Palhinha has become the transfer deadline day’s tragic figure
João Palhinha has become the transfer deadline day’s tragic figure, as his move from Fulham to Bayern Munich collapsed as he watched on helplessly from Bayern’s training facility.
Fulham had allowed the Portuguese midfielder to fly to Munich after reportedly agreeing to a fee in the region of €65 million with the German champions.
Though Palhinha arrived in Munich, the transfer was not completely sealed. Fulham was still reportedly searching for the 28-year-old’s replacement, which was a necessity for the Premier League club to allow one of its key players to depart.
Though the likes of Scott McTominay and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg were linked to the Cottagers, no deal went through prior to the 6 p.m. transfer deadline in Germany.
And so Palhinha — having already completed a medical and even taken photos with a Bayern shirt — saw his deadline-day move collapse in heartbreaking fashion.
It was a frustrating conclusion to a fruitless deadline day for Bayern, which also saw rumored moves for Armel Bella-Kotchap, Trevoh Chalobah and João Cancelo fall through.
But it was Palhinha’s collapsed deal which will hurt the most, as the Portugal international joins Peter Odemwingie in the annals of failed deadline-day transfers.
Bayern Munich signed Kerr — the Scottish one, not the Australian — to a three-year deal in May
Scotland star Sam Kerr thought Bayern Munich’s interest in her must have been a “prank” — or at least a case of mistaken identity.
Kerr starred at Rangers for three seasons before the German giants moved for her in May, landing the midfielder on a three-year deal.
The 24-year-old happens to share a name with one of the biggest stars in the game, and she told the BBC’s“Behind the Goals” podcast that when she heard of Bayern’s interest, she thought the club must have been after the Chelsea and Australia striker instead.
“I was just relaxing in my room and my agent called saying: ‘Bayern Munich have come in for you,'” Kerr said.
“I said: ‘Are you sure they’ve got the right Sam Kerr?’ That’s the first thing I said to him!
“I was just a bit like ‘This can’t be real, this is a joke, you’re kidding me.’ But I was like, ‘Of course I want to speak to them.’
“A week later, it was happening on Zoom and it was just unbelievable. It looked far too good to be true. I thought surely something is going to happen, someone must be playing a prank on me.”
— UEFA Women’s Champions League (@UWCL) May 30, 2023
Kerr was named the 2022 Scotland Women’s Player of the Year, and has been capped 14 times by the Scottish national team.
“I’ve not really processed it,” she added on her move to Germany. “I saw FC Bayern on the [national team] squad list and I was just like, ‘What?’, I’m just Sam from Scotland who plays for Rangers, that’s how I see myself… It’s crazy.”
The left back moved to Bayern Munich in 2019, though he had plenty of options in Europe
Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies has claimed that Barcelona turned down the opportunity to sign him in 2018 because he is Canadian.
At the time, Davies was a teenage star with the Vancouver Whitecaps, marking himself as one of the top prospects in North America after making his MLS debut at age 15.
Davies would eventually complete a transfer to Bayern Munich in January 2019, joining for a fee of up to $22 million in what was at the time the largest outgoing MLS transfer ever.
The left back/winger has gone on to become one of the top left-sided players in Europe, winning five Bundesliga titles and a Champions League while making more than 150 appearances for the club.
In an appearance on the Say Less Podcast, Davies revealed that Barcelona was among the clubs interested five years ago, but the La Liga giants were put off by his nationality.
“Barcelona actually reached out but the president said that they didn’t want me,” Davies said. “They said that they didn’t want me because I was Canadian.
“Not gonna lie, that crushed my feelings a little bit.”
Davies clarified that he did not receive that message directly from Josep Bartomeu, the Barcelona president at the time, but instead from media reports.
“That’s what came out in the media. I don’t know if he actually said that but it’s what came out.”
🚨🚨| Alphonso Davies reveals Barcelona’s president didn’t want to sign him… because was Canadian. pic.twitter.com/mFf9w5sBd7
Valuations of the world’s biggest clubs are sky high
Who are the most valuable soccer teams in the world?
With success being more and more tied to an ability to spend, being a “big” club — at least in financial terms — is the clearest indicator of whether a given team is going to contend for trophies in the world’s top leagues.
That said, what defines value doesn’t necessarily require a team to be in the Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga, or Serie A. MLS has three teams in the top 20, including LAFC becoming the first club to break the $1 billion valuation barrier.
That said, Europe is still the home of the world’s biggest clubs, and its most valuable. In particular, eight of the top 20 hail from the Premier League, which will not be a particular surprise given the league’s global reach.
Here are Forbes’ 20 most valuable teams in global soccer.
The unreal end of the 2022-23 Bundesliga season saw Bayern Munich claim the title thanks to an 89th minute winner and a legendary choke job from Borussia Dortmund.
Somewhere in the mix of Bayern’s inevitability and Dortmund’s ability to squander a good situation, there was a perfect recipe for one group and one group only: those who post with honor.
After a collapse like Dortmund’s — all they had to do was win a home game! — and Jamal Musiala’s dramatic late goal, the soccer world’s meme-makers got to work. The inveterate Twitter addicts started typing, and the stats nerds pulled up their relevant spreadsheets.
Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga, but for once it required a dramatic, tension-packed final day rather than their typical march to the inevitable.
Borussia Dortmund kicked off the last day of the season with a two-point lead, meaning that a win over Mainz at an absolutely jam-packed Signal Iduna Park would finally, at long last, end Bayern’s 10-year reign. Hordes of fans showed up in yellow and black ready for a party.
Instead, they got a disastrous collapse, as Dortmund fell 2-0 down in the game’s early minutes. Bayern would pounce with an 89th minute winner to claim the Bundesliga in the most excruciating fashion.
With both games kicking off simultaneously, Kingsley Coman authored the first significant shift in the tension, producing a splendid finish after Bayern broke forward with authority in the eighth minute.
In that moment, Bayern took the lead on goal difference atop the table.
That part of the story wasn’t particularly shocking. Most probably expected a Bayern win over a Köln side that wasn’t fighting for a place in Europe or to avoid relegation.
It’s what happened next at Dortmund that pushed this game into “directed by Ari Aster” territory.
A 15th minute corner at the near post found a falling Andreas Hanche-Olsen, whose glancing no-look header somehow got over the line. Dortmund had fallen behind against mid-table Mainz, meaning that Bayern was now one point clear atop the table.
Still, down 1-0 at home? That’s salvageable, right? Within three minutes, Dortmund had a penalty kick given after a VAR check. Sébastien Haller, who returned mid-season after beating cancer, would step to the spot and equalize, right?
Right?
Nope. Finn Dahmen dove left and saved the spot kick, leaving the Yellow Wall with a creeping feeling of dread.
In the 24th minute, that inkling became full-blown horror, with Gregor Kobel getting a full hand to Karim Onisiwo’s header only for it to bobble over the line. In a game that was supposed to be a coronation, Dortmund were 2-0 behind.
Halftime came and went with Bayern in pole position, but Dortmund finally showed a pulse in the 69th minute. Who else but Gio Reyna, once again playing the super-sub role, would be involved? The U.S. men’s national team attacker made a difference yet again, playing a series of passes with Raphaël Guerreiro before the latter fired home.
Still, as long as Bayern was in the lead, Dortmund needed two goals, and a quick check over at the RheinEnergieStadion found the score still 1-0. Things were starting to get weird over there, though, as a Köln attack was broken up by sprinklers activating during play.
Maybe that was an indicator of what was to come, as Köln were given an 81st minute penalty after Serge Gnabry was spotted by VAR handling the ball just barely inside the box.
Dejan Ljubicic made no mistake, and suddenly Dortmund — in spite of itself — moved back into first place.
All the drama shifted to Köln, where Bayern were scrambling around in panic mode. Leon Goretzka, sent on in the 71st minute, was hauled off as Thomas Tuchel’s final, desperate throw of the dice saw Mathys Tel and Jamal Musiala sent into the fray.
The latter would end up making all the difference, with Gnabry making up for his handball by setting Musiala up for a stunning shot on the turn. In the 89th minute of the final game of the season, Bayern were back on top.
The news landed in Dortmund like a ton of bricks. Full time arrived at the RheinEnergieStadion, with Dortmund needing two stoppage-time goals at home to win it all. BVB predictably sent everyone forward, and when the five minutes of stoppage time dragged into a sixth, Niklas Süle would give them the tiniest glimmer of hope on a deflected shot after more good work from Reyna.
Could they win the title in the kind of drama in the most unreal way possible? Süle’s goal meant that both Dortmund and Bayern had 71 points, with the Bavarians ahead only on goal difference. A winner at this point would be possibly the greatest goal in German club soccer history.
Referee Marco Fritz was in a generous mood, tacking on some extra stoppage time, and Dortmund had several chances to hoof the ball into the box and hope for a miracle, while exhausted Mainz players kept finding just enough in their legs to scramble the ball away.
Finally, with an eighth minute of stoppage time beginning, Fritz ended it. Bayern could party with traveling supporters in Köln, while the scene at Dortmund was pure devastation.
The Senegal international reportedly punched his teammate after a loss to Manchester City
Bayern Munich has announced that Sadio Mané has been suspended one game and fined for what it said was “his misconduct after Bayern’s Champions League match at Manchester City.”
“Sadio Mané, 31, will not be included in the FC Bayern squad for this Saturday’s home match against 1899 Hoffenheim. This is due to his misconduct after Bayern’s Champions League match at Manchester City. Mané will also be given a fine,” a club statement said.
The disagreement between Mané and Sané began late in Bayern’s 3-0 quarterfinal first-leg defeat, when the former ran into space instead of checking to the ball like the latter wanted.
An on-pitch argument escalated after the game in the dressing room. Multiple reports stated that the Senegal star punched the Germany international, with the pair having to be separated by teammates.
Bayern will go into this weekend’s game against Hoffenheim holding a two-point lead atop the Bundesliga table over Borussia Dortmund. The Bavarian side will then return to Champions League action at home on Wednesday as they aim to overturn a three-goal deficit against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Bayern Munich’s rough Champions League night at Man City on Tuesday didn’t end when the final whistle blew.
