Chalk up one more trophy for CR7, this one the biggest and most important one of them all. In a decision that surprised no one given the player's outstanding performances over the past year (both domestically and in Europe), French magazine France Football has handed its prestigious Ballon d'Or award to Cristiano Ronaldo. Click to continue reading...

Who would have thought that Cristiano Ronaldo, this year's shoo-in for the Ballon d'Or award, derived all its footballing power from... an undershirt. At least, that's what the good folks at Nike Pro would have you believe. Case in point: when Manchester United's Kit Man (Albert Morgan) dons C-Ron's shirt, he becomes invincible. Click to continue reading...

Young Axel Witsel has certainly got a lot of courtship at the moment: he's being closely monitored by top European clubs (Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and Inter MIlan), and everyone tags him as the next big hope of Belgian football. Could this Diable Rouge soon make his big move to the Premier League, and [. Click to continue reading...

Since the season started (and that's not very long mind you, only a couple of months), Alessandro Del Piero captain has not scored one, or two, or even three... but five goals on set-pieces, and one more beautiful than the next. Such deadly free-kick scoring efficiency has been the trademark of very few players in [. Click to continue reading...

34 years ago, on the 9th of November 1974, in a little town called Conegliano in the province of Treviso, one of the beautiful game's greatest legends saw the light. Born of Gino and Bruna Del Piero, three decades later this wonderful footballing genius is still running on the fields of Serie A and of [. Click to continue reading...

Our good friends over in the "Just Do It" department seem to think not... Not Nike's finest hour in terms of creativity, but love the video-game part... Click to continue reading...

Things are NOT going well for Bayern Munich lately. The team has been winless in a serious competition (I'm not counting the DFB Cup) since September 17, and this week-end's 3-3 draw vs. Bochum at the Allianz Arena certainly didn't improve things with the supporters. Fortunately however, Die Roten can drown their sorrows at the Oktoberfest. Click to continue reading...

In the modern game you always hear stories of players being prima donnas or trying to get a bigger contract or making a move to a big club just for the money, but Ciro Ferrara was a player who was none of those things. Ferrara was a model professional, a consistent performer, and even if he wasn't world renowned during his playing career he is simply one of the best defenders Italy has ever produced.

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Beppe was born on February 17, 1968 in Alzano Lombardo, Bergamo. As did most Italian boys, he loved to play and watch soccer. His own career started as a youth team player in a club connected to Inter, however he was found too small & light by the Inter youth team trainers. So at the age of 17 he moved to a non-league team called AlbinoLeffe (now in Serie B).

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I've decided to add a new segment to the Italy Offside, where I'll put up a bio and profile of a great Italian player of the past (or present). I think the most fair way to do it will be to have the readers vote who they would like, and I'll satisfy your suggestions. I know most people will mention the big names like Baggio, Maldini, Albertini, Baresi etc but I would also like to profile the "unsung heroes" if you will like Giancarlo Marocchi, Carlo Nervo, Pietro Vierchowod, Beppe Dossena, etc you get the idea.

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"I will make many changes" said Lippi after the Cyprus game. And that's exactly what we're expecting on Wednesday, when Italy receives Georgia at Stadio Friuli of Udine. Particularly we are looking at a big overhaul in defense, because the zone of the field which historically has made them famous is looking very shaky in [. Click to continue reading...

So, the transfer deadline (August 31) has passed and the football market is now closed. Closed? Not quite. Indeed, while transfers from one club to another will have to wait until January to resume, teams may still sign players as free agents (and that until March 31, 2009). And speaking of free agents, Gazzetta dello Sport [. Click to continue reading...

€24.6m (plus bonuses) and the transfer of Vítor Hugo Gomes Paços (Pelé) to Porto: that's how much bringing Ricardo Quaresma to Inter cost Massimo Moratti. In other words: the most expensive Serie A transfer of the year (so far), but based purely on skills the lad seems to be worth every penny. "I am glad [. Click to continue reading...

I had a chance to watch Game Breakers: The Stars of Major League Soccer this evening. The A&E DVD about several of the stars of Major League Soccer was just released today.

The description of the DVD lists 12 players that they profile but you will see so much more than just 12 player profiles.

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In today's Gazzetta dello Sport, there's a great article by Antonino Morici that makes a preliminary analysis on José's Inter, at least based on their first-competitive-match performance in Sunday's Supercoppa. It's still early for season assessments, but given that Gazzetta are generally experts in all things Inter and AC Milan, this one's a pretty good read: MILAN, 25 [. Click to continue reading...

Ever since Cesc Fabregas took all the plaudits with his very own TV show, fans across Europe have been wondering who'll be next to hit the silver screen. Now the wait is over, as the lovely Giorgia Surina and Italian comic group Trio Medusa kick off The Fabio Cannavaro Show. Note that unlike Fabregas', this show was a one-night [. Click to continue reading...

The news wires are now full of player profiles, match reports, you name it, as the US women's soccer team gears up for its gold medal match versus Brazil on Thursday morning. This team is living up to the Nike Women's World Cup hype of several months ago ... the greatest team you've never [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

  For those of us with vivid imaginations (like myself), the above title could give rise to a variety of scenarios. Namely it could go something like this: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (in hospital room): "Doc, you can't be serious! I have important match against Barcelona next week, you cannot amputate my legs! Click to continue reading...

