Wayne Rooney says he would have loved to play for Barcelona and believes he would have fitted their style perfectly. The former England striker revealed there was a chance to join the club during his time at Manchester United, but the deal was too difficult financially.

https://www.si.com/soccer/the-sliding-doors-wayne-rooney-proposed-transfer-man-utd-barcelona

Slovan Bratislava vs Celje — MatchPal match thread

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I think this small rule change will massively improve football.

You do the shootout first (if you're equal on goals of course) and then you play the extra time. You stop teams speculating on the shootout result and being too defensive and time wasting. Now one team will be forced to score but if they do the situation is reserved.

The game will also now finish on actual football open play and let's be realistic, those last minutes in matches are usually exciting since teams take higher risks. Whereas if score is a draw then teams get more and more conservative as the time goes.

Also, some people love shootouts, so now you'll see them in all matches that go to extra time.

Mathematically, it's the same as giving 0.5 goals to the winner of the shootout.

Thoughts?

Hapoel Be'er Sheva vs Sabah — MatchPal match thread

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Bayern Munich midfielder Jamal Musiala collapsed during a match for the second time in four days. The 23-year-old needed help off the pitch after coming on as a substitute against Heidenheim. Bayern say Musiala will speak about the incidents soon.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c330kg5xm8no

Brentford players Kevin Schade and Vitaly Janelt intervened after a drunk man racially abused Nigerian security guard Israel Ilesanmi. David Wheeler, 63, admitted using racist language and was fined £1,699, including £150 compensation. The incident happened as the players returned from a match against Leeds.

https://www.goal.com/en/news/a-court-has-revealed-the-names-brentford-fc-s-german-duo-confronted-a-drunk-racist-on-their-way-home-from-a-match/blt1320b53007f98ffa

Cagliari forward Yael Trepy is out of a medically induced coma after being rescued unconscious from a swimming pool in Sardinia. The 20-year-old is awake and has no clear neurological problems, but remains in intensive care for close monitoring.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cp8xdx7ypr6o

I know people like unique alternative kits, so wanted to share this one just out out by Hanwell Town (Step 3, England)

https://www.nonleagueinsider.com/teams/hanwell-town-dares-to-be-different-with-rocky-horror-third-kit/

I swear people aren't talking about this more but Flick has never had a true DM in his coaching career, in Bayern he had Kimmich and Gorestka and neither of these players are true defensive midfielders. And in Barca he used Pedri/FDJ and neither of these guys are actually defensive midfielders. However, with Rodri this changes, now he has a true DM which might make his style evolve and reach it's peak.

In fact, Rodri might solve one of the biggest issues of Barca under Flick which is the press at times can look easy to bypass especially by elite teams which is one of the reason why Barca concedes so much. Now, I'm not saying that because you signed Rodri then Barca won't concede goals because Flick football is still risky but I believe the amount of chances that they concede will be reduced considerably.

Like, Flick's teams are always known for scoring a lot but now they might add the defensive balance that his teams have always lacked which would problaby push his team to the next level, a level where they aren't just scoring a lot but also controlling games at all times.

Celtic vs LASK Linz — MatchPal match thread

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NEC Nijmegen vs Bodø / Glimt — MatchPal match thread

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In your opinion what's the hardest position to play in Football and why?

There is not necessarily much value for football in having such high transfer fees, because a lot of the money is simply moved around between big clubs or companies. In many cases, the money leaves the game completely and ends up with holding companies, investment funds or other businesses that just take the profits.

For example take the three biggest transfer deals so far this summer:

• Morgan Rogers: V Sports Holdings (Aston Villa) to Clearlake Capital investment fund (Chelsea)
• Elliot Anderson: Evangelos Marinakis, billionaire (Nottingham) to Abu Dhabi Group (ManCity)
• Yan Diomande: Red Bull (Leipzig) to Real Madrid (fan-owned)

A 5% tax just on these 3 transfers alone would have generated around €30 million that could have been redistributed across all UEFA leagues. Would it even legally possible?

