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Post by staggerstag on Jun 13, 2018 17:03:08 GMT
Brazil keeper Cassio won the Golden Ball for PSV in their World Club Championship victory over Chelsea but he lost form in 2016. Lifestyle changes turned it round last year, starting with getting baptised. “I’ve got a pastor who advises me. I don’t drink alcohol now, and I lost weight.”
Despite being the world's most expensive keeper, Man City's Ederson remains understudy to #1 stopper Alisson.
Defender Thiago Silva bailed out of Brazil's penalty shoot-out versus Chile in 2014. “Hitting a penalty is a big responsibility,” he explained later, “so I asked God not to be selected. I missed two of my last three [in previous games] and they asked me to be the sixth, so I said no. I asked to be last on the list.” He was duly dropped as captain, replaced by Neymar – a decision which left him “annoyed… it’s like having something taken from you which belonged to you. Neymar didn’t come to me. No one came to speak to me. That’s what upsets me most.”
After his move to London in 2014, defender Filipe Luís learned English not through formal lessons, but by watching the movie Shawshank Redemption 30 times. “It’s a good movie. And I watch Dirty Harry a lot too… and TV series like 24 and Prison Break. You learn a lot of words that way.” He's right, you know.
Defender Marcelo knows how to respect his superiors elders : “People say I’m the new Roberto Carlos but there will be no new Roberto Carlos. There is a Marcelo and there is a Roberto Carlos. And for me, he will always be better than me.”
Defender Danilo has a tattoo below his left knee reading “Conquistando o impossível pela fé” (“Conquering the impossible for faith”) after badly damaging the knee in 2012 and coming back to full recovery.
Defender Fagner learned of his inclusion in the squad while watching the live announcement on TV with his family. Fagner is standing behind the sofa with his partner. The little pet dog is wondering what in the name of Pelé is going on.
On the day of his Barcelona unveiling midfielder Paulinho miscontrolled the ball during a juggle and the club shop sold just one shirt with his name on it.
Midfielder Fred (greatest ever name for a footballer?) thought his call-up was a prank. “I was in the car with my agent going to training. A friend called me saying that I had just been called up by Tite. I thought: 'Is this a joke?' Then I looked on the internet and saw that my name was on the list."
Striker Douglas Costa celebrates scoring by miming taking a 'selfie' of himself. Whatever next...?
And fellow striker Gabriel Jesus explains his own goal celebration. “Whenever I score for Manchester City, my mother calls me. She calls me every time. So when I score I run to the corner flag, and I put my hand to my ear, and I say, “Alô Mãe!”
Striker Neymar has 39.6m followers on Twitter, 93.1m on Instagram - 2m more than Lionel Messi - and his relationship with soap star Bruna Marquezine keeps the headlines coming. Here she is at the Vogue Carnival Ball in Brazil earlier this year :
![](http://www.hawtcelebs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/bruna-marquezine-at-vogue-carnival-ball-in-sao-paulo-02-01-2018-3.jpg)
Chelsea striker Willian isn't a bad kicker of a basket ball. He named this impressive hoop-killer the “LeBron Willian James!!! Hahahaha.”
Liverpool Striker Roberto Firmino has already had one World Cup row - Panini forced to deny allegations they had airbrushed out his Deus neck tattoo, or Photoshopped his head on to the body of Gabriel Jesus. “No alterations have been made,” the sticker company said.
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Post by Pangolin on Jun 13, 2018 17:44:35 GMT
Brazil keeper Cassio won the Golden Ball for PSV in their World Club Championship victory over Chelsea but he lost form in 2016. Lifestyle changes turned it round last year, starting with getting baptised. “I’ve got a pastor who advises me. I don’t drink alcohol now, and I lost weight.”
He reminds me a bit to the house of Habsburg; tmssl.akamaized.net//images/portrait/originals/50144-1458293316.jpg
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 13, 2018 17:55:39 GMT
Brazil keeper Cassio won the Golden Ball for PSV in their World Club Championship victory over Chelsea but he lost form in 2016. Lifestyle changes turned it round last year, starting with getting baptised. “I’ve got a pastor who advises me. I don’t drink alcohol now, and I lost weight.”
He reminds me a bit to the house of Habsburg; tmssl.akamaized.net//images/portrait/originals/50144-1458293316.jpg ![](https://s26.postimg.cc/tek3suwt5/laugh.gif)
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Jun 13, 2018 17:58:00 GMT
Brazil keeper Cassio won the Golden Ball for PSV in their World Club Championship victory over Chelsea but he lost form in 2016. Lifestyle changes turned it round last year, starting with getting baptised. “I’ve got a pastor who advises me. I don’t drink alcohol now, and I lost weight.”
