HeadtoHeadFootball -

EDITOR PICKS

Soccer

10 best transfers of the summer so far

With international commitments winding down and the clubs’ pre-season workouts gaining momentum, the summer transfer window is in full swing. Here, theScore catches a breath to assess the best pieces of business so far.

10. Mahmoud Dahoud (Borussia Dortmund)

Reported €12-million transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach

An all-action midfielder in keeping with Borussia Dortmund’s style and who has similar traits to a former Westfalenstadion favourite, Ilkay Gundogan.

How the inventive and industrious Dahoud left for a paltry €12 million doesn’t reflect well on Borussia Monchengladbach – if it was a suspected release clause, it should’ve been lifted a long time ago – but Dortmund is the beneficiary as it enters the Peter Bosz era.

9. Youri Tielemans (AS Monaco)

Reported €25-million transfer from Anderlecht

Tielemans has been on the radar of top European clubs for some time, and AS Monaco’s signing of the central midfielder proves the principality outfit isn’t prepared to rest on its laurels following the 2016-17 season’s adventurous march into the Champions League semi-finals.

The 20-year-old has proven his ability to fulfill a range of tactical roles, developed into a leader at Anderlecht, and can smash in beauties from distance.

8. Franck Kessie (AC Milan)

On loan from Atalanta with obligation to buy

One of the most sought-after players earlier this summer, Kessie wound up at AC Milan in a deal that should eventually cost around €28 million. Not bad, particularly when Chelsea and Manchester United threatened to start a bidding war for the Ivorian.

He’s just 20, and gradually turned from a ball-playing defender and into a physical box-to-box midfielder during a loan spell at Cesena in the 2015-16 season. In the last campaign, he was one of the best midfielder dribblers in Serie A, with his bustling style drawing comparisons to compatriot Yaya Toure.

7. Borja Valero (Inter)

Reported €5.5-million transfer from Fiorentina

A steady and experienced head taken aboard for just €5.5 million. Inter Milan’s approach in the transfer window appears more measured – or simply less mindless – than its tumultuous beginning to the disappointing 2016-17 venture.

Out of regularly deployed Serie A midfielders, 32-year-old Valero was fourth in total key passes (behind Marek Hamsik, Radja Nainggolan, and Valter Birsa – all of whom played more games) and is a technically gifted performer.

6. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

€42-million transfer from Roma

A goalkeeper, left-back, and centre-back should’ve been the first incoming players this summer, but Liverpool safeguarded its title as the most entertaining Premier League side flooding forward with the signing of Salah.

He was a menace when drifting inside from the right for Roma last term – scoring 15 goals and recording 11 assists – and will allow Philippe Coutinho more chances to drop deeper in Jurgen Klopp’s shape and therefore influence proceedings even more.

5. Bertrand Traore (Lyon)

€10-million transfer from Chelsea

Yet another youngster who’s been allowed to leave Chelsea and, just like Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and others, a departure that the west London lot could rue.

Traore blossomed last season on loan at Peter Bosz’s Ajax, making inroads from the right with his meandering runs and a level of strength that’s a hallmark of those who’ve featured in Chelsea’s youth-level dominance in recent years.

With some fine-tuning (he’s sometimes positionally naive and his inconsistent deliveries culminated in no Eredivisie assists in the 2016-17 term) he can wreak havoc for Lyon.

4. Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal)

€53-million transfer from Lyon

Atletico Madrid’s loss was Arsenal’s gain after Lacazette was introduced to fans as the club’s new record signing for a potential £52 million last week.

Although new teammate Olivier Giroud gets the nod ahead of Lacazette for France in Didier Deschamps’ two-man attack, there’s no doubting that the ex-Lyon striker is more adept hassling the opposition’s defence as a sole frontman. This is just how Arsene Wenger looks to shape his strike force.

Related – Analysis: How Lacazette will kick-start Arsenal’s attack

3. Theo Hernandez (Real Madrid)

Reported €24-million transfer from Atletico Madrid

Hernandez struggled with the mandatory keepie-uppies at his unveiling, but don’t let that fool you.

