🆕🗓️⚽️ Good morning crew. Welcome to Wednesday. Jadon Sancho, the promising young star from England, is on his way back to Germany to play for Borussia Dortmund. Following mental health issues, injuries, and below-par performances in training, Sancho hasn’t played a game since August in 2023. He’s only 23 and showed great promise for club and country, here’s to hoping this loan move will revive his career.

Giveaway: Wake up and smell the coffee. Just in time for the Holidays, our next giveaway will be a $30 gift card for our favorite coffee brand- Kickoff Coffee. As always, each friend that you refer to subscribe to the newsletter is an entry to our raffle. Best of luck!

Tuesday Recap

England- EFL Cup Semi-Final

Portugal- Taca de Portugal

Italy- Coppa Italia Quarter-final

Transfer News
Operation Kylian Mbappe

1️⃣st,2️⃣nd,3️⃣rd,4️⃣th, time and probably won’t be the last we hear new rumors or developments surrounding the Mbappe-PSG-Madrid entanglement. The latest reports indicate that the 25-year-old France international is now considering his options in the Premier League next summer. Entering his final six months of his PSG deal, Mbappe is free to talk to clubs outside of France on free transfer come the end of the season. Liverpool is currently leading the race as Mbappe’s Premier League destination. Jurgen Clop has admitted publicly that he is an admirer of the 2018 World Cup winner’s talents and would be a perfect replacement for Mohamed Saleh.

😡😠🔐 He can’t leave without a good bye, he’s a gentleman! PSG head honcho President Nasser Al-Khelaifi claims that Mbappe will never leave PSG as there exists a gentlemen agreement between the two. Al-Khelaifi was quick to dismiss any current negotiations going on between the French forward and insists that Mbappe is more focused on winning silver with the Paris club.

😉🤭🤗 “Break up with your team, hurry up because I’m bored”, is what’s been playing on Real Madrid President Florentino Perez’s Spotify. Reports indicate that Spanish giants Real Madrid have long been plotting dreaming of obtaining Mbappe’s signature since the summer of 2022. However, should Liverpool snag an 11th hour highway robbery and Mbappe performs a u-turn to the Premier League, Florentino is a man with galactic solutions..

• Reports indicate that Man-City forward Erling Haaland’s asking price would be knocked down for Real Madrid to sign him.

• In 2022 Haland signed a 5 year contract with Manchester City until 2027

• The fee involved for Real is said to be “much closer to 100 million than 200 million”

• The Norwegian’s contract with City includes an exit clause which could be triggered by teams outside of England, which was something the 23-year-old’s agent fought to add

Legends
German Soccer Legend Franz Beckenbauer passes away at 78

🏆⚽ The soccer world has lost a legend this week. Who was Beckenbauer? A visionary. A leader. Der Kaiser. He will forever be remembered as someone who shaped German football both as a player and a coach. His elegance in play is received praise from another soccer legend, Pele, claiming that Beckenbauer was one of the best players he had seen play the game. Here are some of his acocmplishments:

• Captaining West Germany to the 1974 World Cup title

• Coaching the national side to the 1990 World Cup win against Argentina

• Winning three European Cups, a European Cup Winners' Cup, five Bundesliga titles, and four German cups with Bayern Munich and Hamburg

• Leading Germany's bid to host the 2006 World Cup

🆕A Revolutionary. The German was a versatile player who started out his career as an elegant midfielder, distributing the ball in a way that was not being done many in his day. His Legacy will go down as his role for popularizing the defensive “Libero” role, which translates to free. As a sweeper, he would play freely and even advance to the midfield to distribute balls up top to form an attack. Watch some of his highlights here to appreciate his game as a pioneer for the sport.

Quick Bites 🍕

Manchester City Draw Tottenham in FA Cup

The defending FA Cup champs have drawn Tottenham in the next round of the FA cup. The Matchup will take place on January 27th at Tottenham. Important stat to note: Guardiola’s record away at Tottenham is 2W. 6L.

Check out the rest of the drawings here.  

5th Tier Unionistas De Salamanca Draw FC Barcelona in Domestic Cup

Domestic cups are the gift that keeps on giving. While bigger clubs typically will take this opportunity to start their backup keeper and rest some key players to manage player fatigue, smaller clubs like Salamanca get the matchup of their dreams. Just look at what it means to them.

See the rest of Spain’s domestic cup draws 

Henderson looking for a move back to Europe from Saudi Arabia

Matches to Catch

EFL Cup Semi Final

Super Cup Semi Final- Spain

Coppa Italia Quarter Final

Portugal- Taca de Portugal

Around The Web 🕸️

▶ Sporting Kansas City are cashing in by hosting Inter Miami at Arrow Head Stadium

▶ Mural in Buenos Aires pays respect to Messi, The Pope and.. Conan O’brien?

▶ Beauty of an assist from Marco Asensio to Mbappe

▶ USMNT Cade Cowell will sign for LIga MX side Chivas

Football without fans is nothing

In search of a pub? Ever find yourself in a new city and are desperately searching for a local soccer pub? Who would have thought that the premier league took time out of their day to create a bar finder. There really is nothing better than catching an early premier league game on the weekends with fellow fans of the game, and finding that bar that will actually have the game sound on just got that much easier.

USA Bar Finder. Bar finder, aka Intern Jose’s nickname in college. Easy to use search platform on the premier leagues website. It has most major cities included, and they’re even accepting updates to their list if you email them at [email protected]

Find your local soccer pub here.

Tweet of the day: @TrollFootball