"He's a great champion. I hope he's happy with us. We'll take turns taking free kicks," Ronaldinho speaking on the incoming David Beckham. Beckham's a nice free kick taker, Ronaldinho's not bad himself. But perhaps he's forgotten that the Rossoneri are currently employing someone many consider the best free kick take in the world, a certain [. Click to continue reading...

Stuff to read while drive around aimlessly with your friends..... Boris Johnson wants football clubs to spend their money on something other than overpriced imports. (The Spoiler) Assessing the North London derby. (Guardian Unlimited) Bernd Schuster's choice gestures for Athletic Bilbao. (101 Great Goals) Jose gets a haircut. Click to continue reading...

OK, so the LA Galaxy will loan David Beckham to AC Milan so he can stay fit for duty with England's team as they aim for World Cup qualification. After watching him spend so much time wither injured or back in England, I'll be the Galaxy management are glad that Silvio Berlusconi will be picking up his salary tab for a few months. Click to continue reading...

Can Roma and AC Milan turn things around this week?  I think Roma will and must as Mourinho and Inter already have that 3 point lead which cost Roma the title last season.  AC Milan are having injury trouble already so Clarence Seedorf will have to fill the absence of Andrea Pirlo in the midfield and [. Click to continue reading...

Arrival of Match Day Three for Serie A fans will see several key players missing including, Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso for Milan (both injured), Massimo Maccarone for Seina and Sulley Mutari for Inter (both suspended), forward David Trezeguet for Juventus and forward Ezequiel Lavezzi for Napoli (both also injured). Click to continue reading...

On Saturday Juninho showed why he is the master of the freekick after bringing Lyon single-handedly back into this one, with a clinical display of scoring from the deadball situation. While waiting for Inter - Catania to start I decided to turn the dial to TV5 and have a look-see of French Ligue One with Lyon vs. Click to continue reading...

On Wednesday night, as Italy battled Georgia and the sky of Udine radiantly displayed its Azzurri colors, there was a slight touch of giallorosso on the almighty's paintbrush. With Andrea Pirlo now wearing nº10 (stupid FIFA rules) and a certain Francesco Totti still keeping his retirement vows, things have been a bit confusing with Azzurri [. Click to continue reading...

Nike's "Take It To The Next Level" is back this time with Andrea Pirlo.  When is a wall not a wall? When it's made up of more people than would normally take to the pitch during any one game. But Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo doesn't see walls, he sees goals. Bookmark to: Click to continue reading...

We've decided we're going to buy a football team. Maybe a random club in Turkmenistan or something. Somewhere that we can truly start from scratch, and there, we're going to assemble a team with the sole task of gifting Champions League football to superstars currently resigned to UEFA Cup action. Finally time to do some [. Click to continue reading...

As each week passes Serie A gets closer and closer. This was basically the final week of the preseason, as this week there are National Team games on Wednesday and then the SuperCoppa on Sunday, and teams start there normal preparation for the start of Serie A, which will kick-off with Udinese-Palermo and Sampdoria-Inter on Saturday, August 30th.

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Another name has been added to the list of suitors for Xabi Alonso, as AC Milan have now been linked with the Liverpool midfielder.

Alonso's future has been up in the air all summer long, as the Reds' pursuit of Gareth Barry was expected to signal the end of the Spaniard's stay at Anfield. Click to continue reading...

In 1965 these players were plying their trade. Ferenc Puskas, Garrincha, Pele, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, Alfredo Di Stefano and Gerd Muller. With more than some arguments, from Argentines especially, this could be considered an all time top 10 list. Surely this was the golden age of football, talent wise? Click to continue reading...

For all those people that since June 22, 2008 have been anxiously waiting to see the Azzurri back in action, those weeks of anticipation are finally over. Granted, this isn't the Nazionale (we'll have to wait until August 20th for that), but the Azzurrini are always a fun bunch to watch, as we have so many talented young talents and this Beijing Olympics should be very interesting.

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While facts and rumors on the professional transfer season continue to hold the attention of many soccer fans, the world's largest soccer tournament starts today in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Gothia Cup, a youth tournament, drew 1,551 teams last year with over 33,000 boys and girls in categories from U-12 to U-18, scoring over 22,000 goals. Click to continue reading...

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani says Chelsea have made an "astronomical" bid for Brazilian Kaka.The Blues have long been linked with a move for 26-year-old World Player of the Year and their boss is now ex-Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.Galliani told Italian newspaper La Stampa: "We received an astronomical offer from Chelsea for Kaka.

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Back in England a week on from the end of Euro 2008, the tournament still looks as impressive as it did in the Alps. I am not relishing another stolid European club season, dominated by the tawdry money of the big teams, so for the last time, I am looking back on what was a refreshing festival of football, the sort of which comes around only every few years:

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The final chapter to Italy's Euro 2008 campaign came Thursday when the federation sacked head coach Roberto Donadoni, replacing him with Marcello Lippi, who piloted Italy to the 2006 World Cup title. Donadoni was set up with an automatic two-year contract extension if Italy had reached the semifinals. Click to continue reading...

Italian sports newspapers Gazzetta dello Sport rated the Azzurri players at the end of their European adventure. Along with Gigi Buffon, positive scores were obtained by Chiellini and Grosso. All the strikers flunked the test, while some midfielders could have done better. The overall form however, was never great. Click to continue reading...