He’s blessed with devastating dribbling skills and strikes a vicious delivery from the flank, and his six-foot frame means he’s doesn’t share the slight, vertically challenged traits of many of his full-back contemporaries. He should’ve been a natural replacement for Filipe Luis at Atletico Madrid, but Real Madrid exercised his €24-million release clause with Los Colchoneros.

With the superb Marcelo first-choice at left-back, expect Hernandez to be commonly deployed in cup games. He could challenge the 29-year-old for minutes very soon, though, as he showed he’s not one to buckle under pressure from his stunning free-kick for loan side Alaves against Barcelona in May’s Copa del Rey final.

2. Dani Alves (Paris Saint-Germain)

Free transfer from Juventus

Alves reuniting with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City made sense, and the transfer tattle gave every indication that it was a done deal.

But then Paris Saint-Germain swooped in for the 34-year-old.

Alves’ maverick status through his adventurous playing style, pursuit of fun, and glitzy suits will help bring the entertainment back to PSG after surrendering the Ligue 1 title to Monaco, but, most importantly, he’s credited with showing the utmost professionalism in training and maintaining his condition – this can only help the dressing room.

With Alves in tow, PSG has a player than can help exorcise the 6-1 demons from last season and, with a couple more additions, can aim to go all the way in the Champions League.

1. James Rodriguez (Bayern Munich)

On loan from Real Madrid with option to buy

James was only behind Alvaro Morata, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Mariano in league goals scored per 90 minutes last season (he bagged eight in total), and he curated the most assists per 90 minutes (six overall) for those who regularly appeared for Real Madrid.

This is despite making only 13 starts en route to Los Blancos’ 2016-17 La Liga triumph.

Incredibly for a man who turns up in Bavaria with luggage weighed down by 17 medals from his club endeavours, James is only 26 and entering the peak of his powers. He’s a ready-made replacement for seasoned duo Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, and will reunite with a manager who perhaps best understood how to hone his talents away from the international scene.

Under Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, the Colombian was involved in 34 goals in 46 outings as he continued his devastating form from the 2014 World Cup. He’s able to slot into four separate positions of the Italian’s favoured 4-2-3-1 setup – a welcome reprieve from his toils to try and fit into a 4-3-3 and, latterly, a midfield diamond spearheaded by Isco.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

NFL

Who's on the hot seat in all eight NFL divisions

This summer, NFL Nation reporters are answering the biggest questions for every team in divisional roundtables.

Monday’s question: Who will be the best newcomer?

Tuesday’s question: Who’s the rising star in each division?

Wednesday’s question: Who is on the hottest seat in the division?

New York Jets coach Todd Bowles is the unanimous winner here. Bowles has lost all momentum since winning 10 games in his first season. Bowles was 5-11 last year and has zero playoff appearances. Read more

A couple of coaches come to mind in this division. Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is in the final year of his contract. He’s coming off a 6-9-1 season. And he hasn’t won a playoff game in his 14 years in Cincinnati. Hue Jackson also may be in trouble with the Cleveland Browns. Read more

It comes down to a coach and a quarterback. Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano has a 49-31 regular-season record in five seasons, but the Colts failed to make the playoffs the past two years. Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles also enters a make-or-break season. Read more

Alex Smith (11) remains the starter, but first-round pick Patrick Mahomes II (15) is looming over his shoulder. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

The Kansas City Chiefs put Alex Smith on notice in April when they not only drafted quarterback Patrick Mahomes II but also traded next year’s first-round pick for the chance to do so. Both the Oakland Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers will have new stadiums soon, so their GMs and coaches also could be feeling the heat. Read more

There are a variety of choices in this division, from quarterbacks Eli Manning of the New York Giants and Kirk Cousins of the Washington Redskins to coaches Jay Gruden of the Redskins and Doug Pederson of the Philadelphia Eagles. Read more

