STARTERS
The Bundesliga will go on its winter break one more round of games this weekend.
dN
France Football magazine has named Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema the French Player of the Year.
DU NORD AT THE CONTROLS
du Nord at the Controls - all new music mix for Tue Dec 13, 2011
TEAM USA - EL EQUIPO DE TODOS
The USA U23/Olympic team training camp.

I'm late on this, but it's worth following up on how Paul Kemsley is out at the Fake Cosmos and that the organization is facing a lawsuit for payment of money to the youth sides it cravenly rebranded. David Kilpatrick at The Viper's Nest gloats accordingly:

Speaking of goodbyes, none more welcome than shyster wideboy Paul Kemsley.

Union

Kerith Gabriel reports that Carlos Ruiz is headed to Mexican second division side Veracruz, after all. The reason appears to be the simplest one of all: money. A source tells Gabriel that Ruiz stands to make "upwards of $400,000-plus" in the move to Mexico. What remains unknown—and as far as I'm concerned, this is the only thing that truly matters with this news—is what the Union will gain in return.

Cobi Jones is considered a legend of US Soccer and MLS. Having played in Europe, South America and for his beloved LA Galaxy, Jones truly is a great of the US game. The 4th of June sees him inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside former team mate Eddie Pope, as well as Earnie Stewart, Bruce Murray and former U.

When I got the press release about Cobi Jones signing on with the Cosmos as assistant undersecretary to the director general or whatever, my response was: "Interesting. Seems a bit premature considering they don't even have a senior team yet and aren't locks for MLS. But interesting in that it takes a different tack from the whole Pele/Chinaglia honorary posting.

When I got the press release about Cobi Jones signing on with the Cosmos as assistant undersecretary to the director general or whatever, my response was: "Interesting. Seems a bit premature considering they don't even have a senior team yet and aren't locks for MLS. But interesting in that it takes a different tack from the whole Pele/Chinaglia honorary posting.

Three days after Galaxy icon Cobi Jones announced he was leaving the club where he had spent virtually his entire career, the new employee of the New York Cosmos spoke with journalists today about his role with the club.

For now he plans to remain in Los Angeles, albeit doing plenty of traveling between the youth academies the Cosmos, who have ambitions of entering MLS as early as 2013, have established on each coast.

Of all the figures I've encountered in soccer over the years, Terry Byrne is right near the top of my most intriguing people list. A 44-year-old Englishman, Byrne has gone on a remarkable life journey from London taxi driver to massage therapist for Chelsea and England to David Beckham's best friend and personal manager to a sports business career of his own.

STARTERS
Lionel Messi grabbed 3 more goals today in the Copa Del Rey bringing his 2010-11 season total in all competitions for Barcelona to 33 goals in 28 games. Holy Hot Pistoli!
dN
After many rumors and rumors of rumors Ronaldinho is finally on a new team, and it is the name that popped up last - Flamengo of Rio De Janeiro.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

For the second-consecutive year, Lionel Messi has been voted the best player in the world.

Messi, 23, beat out Barcelona teammates Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta to take home FIFA's inagural Ballon d'Or award. FIFA merged its World Player of the Year award with France's Ballon d'Or award last year with Messi winning both awards in 2009.

For months, the long-promised revival of the New York Cosmos, once the crown jewel of the North American Soccer League, has been the elephant in the room of MLS expansion, if everyone in the room mentioned the elephant in every other sentence. What bothered me, though, was that it came off looking more like a marketing ploy than the basis for a soccer team.

-Jason Davis
I've managed to stay away from New York Cosmos-related topics for a good amount of time - I didn't make a conscience decision to do so, but I can't completely shake my discomfort with talking about an organization that doesn't actually have a team. I admire what the Cosmos are doing, in the same way a bystander might admire a pack of lions overtaking a wildebeest that wandered too far from the herd.