American fans flock to the International Champions Cup but there is concern that while enriching top European clubs it may not be helping the US domestic gameOn Saturday night a sellout crowd of 66,014 spectators footed between $240 (£183) and $3,500 (£2,665) to watch a pre-season friendly between Real Madrid and Barcelona at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, the pièce de résistance of the two-week summer exhibition tour featuring high-profile European clubs known as the International Champions Cup. The rights holder ESPN delivered the type of blanket coverage more typical of a Super Bowl or World Cup final, committing no fewer than 25 on-air personalities to south Florida and broadcasting live on location throughout the week.This is to say nothing of...
The forward’s likely destination is Real Madrid for a world record £160m fee – in another age it would not happen but history suggests it may work outWhat do you get if you cross Kylian Mbappé with Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Love Island, Jeremy+Corbyn+hot+leaked+pics and What Is Wrong With My Thumbs? It’s hard to say for sure. But thanks to the hive-mind thought-invasion robots of the internet you are at least now reading this article about the brilliant, wonderful Mbappé and the most interminable, clickbait-heavy transfer story of football’s great summer of money.Most things don’t happen. Often football transfer talk is a kind of currency in itself, a semi-detached entity, enough to lubricate the cogs, push related deals along and keep...
Florentino Pérez has said that his club are not contemplating Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure but one day they will have to, and his equivocal tone suggests they are keeping their options open this summer“That’s not something I am contemplating.” The phrase was repeated often but that did not make it any more true. On Monday night Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, insisted he was not even thinking about a series of scenarios that he certainly is thinking about. He has to. As he said himself: “Things happen and you look for the best solution for everyone.” What happened was that the Portuguese daily A Bola broke the story that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Spain; the question now is whether that...
From Real Madrid’s historic double to a bottom three in a league of their own, via explosive managerial cameos and that statue, it’s the annual awardsLuka Modric went to lift the trophy but there was nothing in his hands, just a look on his face that said it all. Beside him, Gareth Bale was giggling. Real Madrid won the league, shouting, embracing and leaping around the pitch at the Rosaleda where they had just defeated Málaga on the final day, but there was something missing. “What do you mean, no trophy?” the Croatian asked Madrid’s press officer. “They’ll hand it out at the start of next season,” came the reply. “So now we celebrate here, we go back to the...
Despite eventually learning self-control, Pepe is certainly no angel. But as he leaves Real Madrid, a touch sadly, it is time to acknowledge just how good a player he becameThe very last time Pepe put on his Real Madrid kit and ran on to the pitch, it wasn’t to play. Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira joined team-mates in celebrations at the Santiago Bernabéu on Sunday evening wearing all white, knowing that he will not be back. The day before, he had been left out of the squad for the Champions League final at the Millennium Stadium; the night after, he finally confirmed what had long been an open secret: “It’s clear that I won’t be continuing at Madrid,” he said. There...