Holidays are a rare commodity for soccer players. In terms of time at the very least, because with seasons ending late May, Summer championships and/or club teams' exotic tours extending into June, and pre-season training camps starting mid-July, athletes usually have no more than 2-3 weeks in order to don some flip flops and stroll [. Click to continue reading...

Footbo, a new social community network for football fans from all around the world has launched, providing users with access to team and player profiles, blogs of other users as well as football personalities, predictions and much more... Created for and by supporters of the game, Footbo.com is the online international network entirely dedicated to [. Click to continue reading...

Footy fans everywhere, rejoice: the player that can easily be defined as one of the best defenders ever to walk the face of this Earth, has extended his contract with AC Milan for one more year. I am talking of course of Azzurri & Rossoneri legend Paolo Maldini. At nearly 40 years of age (his birthday's on [. Click to continue reading...

Come get your own "I Heart ADP" pin over at The Offside. . SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "I Heart ADP", url: "http://www.mcalcio.com/i-heart-adp/" }); Click to continue reading...

That's a big one, right? Big enough to deserve its very own detailed and analytical answer I'm sure. So why don't you go have a look over at The Offside, and read my Will Alessandro Del Piero Be Going to Euro 2008? post? SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Has Alessandro Del Piero's Return to the Azzurri Finally Arrived? Click to continue reading...

Brace yourself blogging world!! After Soccerlens, the great Marco Pantanella has conquered yet another mountainous peak and landed at... The Offside. Ok using "great" and "mountainous peak" might be exaggerating a tad, but it looked cool when I wrote it. For those of you have been living under a rock since the 2006 World Cup, The Offside [. Click to continue reading...

His name is Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira. He's a target of half the big teams of Serie A, on the shortlist of many more teams in Europe (Lyon, Valencia, and Real Madrid notably), and seemingly very close to heading to Juventus next year. At least according to Gazzetta dello Sport: the pink newspaper is reporting that [. Click to continue reading...

His name is Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira. He's a target of half the big teams of Serie A, on the shortlist of many more teams in Europe (Lyon, Valencia, and Real Madrid notably), and seemingly very close to heading to Juventus next year. At least according to Gazzetta dello Sport: the pink newspaper is reporting that [. Click to continue reading...

First off, apologies for not getting to this sooner, but thanks to a particularly nasty strain of flu, I've been too tired to do much typing. Thankfully, I work in an infectious disease lab, so I can't go into lab until I'm better. So these past five days have been spent on my couch recuperating. I had planned on writing up a match preview for Lyon-Rennes and also finish my part of the Ligue 1 talent guide for Corey.

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It's bound to be a very entertaining Serie A week-end: on Saturday, Udinese vs. Lazio to whet our appetite, Roma vs. Milan for the main course, Juventus vs. Napoli on Sunday for dessert. The main action however, will undoubtedly be on the field of the Stadio Olimpico of Rome, where a Scudetto-chasing Giallorossi will face [. Click to continue reading...

If you're like me, you're undecided about who our starting right back should be. We have two good ones in Anthony Réveillère and François Clerc. They aren't spectacular by any means, but they are solid and don't often disappoint.

Unlike all other positions at Lyon, right back is the one position that is under nearly constant rotation.

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� Strangers in the Serie A beware! The last week-end of� the Italian� league� was really special for Italian players. Super Borriello scored a hat-trick (including a wonder-strike featured in my 'Goals of the Week' selection), thereby also seizing 1st spot in the topscorer charts. Meanwhile, Matchday 24 marked the renewal of players that everyone thought long-lost, and confirmed [. Click to continue reading...

Faithful reader Marielle sent me an article on Jeremy Toulalan that was published in the Libération this morning. It's one of the few articles that shed light on Toulalan, who is probably Lyon's most media shy and taciturn player. Despite playing like a bulldog with four lungs on the pitch, you'll hardly ever see him open his mouth - unless it's to protest a yellow card.

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Everything is ready for Roma vs. Real Madrid. Merengues supporters have arrived in the Italian capital, ready to face off against their Giallorossi opponents in a battle stadium chants. Meanwhile, the two managers Luciano Spalletti and Bernd Schuster have already begun their 'battle of the mind', a tactical showdown which will determine who holds the [. Click to continue reading...

It's now official: Juventus and Liverpool have finalized the negotiations for the arrival of Mohamed Lamine Sissoko to the Serie A. The Malian midfielder has been acquired for a cost of €11.0m (£8.2m), and signed a contract of 5 years with the Bianconeri (i.e. until 2013). The transfer fee had been made payable in 3 [. Click to continue reading...

Silly season went by very quickly, and though it doesn't seem like it, Lyon have been fairly busy during this transfer window. We sold Nadir Belhadj to Lens, loaned Fabio Santos to Sao Paulo for six months, received Marc Crosas on loan from Barca, and bought Cesar Delgado from Cruz Azul.

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I was in the process of writing a post titled "The Muller Mystery" when I happened to check Lyon's official website. And there it was - the awful news that Patrick Muller has torn a ligament in his knee and is expected to be out for six months.

Great. He's the third defensive player to tear his knee ligaments within the span of four months.

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