Instead, things only got worse when, according to multiplereports, Sadio Mané punched his teammate Leroy Sané in the face, leaving him with a bloody lip.
According to Bild, the disagreement began late in Bayern’s 3-0 quarterfinal first-leg defeat, when Mané ran into space instead of checking short for a pass from Sané.
This led to a disagreement that was visible on the pitch, but the argument escalated post-game in the dressing room to the point that Mané punched Sané, with the pair having to be separated by teammates.
Bayern has yet to publicly comment on the incident.
On Wednesday, all eyes were on Bayern’s players as they arrived back at the airport in Munich.
Sky said that Mané was picked up privately while Sané took the team bus.
Before he got on the bus, Sané appeared to be hiding his lower lip as he aimed to deprive clamoring photographers of visual evidence of the bust-up between him and the Senegal international.
Rangers or Bayern? The USMNT midfielder needs some time to figure it out
Amid his breakout campaign at Rangers, Malik Tillman has said he needs some time to sort out where he’s playing next season.
The U.S. national team midfielder has scored 10 league goals on loan from Bayern Munich this term, becoming one of the top attacking midfielders in the Scottish Premiership during his first full season of senior-team soccer.
Rangers head coach Michael Beale has consistently stated he’d like to sign the 20-year-old on a permanent basis at the end of the season, with Rangers holding a reported £5 million purchase option.
But Bayern also reportedly holds a buy-back clause that it could trigger immediately after Rangers use their own purchase option.
That has left Tillman’s future very much in the air. Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of Saturday’s Old Firm derby against Celtic, the USMNT midfielder said he’d need to chat with both of his prospective managers before making a decision.
“I think I have to listen to both managers, the Rangers one and the Bayern one, and see what they say and where they see me and see what the plan is for the future and then I can decide,” Tillman said.
Tillman’s teammate Todd Cantwell expressed his desire to see the U.S. international at Ibrox for the long term.
“As a Rangers player but also as Rangers fans he’s the sort of player you want to keep here. He’s only going to get better as he gets older which is pretty scary actually,” Cantwell said.
“We want him here. He’s a fantastic footballer and I think he’s pretty aware of how much he is loved here.”
🗣️ "We're building, we're not the perfect model yet. The manager's made it clear what team we want to be & it's really exciting."
Todd Cantwell & Malik Tillman on their relationship on and off the pitch, facing Celtic, the future & more. Watch the Old Firm on Sky tomorrow 📺 pic.twitter.com/peomcBPsO2
Dortmund’s wheels fell off after an unfathomable error from Gregor Kobel
Saturday’s Der Klassiker was supposed to be a truly big match. Borussia Dortmund has been giving Bayern Munich — who have won the last 10 Bundesliga titles — their first real race for first in years, and kicked today’s game off with a one-point lead atop the table.
Unfortunately for Dortmund, that was not even remotely reflected in an absolute nightmare of a game for them. Their former coach Thomas Tuchel’s new club capitalized on an astounding early error from from Gregor Kobel, going up 3-0 by the 23rd minute. The 4-2 final scoreline in Bayern’s favor flattered Dortmund in the end.
At home and under their own sort of pressure — very few teams would have fired Julian Nagelsmann while in a title race and having a perfect record in the Champions League — Bayern were in charge, but it still took one of the strangest errors the Bundesliga has seen in years to hand them a lead.
Dayot Upamecano, 11 yards inside his own half, saw a run from Leroy Sané in behind, and decided to try to play him behind. Sadly, the ball was overhit, skipping by Sané before the winger could get a touch. It happens, we know how this goes: ball rolls on, goalkeeper collects inside the box.
Kobel, apparently not being able to see that Sané was a good five yards from getting a touch, opted instead to charge out of his box and take an awkward swing at a clearance. That’s a bad choice, but it gets even worse when you see that his attempt to kick the ball included completely missing it.
Dortmund Keeper with the worst mistake in History 😭 Upamecano scores from 60 meters lmaoo pic.twitter.com/m44FEotGOs
Upamecano, therefore, got himself a goal from around 70 yards, while Kobel looked completely crestfallen at his involvement one of the strangest goals anywhere in the world.
From there, Dortmund completely unraveled. Thomas Müller struck for a five-minute brace, first touching Matthijs de Ligt’s header from a corner past Kobel in the 18th minute, and then tapping in a rebound after Kobel spilled Sané’s powerful shot from distance.
The halftime break didn’t fix much for Dortmund. In the 50th minute, Sané slashed inside against a hesitant defense before slipping a pass through several players that found Kingsley Coman for an emphatic finish.
Dortmund finally showed up for the game sometime around the hour mark, and the final score on the day will possibly obscure just how shambolic they were in the first 60 minutes. Emre Can buried a 72nd minute penalty, and Donyell Malen’s 90th minute goal made the loss look a little more like a normal road loss rather than a disaster.
The win takes Bayern two points ahead of Dortmund in the table, but the psychological side of things may end up making this a decisive result for both teams.
