You have 10 minutes to name the 25 most prolific goalscorers in Serie A since 1990.
If this trip down memory lane has you wanting more calcio, we can’t recommend the Golazzo podcast (which we proudly sponsor) highly enough.
Looking for more? The good folks at FourFourTwo have created a treasure trove of quizzes on Sporcle.
You have 10 minutes to name the team with the most league titles across the world’s top 25 leagues. Tap Play below to get the clock ticking.
If you’re looking for more, the good folks at FourFourTwo have created a treasure trove of quizzes on Sporcle.
You think you know Arsenal? You have 12 minutes to prove it. Tap Play below to get the clock ticking.
If you’re looking for more, the good folks at FourFourTwo have created a treasure trove of quizzes on Sporcle.
This weekend, over on our Twitter and Instagram channels we’ll be asking for your help in deciding the winner of our first Fantasy 5-a-side Challenge.
The Premise: We’ve taken the 8 most popular teams in the app, according to your favourites and put them in to a seeded draw – eg. Real Madrid seeded top through to Arsenal in 8th.
We then drew up Fantasy 5-a-side teams from each squad, using the FotMob Player Ratings from the 2019/20 season to pick the highest ranked players in each position – the top striker, two midfielders, one defender and a keeper.
Now we’ll pit them together and let you decide who’d win!
The Draw: Using their worldwide popularity in the app to seed the sides, here are the ‘games’ we’d like you to call in today’s Quarter-Finals.
Real Madrid ? Arsenal
This may not be a vintage year for the Gunners, but under the leadership of Mikel Arteta and honed down to their 4 best performers plus regular keeper – would they stand any chance on the small pitch against a Real Madrid side packed full of world class talent?
Cast your vote via the tweet below.
Bayern München ? Liverpool
The battle between the 4th and 5th seeds should be a belter! Some of the most in-form players in the world are included here representing clubs who were leading their respective leagues at the time of football’s suspension.
Some poetic licence had seen us slot Mohammed Salah in to a midfield role for Liverpool, we just couldn’t leave him out whilst Bayern are obviously led by the formidable Robert Lewandowski. He averages over a goal a game in real football, let alone make believe 5-a-side!
Who would you have winning this one?
Barcelona ? Manchester City
On the other half of our imaginary bracket, 2nd seeds Barcelona go up against one of their own in Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Can the man who’s won a total of 9 Spanish league titles and 3 Champions Leagues with his boyhood club do anything against their current incarnation?
We think on paper, the City line-up might actually be stronger but then they don’t have Messi. We usually ban him from our made up competitions but for this one, he’s in!
Vote for your winner below.
Manchester United ? Chelsea
An all-Premier League grudge match the close the round, and one that regular provides some of the most keenly fought games of the season in real life.
3 points separate Manchester United and Chelsea back in reality, but what will be the difference here? Both sides boast Spanish goalkeepers, great full-backs taking the defensive spot, a mix of flair and stability in the middle and exciting young English strikers up top.
Tough one to call.
Keep your eyes on our Twitter and Instagram for the results as we continue with the competition across the weekend!
As part of the England team initiative #FOOTBALLSSTAYINGHOME, aimed at providing entertainment, support and hope for fans of the Three Lions wherever they are – members of the nation’s main representative teams have been competing against each other on the video game, FIFA20!
The Round of 16 was played out last week with the pick of the games featuring a win for Jadon Sancho over Marcus Rashford, the winning goal scored by none other than the virtual Marcus Rashford!
The tournament, hosted by England’s social media channels is also trying to raise awareness for the National Emergencies Trust and their efforts to help those affected by the Coronavirus outbreak.
With the Quarter-Final line-up now set, we thought we’d do our bit by adding the remaining games to the app! You will now be able to follow the virtual score as the England stars go up against each other.
To follow the #FOOTBALLSSTAYINGHOME Cup, please click here and add your alerts for the results!
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Today, we decided to find the best players in Europe’s Big Five Leagues aged 21 or under. To do that, we of course used our FotMob player ratings for the 2019/20 league seasons in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France.
The resulting team features at least one player from each league but that got us thinking about the old adage from legendary Manchester United manager, Sir Matt Busby – ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.’ So which of Europe’s top leagues is actually best for young players?