For PSV? What kind of nonsense is that? How could PSV have won the World Club Championship over Chelsea, when there is only one European team in the competition?
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 13, 2018 18:02:44 GMT
Brazil keeper Cassio won the Golden Ball for PSV in their World Club Championship victory over Chelsea but he lost form in 2016. Lifestyle changes turned it round last year, starting with getting baptised. “I’ve got a pastor who advises me. I don’t drink alcohol now, and I lost weight.”
For PSV? What kind of nonsense is that? How could PSV have won the World Club Championship over Chelsea, when there is only one European team in the competition?
I got confused. I meant Corinthians.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Jun 13, 2018 18:06:33 GMT
For PSV? What kind of nonsense is that? How could PSV have won the World Club Championship over Chelsea, when there is only one European team in the competition?
I got confused. I meant Corinthians. Sorry for the unnecessarily harsh tone then. I thought you had copied it from the original Guardian article.
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 13, 2018 18:14:28 GMT
Sorry for the unnecessarily harsh tone then. I thought you had copied it from the original Guardian article. That's okay. The article itself is very long-winded so I'm just picking out bits and pieces and trying to post it in quick-read form. Only another ten to go (!)
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 29, 2018 14:46:48 GMT
There's no doubting Uruguay coach Óscar Tabárez' admiration for defender Diego Godín. “He has principles, I’ve never seen him behave badly,” says Tabárez. “He’s a key player in the team and I trust him completely when it comes to welcoming new players into the squad. We have lived many things together and beyond football he is an extraordinary person. He is a man, in every sense of the word.”.....I think he likes him, don't you?
Defender Guillermo Varela was David Moyes' first signing as Man U manager. He started ten times for United, mainly in the cups and Europa League. He spent 2016-17 on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt, but was injured for eight months – and when he came back he disobeyed club orders and had a tattoo done. It immediately became infected, and the loan was cancelled.
Striker Luis Suárez is averaging a bite goal every other game for his country.
Fellow hitman Edinson Cavani is Uruguay's second top ever goal scorer - behind Suárez.
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Post by staggerstag on Jun 29, 2018 21:21:04 GMT
France keeper Hugo Lloris started out as a striker, was sh*t at it, and went the extreme opposite way instead.
Fellow stopper Steve Mandanda had his own reasoning about why he wanted to be a keeper as early as nine : ‘If I play football, I want to be goalkeeper because you don’t have to run!’”
Defender Benjamin Pavard reveals how he heard about his call-up : “When I heard my name read out … I’m not going to lie to you, I cried. At first when I heard ‘Benjamin’ I thought it was Mendy. Then it was me."
Defender Presnel Kimpembe wishes PSG team mate Neymar would answer more questions for himself : “Neymar again! Neymar here, Neymar there, Neymar everywhere! I don’t know what to say. If he doesn’t play he doesn’t play. The coach will call on other players.”
Defender Adil Rami will be accompanied at the World Cup his girlfriend, American actress Pamela Anderson.
Midfielder Paul Pogba is not allowed to speak in press conferences since the last World Cup, Deschamps fearing his words might damage the squad unity.
Chelsea midfield wonder N'Golo Kanté's unflashy nature is well known: at Leicester, Kanté and team-mate Riyad Mahrez used to go to the same barber’s in the city, where they were charged a combined £10. “We had a good friendship with the hairdresser,” he explained, “and we used to go often.” And his car of choice was a Renault Megane – which he has since upgraded to a second-hand Mini [Does anyone here believe this?!] He dented the Mini on the way to a Carabao Cup game in January and the next day turned up at training with a wing-mirror reattached with gaffer tape. “I’ve never been someone who loves a car,” he explained. “When I was young I just didn’t have the ambition to have a car.”
Striker Antoine Griezmann was voted 2016 man of the year by GQ magazine after his exploits at that year’s European Championship.
Fellow striker Kylian Mbappé is nicknamed Donetella by the PSG squad due to his apparent resemblance to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
The scar on the left cheek of striker Nabil Fekir is the result of a horrible accident when he was playing football in his house as child and knocked over a lamp filled with hot oil.
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 1, 2018 10:22:45 GMT
Peru keeper Pedro Gallese said before the tournament : “It’s been 36 years waiting. It won’t be simple, but the plan is to keep on making history.” Well, a narrow defeat to France and victory over the Aussies...a little bit of Peruvian footballing history there, I reckon, lad.
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 1, 2018 11:00:15 GMT
Denmark keeper Kasper Schmeichel gets understandably pissed off sometimes about... “I’m married with two kids, yet some people still just see me as Peter’s son,” he once moaned. His wife, Stine, gives us an insight into their glamorous lives : “We’re still at home in our dungarees, picking up Lego from the floor." Eh? Oh right, the kids...had me wondering for a minute...
