Author: cimi

Lille have already sold striker Victor Osimhen to Napoli for a big fee, and there could be some more players following the Nigerian out the exit door after Lille missed out on the Champions League.

According to The Times, Tottenham Hotspur are ready to step up their pursuit of right-back Zeki Çelik, who has been identified as a potential replacement for Serge Aurier.

The 23-year-old has only spent two years in France and is yet to really establish himself as a household name, so here’s everything you need to know about Çelik.

Spurs fans need to take note of Çelik’s name, but they’re not the only English side who are tracking the right-back.

Alongside Spurs, Çelik has attracted interest from both Everton and West Ham United this summer, so he might have more than a few chances to make it to the English top flight.

Earlier in his career, Çelik made no secret of his desire to play in the Bundesliga, but recently he has turned his attention to playing in the Premier League.

He told TRT Spor that one of his goals is to play in the Premier League, adding that he’s already well aware of links to Spurs.

He’s in no rush to leave Lille, but it looks like Spurs may have caught his eye.

Çelik spends a lot of his free time watching footage of other right-backs to try and find things to add to his game, and he told the Turkish Football Federation that one player he enjoys watching is Kyle Walker.

“I’ve been watching him since he played in Tottenham,” he said. “Sometimes Guardiola also plays himself as a centre-back – something I have done myself.

“[I also watch] Thomas Meunier at PSG. There used to be Maicon. I really like the attacking features of Dani Alves. I watch them and imitate them.”

Watching footage and trying to improve is never usually a problem, but according to former manager Yalç?n Ko?kavak, Çelik might be too dedicated.

He told Goal: “He didn’t give up working like his peers even when he needed a social life. In fact, there were times that I had to force him to have a social life. ‘But teacher, I have to work,’ he said. He’s such a professional player.”

Ko?kavak added that Çelik took that advice on board and now knows how to balance things better, suggesting that change was behind his move to Lille.

A very studious character, Çelik finished school and spent time at an online university before moving to France, and he has always appreciated that learning English would open more doors in his future.

Speaking to Asist Analiz, he confessed that his preferred method of learning is watching TV shows and movies, with Pokémon his show of choice during lockdown.

There’s no football lingo in Pokémon, but hey, if you ever need someone to help in a battle, Çelik’s your man.

When he’s not watching Pokémon, Çelik usually likes playing video games. Football Manager is one of his favourites, but he admitted he has an unhealthy obsession with FIFA.

“I love playing FIFA,” he said. “I played excessively in quarantine times. I played FIFA for 45 days.”

He never chooses Lille because he can’t help but pass the ball to himself, and as a 76-rated non-rare card, he’s actually pretty rubbish in game.

A right-back by trade, Çelik actually prefers to operate higher up on the pitch. During his time in academy football, he actually wanted to be a striker.

His coaches pulled him back and actually wanted to play him as a centre-back as a result of his impressive physique, but Çelik refused and instead insisted on a compromise which would allow him to move to right-back.

It wasn’t just his physique which saw coaches want to play Çelik at the back. As it turned out, he wasn’t actually very good going forward.

He has scored just six goals in his career thus far, and most who have watched Çelik play will admit that he looks very shaky when presented with a chance to score. He’s got a mean cross on him, but that’s as far as it goes.

Çelik admitted that his attacking weaknesses have left him feeling really upset in the past as he was forced to come to terms with the kind of player he actually is, but he seems like he’s getting by just fine these days.

For more from ?Tom Gott, follow him on ?Twitter!

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With 25 La Liga goals and 21 La Liga assists, Lionel Messi finished the 2019/20 season as the top-scorer and top assist provider in the Spanish top division, further demonstrating his other worldly footballing ability.

For almost 15 years, Messi has been the star of the show at the Camp Nou and the best player in the world (sorry Cristiano) – collecting a record six Ballons d’Or along the way.

Having won 10 La Liga titles, four Champions Leagues and numerous other trophies throughout his career, Messi is regarded by many to be one of, if not the, greatest footballer in the history of the beautiful game, and after watching the Argentine smash every record known to man over the past 15 years – who are we to argue?

Haven’t you always wanted to see how the all time greats started out? Muhammad Ali’s first boxing match, William Shakespeare’s first play, Lionel Messi’s first season in football, well you’re in luck. 90min invite you to hop into our hypothetical Delorean and take a little journey back to where it all began, back when a 17-year-old Messi took to the field for Barcelona for the very first time, and changed football forever.

