Quick, who’s the most expensive transfer of the January window so far? You should know this — it’s the $75 million Chelsea paid Borussia Dortmund for Christian Pulisic. Now what about the second-most expensive? Any ideas? It’s the $41 million AC Milan paid Flamengo for 21-year-old Brazilian Lucas Paquetá.
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.
We live in an age when there is growing equality among all genders and all colors of skin — perhaps the best we as a species have ever been in treating everyone equally. But one look at the Italian Super Cup — and Serie A as a whole — and it’s easy to see we still have a really fucking long way to go.
Yesterday, 19-year-old AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made his 100th consecutive Serie A appearance for the club, a streak which began during the 2015-16 season. It’s a feat that doesn’t make much sense for a teenager plying his trade at the seven-time European champions. It's mind-boggling.
At the age of 37, Zlatan Ibrahimović's days as a professional footballer are numbered. But after scoring 22 goals in his first 27 appearances in Major League Soccer, the big Swede has reminded the world — and most importantly, himself — of his devastating return to power following his serious knee injury in April of 2017.
When Juventus paid Napoli over $100 million for Gonzalo Higuain in 2016, the belief was that the Argentine’s goals would fire the club to a continental title. However, after two seasons in the Champions League with a return of five goals in each campaign, Higuain was offloaded to AC Milan for about half the price this past summer.
Juve then turned to five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo for the goods. Ronaldo, of course, hasn’t hit less than 10 goals in a single UCL campaign since the 2010-11 season. You can tell what Juventus is trying to achieve with the 33-year-old.
Following Cristiano Ronaldo’s move from Real Madrid to Juventus, interest in Italy’s Serie A has increased tenfold around the planet. But even before Ronaldo made the move, the division was experiencing something of a renaissance with clubs like Napoli garnering immense praise for its playing style while traditional powers Inter and Milan began targeting glory again. With ESPN now committed to broadcasting the league stateside, an Italian revolution is upon us.