Football (Soccer) Thread

[Duque de Bragança]

In almost football news, Roman Abramovich, owner of Chel$ky, is a Portuguese citizen! 
Since April 2021, but news only came recently.

Naturalised under the Portuguese law of citizenship for Sepharadis.  He is as Ashkenazi as they come but he got it as Sephardi, go figure.  I'd be curious to get Siege's thoughts on the matter.

Already a Russian and Israeli citizen, Abramovich had trouble with this Russian visa, and his Israeli passport won't allow him to stay for extended periods in the UK. Plus, the deadline for Portuguese citizens to apply for settled status in the UK was last June. He probably has to invest some money in Portugal as well.

[Barrister]

In an award I'd never heard of before today, but now consider deeply important, Canada' is named as FIFA's most improved team of 2021, having moved up from being ranked #78 to number #40 in just 12 months.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article/canadian-mens-national-team-earn-fifas-improved-side-honour/

[celedhring]

In almost football news, Roman Abramovich, owner of Chel$ky, is a Portuguese citizen! 
Since April 2021, but news only came recently.

Naturalised under the Portuguese law of citizenship for Sepharadis.  He is as Ashkenazi as they come but he got it as Sephardi, go figure.  I'd be curious to get Siege's thoughts on the matter.

Already a Russian and Israeli citizen, Abramovich had trouble with this Russian visa, and his Israeli passport won't allow him to stay for extended periods in the UK. Plus, the deadline for Portuguese citizens to apply for settled status in the UK was last June. He probably has to invest some money in Portugal as well.

He could have got the same deal in Spain. Should I feel jealous? 

[Duque de Bragança]

In almost football news, Roman Abramovich, owner of Chel$ky, is a Portuguese citizen! 
Since April 2021, but news only came recently.

Naturalised under the Portuguese law of citizenship for Sepharadis.  He is as Ashkenazi as they come but he got it as Sephardi, go figure.  I'd be curious to get Siege's thoughts on the matter.

Already a Russian and Israeli citizen, Abramovich had trouble with this Russian visa, and his Israeli passport won't allow him to stay for extended periods in the UK. Plus, the deadline for Portuguese citizens to apply for settled status in the UK was last June. He probably has to invest some money in Portugal as well.

He could have got the same deal in Spain. Should I feel jealous? 

Spain is too unstable for him I guess. 

[Josquius]

Watching the highlights.
Crystal Palace is on.
Great comment from my gf "there's a team called Crystal Palace? Really? Ridiculous. That's like Unicorn Castle."

[Josephus]

Insigne to Toronto could be quite the coup

[Josephus]

Watching England v. Scotland from 1972 at Hampden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHYo0wdfLpo

Great game. Italian ref didn't call anything short of attempted murder. Fun days.

I mean watch this. Today this is a red card, guy didn't even get a yellow

https://youtu.be/IHYo0wdfLpo?t=1795

[Zoupa]

Spurs are to play Chelsea 3 times (twice in the carabao cup) and Arsenal once this month. We still have 2 games in hand, 2 points behind Arsenal for 4th place.

Exciting January 🙂.

[FunkMonk]

Yeah, with United in shambles the only teams vying for 4th are Arsenal, Spurs, and perhaps West Ham. The North London Derby in a couple weeks is very important.

Personally, I would like very much for Arsenal to win. 

Trying to be objective, though: I think Arsenal will finish the season in 4th. They have been playing scintillating football over the last month since the Everton loss, with the only hiccup being the City match that was stolen from them by terrible officiating. Spurs are accumulating points despite playing Conte's antifootball, though, so it will probably come down to the last couple of match weeks to decide the coveted 4th Place Trophy.

[Jacob]

Christian Eriksen has given an inteview where he says he's ready to start playing again and that his goal is to play for Denmark in Qatar. Obviously he'll have to be playing matches at a top tier to get back to his old level, but he says he's confident he can get there.

I'm reading an article speculating on possible clubs (pure speculation) and they're suggesting Ajax, Spurs, Newcastle, PSG, and Barca as possible destinations (based primarily on old relationships with the clubs or their current trainers, but with a look on the economics as well). One interesting bit is that in his current situation there will be no transfer payment involved, the cost is purely in wages - which has some interesting implications for the financials.

[Sheilbh]

It strikes me as a very Newcastle/club wanting to move up with very rich new owners move.

Speaking as an Everton fan - as after we had a new rich owner we bought three number 10s in one transfer window and have also spent inordinate amounts of money on players in the late twenties and indeed signed players on a free which means their wages are so high that we can't get rid of them

Ajax would be a lovely move if he has any football romaticism.

I feel like there's very little chance of Spurs because I understood the relationship between him and Levy was pretty bad (Eriksen wouldn't sign renewals and more or less played his contract out; Levy's historically got all his players to sign a renewal every year meaning they're always 5-6 years from the end of their contract and the club has all the power) - but I could be wrong.

[celedhring]

No way we go for him, we're struggling to free up enough wages to get new transfers in, and midfield is the only position where we are positively loaded.

[Josquius]

Hopefully he has more morals than signing for Newcastle

[The Larch]

One interesting bit is that in his current situation there will be no transfer payment involved, the cost is purely in wages - which has some interesting implications for the financials.

in normal circumstances that doesn't make a signing any cheaper, as players then request humongous signing bonuses and/or much higher wages, but Erikssen's situation is quite different and he is not in a position to ask for a lot of money in any case, as his signing would be quite a bet for the team willing to take him.

Apparently, with the heart device he has implanted, he is not allowed to play in Italy anymore, so Italian teams (including remaining at Inter) are out of the question.

[Zoupa]

As a relatively recent Spurs fan, I'd take him back in a second.

I understand there's some bad blood there though, not only with management but also from the fans.