16th October 2004: Lionel Messi makes his debut.

The rest is history. ?pic.twitter.com/SYyKzngVhT

— The Sun Football ? (@TheSunFootball) October 16, 2019

Having shot through the ranks at Barcelona, Messi began training with Barcelona’s first-team during the 2003/04 season and instantly caught the eye of his elder teammates. French winger Ludovic Giuly even admitted the young Argentine destroyed them in training, insisting the team’s starting centre-backs were even terrified to come up against the prodigy.

Messi was that impressive that Barcelona great Ronaldinho – a man many considered to be the best footballer in the world at the time – admitted to his teammates that he thought the then 16-year-old would go on to become a better player than him.

The Argentine’s first appearance for the club was actually in a friendly against Jose Mourinho’s Porto. Messi would only play the final 15 minutes, but was already showing signs of the player he would go on to become, with Barcelona boss Frank Rijkaard saying the following after the game:

“He only had 15 minutes, but he played really well and he had two chances to score. The future he has is promising.”

Mourinho would go on to face the Messi many times over the years as manager of Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter, and while the Special One’s record against Barcelona isn’t great, he credits facing La Pulga for making him a better coach.

This debut was back in 2003, but it wasn’t until October 2004 that Messi finally got a chance in La Liga. In a testament to just how much talent he’d shown in training, numerous first-team players had asked Barcelona’s then-manager Frank Rijkaard to utilise Messi in a competitive game, leading to his debut on 16 October against Espanyol. Traditionally a left winger, Messi was moved to the right so Rijkaard could fit both the youngster and Ronaldinho in his team, and it paid off tenfold.

At the time of his debut, Messi – aged 17 years, three months and 22 days – was the youngest ever player to represent Barcelona in an official competition, but despite impressing his teammates and manager alike, the Argentine found gametime hard to come by during his first season in Barcelona’s first team.

Throughout his debut season, Messi only played more than 20 minutes in three of his nine appearances, but with Ronaldinho taking the youngster under his wing, his debut season was a huge learning curve and helped shape what would go on to be a monumental career.

“This award says I’m the best player in the world, but I’m not even the best player at Barcelona. Leo Messi reminds me more of Maradona, both left-footed and short, Messi is the best player in the world, along with Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo. For us it is not a surprise. Since he began to come and train with us and we knew we would go down this path. Someday I will explain that I was at the birth of one of the footballing greats: Leo Messi.”

– Ronaldinho – After 2005 Ballon d’Or win

Who remembers Lionel Messi’s first official Barcelona goal? ??pic.twitter.com/7buh3QDQHw

— Goal (@goal) June 13, 2019

It wasn’t until Messi’s final appearance of the season, the last La Liga game of the season, that he scored his first senior goal for Barcelona, with an audacious chip following a perfectly weighted lob from Ronaldinho. The goal made Messi the youngest goalscorer in Barcelona’s history at the time. The attacker would go on to see his side win their first La Liga title in six years, a feeling he would become all too familiar with in the years to follow as the club dethroned Real Madrid as Spain’s kingpins.

Although it was a fairly uneventful first professional season for Messi, he’d return the year after and improve significantly, with eight goals in 25 appearances – and, as you know, it only got better from there. Despite being in his 16th season as a Barcelona first team player, Messi hasn’t failed to hit double figure goals scored since his second season in the side, a testament to the truly remarkable player he’s gone on to become.

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As the ball rolled towards Club Brugge’s Emmanuel Dennis, all alone in Real Madrid’s penalty area, Thibaut Courtois was furiously back-pedalling.

In a desperate attempt to protect his clean sheet, Courtois tumbled to his left-hand side just as Dennis’ mis-control tamely rolled the other way, opening the scoring in the Champions League group stage clash earlier this season.

A night that Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis will NEVER forget ??

His two first-half goals helped Club Brugge to a 2-2 draw with Real Madrid at the Bernabéu…

A brilliant result for the Belgian side ? pic.twitter.com/Qq82xZi3CE

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 1, 2019

It was a less than graceful way to concede but Courtois is no stranger to looking clumsy.

The 6’6 Belgian can appear a little out of place among other footballers and even fellow goalkeepers, but that’s because he was born to play another sport: volleyball. Both Courtois’ parent were semi-professional players and his sister Valérie represented the national team.

