France, the New Eldorado

This could be the biggest transfer of the summer. Napoli striker Edinson Cavani, 26, just signed a five-year contract with Paris St-Germain. The French team, which won the championship last season, spent 64 million euros to acquire Serie A’s best goal-scorer last season.

The Uruguayan was the attraction of the summer after scoring 29 goals in 34 games with Napoli. Targeted by big teams such as Manchester City, Chelsea, and Real Madrid, The Matador--as we call him--decided to move to France.

What might have been considered a strange move two years ago is now an understandable choice. Cavani simply follows the path of many great players who have joined the French Ligue1 in the past two years. Players like Pastore, Menez, Thiago Silva, Ibrahimovic, and Lucas Moura brought their fame and fanbase to the league when they joined Paris last season or the season before. And now, Cavani, Falcao, James Rodriguez, and Joao Moutinho have followed them into France for a new challenge.

Certainly, only two clubs in France have the money to attract stars (Paris and Monaco) and we can’t deny the fact that players are also—if not only— attracted by big paychecks. But again, those players could have gone to big teams and would have had the same big salary they have in France. Most of those players have been attracted by long-term projects, as Cavani explained.

 “I never hesitated to come here when I saw the trust the club put in me,” Cavani said during the official press conference. “This project is very ambitious, very motivating. They are among the top clubs in the world. They are among the few that can win the Champions League.”

Monaco’s new striker Falcao said on Twitter that he was “eager to start this challenge.”

And more players could join them before the end of the transfer window. PSG is still interested in signing Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo! Monaca has an eye on Coentrao, David Luiz, Samir Nasri, Nani, Hulk and many more.

One thing is certain: the whole world of football will be watching France in August now that three of the best strikers of the past season (Ibrahimovic, 30 goals; Cavani, 29 goals; Falcao, 28 goals) are all together in the same championship.  

Sanogo, Arsenal's Newest Frenchie

It’s no secret Arsenal FC has a thing for French players. After Anelka, Viera, Petit, Giroud, and, of course, the king Thierry Henry, French manager Arsene Wenger decided to lure in 20-year-old striker Yaya Sanogo. 

Tonight, Sanogo will play the U-20 FIFA World Cup final against Uruguay with the French national team alongside rising star Paul Pogba (Juventus).  The game kicks off at 20h00 GMT. For those who don’t know Sanogo, it’s the opportunity to see him and other promising players in action.

Born in 1993 in Massy, France, Sanogo started his professional career in 2010 with Auxerre FC. He played 21 games and scored 10 goals. With French youth teams, he played 53 games, scoring 39 goals. 

Sanogo is a young and promising player, and it is true that Arsene Wenger rarely makes mistakes when it comes to recruiting that kind of athlete. As a reminder, both Anelka and Henry joined Arsenal at a young age, and we all know the result. 

However, Sanogo has a profile very different from that of his predecessors. He is not fast, and not technically gifted either. His strengths are his height (he culminates at 1m91) and, obviously, his heading and off-the-ball game. He could be a good addition to the fast and technical players around him. He can also protect the ball well and play a fairly good one-touch game--just like Arsenal does--so he is a valuable player on set pieces. 

However, Sanogo might have trouble adapting to Arsenal’s play style. We can easily compare Sanogo to Marouane Chamakh or Olivier Giroud. Both players had trouble finding a place in the starting line-up. Chamakh never really did and is now on loan at West Ham United. 

Rarely have tall players succeeded at Arsenal, and this will be Sanogo’s biggest challenge for the upcoming years.        

Mourinho's Challenge

After three unsuccessful years at Real Madrid, the Special One is back in the English Premier League. Jose Mourinho returns to Chelsea FC and a championship that he loves.

Mourinho has especially missed tough competition.

“I don’t enjoy too much winning 6-0,” he told reporters during the official presentation at Chelsea FC headquarters. “I don’t enjoy a league where you are against one team and it is about 90, 92, 96, 100 points and 100, 110, 120 goals. With the number of points Barcelona got last season, finishing second, they would win any other league. Same with Real Madrid this season.”

To reporters, Mourinho said he missed the mentality of English football. He also said that he became wiser and more “humble” after turning 50 a few months ago. The Portuguese coach seems determined to prove he is still the best and even predicts a title win within two years. But what if this comeback turns into a nightmare?  

This return is probably the biggest challenge of his career. Mourinho takes on a team that has been successful, both domestically and internationally, since his departure in 2007. However, many critics and Chelsea fans agree that their playing style is far from attractive. They apparently miss the Special One’s touch.

Chelsea has also had four different managers in four years, making it hard for players to adapt. Hopefully, Mourinho will manage to give some stability to the club, where some players have trouble performing at their best (Fernando Torres, for example).

