The Portland Thorns signed forward Sophia Smith to a two-year contract extension Tuesday, making her the highest paid player in the NWSL, ESPN reported.
While Smith's deal runs through the 2025 season, the contract will include an option for 2026.
No. 9
We’ve agreed to a contract extension with forward Sophia Smith.More here: https://t.co/5lmwcbQau3 pic.twitter.com/suBqSm86qy
BARCELONA — Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves can be released from jail on a $1.1 million bail while he appeals his rape conviction, after serving about a quarter of his four-and-a-half-year sentence, a Barcelona court ruled on Wednesday.
The conditions for Alves' release include relinquishing both his Brazilian and Spanish passports so he cannot leave Spain as well as an obligation to appear before the court on a weekly basis or whenever summoned.
The court also imposed a restraining order barring Alves from coming within 3,300 feet of the victim.
Ligue 1 looks to be getting a new league sponsorship deal as RMC Sport has reported the top French league is close to teaming up with McDonald’s.
The league’s current name is actually Ligue 1 Uber Eats. The food delivery service has had the sponsorship name since 2020 and the naming deal runs until the end of the 2023-24 season.
McDonald’s is reportedly set to ink a deal with Ligue 1 worth $65 million over the next three seasons.
The deal isn’t confirmed yet but has already generated quite the storm online.
Ligue 1 McDonald’s
The Crew is iced out.
Columbus Crew players received championship rings to conmemorate their 2023 MLS Cup title before playing their season opener against Atlanta United this Saturday.
The ring, also given to coaching staff and club management, is 10-karat yellow gold and studded with approximately 250 diamonds. The conmemorative piece was revealed at the stadium in a ceremony held before the start of the match.
France captain Kylian Mbappé has informed Paris Saint-Germain that he is leaving the club in July as a free agent seven years after joining them, The Athletic website reported on Thursday.
Mbappé, a member of France's 2018 World Cup-winning team, signed for PSG from Monaco in 2017 for 180 million euros ($194 million) to become the second most expensive player ever after Brazilian Neymar, who joined the French champions the same year for 222 million euros.
In 2022 the USMNT’s group stage game vs. England had a record U.S. viewership of 19.9 million people tuning in across English and Spanish broadcasts. Although the NFL and the Super Bowl continue to hold the top ratings spot in the U.S., overall World Cup viewership dwarfs that of American football.
During the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, a record 1.5 billion tuned in to see Lionel Messi’s Argentina knock off defending world champion France.
PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain look set to leave the Parc des Princes after the City confirmed the stadium was not for sale, club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said on Thursday.
"It's too easy to say now that the stadium is not for sale anymore. We know what we want, we wasted years to try and buy it. It's easier for us now, we know what we want. It's over for us. We want to move out of the Parc," Al-Khelaifi told reporters at a UEFA Congress.
PSG leaving Parc des Princes
FC Dallas acquired Croatian striker Petar Musa from Portugal's Benfica for a club-record fee on Thursday.
Multiple reports said the transfer fee was 10 million Euros, or roughly $10.8 million USD.
Musa, 25, agreed to a four-year contract through 2027 with a club option for 2028.
New FC Dallas signing Petar Musa
The biggest signing in FC Dallas History.
DOHA — Clubs worldwide spent a record $9.63 billion on international transfers in 2023, an increase of nearly 50% compared to 2022, world soccer's governing body FIFA said in its Global Transfer Report published on Tuesday.
After transfer spending fell in 2020 and 2021 due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, outlays on players have only increased, with last year's total spend seeing an increase of 48.1% compared to 2022.
Every major downtown area in the United States needs a good soccer stadium as a gathering place for footy fans in our opinion. A new $60 million Omaha soccer stadium will now provide Nebraska with one of its own.
USL 1 club Union Omaha only came into existence five years ago and began playing in 2020. In a few short years the Owls have achieved major landmarks and have revealed plans for a state-of-the-art 7,000-seater stadium.
Omaha soccer stadium