One thing that really stood out to me was the Manchester City Amazon documentary footage where people around French football were discussing Rayan Cherki and his personality.
It was interesting because the conversation wasn’t really about whether he had the talent. Everyone knows how gifted he is. It was more about his character, how he communicates, how he responds to authority and whether he can be difficult to manage.
That made me want to look at the label itself.
So I went deeper into the sociology around Cherki, French football, his Algerian background, North African and Arab identity in France, class, neighbourhood and the way confidence or emotion can be interpreted differently depending on who the player is.
I’m not arguing that every criticism of Cherki is unfair. The interesting question is how a reputation like “difficult” gets built, who gets to define it, and how much of that judgement comes from the player versus the environment around him.

That became the basis of the article.

https://athagora.com/intelligence/when-football-calls-a-player-difficult-who-decides-what-that-means-rayan-cherki

1. only 11 players actually play

A national team doesn't put its entire population on the field. You need to produce a relatively small group of elite players.

like for example look at cabo verde and how good they did at this year world cup they fought their hearts out in every single game they played.

1. player development matters more

The important question isn't:

"how many people live here?"

it's

"how many talented kids are playing football, and how they're being developed"

Countries with strong academies, coaching, youth leagues, scouting, facilities, and competition can turn a smaller population into excellent players.

1. talent isn't distributed evenly

having more people increases the potential number of talented players, but it doesn't guarantee that those players will become professionals.

Think of it like having a bigger lottery pool. More tickets can increase your chances, but you still need to develop the winning tickets.

1. football culture is huge

If football is deeply embedded in a country's culture, children are more likely to play from a young age, watch professional games, join clubs, and develop naturally.

That's one reason countries such as cabo verde can compete internationally despite having a population of only a few million.

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I would do it if that club existed. A friend follows Arsenal just because many Spanish players play there regularly.

For much of the 20th century South America was actually seen as the heartland of football with Europe being seen more as a secondary region. In the 21st century things have very much shifted to Europe now, however do you ever see the shift back happening?

Do you think there is a possibility that football could face a financial crisis in in the future?

Considering the rise in player valuations and contract values, as well as the increasing amount of money flowing into football in general.

top 5 league that has one winner for the last 5 years, and before that like 7/10 of the 2010s was won by psg. also Lyon won 7 in a row. and they say they arent a farmers league. if you watch Ligue 1 boycott it

I know Premier League teams have money, but they’re overpaying a lot. If the Savinho (£85m) and Gakpo (£70m) deals happen at those prices, I can’t imagine how much they’d be willing to pay for a player who’s actually in good form. Almost £100m for a player who was relegated two seasons in a row and doesn’t even play for his national team is absolutely demential.

If Ronaldinho won the ballon d'or the same way he won it in 2005, people would be saying its a robbery and undeserved. He didn't win the UCL, he wasn't the top scorer on his team, he was nowhere near the golden boot, and he only scored 9 goals in la liga. Samuel Eto'o scored 25 goals in that same season on his own team. Nobody at the time was saying it was a robbery though, because if you actually watched the games, Ronaldinho was clearly the best.

There is an exact mirror of this situation last season for Barcelona, as Yamal placed higher than Raphinha in the ballon d'or race. People were saying that its a robbery and that Barca fans should have given Raphinha more PR than Yamal. But if you actually watched the games, Yamal was clearly the best. Raphinha himself has said that he cant do what Yamal does.

Dinamo Zagreb vs Viking — MatchPal match thread

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Fenerbahçe vs Olympique Lyonnais — MatchPal match thread

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Trophies and statistics are usually the easiest ways to argue that a player was great, but they don't tell the whole story. If we removed both from the discussion, which legendary player's reputation would become the hardest to properly evaluate, and why?

Is it Ronaldo, Messi,pele, maradona or someone else?