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.

More transfer talk, Peter Crouch is a goof, thank you German viewer

At the risk of being mundanely repetitive, I hope to discuss summer transfer window gossip with every post I make. So, without further ado...

Transfer Talk

It seems like long-time Manchester United target De Gea is finally heading toward Old Trafford. The Red Devils' recent keeper transfer drama (which is somewhat understandable given the difficulty of replacing a keeper like Van der Saar) is hopefully now at an end.

David De Gea, finally Manchester-bound

Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez appears to be no closer to a big summer move to the Premier League - or anywhere, for that matter - as the ever-shifting spectrum of club interest now puts Manchester City in the lead in the race to acquire his services.

Karim Benzema, Real Madrid striker and French international, has issued a warning to fierce rivals FC Barcelona that their time as kings of La Liga - and Europe - is coming to a class. Best of luck with that, Benzema... as much as I would like to see the Catalans dethroned, Barca's current squad is probably the best I've ever seen and, absent a financial crisis, they will probably retain their dominant position for at least another season.

Peter Crouch

I briefly touched on the goofiness of Peter Crouch, the lanky Tottenham forward and England international. He is giant by both conventional and soccer standards - he stands at whopping 6'7" and has the tendency to do awkward things like do the "robot" as a goal celebration. Crouch once responded to the question "What would you be if you weren't a soccer player?" with "A virgin".

Peter Crouch, in all his skinny, goofy, giant gloriness

Crouch is a fairly decent player and has been known to produce some pretty amazing goals. He had a particularly successful season in the UEFA Champions League this year for Tottenham and helped them advance farther in the tournament than they had ever gone before. Crouch's overall career with the Spurs has been less than productive; he has scored around once every four appearances.

Thank you, German viewer

This blog has been viewed a grand total of one time since I started it on Friday. So, while I didn't create this blog to get people to read about me and my thoughts, it does feel a little like I'm muttering to myself in a gloomy corner of the internet. This, in turn, feels like a step or two closer to insanity than I would like to be thank you very much.

The one mystery viewer this blog has had came from Germany. So, while I will never know about or meet you, mystery viewer, I will devote my next post to my thoughts on your country's soccer (and boy, do I have things to say on that subject).

Other random stuff
There are only around two months left of my summer break! This means:

• school is fast approaching (FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-)
• BSU football is just around the corner! Can't wait.

ALSO - my dear friend and former classmate Erin is now engaged! Her long-time boyfriend proposed to her yesterday at the end of a weekend-long backpacking trip. Congratulations Erin and Matt!

I realized this morning that I forgot to include the name and information of the player whose picture I posted at the end of my last post. It was Diego Forlan, the Uruguay international and Atletico Madrid goal-scoring machine who won the Golden Boot in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

See you next time, folks.

Keep kickin'!

Portuguese soccer great Luis Figo warming up at Camp Nou after transferring from

FC Barcelona to Real Madrid FC. "More than a club" indeed. Later, this

was thrown at Figo as he attempted to take a corner kick:

No, seriously. Rabid Barca fans threw a pig head at Figo.