Football Circus finally reaches double figures with this, the tenth edition. With many domestic seasons drawing to a close at this stage, we'll still manage to squeeze every ounce of weirdness out of the football world that we possibly can. This week also sees the introduction of a new feature - The Magic 8 Ball Transfer Rumour Oracle.
Man Dies Dribbling Football from US to Brazil ahead of World Cup 2014
A sad story to begin this week. 42 year old Richard Swanson from Seattle two weeks ago set upon a journey that would eventually lead him 10,000 miles to Sao Paulo in time for the 2014 World Cup. He had planned to venture through eleven countries en route whilst dribbling a football the whole way. His aim was to raise cash for oneworldfutbol.com, a charitable organisation who provide footballs for children in under-developed countries.
Swanson tragically died however after being hit by a pickup truck near Lincoln City, Oregon. He was survived by two sons. A friend of Swason's Kristi Schwesinger, said of Swanson and his project:
"He was at a point in his life where he had raised his kids. Both his boys had graduated from high school. He had no mortgage. He had sold his condo recently and was between jobs.
"And he loved the game of soccer. He stumbled on this great organization, One World Futbol, and decided this would be his passion the next year."
"It was all by word of mouth, Facebook, media contacts, friends and family who put the word out. The hardest thing is he was so young. Just today we were planning his surprise birthday party for Sunday. He was so young, so full of life, so excited by the journey he was on.
"To be taken from us so soon is really heartbreaking."
Boateng Upsets Ri-BEER-y
Footage of Bayern Munich's post trophy-lifting celebrations from last weekend have been doing the rounds on Youtube this week, in particular this clip where Franck Ribery can be seen running the length of the pitch just to avoid having beer poured over him by his teammates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNYCgEVkjYM
Ribery was more than aggrieved at their actions as he converted to Islam in 2008 in order to marry his childhood sweetheart. Alcohol is forbidden by the Frenchman's religion and he had forewarned his teammates to keep the alcohol to themselves. They soaked him with beer regardless and Ribery seemed to attribute the blame on defender Jerome Boateng and stated "I'm not going to talk to Boateng again. He knows that I’m Muslim. I’m pi**ed off."
What short-tempered Ribery failed to notice however, was that the beer was in actual fact non-alcoholic (the 'Non-Alcoholic' inscription on the huge glasses the players drank from may have given it away).
Boateng later took to his Twitter account to clarify that peace had been made between the pair "Me and my bro Ribéry everything is Fine it was nonalcohol Beer so all Good". The tweet included a photo of the Bayern duo arm in arm. Ribery could not have stayed angry with a man who wears such ridiculous hipster glasses.
Joey Barton Retires from International Football!
Joey Barton has had another busy week on Twitter. He began on Tuesday evening while Wigan played away to Arsenal in a season deciding tie at the Emirates (Wigan eventually lost the fixture 4-1 and were relegated from the Premier League). Barton commented:
“How did this team beat Man City in the Cup final. No wonder Mancini got the bullet. Some awful players on show here”.
Former Wigan man Victor Moses, now at Chelsea, took the bait and responded to Barton immediately:
“@Joey7Barton and every single one of them has won more then you, you fucking parasite”.
Barton's Twitter-trolling did not end there though. The following morning Rio Ferdinand announced his somewhat expected retirement from international football. Not to be outdone, Barton broke some news of his own:
"Decided to announce my international retirement as well. I was honoured to represent my country for such a long, illustrious time. #sadtimes"
"Decided to focus on being fit at club level. Hope everyone understands."
Barton was capped once for England in 2007 and ended the sarcastic rant with the following photo and caption:
My favourite picture from my long, illustrious international career...
Italian Football Story of the Week
- Mario Kart
We may as well rename this segment of Football Circus the 'Mario Balotelli Story of the Week', at this point, because he has once again made the headlines over the past week.
Last week we reported how Balotelli had split from his latest flame, Fanny Neguesha. To cheer himself up, Balo splashed the cash on a €230,000 Ferrari 450. Mario also however, fancied a bit of go-karting, perhaps to take out his frustrations on the racetrack. Unfortunately for Mario, his A.C. Milan contract forbids him to drive a go-kart as it carries too much of an injury risk.
But our Mario is a smart lad and where there's a will there's a way. So exposing a loophole in his Milan contract, he drove the new Ferrari to the Pala K go-kart track in Milan and drove it around the 600 metre track for an hour as friends watched on from the stands.
Balotelli is a diehard go-karter and even had a small go-kart track built in his garden when playing for Manchester City. Milan have not commented on his racing escapades, however he went on to score two goals for the team in their next league game against Pescara so they may turn a blind eye.
We have also discovered that Super Mario has today joined Twitter after countless fake accounts proclaiming to be the real deal, @finallymario for those interested.
The Magic 8 Ball Transfer Rumour Oracle
Any football fan worth their salt knows that every summer produces rumour after rumour, regardless of how well founded the rumour may be. Football journalists need something lie write about afterall. So when the football season finishes up, the back pages are filled with headlines of 'Player to Club for X Amount', 'Player Wants Out', 'Sensational Swap Deal between...', etc. Interestingly, footballtransferleague.co.uk show statistics of UK-based newspapers' transfer rumours reported and how many of the rumoured transfers actually materialise. The highest ranking newspaper currently has a rumour accuracy rating of 34.2%, whilst the lowest ranking newspaper a mere 11.3%. So in summary, it's a mug's game really. Whether any of these rumours holds even a smidgen of truth is something the common fan can only speculate upon. Bearing that in mind, Football Circus has decided to undertake a project over the summer - A transfer rumour a week with a magic 8 ball predicting whether or not anything will come of it. At the end of the transfer window, we'll see how the magic 8 ball has fared overall in comparison to the newspapers.
So to begin, our first rumour is...(drum roll)...
CESC FABREGAS TO MANCHESTER UNITED
(As reported here http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/manchester-united-make-shock-move-for-former-arsenal-captain-cesc-fabregas-8614167.html )
Magic 8 Ball Says...
"MY SOURCES SAY NO"
Well there you have it folks, note that one down as a non-starter.
Football Recommendation
Some of Irish readers may be familiar with the 'Off The Ball' radio show on Newstalk radio. They may also be familiar with the controversial departure from that show of Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, Mark Horgan, Simon Hicks and Ciaran 'Murph' Murphy. Well the lads can now be heard once a week on a two hour podcast. For those unfamiliar with the show, while it is predominantly Irish-based, it's worth a listen at least.
Non-football Recommendation
Breaking Bad
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