SOCCER: Men's National Team News (non USA)

[Napoleon 8660]

CROATIA: Mario Mandžukić has retired from the national team.

ARGENTINA: Lionel Messi has let AFA know that he is not available for national team matches at least for the rest of 2018.

-He won't play in September's match vs the USMNT. (I doubt that many other big names for Argentina will either, but they will still crush the USMNT with the Inter Duo leading the way.)
-This will allow for Manuel Icardi to be selected for the squad and actually see starter's minutes for the rest of the year, because Messi won't be there to blackball him. (Praise Jesus!)

[Napoleon 8660]

CROATIA: Danijel Subasic,  the Monaco keeper, is retiring from the national team. 

Edited August 16, 2018 by Napoleon

[Napoleon 8660]

MÉXICO: Hirving "Chucky" Lozano (23yrs) scored for PSV vs BATE today in UCL qualifier and the postgame discussion on TNT speculated whether he would move to a bigger team right now. They thought that if he had a $30 Million price tag (maybe 30 Million Euros... can't remember), then he might be gone.

ARGENTINA: The players selected for the upcoming matches in the USA in September have been announced and virtually all of the viejitos (old guys) have been left off the list except for DEF Gabriel Mercado & GK Sergio Romero.

The ESPN article, written by Adriana Garcia, (stupidly) reported: 

"Inter captain Mauro Icardi, who was surprisingly left out of the World Cup squad, returns to the fold."

Anyone and everyone who actually follows soccer knew that Icardi wasn't going to be selected to the World Cup squad as long as Messi was pulling the strings. To have such a fucking idiot reporting on a sport does the sport a disservice.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/argentina/story/3606285/lionel-messi-out-of-argentina-squad-as-doubts-persist-over-international-future

NON-USMNT: "Michael Bradley said he has 'had a few conversations' with caretaker national team manager Dave Sarachan, but declined to get into whether he anticipated getting called up for the United States' upcoming friendlies."

Here's hoping that Michael Bradley continues to fall under the "non USA" national team conversation.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states/story/3602884/michael-bradley-coy-on-next-united-states-call-up-thats-not-a-question-for-me

[Longboard Horn 40293]

So Messi has retired for the Xth time. Sounds about right. 

[MoJames 8244]

Wegner In... Qatar?

Quote

 

Free since the summer, Arsène Wenger is still waiting for a new challenge. The solicitations are not lacking, and his name often circulates as a natural resort in large European stables (Bayern, AC Milan ...). Prestige guest of the Stars of the sport, last November in Tignes, the legend of the Gunners had expressed his desire to find a post: "The ground misses me", he had entrusted to The Team. Until a major opportunity arises, Wenger is clearly desired by the ... Qatar. The former manager of Arsenal has always been in the small papers of the emirate, whether as a possible arrival as a sports director of the PSG, and more recently, at the head of the national team with an expanded role in the development of football in this young country.

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