By Chris Wright

AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has a black belt in taekwondo (no word of a lie), and was seen putting his skills to use by punting his new Rossoneri teammate Rodney Strasser square in the ribs during a training sessions t'other day.

Aaah, so that's maybe why he left Inter and Barcelona This is the moment when Ibra casually introduced himself to teammate Rodney Strasser during a training session with his new side AC Milan. It looks like a cross between playground bullying and dreadful karate classes as a kid. Whatever the reason, Zlat has forged a [.

No.10 Quique Flores Atletico Madrid

This former Spanish footballer is tall, dark, handsome, and devastating in a suit. Forget football, Quique give New York Fashion Week a try.

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No.

So, which club do you think has the biggest fan following? Some would say Manchester United, others would say Real Madrid and a few would even say Bayern Munich. There isn't really a way to find out the exact number of fans of a specific football club... Or is there?

Maybe Facebook can give us a good sample for our "research".

So, which club do you think has the biggest fan following? Some would say Manchester United, others would say Real Madrid and a few would even say Bayern Munich. There isn't really a way to find out the exact number of fans of a specific football club... Or is there?

Maybe Facebook can give us a good sample for our "research".

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I know in my last blog I said I would sway around the Tackling issue but enough is enough. So much has happened in the last few days and some of it has been over the top.

Sam Allardyce, Owen Coyle, Harry Redknapp and even Steve Bruce have criticized Mr Wenger on his comments about referees.

Finally, after ranting and raving for the inclusion of Ronaldinho in the Brazilian national team, coach Mano Menezes had heard the cries of his millions of fans across the globe.

Menezes has given the Milan star a chance for inclusion in his squad if he continues with his remarkable form which helped the Serie A giants finish third in the league last season.

I'm not sure there's so much as a quoted caption as a scenario here. Ronaldinho looks like he just lost his whole family to a murderous cartel and Zlatan is pondering straight-to-DVD revenge with a dramatic look into the distance perfected by every action star imaginable.

Luckily, since I'm fresh out of ideas for a caption, we do have a guest celebrity captionist with us today.

Did Rodney Strasser kill Ronaldinho's family? Zlatan seems to think so.

[101gg]

• Or maybe Zlatan's just losing his mind. (Soccerway)
• Arsenal's the newest drug for ED. (The DA)
• Naughty words in Finnish/Norwegian/Jose Mourinho's house. (Nordic Football News)
• A trip up north to Sweden.

Check out some of Ronaldinho's skill in this highlight video of AC Milan versus Lecce. Watch the whole clip or scan into 2:50 to see him pull off a nice flick to cross.

Arsenal's newly-signed Japanese youngster Ryo Miyachi shows his technical ability in the video below.

The teenager, who was also said to be on the radars of European giants AC Milan and Ajax, will sign for the Gunners after his contract with Chukyo High School expires at the end of September.

Zlatan scored 2 goals today for AC Milan he has now scored in The Champions League for an amazing 5 different clubs (Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, and AC Milan) wow. But instead of giving him props for ... Continue reading →

Zlatan scored 2 goals today for AC Milan he has now scored in The Champions League for an amazing 5 different clubs (Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, and AC Milan) wow. But instead of giving him props for ... Continue reading →

New AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri may have inherited a Rossoneri side that had been weakened by instability in recent years.

However, it took only one week the final week of transfers, to be precise to convince Allegri that owner Silvio Berlusconi is fully behind an initiative to restore the club's image as a European giant.

Champions League action continues today with Real Madrid, AC Milan, Chelsea, AS Roma, Bayern Munich and Arsenal all playing. After a surprising opening night yesterday, these giants will be looking to avoid defeat at all costs.

One result that was thoroughly not expected was Tottenham's 2 all draw away to Weder Bremen.

First it was Cristiano Ronaldo who was going to bring the title to the capital, now it is Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo who will bring the title to the capital. Can they really stop a star-studded Catalan army?

Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO) and RunningBall developed a new statistics model for football and the model helped predict the probable national champions in Europe's top five leagues in 2011.

Valencia's winger Juan Mata is gutted that Ryan Giggs won't be playing in his team's game against Manchester United on Wednesday.

When he was 13-years-old, United visited Valencia in a Champions League group game that ended in a goalless draw and Mata remembers Giggs from that night.

"Well I was 13, went to school the Gesta 1 in Oviedo and trained in the Requexon facilities," he said.

LA Galaxy's professional showpony and part-time midfielder David Beckham™ has admitted that he doesn't envisage returning to Europe on a temporary basis this season, as he has done in recent the past.

In a bid to temper his frustrations at catching a surprise second wind on the international scene after prematurely moving from the Real Madrid doldrums into a lucrative semi-retirement in the MLS sustain his fitness following the culmination of the American season in November, Beckham has returned to European football twice in the last two seasons joining Italian giants AC Milan on loan on both occasions.

LA Galaxy's professional showpony and part-time midfielder David Beckham™ has admitted that he doesn't envisage returning to Europe on a temporary basis this season, as he has done in recent the past.

In a bid to temper his frustrations at catching a surprise second wind on the international scene after prematurely moving from the Real Madrid doldrums into a lucrative semi-retirement in the MLS sustain his fitness following the culmination of the American season in November, Beckham has returned to European football twice in the last two seasons joining Italian giants AC Milan on loan on both occasions.

The recent squad of 19 (plus Under-21s) submitted by Chelsea to the Premier League as mandated by the new home grown mandate was discussed in detail yesterday. Consensus so far has been that, while the squad is incredibly strong, it is grossly thin. Well, maybe not grossly but thin nonetheless.