Firstly, the rules! As usual, we’ve run through the player ratings in each league and worked out the highest ranked player per position in our basic 4-3-3 formation. Instead of spending a month studying the age qualification guidelines that FIFA have in place for U21 level football, we decided to simplify it to players who were aged 21 or under at the start of the 2019/20 season.
So Italy’s top flight is not traditionally known as a hotbed for young talent, apart from perhaps as a destination for the best South American teenagers moving to Europe. The only Serie A player to make our team is in goal – where Milan’s Gianluigi Donnarumma averages a FotMob rating of 6.77 per game.
Elsewhere, there is actually a groundswell of U21 stars – South Americans (of course), Lautaro Martínez at Inter qualifies under our rules but misses out in terms of average rating whilst Juve’s Rodrigo Bentancur would have been included but turned 22 just prior to the season’s start. On top of that, the likes of Ismael Bennacer, Justin Kluivert and Dejan Kulusevski also came close.
France provides a single player for our line-up, but then Kylian Mbappé is something of a one-off. Way back in 2018 he became the second teenager ever to score in a World Cup Final, and now having turned 21 in December he’s currently the top scorer in Ligue 1, bagging 18 goals in just 20 appearances.
His FotMob rating of 8.13 puts him ahead of almost every centre-forward in Europe, let alone those falling in the U21 bracket.
Ligue 1 perhaps features more U21 players than any other we looked at here – we counted 10 who all rate at higher than 6.9 per game, including the most sought after teen in the upcoming transfer window – 17-year-old Eduardo Camavinga.
We’ve also only picked one representative from La Liga. And despite the breakthroughs made by Real Madrid trio, Federico Valverde, Vinicius Junior and Reinier, it’s actually a player loaned out by the club that makes the grade. And he’s one of our own!
Martin Ødegaard famously left FotMob’s native Norway aged 16, back in 2005 but it’s only now that he’s finally making the world take notice of his undoubtably talent. His work at Real Sociedad this season has seen the Basque club up to 4th in the league, with him scoring 4 and providing a further 5 along the way.
England’s elite clubs fare slightly better in our team here, with 3 players from the Premier League selected.
One may be a surprise – Burnley’s Dwight McNeil but he is the most consistent left-sided midfielder that we came across when studying the rankings. Breaking it down, he has a pass success rate of 78%, makes a tackle with 68% of his attempts and has featured in all 29 league matches for his club this season, scoring him an overall rating of 6.80.
Marcus Rashford probably needs no introduction and we’ve put him into the left side of our attack thanks to his sparkling form before suffering a back injury in January. He has 14 goals and 4 assists for the season.
Liverpool’s right-back, Trent Alexander-Arnold is pretty much guaranteed a place in any team we draw up based on statistics, with his form this season carrying on where he left off in a famous 2019 for his club.
The 5 remaining spots in our line-up all come from clubs in the Bundesliga. And we’re not just using sheer weight of numbers to decide that Germany is currently the best league for young players in Europe, but it certainly helped us come to that conclusion!
With 3 players hailing from Borussia Dortmund alone, it’s perhaps no surprise that Norway’s great hope for whenever we finally get to play that Euro 2021 Play-Offs against Serbia – Erling Braut Haaland made his move there in January when a host of other suitors where making their advances!
Dortmund’s more attack minded pair of Jadon Sancho and Achraf Hakimi have 25 assists and 17 goals between them this season whilst at the back, Dan-Axel Zagadou has provided telling performances in each of his 13 appearances.
Zagadou is joined in the heart of our defence by another French centre-back, Dayot Upamecano who’s started every game in what’s been a big season for RB Leipzig. Such is his form, he’s now being touted as Real Madrid’s number one defensive target.
The last name on our list just so happens to be one of our favourite players. So much so, we’ve already written about him once today already – here!
Alphonso Davies moved to Bayern München, from Vancouver Whitecaps in his adopted Canada last January for what was a record transfer for the MLS. And his breakthrough at left-back in the defence at one of Europe’s elite clubs has to be one of the success stories of the season. ?
If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Two FotMob staffers have spent the day challenging each other to a fantasy game of 5-a-side. In other words, it’s been a very busy here at the virtual office.
Both sides must contain a player from each of Europe’s Top 5 leagues and we’ve agreed that neither of us can pick either Messi or Ronaldo. Because that’s boring. They’d hog the ball and ruin the game for everybody else, simply by being too good.
