Tottenham Hotspur's transfer dealings are like clockwork -- an alarm clock, upon which you have thumped the snooze button a dozen times and which is now beeping only to tell you that you're late for work again. Another summer window deadline day, another cluster of cameras outside the gates at Spurs, poised to capture the last-second drama. Will this new "partnership" with Real Madrid, forged alongside the transfer of Luka Modric, mean the arrival under darkness of Kaka? Will a deal finally be struck with Porto for Joao Moutinho? Is there any money left for Shakhtar Donetsk's Willian? These are the questions reporters, shivering inside their raincoats, will field repeatedly before the midnight chimes bring it all to an end.
Spanish champions Real Madrid were paired with their English counterparts Manchester City as the draw for the European Champions League was made Thursday in Monaco.
Andres Iniesta pipped Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo to win the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award Thursday.
Real Madrid crashed to a shock 2-1 defeat to city neighbors Getafe in the second round of the Spanish La Liga season Sunday.
Paris Saint-Germain outspends rival football clubs during a close season. CNN's Don Riddell talks with the team manager.
CNN's Richard Quest talks to Simon Jordan, former owner of Crystal Palace FC about the pitfalls of the premier leagues.
Defending English Premier League champions Manchester City had to come from behind twice to snatch a 2-2 draw at improved Liverpool Sunday.
Manchester United claimed their first points of the season with an edgy win over Fulham, whilst Chelsea continued their strong start with victory over Newcastle.
Premier League stars have gotten 1,508% salary increase since 1992, as CNN's Jim Boulden explains.
CNN's Don Riddell reports on the challenges faced by former Italian champions AC Milan after the loss of key players.
Don Riddell interviews Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo and talks accomplishments and what the future holds.
CNN's Alex Thomas interviews Juventus president Andrea Agnelli at the Global Leadership Summit at London Business School.
CNN's Alison Kosik and Richard Quest talk to David Gill about Manchester United's public offering.
While European league seasons are now getting under way, the continent's showpiece tournament, the Champions League, kicked off months ago: in fact, two days after Spain beat Italy in the Euro 2012 final. The big winners in the first qualifying round were Luxembourg's Dudelange (7-0 winners over Tre Penne) and Malta's Valletta (8-0 against Lusitans). Both have since been eliminated and this week sees some fascinating match-ups in the play-off round, with the winners reaching the holy grail -- and cash cow -- of the group stage. Here are five matches worth keeping an eye on:
Real Madrid made a stumbling start to their La Liga title defense, as they were held 1-1 by Valencia Sunday in the Santiago Bernabeu.
Liverpool have suffered their worst opening day defeat since 1937, losing 3-0 to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. Arsenal, in their first game since Robin Van Persie's departure, could only manage a goalless draw at home to Sunderland.
They delivered World Series titles for the Red Sox, but can Fenway Sports Group repeat the trick at Liverpool FC?
English Premier League champions, Manchester City have appointed Ferran Soriano as their new chief executive officer, the club announced Friday.
Manchester United have agreed a deal to sign Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie, the club announced on Wednesday night.
CNN's Matthew Chance has the latest on the footballer found not guilty of racial abuse against an opposing player.
Chelsea captain John Terry was charged by the English Football Association (FA) Friday over his verbal clash with Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League match last year.
European Champions League winners Chelsea have announced the signing of Brazil international Oscar from Internacional.
"I read the papers and I see they say £10 million is my price. I go and talk with Sir Alex, and he says to me £5 million. So who is telling the truth, what do you think?" asked Dimitar Berbatov of his million-plus Facebook fans earlier this week. "The truth is, I love this club, but I am not going to be useful to anyone if I am not playing." It is the latest in a string of posts on his timeline wondering what the future holds.
Glasgow Rangers, one of European football's most famous clubs, must play in the fourth flight of their domestic league next season, Scottish Football League (SFL) clubs decided Friday.
CNN's Amanda Davis reports from Etihad stadium as Manchester City scores the winning goal for the Premiere League title.
Roberto Mancini has signed a new five-year contract with Manchester City after guiding the club to their first English title for 44 years.