Among the 19 are two reserve goalkeepers who have yet to prove they are anything other than **** this season and a pair of new additions, one of which is also new to the league.

There is no denying that despite glimpses of brillians, AC Milan's new hit-man, Robinho, struggled to find his groove during his time with Manchester City in the Premier League. Why? Well, Robinho explains...

First off, Robinho claims that Man City never understood him as an individual.

Milan's wage bill is now the biggest in Serie A with Silvio Berlusconi's club spending an annual €130 million sum - overtaking Inter by €10m. La Gazzetta dello Sport conducted a detailed study of Italy's biggest spenders, with Milan taking the lead when it comes to drilling deep into figures.

Milan's wage bill is now the biggest in Serie A with Silvio Berlusconi's club spending an annual €130 million sum - overtaking Inter by €10m. La Gazzetta dello Sport conducted a detailed study of Italy's biggest spenders, with Milan taking the lead when it comes to drilling deep into figures.

Mano Menezes says sack me if you can after dropping Neymar

Brazil coach Mano Menezes has named 23 players for two friendlies to be held between 6th to 13th October. The opposition has yet to be announced but the matches will be played in Europe.

The main talking point is the exclusion of Santos forward, Neymar.

Unsurprisingly, Ghana lead the list of nominees for the African Footballer of the Year

The short list of nominees up for the African Footballer of the Year have been making their way into the press this morning. Not surprising that Ghana lead the list along with some other predictable nominations .

Let's start today off with a bang: Eric Wynalda has been named Director of International Operations for Mexican Segunda division side Murcielagos (that's the third division in Mexico). Wynalda will scout players and try to facilitate player exchanges that will bring the talent to Murcielagos that will move them up to the top.

Juventus are a club with plenty of history and trophies, and while the chairman Andrea Agnelli is trying to return to the golden days of winning, it will take some time.

The project of the bianconeri was beginning to take shape: Luigi Delneri as the coach along with Beppe Marotta as the sporting director, some smart signings and qualification into the Europa League.

With the news confirmed yesterday that Robinho had signed for AC Milan from Manchester City for a reported £22m it had me thinking to myself "What if he had signed for Chelsea!?".
With his time at Manchester City cut short after a move back to Brazil with Santos on loan until the end of last season, stating his desire to never return to City and now off to Milan its been a massive loss for City.

Wow, that's all I can say seeing some of the transfers that have gone through in the past few days. While there aren't too many "big" names which moved around, there's are certainly some interesting, young and skilful players which are going to be wearing new jerseys this season. Let's see some of the signings that clubs have made, and how they'll affect the Serie A, and maybe European competitions.

Wow, that's all I can say seeing some of the transfers that have gone through in the past few days. While there aren't too many "big" names which moved around, there's are certainly some interesting, young and skilful players which are going to be wearing new jerseys this season. Let's see some of the signings that clubs have made, and how they'll affect the Serie A, and maybe European competitions.

Andrea Pirlo, the man who looks continually stoned, talked quite a bit about the state of Italian football. In fact, his soundbite is quoted at a whopping three sentences by ESPN, who didn't exactly paint gli azzurri in a positive light. Words like "disastrous," embarassing," and "must drastically improve" pop out in the 3 paragraph, 2 sentence article.

Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has hit out at Pep Guardiola's lack of communication which caused him to leave the Nou Camp.

The 28-year-old, who joined Barca last summer from Inter Milan in exchange for 46million euros and Samuel Eto'o, signed for AC Milan at the weekend on an initial one-year loan with a pre-arranged option of a permanent deal worth 24million euros at the end of the season.

Two days ago Manchester City took a loss financially when they sold Robinho to AC Milan for about £14million less than they paid for him. However was Robinho truly an awful signing or a good one?

The Manchester Evening News was wondering that same question and gave a reason for both yes and no.

On this week's List of the Week, I thought I'd bring you something simple and that can be found in multiple places, but still is asked about all of the time. Specifically, I'm talking about a list of winners of the UEFA Champions League. I have two lists, actually. First is a list of the clubs that have won the championship.

spotted at FIRST TEAM FOOTBALL

Yesterday it was Zlatan Ibrahimovic speaking out against his former club Barcelona after his move to AC Milan. Today it's Javier Mascherano clearing the air about his move to Barcelona and why he did it.

By Ollie Irish

David Beckham was told by doctors that he'd have to wait until October 2010 to make his comeback from the Achilles injury he suffered earlier this year. But Becks being the stubborn sod that he is, it looks like he'll be back in action for LA Galaxy sooner than expected.

BY ADAM SERRANO

The Los Angeles Galaxy have been in dire need of a spark to lift them from their late summer funk and soon, they may have just that.

Midfielder David Beckham has eyed a September 11th return to action after a long injury layoff.

One of the big business stories of the day was the announcement that Alaskan Air signed a multi-year deal to serve as the jersey sponsor of the Portland Timbers. The airline will be the first domestic carrier to sponsor an MLS team. The arrangement includes multi level digital advertising at the renovated PGE Park (likely to be renamed before the season begins) and a role in the Timbers' youth set-up.

Six weeks can be an eternity in soccer and in politics. On July 20, AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi showed up at the opening of the club's training camp and made one blunder after the other. For a man who is usually such a natural and effective communicator, it was an all-out debacle.

With the UEFA Champions League group tables set to begin action in a little more than a week let's take a look at who in La Liga has the best chance of surviving the first round of the season long tournament:

1) Barcelona

No team in any major league received as favorable a draw as the former treble winners have.