By Tim Stannard

Portuguese paper predicts – R-exit from Real Madrid

Right. Sports Burst’s patience is over. It has been too long. It cannot bear this anymore.

It has been nearly two weeks since Cristiano Ronaldo had the world leaning forward on its collective sofa with tension.

Nearly two weeks since the Real Madrid man spoke after the Champions League final and used his time at the club in the past tense to enigmatically promise that there would be further explanation in the days to come. That answer on his future never arrived – probably because Zinedine Zidane headed out the exit door to mess with the machinations.

However, this news vacuum has merely lead to everyone else making plans for Ronaldo’s future instead. And that’s why Thursday sees Portuguese paper, Record, claiming that the footballer, who is currently on duty for his country, has made an irreversible decision to leave Real Madrid. Apparently there has been a falling out with Florentino Perez - not over money but over ‘recognition’. Whatever that might mean.

Record says that Italy, England and France are possible destinations, with the paper giving up on completing the Ronaldo circle.

Brazil backed for World Cup glory by supercomputer

A gaggle of eggheads has produced a statistical analysis of each team’s chances of winning the 2018 World Cup. Sports data company ‘Gracenote’ ran an impressive-sounding one million simulations of the upcoming tournament and then used the data to extrapolate which team had best chance of winning it. Unsurprisingly, Brazil came at the top of the charts with a 21% chance of victory in Russia, followed by Spain, Germany and Argentina.

Other data juicy parts predict that there is a 47% chance of a new World Cup winner and the team with the least chance of progressing out of the group stages is poor Panama, with just a 26% possibility. But there is a boost for Peru, which has a 22% chance of reaching the final four.

While on a World Cup theme, some big warm-up games are taking place on Thursday including Portugal taking on Algeria live on beIN SPORTS at 3PM ET / 12PM PT. England is hosting Costa Rica, Iceland battle Ghana while an early kick-off has South Korea facing Bolivia.

Head to the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the best action from these games and everything you could ever need to know about Russia 2018

TRANSFER TRACKER!

Let’s kick things off by dropping in on Juventus, a team that plans to be fairly active in the transfer market this summer. One player who could be moving out is Gonzalo Higuain with a price tag of $74 million put on the striker’s head. Either that, or a swap deal of some sort with Inter for Mauro Icardi.

Elsewhere, Liverpool is on the hunt for a new goalkeeper and the Premier League club has apparently been quoted the figure of $100m to sign Jan Oblak from Atletico Madrid. Meanwhile, one deal that looks more likely is the Jurgen Klopp’s men picking up Xherdan Shaqiri from relegated Stoke City.

Manchester City has a back-up plan if a deal with Napoli for defender, Jorginho, doesn’t come off – that plan is Real Madrid’s Matteo Kovacic. However, the lack of anyone in charge at the team at the moment, might slow that move down as well.

A Capital night for hockey and all all-American encounter in Paris

Wednesday saw the Golden State Warriors put themselves just one win away from becoming NBA champions after Kevin Durant's 43-point performance in the 110-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Thursday might see the Washington Capitals going a step further in the hockey by clinching the Stanley Cup with the DC outfit 3-1 up in the series against the Vegas Golden Knights. A win in the laid-back, low-key home of their opponents will seal the deal.

At the French Open, the women’s semifinals are taking place with a huge all-American final-four clash between Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens, with the latter on the hunt for her second Grand Slam tournament after winning the US Open last year. Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza face off in the other semifinal clash.

In the men’s bracket, Rafa Nadal has booked a spot in the semis by finishing off a rain-interrupted clash with Diego Schwarzman.

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. Sports Burst 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.