Courtois ultimately turned his attention to football but the experience of throwing himself around in the sand helped his game on the grass, as he explained to The Telegraph: “I played a lot of beach volleyball with my family and that’s where I started really diving really early. Good reflexes is something that volleyball players have, because they are tall but they have to go down fast.”

After suffering the fate of all left-footed players and turning out at left-back for Racing Genk’s youth team, Courtois was swiftly thrust between the sticks at an under-9s tournament.

A stumbling Dennis dinked the ball over Courtois for his second of the night to emphatically put Club Brugge 2-0 up at half time in the Santiago Bernabéu. Zinedine Zidane was concise in his summary of each, bizarre effort as he said: “Both goals were a bit of a joke.”

The sight of Dennis quite literally tripping over his own feet as he bundled in another goal felt like it belonged on a YouTube compilation of some sort – preferably played to the Benny Hill Show theme music.

In his younger days Courtois himself dabbled in the saturated world of football clips. Together with his childhood friend Jens Brulmans, the teenagers had their own YouTube channel – YardBrooz – documenting the best saves and shots (and balls to the groin) the pair could muster in the back garden.

Not long after he posted his last video, Courtois made his first team debut for Genk in April 2009 after the club’s first-, second- and third-choice keepers suffered injury or suspension. The 16-year-old was characteristically laid back ahead of this seismic event and spent the evening before jumping on his neighbour’s trampoline.

That game ended 2-2 as did Real Madrid’s European clash with Club Brugge, although Courtois never made it to the second half.

When the referee blew up after 45 minutes, Courtois made a beeline for the dressing room and toilet. With the piercing whistles of the Madrid faithful echoing through the stadium, Courtois threw up. He sat out the next match (citing gastroenitis rather than an anxiety attack). But his first game back was a shocking 1-0 loss to minnows Mallorca.

Oddly, that was Courtois’ fifth game without a win against the island side. The previous four came in the three hugely successful years he spent with Atlético Madrid.

After winning the Belgian top flight with Genk as an 18-year-old, Chelsea bought Courtois for £9m but loaned him immediately to Atlético. In his debut season at the Vicente Calderón, Courtois was a virtual ever-present as Atléti won the Europa League.

Chelsea were keen on moving him to an English club that summer but Courtois fought to stay in Spain and was rewarded with a third-place finish and victory in the Copa del Rey.

Courtois made a decisive stop during the final against neighbours Real Madrid and his full-back Filipe Luis came into the mixed zone after the game shouting: “What a save, madre mia, what a save! The best goalkeeper in the world!”

The following season he would reinforce those credentials as Atléti won a historic league title in 2014 and reached the Champions League final – his last game for the club.

Three years after signing for Chelsea, Courtois finally made his debut on a muggy Monday evening. José Mourinho’s decision to replace club legend Petr Cech with the then-22-year-old was considered controversial at the time. Yet, Mourinho was swiftly vindicated as Chelsea stormed to the Premier League title.

The big Belgian adapted rapidly to the English top flight, citing his experience as a teenager for Genk as way of an explanation, telling Sky Sports: “I decided to come out for the ball immediately. I think that was because of my time in Belgium. It’s not the same level there as the Premier League but they play really physical as well. So when I was there I was used to getting the knocks.”

Courtois would later dismiss his injury-hit 2015/16 campaign as a ‘rubbish year’ before Antonio Conte steered Chelsea to a second league title in three seasons.

After lifting the FA Cup in what would prove to be his final Chelsea game, Courtois left the west London side for Real Madrid in acrimonious circumstances as he reportedly failed to turn up for preseason training after Belgium’s World Cup exploits.

In his second season at Real, going into a Champions League clash with Galatasaray – just three days after defeat to Mallorca – Courtois’ career at Los Blancos was threatening to become an outright failure.

Having forced through a move back to Spain where his children lived, Courtois and Real enjoyed a a trophy-less campaign to forget. The Belgian debutant didn’t escape the particularly unforgiving judgement of Madrid’s onlookers, although his unflappable self-assurance remained intact.

He told the Spanish publication Marca: ” I still consider myself one of the best, even though the Spanish press wants to kill me. I feel very strong, I am calm because I train and play well.”