When fellow keeper Frederik Rönnow's last minute move to Crystal Palace in January was blocked by Brondby, the stopper was most philosophical about it. “I can go and cry in the corner but I am not going to gain much from that, am I? I’m just getting on with it." Sounds like your heart's in south London to me, fellow.
Defender Jonas Knudsen is president of the Norfolk branch of the Mick McCarthy Appreciation Society. He warned Ipswich fans they should be “careful what they wished for” after McCarthy announced that he was leaving. “Fans may not want to hear it but everyone here loved Mick.”
Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen watches every Brondby game on TV. Sounds like your heart's in eastern Denmark to me, fellow.
26 year old midfielder Christian Eriksen is well on course to beat Peter Schmeichel’s record of 129 Denmark caps.
Striker Andreas Cornelius is, according to Wales Online, “arguably the most infamous flop in Cardiff’s history”. He was criticized by Vincent Tan for being the “worst example” of their transfer activity under Malky Mackay. But get this - here's an example of the pure egotistical sh*t that someone like Tan is capable of coming out with : “I told him to go out and get a Bentley and he bought a Toyota instead.” So the lad preferred a Toyota. Were you gonna pay for the Bentley, Mr Tan? No, I thought not, you dumb son of a bitch.
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 2, 2018 8:11:35 GMT
Croatia keeper Lovre Kalinic is one of the tallest players in the tournament, clocking in at 2.01 metres, or 6'6 feet.
Round of 16 penalty shoot-out hero, keeper Danijel Subasic, didn't become first choice stopper until he was 30 years old. He's now 33.
Atletico defender Sime Vrsaljko likes keeping up with his missed calls and texts. After Atletico's defeat to Seville in the Copa del Rey earlier this year he was so immersed in checking messages on his phone that, upon leaving the stadium, he made his way on to the wrong bus – the one with Sevilla players. A member of security put him right.
Defender Vedran Corluka can be a good tipper who once gave a £36,000 diamond-encrusted wrist watch as a tip to a waiter in a Mayfair restaurant...sorry, but I can't see this, mate. 36 grand??!!
Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren will no doubt be keeping his Speedos on during his downtime in Russia. During the 2014 World Cup, he went on the warpath with the domestic media when paparazzi invaded the privacy of Croatia’s Brazilian resort to take pictures of his bare arse relaxing by the pool.
Defender Domagoj Vida has thankfully calmed down over the years. At Dinamo Zagreb, he once opened a can of beer on the team bus heading for an away game and started drinking before the coach, Ante Cacic – later his boss in the national team – went ballistic and threw him out in the middle of the street (the bus hadn’t even left the city)
After changing his court testimony in the corruption case against the former Dinamo Zagreb chief executive Zdravko Mamic, midfielder Luka Modric was charged with perjury last year. His “I don’t remember” quote found its way on to a number of internet memes and insulting graffiti started appearing all over the country. And although the trial date hasn’t been set yet, all that – the key role on the field and legal troubles off it – will be a lot to bear, even for the one of the best players in the world.
Midfielder Marcelo Brozovic has officially registered his trademark “EpicBrozo” goal celebration (essentially putting a thumb and an index finger on your chin while trying to look cool) I emphasize 'trying'.
If you ever get the chance to talk to striker Mario Mandzukic, don’t mention the tattoo on his back. He’s a bit arsey about it. It was supposed to read “What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger”, but he wanted it in Hebrew, which was beyond his tattoo artist. So not only does it actually translate as “If it’s not to kill me, it will make me stronger”, it’s also written from left to right, so it literally reads: “Regnorts em ekam lliw ti, em llik ot ton s’ti fi.”
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Post by Pangolin on Jul 2, 2018 16:14:18 GMT
Defender Adil Rami will be accompanied at the World Cup his girlfriend, American actress Pamela Anderson. The Macron effect? ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png)
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 2, 2018 17:59:00 GMT
Belgium keeper Thibaut Courtois is rumoured to be leaving Chelsea pretty soon. His children have remained in the Spanish capital and Courtois has admitted he expects to return there “one day”. Hmmm...
Fellow keeper Simon Mignolet has a degree in social and political science and owns his own coffee shop. Café de Mignolet?
Defender Thomas Meunier has a shot of Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory as the screensaver on his phone, and spends his spare time producing his own paintings.
Defender Dedryck Boyata played his part in a second straight treble for Celtic, but his reputation for being error-prone is set – which is why Roberto Martínez’s decision to include him raised so many eyebrows.
Midfielder Axel Witsel moved to the Chinese Super League a year ago and invests quite a bit of his £300,000 per week wages in playing Biggles. He's invested in an aviation company and is aiming for his own pilot's licence.
Midfielder Kevin De Bruyne's English mother grew up in Ealing, west London.
