More transfer gossip, German soccer, and listing

Transfer Talk
The 45 million Euro buyout fee for 19 year old Brazilian starlet and international player Neymar has been agreed to FIVE teams. You can probably already guess who some of them are.

 Like it or not, that haircut is probably worth more than everything you own.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Anzhi Makhachkal (a Russian first division team... who would have thunk it?) have all approached Neymar's Brazilian club team Santos and independently agreed to fork over the massive sum just to sign the player to what I'm sure will be an equally ludicrous contract.
Figures like these are disgusting, even for a young person like myself. It's preposterous how much money can be thrown away for a single player, and I can't help but wonder when the first 100 million euro - then pound - transfer will be. But hey, that's free market capitalism for you.
Santos, interestingly, has recently made claims that Neymar wants to pull a Pele and remain in Brazil for the crux of his career. We'll see how well these statement holds up when the giant European clubs and their massive pocketbooks come calling; Pele and people who make decisions like him are a long-gone breed thanks to today's big-spending soccer mentality.

Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast international, 2010 Premier League Golden Boot winner, and all-around beast, is rumored to be on the way out of Chelsea. His departure will signal the beginning of an end of an era of Chelsea dominance, especially when Terry and Lampard also leave Stamford Bridge.

German Soccer
As promised, I will briefly share my thoughts on German soccer with you.

The 2010 World Cup proved a number of things:

• The need for goal-line and replay technology for refs to review controversial plays
• The inability of dominant teams from previous tournaments to repeat their dominance, a la Italy and France
• America's coming-of-age... that ultimately didn't get us far in the tournament
• ...And last but not least, the bright future of German soccer thanks to their young squad

The youngest team in the tournament propelled their country to their second straight third place finish. The same squad demolished mature and highly skilled opponents like England and Argentina. Spain's current dominance may soon be threatened by this strong German side thanks to players like Sami Khedira, Thomas Muller, Marko Marin, and Mesut Ozil.

Mesut Ozil, the somewhat un-hailed German wunderkind

The unsurprising post-World Cup swoop for Ozil and Khedira by Real Madrid, and those two players' subsequent success in La Liga, demonstrates just how high-quality young German players are. I am looking forward to Euro 2012 to see if these players can repeat their spectacular performance!

Also, Mesut Ozil can juggle his gum.

Anyway, see you next time with more marginally insightful soccer talk! ANNIE OUT.

Keep kickin'!

Blumer Elano taking a penalty kick for Manchester City.

I was reminded by this whole Neymar affair that Elano, a Brazilian international and

reminder of how multiracial of a place Brazil is, now plays club soccer in his home

county with Santos. Under-rated player, if you ask me.