Sports Burst – Cardiff Or Bust
Two teams one cup, Liverpool in for Salah and Sampaoli excited by Messi.
By Tim Stannard
1) Juventus and Real Madrid in town ahead of history-defining final
Many have tried. Many have failed. Many will keep trying. And one day, one day, it will happen. Cristiano Ronaldo will grow an Isco beard, just for the kicks.
Other than that, the other arduous, history-making task involves the two teams playing in Saturday’s Champions League final. In one corner, we have Juventus - a side whose more recent history in this competition is final failures rather than super celebrations and trophy lifting. With one of its strongest squads in Cardiff, another flop will not go down well with the faithful of the Old Lady.
Real Madrid have just arrived in the Welsh capital. Their task is to become the first team to win Champions League back to back. Not an easy feat, but with the luck of the green that Coach Zizou has been having this season, Madrid might well be sneaky-peaky favorites for Saturday’s season-closer. Managers and players to talk later today. The Countdown is on.
2) Liverpool moves closer to Salah swoop
TRANSFER TRACKER TIME! Quite the statement of intent from Liverpool, a side that is dead set on bringing in Roma forward/midfielder type, Mohamed Salah. An initial bid for the Egyptian was rejected by the Serie A with Liverpool in de-Nile about his cost. $40m should do the trick.
While that sounds a very doable transfer over the next week, the same cannot be said for a report from the UK that Manchester United are set to bid for Raphael Varane, potentially as part of a deal that won’t happen with David de Gea.
Tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT every day for the Transfer Tracker news, views and made-up stuff.
3) Dortmund look to Dutchman to fill managerial hole
In managers-shuffling-about news, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been linked with the vacant Borussia Dortmund position.
The Dutchman is fresh from delivering a first Dutch league title win for Feyenoord this century. This rumor comes on the same day that Nice reportedly rebuffed a bid from the Bundesliga club for Lucien Favre.
4) Sampaoli happy to finally work with Messi
Knowing how cash-strapped the Argentinean Football Federation are these days, the Buenos Aires suits cannot have been too happy to hear that new coach Jorge Sampaoli had been talking to Leo Messi about the future of the national team.
After all, Messi was in China to promote a planned theme park in his honor. Oh yes. The former Chile boss was presented on Thursday and confirmed that “we're both excited.” Long distance calls don’t pay for themselves, you know.
WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?
The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.
