Talking Balls: Premier League To Super League Special
Euro 2012 is over and Spain have been anointed as the best team ever. Well done to them and well done to anyone who has spent the last three weeks dealing with 2.45am kick offs. There's football news galore this week and some of it directly affects Beijing, but let's start with the arrival in China of three Premier League heavyweights on their pre-season tours.
Arsenal and Manchester City are in town at the end of the month for their match at the Bird's Nest on July 27. We've been told that aside from the big game, the London club will also be hosting an open training session and a fan party in the two days before. We don't know what a fan party is, but it sounds jolly good fun. There's no news on what the English Champions will be doing, but knowing the Blues, it will be massive.
Meanwhile, tickets are now on sale for Manchester United's game with Shanghai Shenhua in Shanghai on July 25. You can also follow the Red Devils' tour on Weibo.
One player that Manchester United will line up against is Didier Drogba. The new Shanghai man is staying put – definitely not going to Barcelona. His coach has also confirmed that he will also make his CSL debut against Beijing Guoan on July 14.
The Imperious Ivorian might come up against the Magnificent Malian in that game. Fredi Kanoute has signed for Beijing Guoan on a free after leaving Sevilla. Kanoute's a top-class player and a better class of man. Beijing are lucky to have him. Here are some examples from the always-excellent Sid Lowe of why he's a gent:
"Pep Guardiola's emotional farewell was not the only one this weekend. Goodbye, too, to the classiest player anyone can remember: Fredi Kanouté played his last game at the Sánchez Pizjuán … and marked the occasion with a goal. The shirt he wore underneath said simply: thanks."
"Kanouté, said Santi Giménez in AS, "is a spectacular, elegant, stupendous player who turned the game round." It was classic Kanouté: smooth and skilful, never in a hurry. Intelligent and eloquent, strikingly mild for a sportsman, he's the striker, playmaker and footballer many Sevilla supporters think is the best signing they have ever made (Alves permitting); the man who gave over €300,000 (£260,000) to prevent a local mosque from closing and played with masking tape over the 888.com on his Sevilla shirt because he did not want to advertise a bookmaker. The man who scored in the Uefa Cup final in 2006 when Sevilla won their first major trophy in almost 60 years, he also got the winning goal in the Copa del Rey final and scored in the Uefa Cup final, the following season."
You wait ages for one international-class striker and then three come along at once. The final recent addition to the CSL is Yakubu Aiyegbeni. The Nigerian hitman has rocked up at Guangzhou R&F after Blackburn Rovers succumbed to the drop last season. Here's the Yak himself:
"I've been here for only three days and I can feel the love, warmth and the professional attitude of the people.
There were many clubs interested according to the media, but the only people who made direct contact have been Guangzhou R&F. Many will ask why China? The truth is there is not much to prove after scoring almost a century of goals in a league considered as one of the best in the world."
So there you have it. Chinese football is officially great (even if Clarence Seedorf has opted for Brazil) and the class of player has changed a lot since Pelle Blohm's day. For those that don't know, Blohm was a Swede who played in the then-Jia A way back in 1996 for the then-Dalian Wanda. Wild East Football have an interview with him here. Read it.
But before you read that, here's the "And finally ..." that Talking Balls was apparently titled for: the reason that Guoan shipped out tubby Brazilian signing Davi before he'd even played a game. Apparently the striker failed a medical when a trip to Chaoyang Hospital revealed “an enlarged testicle”, and, mysteriously, “other unknown problems,” according to Wild East Football. You can all thank the Chinese press for revealing that gem.
Image: WildEastFootball