Lyon News Archives

Uefa’s Under-17 Championships have revealed many a burgeoning young talent to a wider audience in the last six years. It is the stage where Wayne Rooney (2002), Cesc Fabregas (2004), Nuri Sahin (2005), Toni Kroos (2006) and Bojan Krkic (2007) strutted their stuff and won the ‘Golden Boy’ award.

You have to wonder what happened to David Rodriguez after his 2003 performance, such is the mark of quality that goes with the recognition of being the best player on show. But who are this year’s likely lads ? Who cares which nation takes the trophy, we all want to know where the next generation of star names are going to come from!

From what I hear, he could come from an area of Liverpool called West Derby, via Madrid and Argentina and go by the name Gerry Brown (local translation), but we will have to wait and see. I’ve picked out eight names to keep an eye on for the duration of the event - May 4-16 in Antalya, Turkey.

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According to Forbes.com Manchester United have been valued at $1.8 billion, ahead of the club traditionally known as the richest club in football (Real Madrid, $1.285 billion) and their chief domestic rivals Arsenal ($1.2 billion), Liverpool ($1.05 billion) and Chelsea ($764 million).

Have fun sorting the lists according to different criteria. Here are some highlights:

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This can be a difficult time of the season for strong recommendations as title hopes evaporate; teams get lost in mid-table mediocrity with little to play for and those resigned to their fate fail to perform to expectation.

But there are some interesting clashes this weekend as in Serie A six of the top seven take each other on. In the Premier League, Arsenal’s season will finish early unless they can win at Old Trafford. There’s much to be decided at the bottom of the Bundesliga as any three from five could still be relegated and two of them meet this weekend. Ligue 1 is even less defined as only six points separates 12th from 19th and four of the bottom five have the same number of points. Only in Spain could nearly everything top and bottom of the table be resolved this weekend.

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Uefa’s Control and Disciplinary Committee has imposed a fine of £2,520 on Lyon for “incidents of an unsporting nature”.

This comes after an incident at the Stade Gerland during the first leg of the Lyon-Manchester United Champions League 2nd round last month where a fan behind the Lyon goal targeted Cristiano Ronaldo with a laser pen. However, Uefa made it a point to clarify that “there was no suggestion Ronaldo’s health could have been affected by this incident” - how thoughtful of them.

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With Europe coming to a standstill (or the whole world, if you believe Scudamore) for the 2nd leg of the Champions League round of 16, we’re not doing the daily news today, just a wrap-up of Champions League action. Of course, there’s the small matter of Liverpool being taken over (ok, I mean under discussions), but let’s save that for a different article.

On to the review / preview:

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Today’s roundup - a quick wrap of interesting links plus a look at today’s Champions League games:

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Something you folks didn’t know about Paul Gascoigne:

Handed £1000 over to Jimmy Five Bellies after betting that the burly boozer couldn’t withstand a cigarette lighter’s heat on the bridge of his nose for five seconds. Jimmy could. Twice.

More on Gascoigne, plus Israel, Iran, Italy, Idiots and the Premier League (just about par for the course…).

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‘Tis a little late, but here are the highlights from Wednesday night’s Champions League ties, in case you missed any of the action. And if you did, well, you missed some exciting moments, great finishes, and near misses, which is where we’ll kick off the highlights.

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Since Manchester United’s unforgettable, treble-clinching Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson has added several more memories - and trophies - in a tenure at the club that has now surpassed the two-decade mark.

But, the one thing that has eluded Fergie since that night in Barcelona is another trip to that promised land.

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Well, after a month filled with a few moves and a lot of speculation, we’ve finally reached the final day of the transfer window. I’ll be reporting later on all of the action from what should be a frantic day, but for now, here’s all of the latest from yesterday and the early part of today.

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It’s been a busy month with far more speculation than actual moves, but with only a few days left in the January transfer window, you can expect to see a lot of movin’, shakin’, and possibly shankin’ in the next few days.

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It’s Friday, so if you’re going out this weekend, be safe, and don’t do anything that Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn’t do.

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Now that Kevin Keegan has taken over at Newcastle, it‘s time to kick their transfer speculation into fifth gear.

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It’s the weekend, but I’m not taking any time off from keeping you updated with the latest transfer news.

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It’s Friday, so I know that you who are reading Soccerlens at work, you can’t wait to skate through the rest of your day and get home for the weekend, but that doesn’t mean you can do the same with the transfer roundup, because if you click, you read to the bottom - no return policy, and no money-back guarantees.

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Don’t fault me for the fact that this roundup is filled with news about strikers. If you hate goals, goals, and more goals, well, something’s wrong with you.

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I’m back, and ready to disappoint a lot of people again.

If you dislike Tottenham and Portsmouth, you can selectively scroll around for the non-Tottenham and Portsmouth bits, because I may as well warn you - there are quite a few today.

I will be starting with something related to neither, but, as I said above, it’s disappointment time, so step right up Birmingham!

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Finally, Nicolas Anelka is off to Chelsea, so we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Everyone has what they want, as Anelka is finally on the move again (it took long enough, didn’t it?), Chelsea have their striker (and didn’t ‘overpay’), and Bolton have the money to do a little spending.

And, after finally getting what they wanted for Anelka, Bolton now have the task of finding his replacement, and that could be Johan Elmander, who I mentioned in the last roundup. Funnily enough, the Goal.com article that mentions this tidbit called him Johan Redknapp. I’m sure it was just a typo, and that someone didn’t have their morning coffee, but I suppose if you squint hard enough, he does look a little like Harry.

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In case you’ve missed anything over the last two days, here we go with the important stuff.

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As opposed to ending the roundup with the signings as I usually do, I’ll start today’s with the signing news.

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After the World’s Top Goalscorer of 2007, the IFFHS (International Federation of Football History & Statistics) has done the impossible: make yet another controversial ranking, and make some more thousand-something fans pissed off about it.

This time, it’s the All-Time Club Rankings.

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The transfer window is open, and that means the rumors and news items are going to be flying off the wire with blistering speed for the next month.

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It’s time to take a trip around Europe once again to see how some of the other leagues in the continent are shaking out as we head towards the new year (you did know that there was football beyond the English Premier League, right?).

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The draw for the UEFA Champions League round of 16 has been made, and as expected, there are several sexy ties among the eight matchups.

Who drew the toughest assignment? Who may as well start making ticket arrangements for the quarterfinals? My analysis is below, along with teams and players to watch, and some tasty predictions as well.

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The draw for the 1^st knockout round (Round of 16) of the UEFA Champions League took place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, today at 12:00 CET (11:00 UK time).

Soccerlens brought you the draw LIVE as each of the 8 matches was being drawn.

The biggest matches of the Round of 16: Arsenal vs. AC Milan, AS Roma vs. Real Madrid, and Liverpool vs. Inter Milan!!!! Full draw after the jump.

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Now that the group stage of the UEFA Champions League is complete, it’s time to look ahead to the draw for the first knockout round, which will be held next Friday.

There are a lot of intriguing possibilities that could play out when the names are pulled out, and we will likely see some of Europe’s most elite clubs pitted against one another in matchups that would be more suited for, at worst, a quarter or semifinal.

So, who could play whom? We unearth all of the delicious possibilities below, starting with Group A.

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As the temperatures cool down and the new year rapidly approaches, the transfer gossip is heating up with rumours flying thick and fast.

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After 12 enthralling nights of action, the Champions League group stage came to an end on Wednesday night, as the last two places in the round of 16 were decided.

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