Dutch international striker Robin van Persie has turned down a new contract at Arsenal, signaling his likely departure from the English Premier League side.
The storied British soccer team Manchester United said Tuesday that it plans to raise about $100 million in an initial public offering of its shares in the United States.
Montpellier's France international striker Olivier Giroud has agreed to join English Premier League club Arsenal.
Real Madrid's star player sits down for a 1 on 1 chat with CNN World Sport's Pedro Pinto.
Andrei Shevchenko enhanced his iconic standing as a Ukrainian national hero as he sparked scenes of national celebration with a match-winning double in Kiev.
Laurent Blanc takes France into Euro 2012 on a 20-game unbeaten run, which includes victories over Germany, England and Brazil. But the French national team coach is still downplaying his team's chances. France has not won a tournament finals match since the 2006 World Cup semifinal (it was winless at Euro 2008 and at the 2010 World Cup), and Blanc is quick to point out that France (ranked 16th) is currently listed nine spots lower than its first opponent, England (seventh), in the FIFA world rankings.
Manchester United announced on Tuesday an agreement had been reached with German champions Borussia Dortmund for the transfer of Shinji Kagawa.
Euro 2012 is nearly here and the 16 competing nations have announced the final 23-man squads they hope will propel them to glory in Poland and Ukraine.
Sol Campbell discusses Kenny Dalglish's sacking by Liverpool and John Terry's selection by England for Euro 2012.
Didier Drogba talks to Chelsea TV about his decision not to renew his contract with the Champion's League winners
One of the hottest properties in European football, Eden Hazard, has ended months of speculation as to his future by announcing on Twitter he is to join Champions League winners Chelsea.
Barcelona marked Pep Guardiola's final match in charge with a 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao to win the Copa del Rey Friday.
David Villa was top goalscorer at Euro 2008 as Spain secured a first major championship in 44 years, but the world champions' all-time leading marksman will not be part of next month's title defense in Poland and Ukraine.
Didier Drogba has confirmed he is leaving Chelsea, a decision which means the striker's last kick of a ball for the English club will be the penalty that sealed a first European Champions League crown on Saturday.
CNN's Alex Thomas and Pedro Pinto reflect on the Champions League final, and Chelsea's historic win.
With Chelsea's victory over Bayern Munich still fresh, here are five UEFA Champions League-inspired thoughts and observations from another MLS Saturday:
Sometimes football simply doesn't make sense. The cliché that a club's name is on a trophy can't have any truth, and yet it was hard during Chelsea's Champions League final victory not to feel it had some greater power behind it.
Three thoughts after Chelsea won the Champions League title on Saturday over Bayern Munich in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 tie:
CNN's Pedro Pinto and Alex Thomas set the scene for the UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea.
Didier Drogba scored the winner in a dramatic penalty shootout as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich Saturday to win the European Champions League for the first time.
The world's most important annual club soccer game is set to kick off in Munich on Saturday. Here are five thoughts on the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea (FOX, 2:45 pm ET).
UEFA president Michel Platini talks to Pedro Pinto about the Champions League final, financial fair play and Euros.
The annual Super Bowl of world soccer is finally here. Saturday's UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea (2:45 p.m. ET, FOX) may lack the sexiness of recent European finals -- neither team finished at the top of its own domestic league, after all -- but I still think this should be a highly entertaining contest.
A list of arguably the 10 most pivotal moments in the illustrious history of Bayern Munich.
The five best Bayern sides ever:
Heading into Saturday's Champions League final against Bayern Munich, here are five storylines to watch for Chelsea.
CNN's Amanda Davies interviews Dennis Tueart, former Manchester City player, following the team's historic win.
Since its inception in 1992, the English Premier League has grown into one of football's most compelling and commercially successful domestic competitions.
Kenny Dalglish's name is synonymous with Liverpool, one of England's most successful football teams, but after a disappointing second spell in charge as manager he has been sacked by the club's American owners.
Former England defender Sol Campbell has told CNN World Sport he is baffled by England coach Roy Hodgson's decision to omit Rio Ferdinand from the forthcoming Euro 2012 tournament.
