By Tim Stannard

1) Ronaldo reportedly U-turning over non-move from Madrid

The Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid in a huff story that has kept most of the football media world in jobs over bleak summer months has largely been fueled without the man in question uttering anything whatsoever on the matter apart from the odd enigmatic gesture on Instagram. 

To this end, it makes sense on Wednesday, that a story planted in Spanish sports daily, AS, by a Jorge Mendes (Ronaldo's agent)-tied journalist has seen a development. That development suggests that the Court of Ronaldo is apparently pleased by the amount of fawning and blowing displayed by Real Madrid club president, Florentino Perez, over the past few days that he is considering a U-turn on a decision that he may or may not have made in the first place.

2) Portugal face hostile reception against Russian hosts in Confed cracker

Speaking of Brand CR7, the footballer version of the concept will be in action in the Confederations Cup, up against hosts Russia in a game where three points are ideally needed to stay in the competition, and face the consequences of...well, there are no consequences really aside from the fact that many still feel that Portugal are somewhat fortunate, undeserving European Champions and a swift departure will merely add more fuel to that particular fire. 

The tournament itself is pretty much a stadium / broadcasting / hooligan test run, but the game will be a chance for Ronaldo to be all enigmatic and mysterious to the press afterwards who will be screaming questions at him, all at the same time. 

3) Mexico in must-win All-Whites clash

Of course, there is no such thing as a non-important match for Mexico. Indeed, local broadcast crews have been camped outside the stadium in Sochi since 2015 in preparation for Wednesday's match against New Zealand, that should be a bit of an easy one for Juan Carlos Osorio's men. In theory.

One of the hot buttons to watch out for is a tradition cry from Mexico fans that is also a homophobic slur that FIFA are trying to stamp down on. Elsewhere in the wide, wide, world of soccer the European U-21 Championships are steaming ahead with the Czech Republic taking on Italy – replete with Dollar-rumma – and Germany taking on Denmark.

Believe it or not, the La Liga season technically hasn’t finished yet with the start of the two-legged play-off final from the second division getting underway. It’s Tenerife and Getafe facing off. And that game is live on beIN SPORTS from 2:55PM ET / 11:55AM PT.

Goals from that game and everything else can be seen on the sizzling Summer XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

4) Balotelli given Serie A open door at Torino

TRANSFER TRACKER TIME! And an actual DONE DEAL to start the day with Villarreal signing goalkeeper, Andres Fernandez from Porto, after a year on loan with the Yellow Submarine. Chelsea are reportedly set to make a $100m bid for the Juventus pair of Alex Sandro and Leonardo Bonucci. Probably not going to happen, but fun to hear anyway.

And Torino boss, Sinisa Mihajlovic, has said that he would sign Mario Balotelli for his club – “I took Balotelli to Milan and I’d also take him to Toro.”

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