Wesley Sneijder and Manchester United seems to be a never ending love story that just doesn’t want to go away.
With the arrival of January and the opportunity to sign players in the winter transfer window, the tabloids are again linking the 19 times English champions with a move for the talismanic Dutch midfielder, who is one of the favourites to be named as Player of the Tournament on the euro 2012 betting markets.
Euro 2012 seems to currently revolve around the fortunes of Germany and Spain so Ed Malyon has highlighted a number of youngsters who could upset the form this summer.
Alan Dzagoev
Having snubbed interest from Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United as a youngster, the CSKA playmaker stayed in Moscow to gather first-team experience. Despite a slight plateau in his development he is already a vital player at international level, and if Russia are to get out of their group then it will be thanks to his goals, and perhaps more importantly, assists.
What a tremendous victory for Jürgen Klinsmann and the entire American team with an astonishing performance that yielded a 5-1 victory in a classical friendly match against Scotland. The game at Everbank Field in Jacksonville left supporters and fans in awe of the dawn of an indomitable team.
The American team captained by Carlos Bocanegra wearing soccer jersey number 3 had 2 early goals in the 3rd and 11th minutes by Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley respectively and both goals came as a result of quality performance and team work. A mistake by Geoff Cameron saw the ball behind the American net leading to an own goal gave the Scots a glimpse of hope which persisted till the end of the 1st half only to be dashed as more goals were banged into the net by the American boys.
With 3 more goals in the 2nd half of the game, soccer jersey number 10-Landon Donovan had two more goals at the 60th and 65th minutes giving him a hat trick in this all important friendly game. Jermaine Jones wasn’t left out of the game as he gave a brilliance performance that lead to the Scots conceding yet another goal to tally it up to the final score.
What a game we got today and "I'm very pleased with how things went tonight," Jürgen Klinsmann said. "It was a wonderful start with the two early goals. I think we set the tone." The tempo was kept high almost all through the game and both teams gave out their best during the game.
The game had just a yellow card at the 29th minute awarded to Americas Carlos Bocanegra, making it a game with less number of cards to be awarded. The game had no red cards and the game was generally entertaining.
After the game, reaction was stirred amongst the fans tipping Scotland for showcasing a less brilliant performance and accusing the new tryouts in the team for not scoring goals which were scored by the veterans. At the end of the game, soccer jerseys were exchanged by players of both teams in one spirit of fair play.
Facing Brazil in the next friendly game will not be an easy task for the Yanks as the samba team is an experienced team with great dribbling and goal scoring ability and it will be the game that will test the wits of the American boys.
Chelsea have already started their rebuilding process ahead of next season after confirming the signing of Werder Bremen midfielder Marko Marin on a five-year contract.
The 23-year-old is expected to join the London club on a five-year deal after the two clubs agreed a transfer fee worth around £ 7 million. It seems to be an astute piece of business from the English club after Marko Marin has been touted to be the next big thing from Germany.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said that he is extremely sure that striker Wayne Rooney will one day beat the record set by Sir Bobby Charlton for the most number of goals scored for Manchester United.
Bobby Charlton currently holds the record for having scored 249 goals for Manchester United during his career with the Red Devils. Wayne Rooney scored two goals against Everton during the weekend to moved level with George Best and Dennis Viollet when it comes to the goalscoring charts.
Player’s union chief Gordon Taylor has said that Wayne Rooney has become a much better player this season and he also praised the maturity levels of the England international.
Wayne Rooney has been one of the main reasons for Manchester United to challenge for the Premier league title this season.
Athletic Bilbao player Fernando Llorente has said that even though Manchester United are the favourites due to the presence of players like Wayne Rooney, his club do have a chance but it comes to qualify for the next stage of the Europa league.
Manchester United will be facing Spanish club Athletic Bilbao in the last 16 of the Europa league knowing that they are one of the favourites not only to progress to the next round, but also to win the tournament as well.
Galatasaray continued their poor form once again, as they failed to beat Antalyaspor.
Galatasaray were coming into the match on the back of a run that has seen them go without a win in the last four matches. The Turkish giants were the favourites ahead of the match, despite their poor form leading up into the encounter.
Fans turned out in large numbers braving the cold weather, which has been plaguing Europe over the last few weeks. Despite the support of the home fans, Galatasaray could not convert their home advantage into their first win in five matches.
Wayne Rooney's sensational goal against Manchester city has been named as one of the contenders for the goal of the year award given by FIFA.
The Puskas Award is given by FIFA for the best goal scored by any player during the season. Wayne Rooney will be competing for this award along with Lionel Messi and Brazilian sensation Neymar.
AC Milan supremo Massimo Allegri believes that in Zlatan Ibrahimovic they have a player who is equal to both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Whilst Messi and Ronaldo have proven their talent time and again at the highest level - perhaps most notably last season when the two competed for the Primera Liga golden boot award, and outscored all their rivals by over 10 goals each - Ibrahimovic has sometimes flattered to deceive.