1) Manchester United face future with Jose Mourinho

Talk about stealing both wind and thunder in football’s equivalent of X-Men’s Storm. Despite fairly hopeless, some would say disastrous performances from both Manchester United and Jose Mourinho this year, the newly-married couple have managed to hog the Champions League duvet from the true bride and bridegroom of the hour – Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

After days of apparently complex negotiations and clause-checking in a three-year deal, Mourinho has landed his dream job at Old Trafford. “To become Manchester United manager is a special honor in the game." The bookmakers are now laying odds on three events – Mourinho winning the Champions League, Mourinho winning the Premier League, and how quickly the Man Utd bosses will regret their decision after the Special One decides to block tackle Pep Guardiola during the first Manchester derby in Beijing at a pre-season friendly. Tune into the XTRA tonight at 10PM ET to hear more from Jose Mourinho on his latest gig.

2) Barcelona sign up Sergi Busquets as Masche fuels departure fires

Barcelona have also been getting in on the thunder-stealing act. The week has not been the best in terms of transfer stories with Dani Alves and Javier Mascherano both rumored to be jumping ship to Juventus. However, on Friday, the club did announce that the rather important Sergi Busquets has signed a new Barcelona deal until 2023.

To be fair to Mascherano who claims that he is having to live with all the rumors, the Argentinean is not exactly helping himself by just throwing more fuel onto the transfer talk fire by discussing his future with Barca in not exactly concrete terms. “I am at Barcelona, and I am very grateful to the club. As for the future? I don't like to hang on to anything.”

3) Simeone shows love for Real Madrid’s midfield rock as Ronaldo meets Richard Gere

Onto more pressing matters and Saturday’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, a rematch of two years ago and a game that still gives Diego Simeone very sweaty thoughts of unpleasantness due to the late, late equalizer from Sergio Ramos.

Atletico Madrid’s manager has been talking in Milan on Friday and has named Real Madrid’s key player for Saturday. And of course it was a defensive midfielder. "For the balance of the side, Casemiro is their most important player, certainly,” revealed Simeone, ensuring the Brazilian is going to get a few looks from CR7 for the next 24 hours. Make sure you catch Kay and the gang in the Locker Room tonight at 10.30PM ET as they give their Champions League predictions.

Saturday also sees another whopper of a clash on beIN SPORTS and that’s the Championship play-off final between Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday, with the winner grabbing the final promotion spot to the EPL and the chance to bring in a cool $200 million in revenue. Whilst the future of Hull City boss, Steve Bruce, very much hinges on the result of the game, Sheff Wed has announced a three-year contract extension with their manager, Carlos Carvahal.

Catch all the action on beIN SPORTS from 11.30AM ET on Saturday with our Kay Murray and our Gary Bailey.

4) Kaka called up as Brazil completely runs out of players

Made-up Copa America news! Brazil’s chances of winning it took another nose dive with Kaka being called up to replace the injured Douglas Costa. Neymar will also be absence due to Olympic Games duty later in the summer.

Toulon Tournament news! Hosts, France, secured their place in Sunday’s final after wrapping up Group A on Thursday. Friday sees the completion of Group B. Due to a very superior goal difference England are all but guaranteed to meet France in what will be a very tasty final. Portugal and Paraguay meet up on Friday at 1.35PM ET to see who will take on the Czech Republic in Saturday’s third-place play-off final.

5) Giro gets hilly, rugby gets serious and Superbikes get speedy

The one before the penultimate stage of the Giro d’Italia  is underway – whatever that is called - and the cycling ordeal is set to be a hilly one through the Alps. Friday is all about Steven Kruijswijk keeping the pink jersey safe to the race’s conclusion in Turin on Sunday.

Saturday is a big day in the rugby world with the play-off finals off both the Aviva Premiership and the Pro 12 which sees Saracens take on Exeter and an all-Irish affair between Leinster and Connacht. Tune into Friday’s XTRA at 10PM for a full preview of both.

The Superbikes are also revving up in England for races 1 and 2 of the seventh meet of the calendar. So far, Tom Sykes has continued his dominance of the Donington track and is fastest in Friday’s practice.

It’s third round day for both the women and men in the French Open of tennis. Second-seed Andy Murray is up against the very big serving Ivo Karlovic, whilst Agnieszka Radwanska takes on Barbora Strycova. Both Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams past through their respective second round matches on Thursday untroubled.

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.