If you don't care for Italian football, scroll far, far down, because there's a lot of Serie A-based news forthcoming. AC Milan will be saying goodbye to eight players in June, according to Gazzetta dello Sport. A couple of names we already know will be on their way out, including Paolo Maldini, who'll [.

Today's top transfer rumours: The biggest transfer gossip in the English press is the alleged interest of Arsenal in AC Milan youngster Yoann Gourcuff. The Daily Telegraph has reported that Arsene Wenger is keen on having a second bite at the French cherry after missing out on the French starlet in 2006 when he moved to [.

Today's top transfer rumours revolve around Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea, Milan, Inter, Real Madrid and the usual talent-spotting by Manchester United and Arsenal. One trick of the feet and the entire situation alters apparently. Even on Saturday, Ronaldinho's future at FC Barcelona was lurking in the shadows of doubt as his brother-cum-agent Roberto de Assis was constantly [.

A host of transfer rumours for Saturday... Tottenham's Pascal Chimbonda is being stalked by both Manchester City and Newcastle who are eager to snap him up in the January transfer frenzy. (Daily Mirror) If Big Sam gets booted into touch as Newcastle manager then ex-Spurs gaffer Martin Jol is ready to bring his avuncular ogre-like features [.

Following is a comprehensive list of transfer rumours which were published in British tabloids during the month of November 2007: Manchester United According to various British newspapers, Manchester United have stolen a march on Real Madrid in the £10m race to sign midfielder Miguel Veloso. Moreover according to The People, Manchester United are being sounded out about a [.

Things are quickly turning from bad to worse to full-on intolerable with Barcelona and Ronaldinho, the rumors of him leaving the club for AC Milan are picking up speed. Ronaldinho hasn't been in World Player of the Year form this season, and he's falling further and further out of Frank Rijkaard's good graces, with [.

With 2008 just around the corner, a new wave of young players look poised to mark their mark on the European stage over the next 12 months. Below is a selection of promising youngsters who are set to rise to prominence in the second half of the 07/08 season, and beyond.
Samir Nasri (Age: 20, Olympique Marseille, Attacking Midfield, France)
"The new Zinedine Zidane".

I'm pretty bored, so I thought I'd throw my irrelevant two cents into the mix. Here's who I think were the world's best XI in 2007. Feel free to flog me, I know nothing, of course.
GK - Petr Čech
Casillas, Reina, and Buffon are all incredible, but some of the saves Čech makes are just plain silly.

At 7:30 in the morning on Sunday (Argentine time), Boca Juniors will take on A.C. Milan of Italy in Tokyo for the final of the Club World Cup 2007. The right to be crowned champions of the world will once again be played out between the champions of Europe and South America, in the third [...]

South America's grip on the Club World Cup tournament was broken in the revamped competition's third edition on Sunday, with European champions A.C. Milan running out 4-2 winners over Boca in easily the most entertaining final since the tournament was re-launched in 2005.

A very Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody out there. But it certainly isn't a bright and sparkling Christmas for a select few in the footballing world. Let's go through those unfortunate players, bosses and teams:- 1) Valencia Club De Futbol Valencia's problems actually originated in a period when they weren't really struggling in La Liga.

The first is the legendary Paolo Maldini, who will retire 23-and-a-half years after making his club debut way back in January of 1985.

Ronaldo will also move on as his contract runs out in the summer, and the Milan hierarchy are refusing to offer him a renewal due to the constant injury problems that have seen him play just once this season.

•Kaka is FIFA's World Player of the Year. Try to control your shock.

•Is Luciano Moggi's phone ever not being tapped these days? Another investigation has opened into his behavior because he continued to "influence" football after his banning. Well.

The night before Christmas Eve I gave you all my predictions for four of the eight Round of 16 ties in the Champions League and as promised, I have the last four today.
5. AC Roma vs. Real Madrid: This could make for a pretty entertaining two games as we'll see the current leaders of La Liga take on the current second-place side in Serie A.

While many of the Champions League participants have another week to wait until they hit the pitch for Matchday 6, Group D will conclude tonight with AC Milan hosting Celtic and Shakhtar hosting Benfica. With that in mind, it's time for an early - or on time - preview of all of the Matchday [...]

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger doesn't fear Milan, that much was obvious from the weakened teams he fielded in the Champions League - risking finishing second in their group - did he not care who Arsenal faced in the next round? The answer seems to be a resounding "Yes!" The Sun reports than when asked [.

And the award for the least surprising award of the year goes to... Kaká - winner of the 2007 Ballon d'Or.
I guess even the most ardent fan of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi's talents wouldn't have felt cheated seeing the AC Milan midfielder pick up the Football of the Year award, and would have just accepted it as the 'correct result'.

Today's top transfer stories in the Premier League surround Chelsea and Manchester United. Could old Chelsea friends Claudio Ranieri and Frank Lampard be reunited at Juventus? If Turin-based Tuttosport is to be believed, then they are virtually assured of joining hands once more, this time under the Juventus banner.

Urawa Red Diamonds 3-1 Sepahan Looks like a case of same result, different score. As they did when the same two sides contested the AFC Champions' League final in the middle of November, Urawa Red Diamonds beat Iran's Sepahan by two goals. And, in spite of this being the most evenly contested game of the FIFA [.

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 [.

He is often described as a £30 million Ukrainian tosspot and one of the most ridiculous foreign failures in the English Premier League. And now his stint with English football is drawing to a final curtain. Andriy Shevchenko might be one of the best strikers of his generation, the best ever footballer to have merged [.

•This time it's Olivier Dacourt. I don't want to talk about it.

