Essential The Official Football (Soccer) Thread - We are SO back, the Premier League returns!

[Lakerman0834]

All that hype and he only performed Vivir Mi Vida :westbrook:


One of the best live performances you can see.

my girl wants to go to enrique/pitbull or Shakira told her nope we goin to Marc Anthony

 

[King Jove]

neymar

 

[THEREALBRAND]

Neymar is missing way too many good looks at goal

 

[Lakerman0834]

neymar gone. His mind is somewhere else

 

[dtownreppin214]

this game is insane.

 

[Lakerman0834]

cant stand benzema and bale

 

[King Jove]

seems like every time i watch real benzema aint doin shyt.

 

[Lakerman0834]

this ref us ready to throw down

 

[dtownreppin214]

seems like every time i watch real benzema aint doin shyt.

that's how i feel about bale unless he's playing for wales.

 

[Lakerman0834]

that's how i feel about bale unless he's playing for wales.

breh is like heyward bay just fast and stretches the field but does nothing

 

[THEREALBRAND]

Bale's performance this pre-season is going to singlehandedly get Mbappe in a RM kit this season.

Dude has a chance to establish himself without CR7 around, and he performs like this

 

[King Jove]

united watching bale this preseason thinking

 

[King Jove]

now for the main event

galaxy vs. sounders

Spoiler

 

[THEREALBRAND]

Chelsea star Antonio Rudiger escaped racism and battled injury to complete £32m move to Stamford Bridge: 'It's a dream come true'

Chelsea star Antonio Rudiger battles racism and injury | Daily Mail Online


For Antonio Rudiger, the transfer to Chelsea represents a welcome milestone on his long road back from serious injury. It comes with a sense of destiny. He had been close to moving to Stamford Bridge last year when he damaged knee ligaments in training with Germany ahead of Euro 2016.

He was robbed of the biggest moment in his career when forced out of the tournament in France but the £32million move from Roma to London was able to be revived. ‘A dream come true,’ he admits.

Also, an escape from the racism which he found impossible to ignore in Italian football, speaking out with courage and eloquence. ‘You feel alone,’ said Rudiger, reflecting from Singapore on one of Serie A’s big problems and the extremes of emotion he endured in the last 12 months.

‘I can keep my focus but people love to say, ‘Stay calm’ or ‘Don’t do anything’. It is easy for you to say those things when you are not black and you never feel what it is like.

'You cannot even put yourself in my position of how that feels. In that moment it is like this and you are alone. You have to be strong. Each human is different. Someone takes it and doesn’t react, others react. I can understand both.’

Having been racially abused by Lazio’s Senad Lulic last season, Rudiger refused to stay silent about the problems in Serie A and called on the authorities to do more to wipe it out. Bosnian Lulic was fined and banned for 20 days.

‘Not all Italian people are racist,’ said Rudiger.

‘For me, I just want justice. I want FIFA or the FA in Italy just to suspend those people who do that. If we always talk about racism in Italy, people think that all Italians are racist people — and it is not like that.

'I just mean those specific people who do that. It is not all. But those people need to be banned from the stadium or fined.’

Rudiger has been with his new Chelsea team-mates since Tuesday, joining late for pre-season after international duty in the Confederations Cup.

He made his first appearance on Saturday in a friendly against Inter Milan.

‘Of course, it’s a dream to be here,’ he said. ‘I always wanted to play here in the Premier League and it is many years since my name was first linked to Chelsea.’

Asked whether he would have moved last summer without the injury, he said: ‘You never know, maybe.’ He certainly missed the chance to perform in the Euros.

'It could have been the biggest moment of my career,’ he said.

‘At that moment it was sad. I knew then that I had to work to get stronger. And this is what happened. I believe in God and everything has its time. So one year later I won the Confederations Cup and one year later I’m at Chelsea. I’m very happy and want to thank all the people that made this come true.’

Rudiger, 24, was born in Berlin after his mother fled the civil war in Sierra Leone. He joined the youth ranks at Borussia Dortmund, where his half-brother Sahr Senesie started his career, before moving to Stuttgart. Like Senesie, he played up front in his youth and idolised Thierry Henry.

‘I was not a tall guy, I was small,’ said Rudiger. ‘I used to play on the wings or as a striker but that changed at the age of 16. I started to grow. The coach moved me into defence.’

His physique and athleticism ought to be great assets in the English game and his versatility, able to operate at centre-half or full-back, will be valued by manager Antonio Conte.

‘I have no experienced the Premier League yet but the Italian league is more tactical,’ said Rudiger. ‘You don’t have the open games as you do in England with both teams attacking the whole time.

I don't know how those brothers deal with that on a weekly basis.

Folks at an Ole Miss/Alabama game would probably be appalled at the racism at a typical Serie A match

 

[1970s HeRon Flow]

I don't know how those brothers deal with that on a weekly basis.

Folks at an Ole Miss/Alabama game would probably be appalled at the racism at a typical Serie A match

I heard that's how the Lazio ultras get down, didn't they have a player that gave em the Nazi salute back?