In a turning point of Madrid’s 2019/20 season, Real defeated the Turkish giants in that Champions League meeting as their own giant kept just his third clean sheet of the campaign. Real kicked on from that tie and – with a one or two more hiccups along the way – ultimately claimed the La Liga crown with a game to spare.

Zidane built his title winning side on the solid foundation of a resolute defence, with Courtois between the sticks pivotal to the team’s core. Madrid finished the season with the best defensive record in Europe’s top five leagues.

Courtois came back from the brink against Club Brugge, with his head in the toilet bowl at half time to win the Zamora trophy for La Liga’s best goalkeeper.

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There’s a whole lot of talk doing the rounds about changes Liverpool could make to their defence this summer, following Dejan Lovren’s departure to Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Jürgen Klopp is understood to want a replacement, even though the Croatian managed just 15 appearances in all competitions. Instead, Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez were Liverpool’s go-to pairing, meaning any replacement will likely be for a reserve option who is happy to spend time on the bench.

We’ve had thoroughly unconvincing links to Sevilla’s Diego Carlos and even more outlandish stories of blockbuster bids for Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly, but one story which might make sense is a move for Real Betis’ Aïssa Mandi.

Links to the 28-year-old first emerged from COPE, who state that Liverpool are looking to close a £9m deal for Mandi – a bid that Betis would likely be ready to accept as his contract is up next summer.

Here’s where things get a little weird.

There’s a report floating around, credited to the Mirror, saying that Liverpool have been told to up their bid for Mandi by £1.8m. However, the Mirror have refused to claim ownership of the story and have instead attributed it to a secondary report – despite actually writing it as their own information in their Sunday newspaper.

So while that idea probably isn’t true, a move for Mandi could well have some legs to it. One to keep an eye on.

On the topic of weird rumours, various outlets in Cameroon have picked up on a story suggesting that Paris Saint-Germain have identified Joël Matip as their preferred replacement for Thiago Silva.

It all seems to come from a Twitter user by the name of Jordan M, who states that PSG have contacted both Matip’s entourage and fellow Cameroonian Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting to find out whether a deal is worth pursuing.

This story is later backed up by another outlet in Cameroon, Kick442, who claim to have been informed of PSG’s desire to make Matip their defensive anchor next summer.

As you can see, there really isn’t much to this one. It’s hard to imagine Liverpool selling Matip, given he only signed a new contract back in October, and is expected to be a starter once he overcomes his injury struggles.

That’s if he can once again oust Gomez to become Van Dijk’s regular starting partner, of course.

For more from ?Tom Gott, follow him on ?Twitter!

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Manchester City have once again teamed up with PUMA to unveil their away kit for the 2020/21 season, which will be available for purchase from Monday 3 August.

The primarily dark blue kit leans into Manchester’s cultural roots, drawing inspiration from its famous Castlefield area and the iconic Bridgewater Canal.

Next stop: Castlefield ?

The 20/21 @ManCity Away Kit is here.
Shop here: https://t.co/KdpPLmQ0l6 pic.twitter.com/Mhrp6jo5Xh

— PUMA Football (@pumafootball) August 3, 2020

The kit’s main colour is designed to evoke images of the canal’s water, while the copper trim hints at the industrial roots of the area, which dates back to Roman times.

The complex pattern and design, in line with the home kit which was launched last month, draws inspiration from the area’s structures, as well as the thriving music and arts scene which has grown in Castlefield, one of Manchester’s most historic and culturally significant neighbourhoods.

Speaking on the kit, PUMA’s Head of Product Line Management David Bremond said: “With this kit we wanted to celebrate the culture of the city. We looked for places where people come together to explore their creativity through art and music.

“Castlefield is rich with history and significance to the city; it truly connects with cultural youth scene and creative roots.

Looking our best on the road! ?

SHOP NOW: https://t.co/4RszdMTNYm

? #ThisIsOurCity pic.twitter.com/I1Jy4DMrmf

— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 3, 2020

“The bridge over the canal is an iconic design, which inspired us to bring this classic structure to life through the pattern and the color palette of the new jersey. We wanted the jersey to feel special and unique to fans, and celebrate Manchester’s rich culture.”

Their striking 2020/21 home kit has already had its first run out against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final, and should City advance past Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals, the first opportunity to debut their new away colours would present itself against Lyon or Juventus.

The kit can be purchased from Man City’s official store, PUMA.com, or any official retailer.

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