For keen followers of the world’s game, Feb. 5 is something of a holiday. A startling number of legendary players were born on that day, from Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez to Gheorghe Hagi and the inimitable Neymar.
But this year, Feb. 5 will come with a bit less fanfare, a bit less pomp and revelry.
This year, Neymar won’t be having an exorbitantly extravagant party to celebrate his 28th birthday.
On Monday, it was revealed that Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley would undergo surgery following a severe ankle injury suffered during the 2019 MLS Cup loss to the Seattle Sounders. Given the fact that it’d been 71 days since the final and with the club now reporting for preseason, news of Bradley being sidelined for approximately four months was met with confused anger throughout Toronto.
Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen could soon have his wish of leaving Tottenham granted. Eriksen has voiced his displeasure with the club and intends to leave the Premier League to go elsewhere. Serie A side Inter Milan has focused its sights on the 27-year-old and is prepared to offer him quite the lucrative deal. Eriksen could be earning $130,000 a week after taxes according to The Times.
Cristiano Ronaldo is still dominating the soccer world, but he’s already making plans for life after football.
At a sports conference on Saturday, Ronaldo said he’d like to try out acting.
“One of the things that I seek to challenge myself in, for example, is acting in a movie,” Ronaldo said.
Yes! Let’s make this happen!
Ronaldo would hardly be the first athlete to turn to acting, nor even the first footballer.
After an incessant 19-month news cycle that began on Mar. 31, 2018, with an incredible brace against LAFC and concluded on Oct. 24, 2019, with a playoff defeat to the same team, we’ll admit that we’re already feeling pretty empty without Zlatan Ibrahimović in America.
For fans of Major League Soccer, the offseason is entirely too long. It’s a point that Vancouver Whitecaps manager Marc Dos Santos was recently fined for expressing with some decidely colorful language.
“Players at the top level, they have three weeks, one month maximum, on break,” Dos Santos said. “I’m telling you, three months and a half of a break in a soccer season is Mickey Mouse. It’s amateur. It doesn’t happen in the world.”
Gareth Bale is still in the midst of a never-ending transfer saga at Real Madrid, but his focus isn’t on where he might be playing next.
Nor is Bale focusing on his play on the field.
Gareth Bale, 30, is mostly worried about what he’s going to do when he retires — golf and going unnoticed.
When you’re young, birthdays are great. They mark new transitions into adulthood — at 16 you can drive, at 18 you can vote and at 21 you can drink.
As you get older, birthdays become less notable, more of an excuse to eat an extra dessert than a reason to celebrate. Fewer people bother to send you birthday well-wishes other than those semi-friends who post on Facebook as if they actually knew when your birthday was without being told by Mark Zuckerberg.
After a year-and-a-half together at the Camp Nou, it’s likely that Ousmane Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho have ended their time together as teammates on the pitch.
I don’t know about you, but there's been a burning question on my mind ever since a certain young American got transferred to a certain English club that wears the color blue: Does Christian Pulisic have a girlfriend, and should they get married?
Hmmm...
He’s living 4,000 miles away from home and his family and friends. The kid needs someone to keep him company, to hug him when he’s feeling down after losing or to hug him when he’s over the moon after winning.