And some news on David and his future status with Gent. Apparently they already turned down a 25 million euro offer for him during the winter transfter window... David on the radar of Arsenal, Man United & Co.: “Won’t let such a player leave for €25m” Only few players are currently courted by as many clubs as KAA Gent’s Jonathan David. The 20-year-old Canadian, who secured the spot on top of the Belgian goalscorer rankings with a hat-trick against Sint-Truidense VV on Sunday, made the headlines with strong performances this season. The international, who is used as a centre-forward or playmaker, scored 22 and assisted another 10 goals in 37 matches in all competitions so far. “Without a doubt: Jonathan is ready for the next step,” his agent Nick Mavromaras therefore thinks. Talking to Het Laatste Nieuws, he adds: “Gent has boosted his career, the club did a lot for him. I understand that they would like to keep him longer, but Jonathan wants to go ahead. The Belgian league is fantastic for young players, but the moment for the next step arrives and this will come in the summer.” The list of interested clubs is long. Besides Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton, the Belgian newspaper also mentions Porto, Ajax, Inter Milan, Olympique Lyon and Bundesliga sides Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen as clubs that regularly sent scouts to have a look at David’s performances. More to the story in the link above.
Jonathan David scored in Gent's 1-1 draw with Roma in the Europa League. Unfortunately that result put Gent out of the competition. At least Scott Arfields Rangers moved on to the last 16 in the competition by beating Braga over two legs.
According to a couple of top tier reporters, Jonathan David looks to be headed to Ligue 1 team Lilles. David has reportedly already agreed to personal terms with them: just about the clubs agreeing on a few now. Good move for all parties: logical next step for David, in a team where he will play and continue developing right away. Killed getting another good young talent they can nurture and sell at a profit 2-3yrs down the line.
They're about to sell some valuable assets like Victor Osimhen and Soumare among others. Plus, as stated, no doubt they see David as a valuable investment. He'll probably make a killing in France and that will get him tons of attention around Europe's top clubs. If they pay €30mil (the sum Genk are asking), it's not out of bounds to think he could be worth double that, at least. If he becomes the player he's expected to be, there's no telling how high that figure could rise to.
Supposed to be Napoli. They are apparently buying Soumare too for 100 million euros in total. I'm assuming that means that Koulibaly will be sold to pay for that.
Interesting they're getting Soumare as well. Curious also as to where Koulibaly will end up. Don't see anyone willing to pay anything close to the €90-100mil de Laurentiis is asking for him, especially in this market.
Interesting. I would think Koulibaly would not be the only one going out the door to fund that. Milik too I would say? Mind you he is not likely to command a huge fee.
The great TIFO football YouTube channel talks about the best five young players in Belgium, featuring Jonathan David...
I feel Lille is the best fit...they seem to be strong at developing young players. David could actually be Leeds best striker right away depending on what other business they do. Big step up from Belgium to the prem.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...ck-and-all-we-want-to-talk-about-is-atalanta/ says: "cwick: We aren’t going to be assembled again until just before the Champions League final, so I thought we could do a little bit of spitballing (unlike the rest of these chats) and predict who we’ll say is the greatest player in the world in two weeks’ time. Ryan, since this is your specialty, I thought you could lead us. ryan: It’s Duvan Zapata time, baby! grace: This is the kind of big-game setting where the space interpreter thrives so I’m going to throw out Thomas Müller as a guy everyone might be raving about once again after this. tchow: If we’re going Champs League focused, I want to take this time to introduce everyone to Canada’s and Bayern’s Alphonso Davies if they haven’t seen him already. Remember the name. ryan: That’s very Wenger-esque of you, Tony. Spotting a prospect after he’s already broken out. tchow: Like Wenger, I’m gonna say I had my eye on him forever. I’m just telling you now. grace: Tony is now joining FiveThirtyEight.ca."
And it is now official... 𝗩𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗹'𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘇 ? 🔥Il est là 🇨🇦 - #NewPlayerDetected #MercatoLOSC pic.twitter.com/VcsIUWMf3K— LOSC (@losclive) August 11, 2020 Apparently, the transfer is for a Canadian-record transfer fee of 30 million euros.
I think I read it's also the highest-ever fee paid by Lille and the highest-ever fee received by a Belgian club.