Chicago Bears coach John Fox is one of a few coaches in the division who may be in trouble. Fox is 9-23 after two seasons in Chicago, and he has finished last in the division both years. Read more

Sean Payton helped the Saints win a Super Bowl eight seasons ago; now he’s on the hot seat. Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports

A pair of coaches may be in trouble here. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton won a Super Bowl, but that was in 2009. Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera also may be in trouble coming off last season’s 6-10 finish. Read more

The answer here has to be Los Angeles Rams GM Les Snead. The Rams have finished no better than 7-8-1 and as bad as 4-12 during his tenure. He’s in Los Angeles. He has a new coach. He has a top pick as his quarterback. Do the math and it adds up to a very hot seat. Read more

Soccer

Benzema receives backing from French court over sex-tape scandal

Reuters / Juan Medina Livepic

Support from France’s highest judicial court – the Court of Cassation – could see Karim Benzema absolved from claims that he aided an attempted blackmail of former international teammate Mathieu Valbuena.

Benzema, 29, was accused of acting as an intermediary for blackmailers who obtained a sex tape featuring Valbuena. Benzema’s appeal to have the case dropped was rejected by the Appeal Court last December, but Tuesday’s backing from another court gives the Real Madrid striker hope of ending a scandal which began when he was arrested in November 2015.

“It’s definitely a big victory,” lawyer Patrice Spinosi told France Info, according to BBC News, declaring it a turning point in the investigation.

The prestigious Court of Cassation’s decision will force Benzema’s plea to be heard again by the Court of Appeal’s examining chamber, and BBC News understands it will have no choice but to throw out the case. Still, this eventuality could be months away.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

When blackmailers contacted Valbuena to inform him that they’d got hold of a sex tape, he was asked to appoint a middle-man to negotiate the video not being made public. A police officer, given the false name Lukas, was drafted in as the go-between by Valbuena.

A childhood friend of Benzema’s was asked for help by the blackmailers to strike a deal with Valbuena, and it was then that Benzema allegedly urged Valbuena to pay up while both were with the French national team in October 2015.

Benzema’s lawyer Spinosi alleges that the police officer worked hard in trying to find an agreement between the blackmailers and Valbuena, and that no criminal proceedings would’ve occurred without his dishonesty.

Since Benzema was taken in for questioning over 20 months ago, neither he or Valbuena have represented their country. Benzema is still on the books of Real Madrid, while the alleged 32-year-old victim switched Lyon for Fenerbahce of the Turkish Super Lig in June.

NFL

Lifting a car, daredevil pull-ups: Redskins rookie's amazing feats of strength

ASHBURN, Va. — Shortly after receiving his new dumbbell set, Washington Redskins running back Samaje Perine, then around 12-years-old, realized it wasn’t enough. He needed more weight. But rather than ask his mom for a new set, he found bricks, duct-taped them to the dumbbells and proceeded with his workouts.

And a legend was born. Sort of. His ingenuity, and love of working out, placed him on a path to the NFL. It helped him top Adrian Peterson in one area, lifting a car and becoming an almost mythical figure in the Oklahoma Sooners weight room. One story toppled another.

Even now, his mother shrugs her shoulders at the memory of his first dumbbell set.

“All he had to do was ask for a new set, and we would have gotten him more,” his mother, Gloria Perine said.

That strength is one reason why he was good enough that Washington drafted him in the fourth round. It helped him rush for an NCAA-record 427 yards in one game as a freshman. It broke the spirit of defenders throughout his college tenure.

“I remember defensive backs checking out of the game like, ‘I’m done tackling this guy,'” said Oklahoma’s Jerry Schmidt, the Sooners’ strength coach whose official title is director of sports enhancement.

Here are tales about Perine’s feats of strength:

Lifting cars: Late one night in the summer of 2015, Perine noticed a woman with a flat tire in the parking lot of the Bud Wilkinson House on Oklahoma’s campus. She didn’t have a car jack.

“So I just helped her out,” he said.

