Soccerpeddia

Chelsea star N'Golo Kante beats Paul Pogba, Marco Verratti & Co to most valuable central midfielder rated by world-leading football website Transfermarkt. Atletico midfield star Saul ranks 2nd as Man United talisman Pogba comes 3rd, while Modric, Ekrisen & co are categorized as 'attacking midfielders'. Top 10 most valuable central midfielders: 1. Kante (Chelsea): €100m 2. Saul (Atletico Madrid): €90m 3. Pogba (Man Utd): €80m 4. Kroos (Real Madrid): €80m 5. Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio): €75m 6. Busquets (Barcelona): €75m 7. Verratti (PSG): €70m 8. Casemiro (Real Madrid): €70m 9. Koke (Atletico Madrid): €70m 10. Pjanic (Juventus): €70m

Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita has claimed he has some idea how Bayern Munich will set up tactically when they come to Anfield on Tuesday night. The German champions travel to Merseyside for the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie and Keita is looking forward to facing his old foes again. He enjoyed a number of battles with the reigning Bundesliga champions during his time with RB Leipzig, and even scored in his former side’s 2-1 victory against Bayern in March. Keita is hoping his repeated showdowns with Bayern can give him and his Liverpool team-mates an insight into how to beat the Bavarians, but the midfielder was quick to point out he is not the only one accustomed to the German club’s tactical approaches. "I'm not the only expert in this regard - in Xherdan Shaqiri we even have an ex-Bayern player," said Keita. "And of course our coach Jurgen Klopp knows all about them. But yes, I know about Bayern's strengths and how to play ag...

Lionel Messi scored his 30th goal of the season in all competitions, during Barcelona’s 1-0 win against Real Valladolid . In doing so, the attacker has become the first player from the top five European leagues to reach the 30+ goal mark this campaign. Incredibly, Messi has now scored 30 or more goals in each of his last 11 seasons for Barcelona in all competitions. Given that it’s only February, it is a safe bet Messi will add to that tally before the end of the season. He could even beat his total of 45 from last year, but might struggle to overhaul his record high of 73 from the 2011/12 campaign. Barca’s number 10 still continues to amount some truly staggering statistics. This season he has scored 22 goals from 22 games and has netted 30 in 30 in all competitions.

Manchester United have revealed it cost them £19.6 million ($25.1m) to sack Jose Mourinho and his staff in December after two-and-a-half years at the club. Mourinho was fired following a run of disappointing results, culminating in a 3-1 loss at Liverpool which left United 11 points adrift of the Premier League’s top four positions. The Portuguese was replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has overseen a dramatic improvement with 10 wins being achieved in 12 matches in charge to ensure United now sit in fourth place as a result. And with the release of the club’s second-quarter financial report, they have stated that the release of Mourinho, along with coaches Silvino Louro, Carlos Lalin and Stefano Rapetti, scout Ricardo Formosinho, and analyst Giovanni Cerra, led to a near-£20m bill. “Exceptional items for the quarter were £19.6 million, relating to compensation to the former manager and certain members of the coaching staff for loss of office,” said the report. That £...

Gone is Christiano Ronaldo, gone is Zinedine Zidane also once a Madrid galactico in his playing days.    Real Madrid seems to have shifted or better still, they have shifted their focus from signing already made stars to signing potentially great young ones for relatively paltry fees,  which is quite the risk due to the success of their galactico model but as the saying goes 11 friends can't play together for 11 years... This current crop of Madristas will need replacing and younger ones to be genlty bedded in.    There's none other that epitomises this change in what was once the norm than Vinicius Jnr, a young player bought from Flamengo in Brazil. He would have been overlooked if he didn't hit the ground running. Madrid's former coach, Julian Lopetugui didn't want him to face the pressure or probably didn't fancy him so sent him to play with Madrid's B team.   Since Solari's appointment, Vinicius has gone from strength to strength. His pace, rawnes...

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has ruled out a return for Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil forward Neymar. Neymar left the Nou Camp for £200m to join PSG in 2017, but has often been linked with a return to his former club. Bartomeu, speaking to Spanish radio station Radio Kanal Barcelona, said: "I've spoken with Neymar, we've seen each other a few times, but his people have never told me he wants to come back. "No one's called us about it. Neymar has a contract with PSG. It's his second season there and it's very difficult (to imagine) they want to sell. We didn't want to. "We have the disadvantage of the (release) clause here. European clubs (can) take advantage of that. That's not the case (in France) so it's not possible for him to return."

Zlatan Ibrahimovic does not believe Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Juventus has presented the Portuguese forward with a new challenge, noting the Serie A giants were already a great club. Ronaldo left Real Madrid in the summer for the Bianconeri in a €100 million (£90m/$114m) deal and previously called his move to Turin a challenge, even encouraging Lionel Messi to undertake something similar. The Portugal star has fared well in Serie A thus far with 18 goals, the best tally in the Italian top flight, and seven assists so far this season. Juventus have won the previous seven Serie A titles to become the dominant force in Italy, and Ibrahimovic thinks going to a lesser side and taking them to glory would have been a greater challenge. "I didn't say his transfer wasn't great,” Ibrahimovic told DAZN, clarifying the belief the striker had previously criticised Ronaldo’s move to Juventus. "I said that it wasn't a challenge to join Juventus. It's not a ch...