The Fußball Chatter

When the Ballon D'or comes around every year, football discourse goes into overdrive, whether this player should be higher on the twenty-five shortlist or why many defenders or midfielders are higher up the list. It's like debating who's the best rapper alive or who has the better chicken between Popeye's or KFC. France Football sure knows what they are doing. Anyways, the ceremony in Paris happened last night with some notable highlights. Gavi won the Kopa Trophy, the award for the best player under the age of 21. Ahead of the likes of Eduardo Camavinga, Jamal Musiala and Jude Bellingham. Barcelona's Alexia Putellas retained the Ballon D'or Feminin over Sam Kerr and Beth Head. Robert Lewandowski won the Gerd Muller trophy (Best Striker Award), which he won last year. Sadio Mane was awarded the Socrates award for his charity work in Senegal. However, the leading moment was Karim Benzema, who dressed in a suit replicated by one of his idols Tupac being awarded th...

The UEFA Champions League makes its return as the first round of group games taking place on the 6th and 7th of September. This season's Champions League is going to be very different. Due to the World Cup taking place in November, all group games will be held from the 6th-7th of September to the 1st-2nd of November. Within the space of just two months, congesting the fixture list. Here is a preview of all eight groups and where they will likely finish by November. GROUP A: AJAX, LIVERPOOL, NAPOLI & RANGERS Group A would be interesting given all four teams' changes during the off-season. Ajax retained their Eredivisie title but many of their key players and manager Erik ten Hag have all left the Johan Cruyff Arena. Now, they have Alfred Schreuder as their new manager and had their biggest transfer spree ever . Despite experiencing these situations occasionally, the heavy turnover plus the change of manager could hamper their chances of making out of the group but Ajax wil...

So there we have it, the 2021/2022 football season is sealed into the history books. From the joy of winning silverware, the despair of relegation and the hope of better things to come, the past football season had a lot of moments and memories that we will talk about for years to come. Here are the ten stories from the 2021/2022 football season. AC Milan winning the Scudetto The 2021/2022 Serie A season had one of the best title races in recent years. With no standout favourite from the beginning, it was a real tussle on who will win the Scudetto this season. Earlier on, it looks like a three-horse race between Inter Milan, AC Milan and Napoli. With Juventus' poor start to the season and Napoli falling away later on, the Scudetto will go to Milan, but with it be in Red or Blue? Inter Milan had the upper hand in the last ten leagues. However, dropped points against Torino, Fiorentina, and Bologna opened the opportunity for AC Milan to win Serie A for the first time in 11 years. The...

The UEFA Champions League is back for another exciting season as the heavyweights of European football battle it out to become Champions of Europe with the Final taking place on the 28th of May at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This Champions League season will be the first after UEFA scrapped the away goal rule in the summer, meaning games in the knockout stages that remain level will go into extra time. The season also sees the return of football supporters in stadiums after last season when fans did not attend games due to the pandemic. With big business done during the transfer window, expectations are quite high for this season. So, here are the eight groups in the competition and which teams have higher chances of going through to the knockout stages. GROUP A: MANCHESTER CITY, PSG, RB LEIPZIG & CLUB BRUGGE Pep Guardiola managed to get Manchester City to their first-ever appearance in the Champions League Final. However, they left empty-handed losing 1-0 t...

The UEFA Champions League is now in the quarterfinals stage with the path to the Final in Istanbul clear for the eight teams remaining. As we are now in the final end of the season, it is now crunch time for these teams and we will see who will be crowned Champions of Europe. Here's the thoughts of the quarterfinals match-ups.  Real Madrid v Liverpool  A recap of the 2018 Final which saw Madrid win it, this is probably the most 50-50 of any of the other quarterfinal games as both teams have strengths but very noticeable flaws. Despite their struggles this season, Madrid are still in the race to win La Liga again and have improved after a indifferent start to the season, which almost saw them eliminated from the group stages, including a strong performance against Atalanta in the Round of 16. Liverpool look to have gone through their worst of not just this season but under Klopp's time at Anfield with six home defeats in a row, dropping them drop to sixth in the Premier Le...

  La Liga 26 goals were scored in the Spanish top flight this past weekend as we are approaching the business end of the season, with only ten games remaining. Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and, Real Madrid all won their games this past weekend, as the title race drags on. Barcelona got the biggest win of the three, beating Real Sociedad 6-1 at the Anoeta with Lionel Messi and American right-back Sergino Dest both scoring braces in a big win for the Blaugrana. Atletico Madrid kept their four-point lead at the summit of the league table, beating Alaves 1-0 at home. Luis Suarez scored the only goal of the game, which was his 500th career goal, a milestone for the Uruguayan. Real Madrid went away to Celta Vigo and, got a 3-1 win thanks to Karim Benzema, who scored two goals. As well as Marco Asensio, who continued off his cameo performance in the Champions League from mid-week. In the relegation dogfight, everybody failed to win their games to get some breathing space. Cadiz lost 2-1 awa...

  Premier League Nine games were played in the Premier League this past weekend, with 21 goals scored. The biggest clash in the English top-flight was the North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates. Arsenal went out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Martin Odegaard and Alexandre Lacazette. Spurs went in front thanks to a wonderful rabona goal from Erik Lamela, who later got sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Another wonderful goal was scored by Dwight McNeil for Burnley in their 2-1 win against Everton at Goodison Park. The Burnley wide-player breezed past Allan before curling the ball past Jordan Pickford. Chris Wood also scored for Burnley with Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled one back for the Toffees . Kelechi Iheanacho scored his first Premier League hat-trick as Leicester City trashed Sheffield United 5-0. The Nigerian, who scored in Leicester's last two, was too much for the Blades , with Jamie Vardy acting as a perfect foil. His third was...