In the inner sanctum of the Bayern Munich players' quarters, on a wall next to the communal dining areas, there's a giant black-white picture with photos and red letters. They spell out the clubs unofficial mantra Mia san Mia (We are who we are) and a number of its defining ideals. Full of confidence, loyal, technically brilliant, innovative, effective, focused, attacking, tactically flexible. In between those big words there are snap shots of 11 men who don't need any names or introduction, Bayern's all-star team:
For the most part, another season is in the books for Americans playing abroad. Sure, some leagues around the world operate on a different schedule, and a couple will carry on throughout the summer, but with the UEFA Champions League final on tap this weekend and most major leagues involving Americans on break until next season, it's a good time to dole out a few superlatives from this season along with taking a look at the most pressing storylines involving Americans ahead of the summer transfer season:
Following Man City's dramatic triumph, here are several thoughts from the end of the EPL season.
Manchester City won their first league title in 44 years to deny rivals Manchester United a 20th league championship in a gripping conclusion to the English Premier League season.
Poland striker Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick as Borussia Dortmund swept aside Bayern Munich 5-2 in the German Cup final to win the domestic double for the first time in their history.
I've been thinking lately about Giuseppe Rossi, and about the twists and turns that a sports career can take, even for the most promising athletes. If you're a U.S. soccer fan, you know plenty about Rossi, the Italian-American New Jersey native who chose to play for Italy over the U.S. and became a budding star for the Azzurri and Spain's Villarreal (where he scored 32 goals in all competitions in 2010-11).
Italian football journalist Tancredi Palmeri analyzes Juventus' Serie A title success with CNN's Patrick Snell.
Five things we learned in Barclays Premier League action Sunday and the FA Cup final:
After their heroics last Monday against hated city rivals Manchester United, Manchester City went one step closer to securing their first league title in four decades after beating Newcastle United 2-0.
Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola will stand down at the end of this season. CNN's Alex Thomas reports.
Real Madrid may have ended Barcelona's Spanish title reign in midweek, but Lionel Messi is poised to dethrone Cristiano Ronaldo as La Liga's goal king after adding four more to his tally on Saturday.
Who will win the FA Cup? Ian Rush and Marcel Desailly give us their predictions.
What started out as Chelsea's worst season since owner Roman Abramovich arrived in 2003 is now on the verge of becoming one of the English club's best.
Borussia Dortmund capped a second successive title-winning season by setting a new Bundesliga points record in the final round of matches on Saturday.
Sol Campbell and Keir Radnedge discuss the big challenges faced by new England manager Roy Hodgson.
A Spanish newspaper claims Real Madrid's manager will leave the club in June and fans react.
Real Madrid sealed a record-extending 32nd La Liga title after Wednesday's 3-0 win at Athletic Bilbao maintained an unassailable seven-point lead over arch rivals and defending Spanish champions Barcelona with two matches to play.
Roy Hodgson was appointed England manager on a four-year contract on Tuesday, ending months of speculation over who would lead the national team at Euro 2012.
Bolton's Fabrice Muamba made an emotional appearance at their Reebok Stadium before their game against Tottenham Wednesday, just 46 days after collapsing on the pitch against the same opposition.
Martin Skrtel's early own goal gave Fulham a historic first win at Anfield on Tuesday and left Liverpool in danger of finishing outside the top eight in the English top flight for the first time since 1954.
The race to become the next coach of the England national football team took a dramatic twist when the country's governing body announced it was in talks with West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson about the vacant position.
The experience of Alex Ferguson could be the key to Monday's potentially title-deciding Manchester derby, according to one of the veteran manager's former stalwarts Edwin van der Sar.
Juventus maintained a three-point lead at the top of Serie A with a convincing 4-0 win at Novara on Sunday to stay on course for a first league title in nine years.
A Karim Benzema brace helped Real Madrid to a 3-0 win over Sevilla on Sunday to edge Jose Mourinho's side one step closer to a first La Liga title in four seasons.
A rejuvenated Fernando Torres scored a hat-trick on Sunday in the English Premier League as Chelsea thrashed Queens Park Rangers 6-1 at Stamford Bridge.