Spain 0-0 Italy (Spain win 4-2 on penalties)
This was the only one of the quarter-finals where the team that had won their group didn't get knocked out -- but in its own way, the result was just as much of a surprise as the other games, because it was classic choke-monkeys Spain. Beating world champions Italy. Click to continue reading...

Have you been missing Euro 2008 match previews, recaps, player interviews and historical tournament events? Well look no further UEFA.com magazine have it all and to prove it follow the latest installment on the exploits of Team Italia and Team Español. Game Day Spain vs. Italy topics include, Spain's 88 year wait for victory over Italy, Azzurri midfields Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo Click to continue reading...

Who would have thought it Croatia, Portugal and Holland all crashing out of the quarter final stages. I take my hat off to the underdogs who have all made it through the the semi finals.

The Spain versus Italy quarter final has extra importance now as the winner of that game would go into the semi final as favourites to win the tournament. Click to continue reading...

The quarterfinals come to a close as Spain meet Italy for the right to face Russia in the semifinals. Both teams opened the group stages with blowout games- Spain winning 4-1 over Russia and Italy finishing on the wrong end of a 3-0 result against Holland. Spain continued to roll, winning Group D with a 3-0 mark. Click to continue reading...

Some bluffing from Aragones before Sunday's game: Spain coach Luis Aragones has stoked the fires ahead of the last-eight tie against Italy by claiming Gennaro Gattuso is "not a great player". Both Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo are suspended for Sunday's clash but Aragones believes the loss of Gattuso can be easily compensated. Click to continue reading...

Just when Andrea Pirlo was showing his best form in a while, against France, he picks up his second yellow card and misses his match against Spain. In the absence of Italy's medio, you have to fancy Spain's chances. Previous meetings have been exercises in futility for Spain whose fragile psyche will be tested by the Italians who thrive on opportunism.

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...also a bitter au revoir to Thierry Henry as he comes to the end of his international career .The video of the first goal - Andrea Pirlo's spot-kick - can be viewed here..

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Italy 2, France 0
Holland 2, Romania 0

What was expected to be one of the tournament's signature matches was a bit of a letdown, but you won't hear Italian fans complaining. The Azurri earned a spot in the quarterfinals with a 2-0 win over France, combined with Romania's 2-0 loss to Holland. Click to continue reading...

Italy 2, France 0
Holland 2, Romania 0

What was expected to be one of the tournament's signature matches was a bit of a letdown, but you won't hear Italian fans complaining. The Azurri earned a spot in the quarterfinals with a 2-0 win over France, combined with Romania's 2-0 loss to Holland. Click to continue reading...

Italia derrotó 2-0 a Francia en la última fecha del Grupo C de la Eurocopa y, sumado a la derrota de Rumania frente a Holanda, avanzó a los cuartos de final del torneo.

Andrea Pirlo adelantó a los italianos por la vía del penal, mientras que el segundo gol fue en un tiro libre ejecutado por Daniele De Rossi que Thierry Henry desvió, imposible de atajar para el arquero Grégory Coupet. Click to continue reading...

Thierry Henry loves to get cute in front of goal. All flashes and finesse touches. And today he scored a stunning goal just that way. Unfortunately, it was into his own goal as he stuck out an instinctive foot to a Daniel De Rossi free kick and deflected it neatly into the right hand corner.

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France 0-2 Italy. Ladies & gentlemen, this is how you mix a "Blue Lagoon": 1 oz Vodka (Pirlo), 1 oz Blue Curaçao (De Rossi), cherry (Buffon's save on Benzema), 1 part Lemonade. Don't have any lemonade? We'll settle for some Oranje zest (Huntelaar and Van Persie). The Azzurri's Euro 2008 adventure continues to the Quarter-Finals. Click to continue reading...

Franck Ribéry and Luca Toni were right: Tuesday's match between France and Italy has all the marks of a grand final. On paper, two of the strongest teams in the footy world. Mutual respect, but also a great history and rivarly extending throughout the years: epic battles lost & won, the most recent of which took [. Click to continue reading...

Italy 1-1 Romania
I know there were some people out there who picked Romania as the dark horse candidates for this tournament -- not me, sadly, but it looks like those people were pretty smart.

After the embarrassment of their defeat against the Netherlands, Roberto Donadoni made a number of changes to the Italian lineup, bringing Daniele de Rossi and Simone Perrotta into midfield alongside Andrea Pirlo, giving Alessandro del Piero a start and rejigging the back line with Fabio Grosso and Giorgio Chiellini. Click to continue reading...

Portugal manager Luiz Felipe Scolari stirred the footballing pot when Chelsea announced an agreement with him to become their next manager, at the termination of his Portugal contract after Euro 2008. Throwing even more chum into the water, are the ever truthful transfer magicians, who now have just about everyone available linked to Chelsea. Click to continue reading...

It was the first real test of Euro 2008's supposed group of death and after 90-plus minutes of breathtaking football, Holland emerged not only as winners but also as real contenders to escape Group C and make a strong challenge for the Championship.

With Orange and Blue colouring Bern's Wankdorf stadium, Euro 2008 sprung into life thanks to one of the tournament's all-time great matches. Click to continue reading...

Italy have received the late boost that Fabio Cannavaro will be able to give a captain's contribution from the dug-out.

The Azzurri skipper, who is already on the road to recovery following last Wednesday's ankle operation, has been given the go-ahead by UEFA to participate in Euro 2008 from the bench. Click to continue reading...