The Fußball Chatter

The Italian top flight will make its return on the 20th of June with Torino facing Parma and Verona hosting Cagliari. The Serie A was suspended in early March following the coronavirus outbreak, which hit Italy hard as the country was the first in Europe to be affected by the pandemic. Now, after the resumption and conclusion of the Coppa Italia, Serie A return with a title race for the Scudetto and the race for the Champions League next season. Here's where we left off. Battle for Survival  It looks grim for the likes of Brescia and SPAL. Brescia, returning from Serie B, are rooted at the bottom of the table with only 16 points. Nine points away from safety. SPAL are 19th with just 18 points from 26 games as both sides looking more than likely to go down this season. Lecce round off the bottom three sitting in 18th with 25 points. Genoa sit above Lecce just on goal difference while the likes of Sampdoria, Torino and Udinese are not safe with the gap between Udinese to Le...

So the FIFA Football Awards or THE BEST happened last night at London and Luka Modrić won the Men's Best Player Award beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah. Modrić has done what Wesley Sneijder, Franck Ribery and Manuel Neuer could not do. Break the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly.  Despite knowing he was going to win as Cristiano Ronaldo didn't attend the ceremony, Modrić was the deserved winner for what he has done over the past 12 months for both Real Madrid and Croatia. It's a sense of refreshment that a central midfielder who doesn't have high goals and assists numbers can be recognized as the best player in the world. Since Fabio Cannavaro, the FIFA Award mostly goes to attackers, something that former World Cup winning captain Philipp Lahm stated. There was some controversy with some of the winners from last night. Firstly, the Puskás award. Mohamed Salah's goal against Everton didn't deserve it. That wasn't even Salah's best goal from la...

Luka Modrić was crowned The Best Men's Player at the FIFA Football Awards last night at London. The Croatian beat former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool's Mohamed Salah to win the award becoming the first player who is not Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi since Kaka in 2007 to win a FIFA Award. It has been a fitting 12 months for the midfielder who won the UEFA Champions League in May and led his country Croatia to the FIFA World Cup Final winning the Golden Ball Award for Best Player. Football's superstars, legends of the game and celebrities were in attendance with the glitz and glamour of the ceremony. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, however, were not in attendance for the ceremony. Mohamed Salah won the FIFA Puskás Award for the best goal beating Ronaldo's overhead kick against Juventus and Gareth Bale's strike against Liverpool in the Champions League Final. Thibaut Courtois won the best goalkeeper award while France's coach ...

Matchday 1 of the UEFA Champions League continued with Group E,F,G and H taking action on Wednesday. Holders Real Madrid started the post-CR7 era in the Champions League with a 3-0 win against AS Roma at the Santiago Bernabèu to start their title defence. Juventus, with Cristiano Ronaldo, got their campaign off to a good start with a 2-0 win away at Valencia. Manchester United got a strong 3-0 victory against BSC Young Boys at Switzerland while Manchester City fell to a 2-1 defeat at the Etihad to Lyon. Bayern Munich and Ajax recorded wins while Hoffenheim earned a draw in their first ever game in the Champions League. Here are the three things learned from last night’s action. Ronaldo sees Red in UCL debut Juventus made a big statement bringing in Cristiano Ronaldo in their quest to win the Champions League since 1996 and while they started off with a 2-0 win against Valencia, the biggest talking point with the Portuguese and it wasn't for the right reasons. Ronaldo, 30 ...

Cristiano Ronaldo finally opened his goalscoring account for Juventus as the Old Lady were 2-1 winners against Sassuolo in the Serie A. The Portuguese were recently moved to Italy has been finding time difficult in Italy being unable to find the back of the net in his first three games for the Bianconeri but after 320 minutes, CR7 found the back of the net five minutes in the second half, taking advantage of some poor defending from Sassuolo in clearing their lines with Ronaldo scoring to a free net. Ten minutes after, he scored again after a swift counter attack. That was also his 400th league goal of his career. Sassuolo get one back from Khouma Babacar before Douglas Costa was sent off. The win continues Juve's start in Serie A three points above Napoli before their Champions League tie against Valencia on Wednesday but Ronaldo has finally up and running .

So FIFA's The Best Award have finally been made with the Final three nominees shortlisted. The nominees are Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus/Portgual, Luka Modric of Real Madrid/Croatia and Mohamed Salah of Liverpool/Egypt. Barcelona's Lionel Messi was excluded as he's failed to make the final cut for the first time since 2006 which has stirred angry reactions from Messi fans online. Others like Kliyan Mbappe, Antonie Griezmann and Kevin De Bryune were also omitted as well. All three nominees had strong campaign from the past season and will see their chances in winning the award. Cristiano Ronaldo Mr CR7 has made the cut once again and it's seems that he will be the favourite to win the award once again. The Portguese had a strong campaign last season for Real Madrid which was his last for Los Blancos. Ronaldo scored over forty goals last season for Real Madrid with 26 in La Liga and 15 in the UEFA Champions League. Domestically, it was an underwhelming s...

Luka Modric beat former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool's Mohamed Salah as he was awarded the UEFA Player of the Year award for his exploits in the 2017/18 season.   The awards were held yesterday during the draw for the UEFA Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo was the favorite to win the award given his productive season for Los Blancos scoring 15 goals in the UCL while Mohamed Salah had a fantastic debut season for Liverpool scoring over 40 goals in all competitions last season with 10 in the UCL. Modric was the outsider in winning the award which is a testament of the success and attention the Croatian has given over the past few months. Modric also led his country Croatia to the World Cup Final in July winning the Golden Ball award for Best Player. For the other awards, Keylor Navas was awarded Best Goalkeeper, Sergio Ramos was awarded Best Defender and Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded Best Forward by UEFA. 

Serie A makes its return this weekend as to see who will reign supreme in Italy. Serie A has seen a resurgence in recent years following financial instability, match-fixing scandals, fading superstars and failing to match the standards of other leagues in Europe like the Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga. Now, Italian clubs are becoming more competitive in the Champions League and the Europa League and breaking the traditional stereotype of being a defensive league as teams are now playing in a more expansive way. So this is a preview of the 2018/2019 Serie A season specifically these teams in their chances this season for the Scudetto and what we should look out for. Juventus, AS Roma, Napoli, Lazio, Inter Milan and AC Milan. AC Milan AC Milan since the turn of the 2010s have fallen into obscurity. They haven’t won the Scudetto since 2011 and haven’t played in the Champions League since 2014. They have also struggled financially over the years as they were recently ...