That’s it, those are the rules. Let us know who you think would win via the poll at the end of the article!
BILL – SOCIAL MEDIA AND SUPPORT:
GK – Predrag Rajković, Stade De Reims (?? Ligue 1)
The thought process here is that Rajković is going under the radar a bit this season, so Curt may not be aware that the Serbian has kept 12 clean sheets and saved 4 of the 5 penalties that he’s faced.
DF – Alphonso Davies, Bayern München (?? Bundesliga)
No one really likes to sit back in the small sided game, so I would have no problem with Bayern’s Canadian sensation doing his normal thing and rampaging all over the pitch! He’s made our Champions League and Bundesliga teams of the season already and still had the time to do one of the best TikToks we’ve ever seen.
LM – Jorginho, Chelsea (??????? Premier League)
Another left-field choice maybe and I don’t know what rules you play where you are but usually, you’re limited to one step when taking penalties in 5-a-side. The Chelsea man has basically perfected that big hop, and as this clip shows – he’s often imitated but rarely beaten. My secret weapon.
RM – Joaquín, Real Betis (?? La Liga)
The mans a legend at Betis and well, old boys always turn out to be excellent on the small pitch. Just search the internet for clips of the retired, Francesco Totti. And Joaquín’s not even done yet – he even scored an 18 minute hat-trick in La Liga just before Christmas.
FW – Ciro Immobile (?? Serie A)
Everyone wants their striker to have a ruthless streak and Lazio’s captain has that in spades. Top scorer in Serie A, he’s banging one in for every 81 minutes he’s spent on the pitch – totalling 27 goals in 26 games. And any striker who can literally steal food out of the mouth of his own child is okay with me.
CURT – HEAD OF BRAND:
GK – Gianluigi Donnarumma, Milan (?? Serie A)
I went for Donnarumma in goal because, well, he’s 6’5”. I imagine his limbs will cover about 80% of the goal, should anything get past the rock I have as my defender.
DF – Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Manchester United (??????? Premier League)
AWB made Raheem Sterling look absolutely ordinary in United’s league double over City this year. He is going to gobble up whatever Bill throws at me. Plus, his calm head under pressure is going to come in handy as a lone defender, because let’s be honest, no one tracks back in 5-a-side.
LM – Dimitri Payet, Marseille (?? Ligue 1)
I went with Payet as my Ligue 1 pick simply because I miss him so much. Unless you’re watching Marseille every week, you likely haven’t seen him lately. He’s averaging nearly a goal every other game this season, but again, this is about sentimentality. What a player. Just watch…
RM – Martin Ødegaard, Real Sociedad (?? La Liga)
The Norwegian’s premonition for attackers’ future place in time and space means that my sole striker is going to find the ball exactly where he wants it. This pick is going to look great in 10 years when Ødegaard has won 4 Champions League trophies at the heart of a reborn Real Madrid.
FW – Robert Lewandowski, Bayern München (?? Bundesliga)
By picking Lewandowski, I feel like I’m starting 3-0 up already. He’ll be perfect for the tight confines of 5-a-side — he’s scored 25 in 23 Bundesliga matches this season, with 24 of those being inside the box. And remember when he scored 5 in 9 minutes against Wolfsburg? This is going to go well for me.
So, which team are you backing to win?
If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.
For more of this kind of thing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
A squad assembled with thought and skill working under a coach who retains his overall approach but is flexible enough to adapt, all supported by a number of smart decision-makers off the pitch and progressive coaches. It’s a blend that other clubs would do well to emulate.
Alright, let’s see how rusty your football brain has gotten. To keep yourself sharp, try naming the top 50 clubs in Europe, based on their UEFA coefficient.
You have 10 minutes to name as many as you can. Tap Play below to get the clock ticking.
What would a football All-Star Game look like?
On the latest episode of Stadio, Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn made a draft of 50 of the world’s best players and picked sides for an All-Star Game. Team Ryan and Team Musa both feature an XI, subs, a coach, kits and a nomination for where the All-Star Game would be staged. So, who would win? Team Musa or Team Ryan? And also, where should it be played? Benfica’s Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, or Real Betis’ Benito Villamarin in Seville? Cast your vote below now and the results will be revealed on the next podcast.
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