70s funk singer midfielder Marouane Fellaini utters three words at the end of every training session: “Thank you, coach,”, not "Right on, man."
Midfielder Yannick Carrasco always knew where his destiny lay. He famously wrote only five words in his maths exam when he was 16 before handing it in: “I will become a pro.”
Midfielder Nacer Chadli posed naked for Cosmopolitan magazine in 2014 to raise awareness of testicular cancer. “I had a lot of good reaction. It was for a good cause so I’m proud of it,” he said.
Striker Romelu Lukaku was having none of it when a teacher took the seven year old's football from him. “Give me my ball back,” he demanded. “We are poor at home. With football I can earn money to give to my mum.”
Chelsea striker Eden Hazard keeps all his trophies and medals in his children's play room. "I've given them to my kids. I don't have a cabinet for that in the house."
Striker Thorgan Hazard was named after Thorgal Aegirsson, a character from a Belgian fantasy comic who was born on another planet and raised by Vikings after his spaceship crashed on Earth. He says of his brother : “When we were little, I went in goal and Eden would shoot at me like a madman.”
Who will striker Michy Batshuayi play for after the World Cup? He may stay at Chelsea or rejoin Dortmund in a permanent move. One factor that could influence his decision: his love of certain cartoon characters. “Dortmund are black and yellow,” he explained in February. “Black and yellow is Batman. Black and yellow is Spongebob.” That's it, lad, think it through carefully now.
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 3, 2018 12:14:14 GMT
Switzerland keeper Roman Bürki was sitting next to the Spaniard Marc Barta on the Dortmund team bus when it was attacked before the Champions League game against Monaco in April 2017. Bartra came off worse, suffering a broken wrist, but Bürki has admitted that he struggled to sleep after the attack. “I still get terribly frightened. When someone drops something behind me and it is very loud, I get really angry.”
Juventus-cum-Arsenal defender Stephan Lichtsteiner already has his target set for the forthcoming domestic season : “The big objective is to return Arsenal to the Champions League."
Defender Ricardo Rodriguez was born with a diaphragmatic hernia and given a 50% chance of survival. He was operated on straight away, with his uncle putting up a picture of the Madonna in the operating theatre. All went well and he now has a tattoo of the Madonna.
Midfielder Remo Freuler's girlfriend is a big Antoine Greizmann fan. "So I promised her that I would celebrate my next goal just as he celebrates his.” ...watch her, lad.
Striker Breel Embolo is the most expensive Swiss footballer of all time, Schalke having paid €22.5m for the Basel winger in 2016.
Fellow striker Steven Zuber had to decline a first invitation to play with the national team in 2015 because he’d already booked his wedding for that night at the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich. The following morning, he managed to sleep through the dawn raids there that ended with the arrest of several Fifa officials.
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 3, 2018 12:32:49 GMT
Sweden keeper Karl-Johan Johnsson, when asked this year whether Zlatan Ibrahimovic should return to the Swedish national team, replied : “The team is a collective now whereas Zlatan is more of an individualist.” His comment made some headlines but, hey, last 16 with a good chance of the Quarters?
Defender Ludwig Augustinsson is a huge fan of so-called “återhämtningsbyxor” (recovery trousers), which he spends thousands of pounds on. They have five different zones that inflate and apply pressure to the leg before relaxing again, helping the muscles to recover. Sounds like something they made you wear on those school camping trips, eh.
Defender Pontus Jansson has his own song at Leeds : “Oh Pontus Jansson’s magic / He wears a magic hat / And if you throw a brick at him / He heads the fucker back / He heads them to the left / He heads them to the right / And if we win promotion / We'll sing this song all night!”...erm, cue very long silence, then.
Seattle Sounders midfielder Gustav Svensson is enjoying life in MLS. "But things are a bit strange sometimes. We have a forward who is sponsored by a pizza chain and every time he scores he runs off the pitch to have a bite from a pizza slice. That’s a bit, er, different …”
Midfielder Viktor Claesson, when asked by Aftonbladet (Swedish newspaper) who in the world he would most like to have dinner with, he replied: “Donald Trump, even if I don’t like him.”
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 15, 2018 11:13:57 GMT
Two to go.
South Korea keeper HM Son celebrated, like the rest of his teammates, the victory over Germany as if they had won the Cup itself. And, erm, who can blame him?
One to go.
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Post by staggerstag on Jul 15, 2018 11:17:25 GMT
32/32
Er, Germany keeper, their defence, midfield, and forward line, coach, physios the lot, all pissed off early and haven't got a lot to say for themselves really...
That's your lot.
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Post by Carl LaFong on Jul 15, 2018 11:20:43 GMT
![](https://s26.postimg.cc/7d754nzix/clap.gif) Thread of the tournament!
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