Name: Jonathan Calleri Club: Boca Juniors Date of birth: 23 September 2021 Position: Forward Who is he? Boca Juniors have seen some pretty good forwards in recent years: Gabriel Batistuta, Martin Palermo and Carlos Tevez for example have all excelled in the blue and gold. Moving to perhaps the biggest club side in South
The 23 year-old is in his second season at Pohang Steelers, having made his debut in 2014. He plays in central midfield and wears the number 28 shirt. He notched up twenty-five appearances in the 2014 season scoring one goal. The midfielder has made a bright start to his second season at the club, scoring
The phrase ‘Brazilian wonderkid’ is one of football’s most overused, but could the latest youngster to be tagged with it, Kenedy, be the real deal? The Fluminense attacker first came to prominence in 2013, garnering glowing media reports as he starred for the Tricolor Under-18 side that won the Al Kass International Cup in Qatar. Fast-forward two
Name: Matias Kranevitter Club: River Plate Date of Birth: 21 May 2022 Position: Defensive midfield Who is he? The latest product off River Plate’s talent conveyor, Matias Kranevitter has steadily seen his stock rise over the past 18 months under Marcelo Gallardo and his assured performances in central midfield belie his young age. It is
Started his career with the Real Madrid academy in 2001 and then moved across to Barcelona’s youth set-up for seven years, big things were expected from the Spaniard. Iago’s natural position is on the flanks, he is a tricky, dynamic winger who is very comfortable on the ball. Now at the age of 25, Falque
Only close followers of Portuguese football are acquainted with him for now, but Egyptian striker Ahmed Hassan Mahgoub, known in Portugal by his middle name, has a decent shot at becoming a household name in the game in the coming years. The tall Rio Ave marksman showed goal-scoring ability from the moment he was thrust
The promise in Lyon’s Nabil Fekir is so much that many have compared the 21 year old to Karim Benzema, the Les Gones academy graduate who raised the club £32 million for his sale to Real Madrid in 2009. However the Frenchman himself has another comparison in mind, likening the winger to Hatem Ben Arfa,
After countless rumors, so-called “exclusives”, turnarounds, Memphis Depay has finally signed for Manchester United. In the course of one month, the young Dutch winger went from “close to signing for PSG”, to “very close to signing for Liverpool” to “officially a Manchester United player”. This whole battle wasn’t very surprising. Memphis Depay was easily the
It may be a slight on the lack of strength in depth of La Liga that its most poverty-stricken clubs can fight competitively to continue to demand a place in Spain’s top league. It is a miracle that Eibar, the city with a population of 28,000 and the club whose stadium hosts just 5,200 fans,
Ricardo Pereira is one of a number of young prospects who were thrown in at the deep end at Vitória Guimarães – and grew up fast. The northern club was in financial meltdown in 2011 when newly appointed coach, the aptly named Rui Vitória, decided to start from scratch, relying on largely unknown youth players.
A series of star-studded Benfica sides have enjoyed considerable success domestically and abroad over recent seasons. In a club that employs a constant revolving door policy with regard to the playing squad, the unchanging pillars of the side, although few and far between, play a pivotal role. Captain Luisão and right-back Maxi Pereira are the
With seven games remaining in Serie A, Lazio have managed to leapfrog their bitter rivals Roma in second place, on goal difference. They are having a tremendous season under coach Stefano Pioli. They have some top performers; Antonio Candreva, Marco Parolo, Miroslav Klose and Stefan de Vrij to name a few. The stand-out player for
It is indeed odd for Jose Mourinho to react to the £4.5 million his club have spent this week on a player that “at the moment is not a player for my squad, he is not a player I am waiting for.” The player the Chelsea manager was referring to was the Brazilian Nathan, who
Locked in battle with Borussia Monchendgladbach for the Bundesliga’s 3rd automatic Champions League qualification spot, Bayer Leverkusen winger Karim Bellarabi is clear where he wants his team to finish. “Now we are up where we want to still be at the end of the season” he said, after his winner against Schalke in late March
Cédric Soares is the latest of Sporting Lisbon’s highly promising crop of young players to be linked with a lucrative move, either abroad or domestically. Contract talks with the Portugal right-back have stalled over several months amid rumours that both FC Porto and Benfica are keen on prising the 23-year-old away from their direct rivals,
Despite making a slow start to the season, newly promoted Palermo have grown in confidence to a huge extent. The horrible defense punished the attack as Palermo had failed to hold on the leads in their opening three games of the season against Sampdoria, Hellas Verona and Inter respectively. Earning a point after going two
When Benfica sold young Portuguese midfielder André Gomes to Valencia last summer for 15 million euros most analysts agreed the Lisbon club had got an amazing price for a midfielder who had been used only sporadically by his coach Jorge Jesus in his first two years as a senior professional. Just a few months later,
With Hamburger SV in the bottom three, two points adrift of safety with eight games to go, the Bundesliga could realistically be about to lose its only ever-present club. Hamburg have played in each Bundesliga season since its inception in 1963 and, fifty-two years later, may be about to experience their first ever relegation having
Out of a raft of exciting young Portuguese footballers coming through the ranks, Braga forward Rafael Silva is one who is considerably ahead of what can be considered a normal learning curve. Still only 21 years old, Rafa, as he is known, has accumulated 64 appearances in Portugal’s top flight, earned himself three caps for
So disheartening is the course of modern football that a player Bayer Leverkusen signed last summer on a 5-year contract is already subject of rumours linking him with a move away from the club. Bayer and manager Roger Schmidt must be entitled to wonder what the point of it all is if the progress they
Franco Vazquez has been something of a revelation in Serie A this season. The 26-year old Argentine attacking midfielder is contributing to a fine season for his club Palermo, the Sicilian outfit sit tenth in the table – after achieving promotion from Serie B just last season. He was bought to Sicily in 2011 to
Bought by FC Porto in the summer of 2013, Juan Fernando Quintero’s performances in pre-season friendlies, notably in the prestigious Emirates Cup tournament in London, and then early in the 2013/14 campaign, appeared to indicate the northerners had struck gold again. An exhilarating dribbler, powerful shooter – usually with his magical left foot – and
Burnley’s 1-0 victory over Manchester City on Saturday evening gave the Lancashire outfit a real chance of staying in the Premier League against the odds in what would be an extraordinary achievement for Sean Dyche and his shoe-string assembled squad. A season that has seen them take points off Chelsea, Manchester United, Southampton and now
Iran haven’t always been rated as one of football’s superpowers, but the nation has been on a bit of a rise recently. A very promising 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign in Brazil was followed up by an impressive Asian Cup performance this year, as they made the quarterfinal stage after topping their group with
If you’re watching a Wolfsburg game then you will probably hear the phrase ‘Dost scores’ more frequently. The Dutch strikers form has been incredible lately as he managed to score 11 goals in his last seven league games, 13 overall this season and third in the goalscoring leaderboard behind Alexander Meier and Arjen Robben. Most