And we all know Chelsea’s boss, Abramovich, does not like failure and tends to associate it with a sack at the end of the season.  Mourinho is well aware of this and seems confident about his future. “I don’t need anybody to push me to have ambition [winning the title],” he said. “I have enough motivation and self-esteem myself, enough desire to do it. But if we don’t do it, yet show we are moving in the right direction, I think we’ll be champions in the second season. I don’t think it’s a drama. I’d expect to be here to win it in that second season.”

Mourinho will have a lot of pressure as the entire football community expects him to be successful—just like he should have been with Madrid. Despite all his trophies and records, Mourinho still has to prove to some skeptics that he is the best because, in the eyes of English football fans, he is far from being the managing master, Sir Alex Ferguson.

The good news is that the master has retired, so now the apprentice can step up and try.  

The Reasons to Believe in Arsenal This Season

After a fairly disappointing season, with a fourth-place finish that just barely qualified them for the Champions League, The Gunners want to avoid the struggle of last year. With summer transfers, the London side looks to be a serious contender for the title…once again.

Since their last English Premier League title in 2004, Arsenal has been one of the most unsatisfactory teams of the “Big Four” (now more like the Big Five with the arrival of Manchester City in the past few years). Despite having good players and an attractive playing style, The Gunners have shown inconsistency in their performances. Last year was one of the best examples of what Arsenal has done for the past few years. The team had to struggle through the departure of its main goal-scorer and captain, Robin Van Persie for Manchester United and had a poor start in in the first two months of the campaign, tying three games and winning two.

But this upcoming season could be the real start fans have been waiting for. For the first time in years, the club has not sold off great players like they did with Henry, Fabregas, Nasri, and Van Persie in past seasons. Now, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is working with the same team as last year, with the exception of young players sent on loan or old players who left (Arshavin and Squilacci).

And the club is finally investing in a player who could help bolster the attack. Argentinian striker Gonzalo Higuain could sign a £23 million deal from Real Madrid. Higuain, 25, scored 16 goals in 28 games in La Liga last season. This bold move could make a huge difference for Arsenal this season. The club is also targeting English star Wayne Rooney, who expressed once again his desire to leave Manchester United, and the EPL bad boy Luis Suarez, even though the Uruguayan striker will probably join another league.

Arsenal also has another advantage over other “Big Four” teams. They’ve kept the same manager while Chelsea, Liverpool and both Manchesters made a switch. Arsene Wenger, who has been coaching the club since 1996, has one more year on his contract and wants to make it count. Many players believe in Arsenal chances this season, starting with German striker Lukas Podolski. “The hope is that this season Arsenal will be at the top of the league,” Podolski told The Sun. “You don’t know how the season will work out. A few of the other teams all have new managers so it is difficult to say. But they will be strong and equally, Arsenal will be strong.”

For years, stability has been the key word for The Gunners and this year it might finally pay off.

Is Neymar the right fit for Barcelona?

Neymar during the official presentation at Camp Nou
Stadium on July, 3. 

"With Neymar now on board, I would have made plans to sell Messi."

Those words come from world legend and former Barca president Johan Cruyff, shortly after Barcelona secured Neymar's transfer from Santos for 57 million euros.

Does it mean Neymar and the Argentinian star cannot coexist? Does it mean their egos, assuming they both have one, will interfere with Barcelona's thirst of victory? Some say Neymar understands the importance of Messi and that he would do everything to play for Messi, just like Iniesta, Xavi and others do. Others believe the story will end up just like it did when Ibrahimovic joined Barca. Two great players on a single team can lead to problems, on and off the field. However, we have to admit that Ibra is a little special and has a massive ego.

Barcelona right back Dani Alves is certain the two players will get along:

"They will be the bomb next season," he told reporters. "They will have a very positive connections. Neymar is happy to play with Messi. They will have no problems because they are both very humble."

Even Messi reassured everyone, saying that Neymar was a great catch for the club.

"Hopefully, Neymar can make a good contribution next season and can continue to demonstrate the sort of performances he's achieved with Brazil and Santos," the four-time Golden Ball winner said.

But another question persists: Can Neymar be as good as he is in Brazil while facing solid defense in Europe? It is no secret that the Brazilian league lacks any real defensive challenges. Neymar can be seen on YouTube dribbling three or four defenders and scoring a decent amount of goals, but he was playing in Brazil!

Past critics quieted a little after Neymar's great showing during the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. The 20 year-old player scored four goals and had one assist. He played a major role in Brazil's success over Spain in the final.