By lifting the car so the back left tire could be changed. Perine’s mom said he would only laugh when she asked him about it, not knowing if it was myth or real. But it was real. Perine sort of shrugged it off by pointing out it was “a pretty small car. A Smart Car.” They weigh 1,500 pounds.

“If you lift one side, the whole side is coming up,” he said. “It was kind of heavy … I mean, I wouldn’t say it was easy. It’s still a car.”

Perine said he was alone, but Oklahoma running back Daniel Brooks once told Soonersports.com that he saw what happened. Brooks added to the myth when he told the website, “He was curling the car, too, I think.”

Perine laughs.

“That part is made up,” he said.

Balcony pull-ups: At their two-story house in Pflugerville, Texas, Perine, sometime around his freshman year of high school, found another way to work out. He did pull-ups on their second-floor balcony.

“Which freaked me out,” Gloria Perine said. “He would hang up there and do pull-ups, which was pretty scary.”

The rails on the balcony did not go all the way down to the floor, leaving a gap so Perine could hang off the balcony with his hands on the floor and pull himself up.

The only thing between Perine and the ground: a flower bed.

Did he ever fall?

“Not that I know of,” she said.

Deck of card workouts: Before heading home for a break during his sophomore year, Perine asked an Oklahoma assistant strength coach for a strenuous workout he could do at home. So the assistant, Mahala Wiggins, suggested using a deck of cards.

Every card was assigned a point value. In Perine’s workouts, a king, for example, would be worth 25. Whatever card he pulled, that’s how many sit-ups or push-ups he’d do. In his numbering system, a deck would equate to 792 reps. He’d finish an entire deck — for both sit-ups and push-ups. Now that he’s away from the Redskins facility, Perine said he’d resume these workouts.

“I always work out when I go home,” he said. “I’m never the type to sit down and chill out too long. I have to keep moving do something else or I get bored. I eat too much just to be bored so I find a way to work out.”

Stronger than Adrian Peterson: The one-time Sooner great, and future NFL Hall of Famer, was known for his strength as well. Schmidt said Peterson’s bench was around 390 or 400 pounds. Schmidt said Perine’s max bench was 440 pounds. That’s like benching an average-sized piano — with a small child sitting on it.

Of course, the 217-pound Peterson ran the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds at the combine, broad-jumped 10 feet, seven inches and had a vertical leap of 38.5 inches. Perine ran a 4.65; had a vertical of 33 inches and a broad jump of 9-feet, eight inches. But at 238 pounds, those are still solid numbers.

“The way Samaje explodes and his low center of gravity … that’s what makes him,” Schmidt said. “His legs are the size of tree trunks. AD would run higher, but he’s faster.

“Samaje is so explosive, and Adrian was the same way. There’s a 20-pound weight difference, but the amount of explosion and the amount of power these guys have is ridiculous.”

But Perine said, “AP’s in a whole other league.”

Still, Schmidt said some linemen can bench what Perine does, but they can’t match his squat (540) or power clean (380). Perine said he once squatted 600 pounds in high school.

“No one was lifting more [at Oklahoma],” Schmidt said. “It wasn’t even close.”

Sometimes, when Perine would get in position to lift the amount of weights coaches had placed on the bar, he’d shoot a glance at the strength coaches.

“The main thing is just the look you get from him like, ‘Is this all you’ve got?'” said Schmidt, Oklahoma’s strength coach for the past 18 years. “It’s hard to explain as a coach when a guy looks at you like that. I thought I’d do something to him, and he’s laughing at this.”

Perine said now when he does squats, he’ll do five sets of eight repetitions squat between 315-345 pounds and two sets of 10 at 285 pounds. Instead of benching this spring, he’d bench dumbbells, with 115 pounds in each hand. At the combine, he benched 225 pounds 30 times — only four offensive linemen did more. And Perine said he once did 35 reps of 225 pounds in high school.

“I just see what I’m doing as being the norm for me,” he said. “I love the weight room, and I love to work out.”

Page 725 of 847« First...102030724725726727730740750...Last »

Soccer