Belgium is rolling in dough. Picking up players on the cheap or developing and then flipping for loads of profit.
Spectacular run and assist by Davies against Barcelona just now. Great couple of days for MLS alums in the Champions League. https://streamable.com/s6dbtb
"Alphonso Davies dismantles Barcelona to set up a goal for Kimmich" is trending on Twitter. Bayern Munich won 8-2. I wonder when the last time Barcelona allowed 8 goals was and if they ever allowed that many before today. Bayern Munich will face the winner of tomorrow's game between Manchester City and Lyon. The other Semifinal will be between Paris Saint-Germain and Red Bull Leipzig. The Semifinals will have two German clubs and no Spanish or Italian clubs.
Transfer Rumours Jordan Perruzza attracting interest abroad. https://t.co/JYcQaPdLg1 pic.twitter.com/iftAnXIqcA— Canucks Abroad (@Canucks_Abroad) August 14, 2020
https://www.fifa.com/news/the-world...yern-munich-uefa-champions-league-final-x0006 is titled "The world salutes brilliant Bayern." It says "As Bayern fans rejoiced, admirers from across the world took to social media to pay tribute to Hansi Flick's unstoppable team, with the performance of Manuel Neuer and the fairy tale rise of Alphonso Davies among the subplots that came into focus." https://www.canadasoccer.com/news/alphonso-davies-bayern-win-uefa-champions-league-final/ is titled "Alphonso Davies, Bayern Win UEFA Champions League Final."
https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...e-of-the-fastest-soccer-players-in-the-world/ is titled "A Canadian Teenager Is One Of The Fastest Soccer Players In The World."
Milan Borjan will not be in the Champions League Group Stage. Host Omonia Nicosia beat Crvena Zvezda/Red Star Belgrade (hereafter CZ) 4-2 in penalty kicks. After extra time, CZ had way more shots (23 to 13) and shots on goal (8 to 4). In the second half, CZ had way more shots on goal (5 to 1), but neither club scored. In extra time, CZ had only 1 shot, and it wasn't on goal. Each club scored with their first two penalty kicks. The third and fourth rounds both had CZ shoot first and not score and Omonia Nicosia score. Omonia Nicosia was at home, and they took the lead in the 31st minute. Mirko Ivanic scored CZ's only goal in the 45+1st minute. The Europa League will have Qualifying Round 2 on Thursday, and the draw for the Playoff Round will be on Friday, which is before Qualifying Round 3. The Europa League Playoff Round will have 16 clubs from the Champions League. CZ and the other four clubs that lose in Champions League Qualifying Round 3 today will be seeded. Two clubs who lost in Champions League Qualifying Round 2 and were lucky to get byes in Europa League Qualifying Round 3 and nine clubs who lost in Champions League Qualifying Round 2 and won in Europa League Qualifying Round 3 will be unseeded. With 5 seeded and 11 unseeded clubs, some games will have two unseeded clubs. Celtic of Scotland, Astana of Kazakhstan, Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria, Legia Warsaw of Poland, Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova, and CFR Cluj of Romania are the unseeded clubs with coefficients of at least 10.000. CZ has a 22.750, and the first three in the previous sentence have higher coefficients. Coefficients are not used for seeding, but we can use them to decide how easy or hard each club is to beat.
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsl...--champions-league-positional-award-nominees/ says Davies is one of three nominees for 2019-2020 Champions League Best Defender. Teammates Joshua Kimmich and David Alaba are the other nominees. There are four positions. Bayern Munich has at least one at every position and seven of twelve, second place Paris Saint-Germain has three, Manchester City has one, and Atletico Madrid has one. It's unusual to not have anybody from Barcelona or Real Madrid. The awards will be announced at the Group Stage draw on Thursday October 1. Bayern Munich starts their season hosting Schalke 04 today at 2:30 P.M. USA Eastern. On Thursday at 3:00 P.M. they play Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup.
Crvena Zvezda won 2-0 at Gent, who lost all 4 games. Crvena Zvezda hasn't clinched advancing, but they will. They lead Slovan Liberec by 6 points, and Crvena won the first head-to-head 5-1, so they advance unless they lose both, Slovan wins both, and Slovan beat Crvena by at least 4. That game will be at Slovan on the last matchday.