Good morning/afternoon folks. I know we here at SBI have been neglecting your craving for European soccer news in the past few weeks with the MLS Combine and Draft taking center stage, but we assure you that we are putting Europe back on the menu going forward, and just in time for plenty of big news. Here are just a few stories to get your day going and conversations started
Ibisevic out for season
TSG Hoffenheim striker Vedad Ibisevic was enjoying a dream season as leading scorer in the Bundesliga and star of a first-place team, but that dream came crashing after word hit that Ibisevic suffered torn knee ligaments in Wednesday's friendly against Hamburg in Spain and is out for the season.
You can expect Hoffenheim to immediately join the chase for big-ticket strikers in order to keep alive its surprising hopes for a Bundesliga title.
As for those of you who read this story and thought "Why couldn't it have been Neven Subotic instead", I say shame on you.
City's mega-offer for Kaka being considered
Just when you thought a Kaka to Manchester City move couldn't happen regardless of price, it seems AC Milan has agreed to Man City's insane £108 million offer for the Brazilian superstar. Now all that seems left to do is convince Kaka that he should join rich kids from Manchester.
Can this really be? Could Manchester City be preparing to add Kaka to Robinho? Could anybody have expected this a year ago?
With reports starting to surface that Kaka is ready to go, it seems like only a matter of time before the unimaginable actually happens.
Calderon resigns as Real Madrid Boss
Ramon Calderon promised Real Madrid fans the world when he took over as team president less than three years ago. In the end, he delivered nothing.
Calderon resigned from his post amid allegations of corruptions and the tinge of unfulfilled promises in a move that should shaking things up in Madrid and might likely put an end to the lengthy Cristiano Ronaldo courtship saga.
What do you think of the above stories? Does Hoffenheim still have a realistic chance of winning the Bundesliga without Ibisevic? Have you finally accepted that Kaka to Manchester City might actually happen? Think Sir Alex Ferguson is dancing a jig after hearing his old friend Ramon Calderon quit in scandal?
Share your thoughts below.
Kenny Coops to Hoffenheim!! Keep the dream alive!
Nice to see RM get knocked back to reality.
Why is no one reporting that Atlanta has withdrawn its 2011 bid?
I enjoyed supporting City as the working class foil to the rich Man U. That’s over I guess.
Ibisevic should reference some Yanks.
Can Kaka really help Man City be a top four team in the Premier League? Doubt it, I think they are a few players away from being one of the best in England.
i don’t know, according to this article: link to tinyurl.com Kaka is already making $14 million a year or so, and this isn’t much of a raise, if at all (considering that 250,000 pounds a week, times 38 weeks equals 9.5 million Pounds. why leave a champions league club in Italy for the dreary winters of Manchester for no big raise?
It’s absolutely absurd to offer that much money for one player.
i don’t know, according to this article: link to tinyurl.com Kaka is already making $14 million a year or so, and this isn’t much of a raise, if at all (considering that 250,000 pounds a week, times 38 weeks equals 9.5 million Pounds. why leave a champions league club in Italy for the dreary winters of Manchester for no big raise? Posted by: northzax | January 16, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Here’s the breakdown:
The £243 million deal-
£108 million for AC Milan.
£108 million for the superstar’s wages including taxes. Kaka will be paid a NET salary of £13.28m a year which breaks down to £255,000 a week take-home.
£27m in commission to brokers, middle-men and signing-on fees.
He would probably receive something like £20m of this amount, so in essence a £20m signing bonus.
So he’s be earning a hell of alor more money. Milan would be in the black after this deal and in a few years time he’s return to finish his European career at Milan in a buyout that would cost Milan essentially nothing and whatever money he’s lose from returning to Milan would be minimal compared to the amount of money he’s earned from the initial deal. Keep in mind that if Man City were actually relegated, he’d probably return to Milan on loan.
If I were him, from a money perspective, I’d do it. From a quality of team and league perspective, I’d stay in Milan. Hell, I’d stay in Milan over London, Manchester, or any other part of Great Britain any day for a quality of life reason – food, women, weather, culture, etc…
Al17:
ok, I had seen 250k Pounds a week (teams count wages by game week, not the 52 weeks a year) I am now seeing closer to 500k (times 38=19M) that’s a big raise for his church back home (rumors say he does a lot more than tithe) also forgot that was NET, not gross.
as for Milan being ‘in the black’ I don’t think Bersculoni cares all that much.
something else to think about, AC is only two points clear of Fiorentina and Genoa in UEFA Cup spots and three points clear of Lazio in the “Hi, hope you have cable” club. missing out on UCL for two straight seasons is a huge hit to the finances and supporters. If Kaka is worth one loss over the next five months to AC, that might be enough to stay home.
