Italy

Mauro Zarate made an emotional return to Fiorentina on Thursday for their Europa League group stage encounter with Qarabag. Zarate had been given leave by the club to return to Argentina to be with his wife, Natalie Weber, through the beginning of the season. 

Weber was diagnosed with breast cancer, a tragic development following the announcement of a miscarriage earlier this year. Zarate and Weber are a beloved high-profile, celebrity couple in Argentina.

Francesco Totti celebrated with 40th birthday on Tuesday, a milestone that encapsulates 25 seasons at one club, AS Roma. Totti has been as effective as ever for the Giallorossi, scoring two goals and registering two assists in just 192 minutes of Serie A action this season.

His league play was rewarded with a start and rare 90 minutes of action in Thursday’s Europa League encounter with Romanian opposition Astra Giurgiu. The Roman delighted supporters at the Stadio Olimpico with another vintage performance. 

Sometimes, selling your best player is the right move. Take, for example, Manchester United shipping out Ruud van Nistlerooy in 2006. In the aftermath of losing the prolific striker, a new set of players emerged to take up the burden. The side became less reliant on one focal point and spread the workload across an emerging generation of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Carrick.

Francesco Totti is an icon, having played for Roma for the entirety of his lengthy and successful career. Totti is in his last season for Roma, and he turned 40 years old Tuesday. Lionel Messi, the current best player in the world, sent Totti a nice message.

Former Italian national team forward Paolo Rossi celebrated his 60th birthday Thursday. With his hat trick at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Rossi not only managed to push Italy to glory but also gave a name to his biography, published in 2002: "I Made Brazil Cry".

Brazil was the heavy favorite of that World Cup. Players like Zico, Socrates, Paulo Roberto Falcao, Toninho Cerezo and Eder were part of that Brazilian National Team.

Arriving into the weekend, Internazionale were perfectly poised to implode as only they can. One of Italy’s most consistently self-defeating clubs, the Nerazzurrri had spent mid-week losing (at home) to the third-best team from Israel. Far from being a freak result, the Milanese club had been thoroughly outplayed.

There was a practice in Ancient Rome whereby a victorious general would be welcomed back into the city by throngs of celebrating citizens. As the triumph marched through the streets, with compliments and adoration showered upon the commander by the men and women of Rome, there was always a slave stationed beside his ear. 

Imagine how great the world would be if every footballer behaved like Gigi Buffon. The 38-year-old Juventus and Italy goalkeeper is an absolute legend, equally famous for his remarkable career between the posts and his overall character. In recent years Buffon has endeared himself to fans around the world with his charismatic signing of the Italian national anthem, writing an emotional letter to the goal he defends, and playing keeper during a game with children.  

The 2016 summer transfer window is officially closed. There have been many exciting transfers as well as some truly terrible, overpriced ones. We're only a few weeks into the new season so we don’t know for sure how these transfers are going to work out, but we've come up with a list of 10 transfers which we anticipate will prove worthless.

10 Summer Transfers That Are Destined To Fail

#10: Maarten Stekelenburg | Fulham to Everton

The list of great Italian goalkeepers surpasses that of any other nation on the planet. The likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Dino Zoff and Walter Zenga, to name just a few, have all represented the Azzurri with great ability and longevity. On Thursday, we got our first look at the next great Italian goalkeeper, AC Milan’s exceptional 17-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma.