But Arsenal still won easily, 4-2, to the surprise of no one. 

A blockbuster Champions League encounter between Italian champions Juventus and Valencia — fourth place finishers in LaLiga — descended into farce when Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off 29 minutes into his UCL debut with the Old Lady. 

Ronaldo had been active and involved throughout the early proceedings, and Juventus really should’ve taken the lead through either Mario Mandzukic or Sami Khedira, but both put close range shots over the bar in the game’s opening period.