For Manchester City fans, Monday's night's crucial clash with United isn't simply the final battle of a season-long war. It isn't even just about clawing their way back into the race for the Premier League title. Their pain runs far deeper than that. City have lived in the shadow of their rivals for too long and they are desperate to break out into the light. You have to go back to 1991 to find the last time they finished above their rivals, a feat that was spoiled somewhat when United beat Barcelona to lift the now defunct European Cup Winners' Cup.
Barcelona captain Carles Puyol says Tito Vilanova is "the ideal man" to replace Pep Guardiola as Barcelona coach.
A Luis Suarez hat-trick earned Liverpool a 3-0 win against Norwich City in the English Premier League on Saturday to give the Merseysiders a boost ahead of next weekend's FA Cup final against Chelsea.
Newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund extended their unbeaten league run to 27 matches on Saturday with a thumping 5-2 win against relegated Kaiserslautern.
LONDON -- It¹s January 2008, and David Beckham, chasing appearance number 100 for England, has been given permission by the L.A. Galaxy to join the Arsenal squad for training. After a session with the first-team, he waits to join the reserves for some extra practice. As he approaches the squad, one player shouts out, "Hey, what¹s your name? Are you here on trial or what?" Beckham laughs and says, "I'm David and I'm just here for a kick-around." The player who asked the question was only 17, and his name was Wojciech Szczesny.
The English Premier League has decided to dispense with the traditional pre-match handshakes before Sunday's clash between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers due to the legal case involving John Terry and Anton Ferdinand.
"The best don't always win," Fernando Torres said after Chelsea's dramatic 2-2 draw away to Barcelona. It's a soccer truism that becomes ever more pronounced at the highest of levels. It's why no one will begrudge Chelsea or Bayern their advancement to the May 19 final at the Allianz Arena, both second legs could have easily turned out very differently. It ultimately came down to missed penalties on Tuesday and Wednesday, a margin of error so small that it should stop us from making sweeping statements. The reasons for success were as complex and open to debate as those for failure.
Dutch international Wesley Sneijder scored twice as Inter Milan continued their renaissance in Serie A by beating Udinese 3-1, keeping alive the Italian side's chances of European Champions League qualification.
Barcelona's failure to beat misfiring, mismatched, misbegotten 10-man Chelsea was one of the most surprising and indeed troubling results in recent history. It calls into question everything we thought we knew about the sport. Pep Guardiola's free-flowing tiki-taka merchants are supposed to be the greatest team on the planet, if not the greatest team in history. So what went wrong?
Veteran goalkeeper Brad Friedel played his first club game as a professional in 1995. At the time, Andrew Wooten was 6, and Greg Garza was 4. Fast forward to 2012, and all three Americans can look back on this past weekend as a landmark in their careers, no matter how far along each one is.
Pedro Pinto catches up with Barcelona president Sandro Rosell after his squad won Best Team of the Year.
Smarting from their first back-to-back defeats in nearly three years, Barcelona are on the defensive for a change as they approach Tuesday's Champions League semifinal second leg against Chelsea.
Manchester United's lead over neighbors Manchester City in the English Premier League was cut to just three points after being held to a 4-4 draw by Everton Sunday.
The race for England's last two European Champions League places took another twist on Saturday as Newcastle's sixth successive victory left London's three leading clubs battling for qualification.
Five things we learned in Premier League action Saturday:
Bayern Munich may be leading Germany's bid for success on European football's main stage, but Borussia Dortmund rule the roost domestically after winning the Bundesliga title for the second successive season on Saturday.
Didier Drogba will be out of contract at Chelsea in 10 weeks' time. Under Andre Villas-Boas, the plan was to leave it that way. Even now, with the future kept at arm's length, the club has offered only a one-year deal that Drogba has refused for being too short. Back in December, bookmakers had Russia as his most likely destination because, as The Mirror put it, "megabucks Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala are spending money like it's going out of fashion... and specialize in buying over-the-hill players." It is not just the odds that need some revision after six days in which Drogba's continuing value has been boldly underscored.
Manchester United faces the prospect of losing another jewel of its academy system to freedom-of-contract departure. Italy U-21 international Davide Petrucci is considering leaving Old Trafford at the end of this season to take up one of a number of lucrative offers to return to his home country.
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