27-year-old American striker Samuel Adeniran starts the season hot for Austrian champions @LASK_Official with three goals in his first two games of the season 😤
LASK are in the final playoff round of the #UCL this season as well 👀
Max Arfsten is now finalizing a move to Middlesbrough. (@tombogert)
We will potentially see 3 Americans starting together in the Championship.
Definitely worth watching this season. #USMNT
Congratulations to the 🇺🇸 duo of Sam Adeniran & George Bello for winning the Austrian Bundesliga for LASK today with a 3-0 win over Austria Vienna. This comes 2 weeks after winning the Austrian Cup
- Adeniran has been the most important player in Austria in recent months with several big goals. He finished the season with 10 Bundesliga goals and 5 in the Cup
- Bello had a nice season as well, playing 2637 minutes in all competitions
- Both players have had ups and downs throughout their career, but now they are champions in two competitions.
- Well done!
🚨EXCLUSIVE⚡️: PSG make opening contact with AS Monaco for Folarin Balogun. Monaco want €50m for the 25yo; #PSG yet to make an offer. Player side contacts are advanced with a broad terms agreement in place. #AFC retain 17.5% sell-on clause. https://t.co/AkKbhrJe6H
Gio Reyna could be headed to France as Strasbourg are in talks to sign the USMNT midfielder, according to @tombogert 🇫🇷👀
It would be the 24-year-old's fourth club in four seasons ⚽️
We are delighted to confirm the signing of Kristoffer Lund from Italian side Palermo for an undisclosed fee. ✍️
The 24-year-old defender has signed a four-year contract at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park and will wear the number 25 shirt.
🚨🇺🇸 Neil Pierre is being tracked by FC Barcelona, as confirmed by Spanish journalist Manu Vaquero. This follows earlier reports of interest after his loan spell in Denmark.
The 18 year old center back is enjoying a breakout season.
Nothing concrete at this stage - Barcelona are monitoring his progress.
Sources: @ManuVaquero_@BarcaUniversal
“Through reliable sources, I understand that Mauricio Pochettino renewal negotiations are going well and that the intention is to be able to announce it soon, in order for him and his staff to start working on the Sep/Oct FIFA match dates.”
(@AndresCantorGOL)
🚨🇮🇹 Paolo Maldini and Leonardo RESIGN from their roles as Italy Federation technical director and advisor.
Decision to leave the project just 10 days after joining due to president Malagò being against appointing Andrea Pirlo as new head coach for Italian national team.
The president didn’t approve Pirlo due to his connections with Russian brands; Maldini and Leonardo only wanted Pirlo and leave their roles immediately.
Noahkai Banks and Bryan Okoh were among the top under-23 CBs in Europe this past season in terms of both progressive passing & aerial ability (top right of graph)
Both were born in 🇺🇸 and fully trained in Europe
Thanks to @DanielSmith1022 for finding
🇺🇸🇲🇽🗣️ 15-year-old dual-national Benji Flowers, who just signed with Chelsea from FC Dallas, says he wants to represent the USMNT.
Flowers hopes to follow in the footsteps of other FC Dallas products who reached the World Cup with the United States, specifically mentioning Ricardo Pepi. 👀
#BVB manager Niko Kovač on Mathis Albert:
"He was already with us at the end of last season. He's very fast, strong in dribbling, and scores goals in his own way, with the speed and technique that he has. We have some talented youngsters and want to try to integrate one or two of them. He's one of them."
#USMNT
Chelsea just paid $3 million for a 15-year-old in Texas who can't legally play for them until 2029. FIFA bans international transfers of minors, so Europe's richest clubs built a workaround: a futures market for teenagers.
Here's the structure. Chelsea pays FC Dallas now. Benji Flowers signs a first-team deal in Dallas and keeps developing there. The transfer executes automatically when he turns 18. Add-ons tied to his MLS minutes and US youth national team milestones can push the fee to $10 million, and Dallas keeps a sell-on clause. That's a call option with performance-based strike escalators, written on a kid who hasn't played an MLS minute.
Chelsea ran the same play with Kendry Paez in Ecuador at 16. Manchester City did it with Cavan Sullivan in Philadelphia at 14, a deal worth up to $5 million.
The repricing of American teenagers is the wildest part. In 2016, Weston McKennie walked from the FC Dallas academy to Schalke for nothing. In 2022, Dallas sold Ricardo Pepi to Augsburg for $20 million. Now a 15-year-old commands up to $10 million before his league debut.
The math explains everything. Chelsea paid $73 million for Christian Pulisic at 20, after Dortmund captured all the appreciation. Buying the option at 15 costs about 5 to 15 percent of buying the finished player. Most of these bets miss. One Pulisic pays for a decade of misses.
Ten years ago American teenagers left for free. Now they trade like call options.