I agree, AC needs to take the cash, if they can, that’s an obscene amount, but it may well come back to bite them in the ass.
On Kaka,
1) Does this pave the way for them to keep Beckham?
2) City dramatically overpaid for him
3) City still do not have top 5 talent for EPL, and will be lucky to finish above 8th this year
4) Kaka replace Zidane as highest ever paid player – Kaka is no Zidane
5) How much does this inflate Messi and Ronaldo’s price?
Does anyone think that with the large sum of money that AC Milan will be receiving – they will put in a large bid for David Beckham? I know Beck’s agent denied his stay at AC – but with this large surplus of money, it could happen.
I wouldn’t say Calderon brought Real NOTHING. Back to back La Liga titles speak.
Atlanta is out of the MLS Expansion bidding.
Everybody should read the Calderon story. He acted in classic tyrant fashion, desperately trying to save his butt by throwing the little people under the bus. Meanwhile, his family members were doing his dirty work. But one thing is true of politics at any level, whether government, church, sports, office, whatever — and that is, Nobody is trying to rig things for the tyrant without the beneficiary himself knowing about it. Marca should win a Pulitzer for exposing this corruption!
Sad this is that the Galacticos are so star-hungry that after all this, the biggest sin they hold against Calderon was not signing Cristiano Ronaldo. Would all have been forgiven had Calderon been able to land such a star?
He should have resigned long ago when recordings surfaced of him making condascending comments about players. Calderon ran the team like Franco ran Spain. Good thing he didn’t die in power like the generalissimo.
it would have to be an insane bid for Becks, I don’t think anyone’s actually SEEN his contract, but there are rumours of things like options to buy into a club, marketing deals, etc. no way AC Milan is going to pay him the 10-15 million he’s making stateside with the upside of ownership down the line. plus, it’s not like they can offer him more UCL games to add to his list.
although I suppose if the Galaxy was offered $25 million they’d take it.
oh, and Messi isn’t for sale at any price, I would wager (Barca doesn’t need the cash in any way shape or form) I think this values the Pretty One at around 150M pounds to go to Real next summer. He is three years younger than Kaka, after all.
What Blake said. Did Real Madrid not win La Liga the past two years?
Landycakes as a replacement for Ibisevic! Wouldn’t that be humorous, if after seeing that Landon was pretty good with BM, they sweep in and take him from under the noses of BM!
Ives:
Are you going to give MLS teams draft grades?
Real Madrid is ready to sell Javier Saviola. Hoffenheim should pick him up. He’s not a bad striker at all and for the short term they wouldn’t have to worry about his age.
Kaka should think of how this deal could set up AC Milan for a long time afterwards. They could really set up their future with this kind of fundage. What better way to show your gratitude to a club than by contributing to their future success in such a way?
I agree with you, gofirego. Nice investigation by Marca (which in fact is still the most-selled newspaper in Spain), sadly it’s suppossed that former president Florentino Perez is behind all this mess. The atmosphere against Calderon was extremely agressive since his election, but he also made a lot of serious mistakes, and not only in Cristiano’s affair. Most of them were related to transfer fees (Mijatovic and his team should have a lot of things to say about that), but also with almost every kind of mafia-behaviors you can imagine. The worst thing is that Vicente Boluda, named as new President until June, when new elections will take place, will probably face the same accusations that have ended Calderon’s run. And now a big circus of candidate’s transfers announcements begins…
Ethan- Ives already has posted grades on ESPN soccernet’s MLS page. Don’t have the link handy but it’s easy to find.
Milan should sell. Kaka is definitely a top 5 player in the world, but in soccer one player can only do so much. Milan could turn that into 4 or 5 top signings easy and reload the team with players still in their 20′s. But I almost feel bad for Kaka, you almost never see a superstar try and stay so loyal to their team.
Along with Kaka, city are on the brink of signing Nigel DeJong from Hamburg to play D-mid and Carlos Kameni from Espanyol to compete with Joe Hart for the GK position. Dejong will allow Vincent Kompany to move to center half, the defense will be stronger and two quality young keepers makes the team stronger. Kameni is out of contract in the summer and looking to move now, and DeJong has a buyout option for under 2mil euro in the summer so Hamburg are looking to cash in now.
Much as I might be miffed about Benedict Subotic deciding against playing for the US, I’d never wish injury on any athlete.
