Twenty-nine-year-old Brazilian striker Hulk is set to smash the Asian transfer record fee, previously held by Brazilian Alex Teixeira, as he completes his $61.2 million move from Zenit St Petersburg to Chinese Super League club Shanghai SIPG.
Hulk will reportedly earn in excess of $42,000 per week with the Chinese club.
Kazuyoshi Miura, a.k.a. "King Kazu," broke his own goalscoring record as he headed in a goal for Yokohama FC against FC Gifu this weekend. At an unbelievable 49 years, three months and 24 days, King Kazu broke his own record as the oldest goalscorer in Japan's J-League 2.
There’s a famous SpongeBob SquarePants episode called “Idiot Box” where both SpongeBob and his best friend, Patrick Star, inhabit an empty cardboard box, allowing them to climb mountains, launch space shuttles and venture to “Robot-Pirate Island”, all with the power of their own imagination.
Xavi Hernandez is still making the game of football look effortless in Qatar, and the former Barcelona and Spain star is on the verge of adding another trophy to his cabinet. For those keeping count, this would be number 627.
For those of you wondering how footballers will manage to perform in the sweltering heat of a Qatarian World Cup, Xavi has the answer: slowly but surely.
Earlier this year many of us heard the heartwarming story of Murtaza Ahmadi – a 5 year old boy from Afghanistan who admires Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi. When pictures of little Murtaza in his homemade Messi “jersey,” made from a blue and white striped plastic bag, went viral Messi and his team took notice. Messi autographed an actual jersey for his young fan and had it delivered to the boy in eastern Afghanistan. A touching gesture that shows the global reach of the beautiful game.
It's pretty safe to say that unless you're a Chelsea fan, you probably hate Diego Costa. His mastery of the dark arts of football tends to rub a lot of people the wrong way. He is the pantomime villain of the Premier League, the Loki of the world's game, the Iago to the Othello that is the Premier League referee.
After seven largely successful years in charge of France’s AS Monaco, Arsene Wenger had certified his reputation as one of the most promising young managers in football.
He’d led Monaco to the Ligue 1 title in 1988 and a Coupe de France triumph in 1991. They’d also reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 1994, leading to interest from Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen in the managerial services of Wenger.
He'd built his reputation as an astute, multilingual and forward-thinking coach who was capable of building and nurturing young squads.
Soccer is not just about goals. Goals are the object, sure, and the prize and the, um, goal, but goals alone do not make the game. This Oceania Champions League match between Kiwi FC (Samoa) and Nadi FA (Fiji) had goals, seven of them in fact, but it had way more than that.
Who doesn't love a good sending off? Few would argue a red card situation is not entertaining. This Oceania Champions League match between Kiwi FC and Nadi FA had, in addition to the seven goals, six red cards.
Just let that marinate for a second.
Six.
Red cards.
In one game.
We'll admit we don't know much about the Hyundai A-League, also known as the Australian A League. We know that Alessandro Del Piero played there once, that it's presumably in Australia, there's probably some sort of soccer involved and that the games are at two in the freaking morning here in the USA. However, the end of this year's title race has drawn our gaze to that wonderful land down under because it is possibly the most intense title race in the world right now.