Former Spain and Barcelona man Andrés Iniesta has taken his talents across the world to Japan, and though at 34 he is in the tail end of his career, the legend is certainly showing no indication he will be going quietly into that good night. Rather, it seems his mission is to bust open the J-League at the seams one golazo at a time.
Beijing Guoan continues to set the pace in the Chinese Super League following Tuesday's 5-2 win over Dalian Yifang, and it’s pretty easy to understand why. The five-star performance was spearheaded by a brace from former Villarreal star Cedric Bakambu, a goal from Spanish international Jonathan Viera and another by the man capped 31 times by Brazil, Renato Augusto.
The 30-year-old Augusto — who scored Brazil’s lone goal in the 2-1 defeat to Belgium during the quarterfinals of this summer’s World Cup — is a class apart when it comes to midfielders in the CSL.
Keisuke Honda, one of the greatest Japanese players in the last decade, recently announced he was moving to Australia to play in the A-League with reigning champions Melbourne Victory.
But, despite signing for a new club, Honda was not done there. He has now just been announced as the General Manager of the Cambodian National Team. The 166th-ranked side now boasts a 2013 Asian Golden Ball winner sitting on its bench during matches.
At the age of 19, Alex Hunter’s career is already approaching that of the journeyman. Back in FIFA 17, you selected a Premier League club to start with, but you were then loaned to a Championship side before returning to the EPL.
In FIFA 18, you started with your parent club before being offloaded to the Los Angeles Galaxy because of Michael the conniving agent. After grinding in MLS, you then signed with either Atletico Madrid, PSG or Bayern Munich.
The Chinese Super League was home to some despicable scenes yesterday as Shanghai Shenhua striker Demba Ba was reportedly subject to racist abuse from Changchun Yatai midfielder Zhang Li. The former Newcastle United and Chelsea striker could be seen confronting Li in the 77th minute while Yatai striker Odion Ighalo — who spent three seasons in England with Watford — restrained him.
FIFA 19 is just eight weeks from being released (Sept. 28), and the hype is starting to build. EA Sports managed to win the licence for the Champions League and Europa League over from the folks at Konami and PES, so already FIFA 19 has a point on the board over its rivals.
But, if rumors are to be believed, that’s not all that will be different about FIFA 19 this year.
The Iraq U16 national team has been caught using overage players. Airport officials in Baghdad were suspicious of the players, who had used the trick of shaving as a way to look younger.
Qatar’s 2022 World Cup just can’t seem to stay away from controversy. First it was the allegations of bribery, then it was the deaths of workers building the stadiums (still an ongoing issue), and more recently it was the decision to host the 2022 World Cup during November and December.
The USWNT defeated Japan 4-2 to begin Tournament of Nations play (essentially the warmup for October’s World Cup qualifying event) with Alex Morgan registering a hat-trick inside 56 minutes and The Best FIFA Women’s Player finalist Megan Rapinoe adding the fourth in the 66th.
The final day of the dramatic cave rescue operation in northern Thailand has come to a close after the final four boys and their coach were successfully freed from the Tham Luang cave complex, following on from the two previous days in which eight members of the Wild Boars soccer team had been successfully rescued by a team of elite divers.