SOME EUROPEAN FOOTBALL TIT BITS
* RETIRED PLAYERS IN 2019:
Darren Bent
Patrice Evra
Micah Richards
Peter Crouch
Arjen Robben
Xavi Hernandez
Robin van Persie
Petr Cech
Fernando Torres
* OTHER TOP PLAYER TRANSFERS YOU HAVE MISSED:
#. PLAYER FROM TO
1. Kevin-Prince Boateng SASSUOLO FIORENTINA
2. Malcom BARCELONA ZENIT
3. Andre Schurle DORTMUND SPARTAK MOSCOW
4. Simon Mignolet LIVERPOOL CLUB BRUGGE
5. Radja Nainggolan INTER MILAN CAGLIARI
6. Juanfran AT MADRID SAO PAULO
7. Dani Alves PSG SAO PAULO
8. Shinji Okazaki LEICESTER MALAGA
9. Vincent Janssen TOTTENHAM MONTERREY
10. Filipe Luis AT MADRID FLAMENGO
11. Thomas Vermaelen BARCELONA VISSEL KOBE
12. Joao Miranda INTER MILAN JIANGSU SUNING
13. Daniele De Rossi ROMA BOCA JUNIORS
14. Vincent Kompany MANCHESTER CITY ANDERLECHT
15. Adriano SEVILLA ATHLETICO PR
16. Yacine Brahimi PORTO AL-RAYYAN
* MOST EXPENSIVE TRANSFER DEALS IN WORLD FOOTBALL HISTORY FOR DEFENDERS:
🇳🇱 Virgil van Dijk (£75m)
🇫🇷 Lucas Hernandez (£68m)
🇳🇱 Matthijs de Ligt (£67.5m)
🇫🇷 Aymeric Laporte (£57m)
* ALL-TIME MOST EXPENSIVE WORLS FOOTBALL TRANSFERS (TOP 20)
# – PLAYER – FROM – TO – AMOUNT (IN POUNDS)
1 Neymar Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain £198m
2 Kylian Mbappé Monaco Paris Saint-Germain £116m
3 João Félix Benfica Atlético Madrid £114.1m
4 Philippe Coutinho Liverpool Barcelona £105m
5 Antoine Griezmann Atlético Madrid Barcelona £107m
6 Ousmane Dembélé Borussia Dortmund Barcelona £97m
7 Paul Pogba Juventus Manchester United £89m
8 Eden Hazard Chelsea Real Madrid £89m
9 Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid Juventus £88.5m
10 Gareth Bale Tottenham Hotspur Real Madrid £86m
11 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United Real Madrid £80m
12 Harry Maguire Leicester City Manchester United £80m
13 Gonzalo Higuaín Napoli Juventus £75.3m
14 Romelu Lukaku Everton Manchester United £75m
15 Virgil van Dijk Southampton Liverpool £75m
16 Luis Suárez Liverpool Barcelona £65m
17 Nicolas Pépé Lille Arsenal £72m
18 Kepa Arrizabalaga Athletic Bilbao Chelsea £71.6m
19 Lucas Hernandez Atlético Madrid Bayern Munich £70m
20 Zinedine Zidane Juventus Real Madrid £46.6m
* ALL-TIME MOST EXPENSIVE PLAYERS BY POSITION:
GOALKEEPER – Kepa Arrizabalaga
DEFENDER – Harry Maguire
MIDFIELDER – Philippe Coutinho
WINGER – Neymar
STRIKER – Kylian Mbappé
* MOST EXPENSIVE AFRICAN FOOTBALLERS:
1. Nicolas Pepe, £72m ($87m) – Arsenal
2. Cedric Bakambu, £65.4m ($83m) – Beijing Guoan
3. Riyad Mahrez, £60m ($76m) – Manchester City
4. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, £56m ($71m) – Arsenal
5. Naby Keita, £52.75m ($64m) – Liverpool
6. Mohamed Salah, £36.9m ($45m) – Liverpool
7. Sadio Mane, £35m ($42.5m) – Liverpool
8. Eric Bailly, £30m (36.4m) – Manchester United
9. Islam Slimani, £29.5m ($35.8m) – Leicester City
10. Wilfried Bony, £28m ($34m) – Manchester City
* THE SUPER CUP WINNERS FROM EUROPE’S TOP SIX LEAGUES:
🇫🇷 Paris Saint-Germain
🇩🇪 Borussia Dortmund
🇵🇹 Benfica
* Chelsea have confirmed Claude Makelele has joined the club in a new role.
* UEFA have confirmed Stéphanie Frappart will referee the Super Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea. She makes history by becoming the first female official to referee a major men’s UEFA match.
* ATLETICO MADRID TRANSFER WINDOW:
🇵🇹 Joao Felix (£113m)
🇪🇸 Marcos Llorente (£35.6m)
🇪🇸 Mario Hermoso (£22.5m)
🇧🇷 Renan Lodi (£22.4m)
🇧🇷 Felipe (£18m)
🇷🇸 Ivan Saponjic (£6.3m)
🇲🇽 Hector Herrera (free)
* JUVENTUS TRANSFER WINDOW:
Matthijs de Ligt (£67.5m)
🇫🇷 Adrien Rabiot (free)
🇮🇹 Gianluigi Buffon (free)
🇮🇹 Luca Pellegrini (£20m)
* Antoine Griezmann on Lionel Messi: “For me, Messi is the image of football. He has something different that others don’t have. We can only see that every 30 years or so.”
