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

[TobiOT]

Ibrahimovic moving to the US this week to play in the MLS

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Super Eagles v Poland tomorrow

 

[thatrapsfan]

Super Eagles v Poland tomorrow

I love the international break.

 

[BigMan]

I NEED that World Cup Nigeria jersey...when they going on sale brehs

 

[Ukbrotha]

I NEED that World Cup Nigeria jersey...when they going on sale brehs

I don’t know brehs. Some days that jersey looks amazing and I want to order ASAP but some days it looks terrible. I just can’t decide.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

I need that jersey. I just want to look like a bigger version of Wizkid in the clubs

 

[beejus]

Looks like it's close to official. Doesn't help the image of the MLS being a retirement league, but He'll score some goals and bring fans to the game.

 

[MikeyC]

I look back on the last 10 years of my career, and I’ve won the World Cup, the Champions League, La Liga, the Spanish Cup … I’ve won it all, as I like to remind my Madrid friends on WhatsApp :-D

But 10 years ago, I was almost f***ed. My whole life could have turned out very different if it wasn’t for Sir Alex Ferguson.

I arrived at Manchester United a boy, and I left a man. It was a crazy time for me, because I had never been away from home before. I spent my first 17 years growing up in Spain in Barcelona’s youth academy, and it almost felt like I was playing for the local school team or something. I knew everybody there, and I was close to my family. So, to me, football was just fun. I didn’t understand the business side of the game at all. Then I arrived at United, and honestly, it was a complete shock.

Sir Alex was phenomenal to me from the very first day. The best managers all have this quality — even when they’re not playing you, and even when they’re hard on you — they make you believe that they really care about you. Sir Alex was like a second father to me. He made me earn it, but eventually he gave me my chance.”

On getting on the wrong side of Roy Keane:

“One of my very first matches at Old Trafford, we were in the dressing room getting ready, and I was nervous as hell. Imagine it — I’m 18 years old, and I’m sitting in that little dressing room putting on my socks next to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand. I wanted to be invisible. I was thinking, Just do your job and go unnoticed.

So we’re sitting there waiting for the gaffer to come in and speak to us, and I’m literally sitting right next to Roy Keane. The dressing room is so small that our legs are almost touching. There’s no space at all.

It’s dead quiet. All of a sudden, you could hear this little vibration. Very soft.

Bzzzzzz ……

………….. Bzzzzzzz.

Roy is looking around the room.

Bzzzzzzz …..

Oh, shyt.

I realize it’s me. It’s my cell phone. I left it on vibrate, and it’s in the pocket of my pants, stuffed in the clothes bag that’s hanging right behind Roy’s head.

Roy can’t find where the noise is coming from. Now he’s looking around the room like a maniac. His eyes are darting everywhere, and he’s trying to figure it out. You know the famous scene with Jack Nicholson in The Shining, when he bursts through the door? That’s what he looked like.

He screams out to everybody, “Whose phone is that?!”

Silence.

He asks again.

Silence.

He asks a third time.

“Whose. Bloody. F*****g. Phone. Is. That?!”

Finally, I spoke up, like a little boy. Very softly, I said, “I’m so sorry. It’s mine.”

Roy put his arm around me, and he laughed, and he told me not to worry about it.

No, come on, of course I’m joking! Roy lost his mind! He went nuts in front of everybody! It was incredible. I almost shyt myself. But it was a good lesson.

Now, in 2018, everything is different. All these kids are on their iPhones before the matches. But back then, in 2006? It was a different world. You didn’t do that. Especially not at United. Not in Roy’s dressing room. It was one of a thousand mistakes that I made when I was at United.

Read more: A Long Story | By Gerard Piqué

 

[TobiOT]

Imagine Roy Keane in the current United dressing room

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

Never change Roy, never change.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

Imagine Roy Keane in the current United dressing room

He'll tell Mourinho about how shyte his football is and when Jose and Rui think about ganging up on him, they would get a Celtic Kiss for their troubles. Word to @Fenian

One of my favourite Roy stories is when he was a teenager with Forest and Brian Clough punched in the face and left him on the floor. because he cost Forest a last min goal because of Stevie G type backpass to the keeper.

 

[BigMan]

I don’t know brehs. Some days that jersey looks amazing and I want to order ASAP but some days it looks terrible. I just can’t decide.

I need that jersey. I just want to look like a bigger version of Wizkid in the clubs

your cousin’s gonna give me so much love when I pull in that Naija Jersey

 

[THEREALBRAND]

Usain Bolt’s training with Dortmund is going to be live-streamed on the Bundesliga Facebook tomorrow.

I really want to see him succeed

 

[Sukairain]

That first touch

 

[Givethanks]