•Francesco Totti is (probably) going to be back full force for the make-up match with Cargliari on Wedneday. No more of that bench-sitting shit, he and his bionic boot are (hopefully) ready to go.

•Roma's biggest Ultra groups have announced that they will not attend the team's home match with Caglari tomorrow. They won't come together elsewhere this time (as they did during the Udine match), but instead will just stay home.

•Antonio Cassano is jumping up and down outside Roberto Donadoni's back window, begging to be allowed to wear the blue shirt again.

Llevado de la mano de Kaká, reciente ganador del Balón de Oro 2007, el AC Milán se impone por 4-2 al Boca Juniors, tomando revancha de la final de la Copa Intercontinental de 2003. Por su parte el Pachuca quedo...

World soccer news
For week of December 20th

Soccer Crusaders: Crosses on shirts upset Moslems
Soccer is known for knocking down many barriers, except for those fortified in religious fanatism. One Baris Kaska, Turkish lawyer from Izmir, filed a complaint against UEFA with the local court asking for the annullment of Inter Milan's 3-0 win over Fenerbahce on account that the "Italians wore a red cross on the white surface".

Sunday 2nd December
This weekend has had a sense of irony for Lotw. Take today. Christmas shopping wie MrsG, when standing in the middle of the chaos that is a shopping centre, which resembles the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan" , the music booming from the PA is not Uncle Noddy and the boys bellowing "It's Christttttttmasssss" but Uncle Lou Reed singing an ode to heroin addiction aboot it being "A Perfect Day"
It would have been perfect day, if i was anywhere else and if the Hoops hudnae dropped two points to an ironic last minute pen the day before.

Hardly a day passes by when you don't hear the words FC Barcelona, Ronaldinho and AC Milan in a single sentence. Today is no exception as the Spanish press goes on and on about the Ronaldinho circus that has reached almost to the point of insanity. Sport.es has reported that Ronaldinho would leave the Camp Nou [.

Though the 4-2 scoreline flattered them in the extreme, Milan deserved their win over Boca, and are now the first European team to ever lift the Club World Cup trophy in the tournament's short history. It's just too bad they have to go back to Italy now, where all those nasty teams clog up the midfield and don't let them play, because in attack they finally had it working today (as, to be fair, did Boca).

Italian giants AC Milan have won the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup following a comprehensive 4-2 drubbing of Boca Juniors at Yokohama International Stadium.
Veteran striker Filippo Inzaghi scored twice in front of more than 68,000 fans, but Brazilian midfielder Kaka was the star of the show, setting up two goals and scoring one himself on his way to receiving the Player Of The Tournament award.

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 [.

Ok, I've tried for a half hour to get something down about this match, and I just can't do it, I'm sorry. I think I was too lost in how nervous I was to perceive it in anything approach a coherent manner. To sum up: Inter won, Milan lost, Dida was rubbish. Luis Jimenez and Esteban Cambiasso were fantastic for Inter, and the last five minutes were all Milan and utterly terrifying.

Only a few spots in the round of 16 have been decided in Groups A-D of the UEFA Champions League, as at least one spot in each group will come down to Matchday 6. Group A Both spots are still undecided in Group A, where just a month ago, the outlook was bleak for Liverpool, [...]

This is the first post in a series I will be writing about the current happenings and dark horses and fallen clubs in the 2007/09 season. Since I am Italian, I will start with my native Serie A. I'll try not to be too biased towards Juventus. It's been 12 games only, and the forerunners are [...]

I suppose Milan supporters will take some heart from this match they've once again failed to score at home, true, but after the first 15 minutes they were more or less the equals of a team that at this point is undeniably one of the best in Serie A. Sure, it's only a point for Milan, but it's also very much a sign of progress for a team that was held to the same scoreline at the San Siro by Torino not so long ago.

Ok, it's official: I feel sorry for him now. Even while he's busy over in Brazil, trying to sort himself out, the memories of how much Adriano sucks lately have lived on loud and clear in Italy. You know what's coming, right? For the second year in a row, the big Brazilian is the proud winner of the Bidone d'Oro, awarded annually to the Italian player who is most crap.

It turns out Milan in Japan are a lot like Milan in Italy: Lots and lots (and lots) of possession, but not a lot of scoring. The Italians were the better side this morning by about 200 miles and absolutely dominated the match, but it took them ages not to mention boatloads of missed chances to break through and grab the goal they needed to move into the final.

(I'll start with a confession: for the second day running, I screwed up my attempt at recording Club World Cup semifinal between Urawa Red Diamonds and AC Milan. Being an insomniac, however, I woke up in time to turn on the cable and record the second half. I can't even beat old technology. [...]

"Boca here we come". Kaká's indirect message to the Argentine rivals of Boca Juniors should be quite clear, after a night of top-class performance from the Brazilian AC milan star. The recent Ballon d'Or winner litterally lead the Rossoneri by the hand, and looked deep into his bag of tricks for his minute 68 [.

While most everyone in European football is on vacation either in Miami with Zlatan, Como with the Argies, Brazil with the Brazilians, or partying with one Fabio Cannavaro at his villa in Madird Rino Gattuso is busy training. Seriously.

In Glasgow to visit his wife's family for the holidays, Gattuso apparently was too jumpy to sit still, so he's joined former club Glasgow Rangers on the training pitch and they prepare for this weekend's trip to Hibs.

Yes, it's finally official: Ricky Kaka is the best player in the world, ever, according to a group of international journalists who watch a whole lot of Champions League football. He's got a big Golden Ball to take home, plus he gets to tour the Eiffel Tower, as a special bonus. Best weekend ever?