* Kieran Trippier on signing for Atletico Madrid: ‘I’ve always wanted to play abroad and what a place to play. They’ve got a quality team and an unbelievable manager. It’s something that I can’t wait to do.”
* MOST EXPENSIVE ARSENAL SIGNINGS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE:
🇨🇮 Nicolas Pepe (£72m)
🇬🇦 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£56.1m)
🇫🇷 Alexandre Lacazette (£52.7m)
🇩🇪 Mesut Ozil (£42.5m)
🇩🇪 Shkodran Mustafi (£35m)
* MOST EXPENSIVE AFRICAN PLAYERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE:
🇨🇮 Nicolas Pepe (£72m)
🇩🇿 Riyad Mahrez (£60m)
🇬🇦 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£56.1m)
🇬🇳 Naby Keita (£52.75m)
🇪🇬 Mohamed Salah (£36.9m)
* 2019/20 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL => ISTANBUL (TURKEY)
* Krasnodar vs. FC Porto
Rosenborg vs. Maribor
PAOK vs. Ajax
APOEL vs. Qarabag
Cluj vs. Celtic
Dinamo Zagreb vs. Ferencvaros
Red Star Belgrade vs. Copenhagen
Basel vs. LASK Linz
Club Brugge vs. Dynamo Kyiv
Basaksehir vs. Olympiacos
* FIFA BEST MEN’S PLAYER.
🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo
🇳🇱 Frenkie de Jong
🇳🇱 Matthijs de Ligt
🇧🇪 Eden Hazard
🇸🇳 Sadio Mane
🇫🇷 Kylian Mbappe
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi
🇪🇬 Mohamed Salah
🇳🇱 Virgil van Dijk
* FIFA BEST MEN’S COACH:
🇩🇿 Djamel Belmadi
🇫🇷 Didier Deschamps
🇦🇷 Marcelo Gallardo
🇦🇷 Ricardo Gareca
🇪🇸 Pep Guardiola
🇩🇪 Jurgen Klopp
🇦🇷 Mauricio Pochettino
🇵🇹 Fernando Santos
🇳🇱 Erik ten Hag
🇧🇷 Tite
* FIFA BEST WOMEN’S PLAYER:
🇺🇸 Julie Ertz
🇳🇴 Caroline Graham Hansen
🇳🇴 Ada Hegerberg
🇫🇷 Amandine Henry
🇦🇺 Sam Kerr
🇺🇸 Rose Lavelle
🇳🇱 Vivianne Miedema
🇺🇸 Alex Morgan
🇺🇸 Megan Rapinoe
🇫🇷 Wendie Renard
* FIFA BEST WOMEN’S COACH:
🇮🇹 Milena Bertolini
🇺🇸 Jill Ellis
🇸🇪 Peter Gerhardsson
🇯🇵 Futoshi Ikeda
🇪🇸 Antonia Is
🇦🇺 Joe Montemurro
🇫🇷 Reynald Pedros
🇳🇱 Sarina Wiegman
* Manchester United have confirmed Eric Bailly will be out of action for four to five months after suffering a knee injury against Tottenham.
* Eden Hazard and Virgil van Dijk have been named as the cover athletes of FIFA 20.
Champions Edition: Virgil van Dijk
Standard Edition: Eden Hazard
* Barcelona have confirmed they have terminated the contract of their sporting director Pep Segura.
* Barcelona have appointed Patrick Kluivert as their new Director of La Masia on a two-year contract until June 2021.
* FIFA have confirmed the 2019 Qatar Club World Cup will be played from 11th December to 21st December with three confirmed entrants thus far:
🇲🇽 CF Monterrey
🇳🇨 Hienghène Sport
* Jorginho on his new role under Frank Lampard: “I have more space to create and it means I am more free and can do more things with my creativity. I like it & think I can adapt. My characteristic is to be there and to control the game. Maybe it will mean more assists, maybe not.”
* Liverpool have confirmed Nathaniel Clyne has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and will be ruled out of action for six months.
* Carles Alena on his No.21 shirt being given to Frenkie de Jong: “Giving the No.21 to De Jong was something between him and me. I would have liked a message from the board because they promised him the number without notifying me.
“That left a bad taste, it didn’t feel good.”
* Cristiano Ronaldo will not be prosecuted over allegations made about sexual assault in 2009.
* Manchester United have promoted Nicky Butt to the Head of First Team Development with Nick Cox promoted to Head of the Academy.
* Memphis Depay has released the music video for his single “Fall Back”.
* Matthijs de Ligt on deciding to join Juventus: “After the Nations League final I was already sure that I wanted to join Juventus, but it was still a big compliment to have Cristiano ask me to join here but it didn’t make the difference.”