My heart goes out to Vedad though, he was having the kind of season they make movies about.
And as for Kaka to City, unlike most I’m happy that the United-City rivalry may actually get more balanced. I do feel for Kaka though, because he’s going in there with expectations he can’t hope to fulfill.
What’s going to happen to Elano? Isn’t he
a very similar player to Kaka? Will they offload Elano then? That striker Jo is crap.
Man City’s owners are ridiculous. They need defense…not offense.
Where is Gooch going to? What about Charlie Davies? Is Sasha Kljestan going to Celtic? When will Kenny Cooper head to Europe?
Really sorry to hear about Ibisevic thats really gonna hurt the USMNT…oh wait, he blew us off, so I actually dont care, in fact I chuckled!!!! Muhashahahahahahaha If he put on the stars and stripes THIS WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED. He might have been @ the USMNT January camp. By the way Ives, NEVEN IS NEXT ITS DESTINY!!!!
Scorned US Fan, there is a big difference between Ibisevic and Subotic. Ibisevic never played as a youth USA player and never was invited by the USA. He has said he would have played for USA if called. He accepted a Bosnia call-up before he made it big. Good for them for spotting him.
Subotic is completely different. He was happy to be trained by the USA and wear our jersey for youth teams. In fact, he was discovered by pro teams thanks to this exposure. Now that he is famous, he switches allegiances. That is traitorous.
Plus, look at the difference in hair cuts! Ibisevic looks like an adult. Subotic, with his idiotic cornrows, looks like an awful Eastern European rapper or a drug dealer from East Baltimore.
I’m sure the ingrate will fit in nicely with the whiners and mob thugs that surround the Serbian national team.
Scorned US Fan, there is a big difference between Ibisevic and Subotic. Ibisevic never played as a youth USA player and never was invited by the USA. He has said he would have played for USA if called. He accepted a Bosnia call-up before he made it big. Good for them for spotting him.
Subotic is completely different. He was happy to be trained by the USA and wear our jersey for youth teams. In fact, he was discovered by pro teams thanks to this exposure. Now that he is famous, he switches allegiances. That is traitorous.
Plus, look at the difference in hair cuts! Ibisevic looks like an adult. Subotic, with his idiotic cornrows, looks like an awful Eastern European rapper or a drug dealer from East Baltimore.
I’m sure the ingrate will fit in nicely with the whiners and mob thugs that surround the Serbian national team.
I hope Subotic stays healthy. I want him to feel it when the US is playing in the 2010, 2014, 2018 World Cups and he’s watching them on TV. I get that he knows he isn’t good enough to make the 2010 squad, but he really should be at 2014 with the US or possibly riding the bench in 2010. Oh well, enjoy playing in front of crowds that murder each other.
i hope usa meets serbia so much. and ibisevic was scorned by the US if anything, he woulda played if we woulda asked.
Shame for Ibisevic. Silly friendlies
Calderon obviously didnt go to the Saddam Hussein school of rigging elections
I doubt Bosnia will ever qualify for a World Cup or much less a Euro championship. Serbia always has a great chance to qualify, but do they ever get out of the group stage.
One thing I hate about this sport is when big money owners come in, they try to buy a championship. Chelsea was first, now Man City. Pathetic.
Yes, I did see the interview on ESPNSoccernet, however its really easy to say that now after you are locked in. Why would he say that he never would have played for the US? All that would do is piss people like me off even more. He and his family had to leave Bosnia, go to switzerland and are kicked out ten months later, so where does he turn? To the greatest country in the world…just not the greatest soccer team in the world. So then he turns back to the country that he was forced from in the beginning. My point is once he came here, he was and is an American
City has said numerous times that the strategy in luring Kaka was to make them a suitable big name destination for other stars. They felt that the Chelsea experiments wasted time and money by luring good players but never having the recognition or respect to bring in a game-changing star early. Their hope with the money-grubbing Robinho was to up their profile, and with Kaka to firmly show to others that they are a worthy transfer target.
Kaka is only the attempt at the beginning and should not be considered a Premier League winner by any stretch of the imagination. But come this summer, should they land him, you’ll see the plans unfold more clealry as they have a longer term investment goal. This season is lost anyway.
Sad to hear about Ibesevic. He was fun to watch this season-saw him against Hamburg. The ESPN interview was great, a humble professional he is.
The fans aound the here in the Rhein-Neckar region are in mourning, but the rumors are flying b/c of Klinis’s close friendship with SAP and Hoffe owner Deiter Hopp: “Poldi to Hoffe?”