One thing is certain, the new signing has a lot of pressure on his shoulder after becoming the second biggest transfer of Barcelona history (behind Ibrahimovic). So does Barcelona, who invested those 57 million with one objective in mind: Win the Champions League and avoid another humiliation like the one they suffered last season in semifinal against Bayern Munich (0-7 in aggregate).

Who believes in Neymar? Answer our poll question, right on the side of this article! 

Brazil on The Top of The World!

Brazil striker Fred celebrates his first goal against Spain during the
FIFA 2013 Confederations Cup at the Maracana on Sunday, June 30.
Brazil defeated European and World Champions Spain 3-0.

Brazil won the Confederations Cup after dominating Spain 3-0 at the Maracana Stadium, Rio De Janeiro, on Sunday, June 30.

What was the first opposition between the two countries since 1999 (a friendly game that ended 0-0), turned out to be a spectacular showcase of football by the country that lives, breathes, and dies for the game.

In a brand new Maracana stadium, the Brazilian players did not wait long to get in the game. Their solid pressure forced Spain to lose the ball quickly and  give away a goal after only two minutes of play. Brazilian striker Fred, despite being on the ground, was faster than Casillas, and kicked the ball into the net after a defensive error by Pique, Ramos, and Casillas together.

The crowd, already pretty excited, was now boiling! Brazil had done the hardest part: Scoring a goal to the best team in the world. And the game was far from over.

Spain had to get back in the game and they tried, but never succeeded. Brazil kept pressuring Spanish players who, weirdly, appeared to have forgotten how to play football. They missed touches and passes, and simply could not make more than five passes without losing the ball. On Sunday, Brazil was playing football while Spain looked lost on the field.

Pushed by an awesome crowd, Brazil kept passing the ball around and challenging danger the Spanish defense every time they had the ball. And finally, the inevitable happened. Brazil scored a second goal off the foot of its growing star and new Barcelona player, Neymar. The 19 year-old striker hit a missile under Casillas cross-bar, giving Brazil a 2-0 lead just a few minutes before halftime.

Neymar, elected man of the match, scores the second goal for Brazil
despite a last defensive attempt by Alvaro Arbeloa during the confederations
Cup final at the Maracana on Sunday, June 30. 

Neymar, who scored four goals and had one assist in five games, showed the world that he is one of the best players out there. Barcelona was probably pleased to see that their investment was a good one, his future Spanish teammates simply could not handle him on Sunday. Let's hope he keeps it up for the upcoming season.

In my opinion, there is two ways to beat Spain: Chelsea's way, where you park the bus in front of the goal and play every counter attack at 200 percent, and Brazil's way, where you put a lot of pressure during the entire game (which is no easy feat, but Brazil did an amazing job at it) and by being able to keep the ball and use it wisely when you have it. Brazil managed that with great technical players all over the field. Not a single player had a technical breakdown under Spain's famous defensive pressure. Indeed, in the second half, Spain never battled to get the ball back like they usually do. They waited in the back, praying for an opponent's mistake. It never came.

"We are not robots," Spanish defender Sergio Ramos said after the game. "We were meant to lose a big game at some point."

It's true, they aren't robots, because a robot who have scored the penalty kick awarded to Spain after a foul on substitute Jesus Navas (53'). They are not robots because robots know better than to let Sergio Ramos, probably the worst penalty-taker of the entire Spain squad, take the PK which could have put them back in the game!

A few minutes before that, Fred had scored a third goal for Brazil and his second of the game (47'). Spain conceded two of Brazil's three goals shortly after kick-offs, even though every coach in the world says that the first 15 minutes of a game are the most important ones.

"Brazil were a bit lucky," Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque said. "But I will not make excuses for our loss. Brazil are the deserved winners and we have to congratulate them."

While Del Bosque considers Brazil lucky in the two goals they scored at the beginning of each half, he certainly admits that Brazil was better than his team. The second half was simply a disaster for Spain. Sure, they were unlucky sometimes, but most of the time they faced a great Julio Cesar, decisive on Spain's rare opportunities. Spain lived a nightmare in a Maracana crowded with ecstatic fans. And as a cherry on the top of the humiliation cake, Gerard Pique would receive a straight red card for a terrible challenge after Neymar showed his skills and speed.

Spain defender Gerard Pique fouls Neymar as he goes toward the goal
during the Confederations Cup final at the Maracana on Sunday, June 30.
Pique was sent off for the challenge. 

This game was news to the world of football. On one hand, it tells us that Brazil is slowly but surely growing as a team and a serious contender for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. On the other hand, it gives us the impression that Spain's domination is coming to an end with aging players and a strategy that has been now analyzed by every coach in the world--a strategy that does not allow Spain to change the way they play according to their opponent. Players are so used to playing one and only one way, that they seem incapable to adapt. They sure look like robots after all.