There was a time when indoor soccer was as big as it got in the United States. After the NASL folded in in 1984 and before Major League Soccer launched in 1996, the only professional soccer in the U.S. was indoors.
The Major Arena Soccer League wants to return to those halcyon days of Dallas Sidekicks and San Diego Sockers, evidence by two giant signings for the current season.
Alejandro Sebastián Romero Gamarra, better known as Kaku (but not that Kaku), is a New York Red Bulls designated player. He arrived in the Big Apple from Huracán with much fanfare in February 2018, but didn’t quite live up to lofty expectations in his first season.
Now he wants a move to Club América. But the Red Bulls are going all Daniel Levy on the Liga MX side and Kaku’s agent, Gustavo Casasola, is not happy.
According to the Deloitte Football Money League 2019 study, Real Madrid is now the richest club in the world after generating a record revenue of $867.7 million over the course of the 2017-18 season. Last year’s number one, Manchester United, has fallen to number three in the rankings and been overtaken by Barcelona as well.
Christian Pulisic has been usurped. But just who is Frenkie de Jong anyway?
Prior to Wednesday, Pulisic was the most expensive signing of the January transfer window, Chelsea paying $73 million for the services of the Borussia Dortmund 20-year-old.
Now Pulisic must sit in the back seat for Barcelona’s new 21-year-old midfielder, Frenkie de Jong.
Simo Valakari is no Pep Guardiola. He’s no Jurgen Klopp. He’s definitely no Jose Mourinho.
But he is the most inspirational manager I’ve ever seen.
Simo Valakari isn’t exactly a household name. The manager of Tromsø IL in Norway’s Eliteserien since 2017, he’s trying to get the club back into the Europa League, where it competed in five of six years from 2009-14 or even the Champions League.
If you missed Part 1 on Monday, you can find it here.
Since 2013, the CIES Football Observatory has annually been releasing a list of the top 100 valued footballers from Europe’s “Big-5” leagues. It’s a fascinating concept because rather than just saying “Messi is the best, he’s No. 1. Ronaldo is second-best, he’s No.
The values of the biggest clubs in soccer have skyrocketed over the last five years, thanks in large part to revenue growth. A large portion of this revenue comes from the most expensive shirt sponsorship deals in all of sports, and it should come as no surprise that the three clubs with the largest jersey sponsorship deals also constitute the three most valuable soccer teams in the world.
The list is largely dominated by English Premier League sides and the Dubai-based airline Emirates, both obvious signs of the time.
Christian Pulisic, a 20-year-old from Hershey, Pennsylvania, is the 25th most expensive player in the history of soccer.
Really?
As much as we here at The18 love Christian Pulisic, we were a bit blown away by the fee he garnered on his transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea this week. We understand why, but the more you look at it, the more absurd it appears.
When Neymar made his record-breaking transfer from Barcelona to PSG, his former Brazilian club Santos, with which he played from the age of 11, received a windfall of nearly $16 million as a solidarity payment.