England

105,826 crowded into Michigan Stadium, better known as “The Big House”, to get a glimpse of Real Madrid and Chelsea stars like Marcelo, Oscar, Eden Hazard and James Rodriguez. At the end of they day, they were all talking about Real Madrid’s 22-year-old Dominican forward Mariano Diaz Mejia, simply known as Mariano.

Marcelo put in a man of the match performance, and Eden Hazard scored two wonderful late goals for the Blues, but Mariano’s goal was absolutely world-class.

Less than four minutes into Zlatan Ibrahimovic's debut, in a friendly against Turkish club Galatasaray, the King of Sweden made his mark.

You know you are one of the greatest when you manage to convince a 19-year-old kid to pass up massive deals to play for Barcelona or Real Madrid and sign with Manchester City. And guess what? That’s exactly what Pep Guardiola did.

Young Gabriel Jesus was getting bombarded from all sides with offers from top notch clubs and incessant questions from the media. We can only guess what kind of pressure that can put a 19-year-old under.

He’s been called the Chuck Norris of football. He’s referred to as a lord and “The Powerhouse”. Likened to “a blunt instrument with which to bludgeon defenses”, Emile Heskey changed the way we viewed the forward position during his playing days.

Heskey burst onto the scene with Leicester City back in 1994, and he reached his pinnacle with Liverpool during the 2000-01 season after scoring 14 Premier League goals in 36 matches.

Pep Guardiola is a one of a kind manager. Everyone knows that. And yet, he never ceases to amaze fans. His latest pre-season antic is nothing short of hilarious.

It is not unusual for players to come back from vacation with a few extra pounds packed on, but Manchester City players got a little taste of how the Guardiola era at Etihad Stadium will be.

Guardiola brought down the hammer and banned all the players who showed up overweigh, from training with the first team.

Apparently, Guardiola told the players to cut out on “bad food” like pizza and chips.

As much as the people in charge would like for it to be a competitive tournament, the International Champions Cup is a collection of friendlies between big teams trying to grow their fan-bases in new, previously untapped markets. The players will run around a little, the coaches will evaluate some youth academy players and everyone will be nice before heading home. They're just friendlies. No one is taking them seriously. Except for Cesc Fabregas.

Look what happened when Cesc and Liverpool center back Ragnar Klavan go after the same ball.

Reading Football Club have gone above and beyond with the term "kit launch". Matter of fact, they've gone to (extremely Star Trek voice) Space: the final frontier.

The story arcs that football provides us with are both fascinating and absurd. Who could’ve guessed that, come 2016, Brad Guzan would be doing battle with Victor Valdes to be named the starting goalkeeper for Middlesbrough?

Guzan, the 31-year-old Illinois native with 50 USA appearances to his name, is expected to join the newly promoted Premier League club on a free transfer following Aston Villa’s relegation. 

The prevailing wisdom is to never look too far into preseason matches, but when those matches are repeatedly beating you over the head with the obvious, you should probably take notice.

Last year, under the guidance of Steve McClaren, Newcastle recorded just two victories in seven matches. They were defeated by Club Atlas, the Portland Timbers reserve squad and League Two side York City F.C. 

That disastrous preseason form led to an opening run of eight Premier League games without a victory. In hindsight, the club was doomed for relegation as early as October 3rd. 

Leicester City are looking to seal a deal for Polish star Bartosz Kapustka as they seek to strengthen their side in the wake of uncertainty surrounding the futures of their star players. 

N'Golo Kante has already left for Chelsea, and now it appears as if Riyad Mahrez wants to leave the club as well, with Arsenal said to be close to sealing a deal for the Algerian.