Eamonn Rushe

If Arsenal ever sell Mesut Ozil to a club in the Spanish league, Real Madrid have the right to match the transfer fee. And if they decline, Ozil's former club would still be entitled to 33% of the playmaker's final price. Those are some of the revelations from a leaked version of Mesut Ozil's transfer […]

Long-time United States international Jermaine Jones joins Toronto FC stars Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore in a US January camp squad divided between Major League Soccer stalwarts and national team prospects getting their first shots at a long-term camp. US Soccer announced the 23-man squad on Wednesday, with players set to report to Carson, Calif. […]

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Ed Woodward should spit those words out the moment Louis van Gaal picks up his phone. Manchester United’s executive vice chairman and manager reportedly talked after the team’s loss at Stoke City, with some outlets reporting today’s visit from Chelsea represented Van Gaal’s last shot. Although today’s shot was closer […]

Is it too romantic, to see these goals by Southampton's Cuco Martina and Stoke City's Xherdan Shaqiri as the range that soccer has to offer? One, a powerful strike demanding the instincts and execution of a top-level player. The other, a touch a 12-year-old could execute, but only if that child's feet extended from the […]

United States international Omar Gonzalez has been transferred from Major League Soccer's LA Galaxy to Liga MX's Pachuca, the Galaxy announced on Wednesday. The move ends the defender's seven-year stay at the MLS club. "We thank Omar for his contribution and dedication to this club throughout the past seven years,” Galaxy head coach and general […]

This time last year, talk of Vincent Kompany’s inconsistency began defining his reputation, with the once vaunted central defender reduced to a precarious place among soccer’s elite. Now, with Manchester City undefeated in the league when the imposing Belgian is in the lineup, the debate about his value has gone silent. Whatever ground Kompany gave […]

Expect the main criticism of Chelsea's parting with Jose Mourinho to center on turnover, a word only used when "change" is not ominous enough. But that kind of cynicism's to be expected after another managerial change at Stamford Bridge. Since Roman Abramovich assumed control of the club 12 years ago, 11 men with 12 tenures […]

Former Sevilla, Tottenham and Real Madrid manager Juande Ramos has emerged as a potential replacement at Chelsea for Jose Mourinho, according to reports out of England. The 61-year-old Spaniard, whose most recent job was with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, has been unemployed since the end of Ukraine's 2013-14 season, but he has surfaced as a surprise short-term […]

1. 2009 seems so long ago. What's so special about 2009? Well, 2008-09, to be precise. That was the last Champions League tournament where England qualified three teams for the semifinals, an achievement the Premier League had managed three years in a row. Though it's fading into a blurry, irrelevant distance, there was a time […]

Yesterday’s report on agent fees was as much a glimpse of that cottage industry as it was an update on player power. The $195 million siphoned off by lawyers, fathers, best friends and former night club doormen was the headline, but remember the silver lining: Players are moving all the time, to bigger places with […]

She'll retire as women's international soccer's all-time leading scorer, but unlike the regret fans expressed as teammate Lauren Holiday brought her career to an end on Sunday in Orlando, Abby Wambach, long the figurehead of the U.S. women's national team, faces a more mixed response with her announcement. According to today's release from U.S. Soccer, the 35-year-old […]

We see this once or twice a year – the United States' women's national team going outside of their comfort zone to call in new faces, the way most national teams do on a more regular basis. But given how infrequently head coach Jill Ellis, her staff, and her immediate predecessors introduce significant new talent into the […]

It turns out World Cup corruption isn't limited to your Qatars, Russias and other developing parts of the soccer world. No, even the most historic of soccer strongholds, like Germany, aren't immune to FIFA's infamous pay-to-play game. According to a report today from the Der Spiegel, Germany won the right to host the 2006 World Cup […]

A full-blown coaching crisis. I’ve been waiting so long. Never in my lifetime has there been this much scrutiny on a United States head coach, yet after Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Mexico, the United States have an undeniable soccer “crisis” on their hands. The team’s not progressing. Fans are pissed off. Is this what it's […]

Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, and then what? The only other sure starters for the United States might be Fabian Johnson and Jermaine Jones, but even then, there are questions. Fitness issues mean US head coach Jurgen Klinsmann might talk himself into an XI missing one or both of those stalwarts. And as for the rest of […]