United States men’s national team striker Folarin Balogun hasn’t given up on a return to the Premier League, a month after his deadline-day move to Everton fell apart.Asked by talkSPORT whether a Premier League move still interested him, the 25-year-old called it a possibility.”I was close to a transfer,” Balogun said. “It didn’t materialise, but for sure it’s definitely an option.”Balogun, who came through Arsenal’s academy before joining Monaco on a permanent transfer in 2023, remains with the Ligue 1 club after a summer that put him at the center of two major controversies.”Football has many twists and turns as…

STATE FARM STADIUM (Glendale, Ariz.) — With his USA jersey slung over his shoulder and the history-making ball in hand, Cavan Sullivan almost looked overwhelmed as he fielded questions from a throng of reporters in the bowels of the 60,00 seat arena he had just about silenced an hour before with one swing of his right foot.During his 65 minutes on the field in Saturday’s 3-0 drubbing of Mexico, he was anything but. Sullivan, who had only turned 17 just five days earlier, became the youngest goalscorer in the century-plus history of the U.S. men’s national team, helping the Americans…

STATE FARM STADIUM (Glendale, Ariz.) – What a way to get your first start for the U.S. men’s national team.A week after making his senior international debut in the second half of the USA’s 4-1 win over Peru, 20-year-old Barcelona goalkeeper Diego Kochen was named in coach Mauricio Pochettino’s lineup for Saturday’s high-profile exhibition with blood rivals Mexico just outside of Phoenix, where a sellout crowd of 64,000 fans is expected at the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.Cavan Sullivan, who turned 17 on Monday, is also in Pochettino’s 11 against El Tri. The Philadelphia Union attacker started against Peru…

TEMPE, Arizona — For any international soccer squad (or really a team in any sport at all), hitting the road for games in inhospitable environments is a fact of life.Home-field advantage is real. The flip side of that fact is that it also holds true for opponents. Being the away team is almost always harder. It sure has been for the U.S. men’s national team against Mexico, its fiercest rival. While the USA has gotten the better of El Tri more often than not over the last quarter-century — including a 2-0 win that sent the Americans to the quarterfinals…

Pep Guardiola says he’s staying “behind my club” Manchester City after it was found guilty of dozens of financial violations during his coaching tenure in what is widely viewed as the biggest scandal in English soccer history.While he was in charge from 2016-26, Guardiola’s expensively assembled team won six Premier Leagues, the 2023 Champions League and three FA Cups among other trophies.In his first public comment since an independent panel published its bombshell report on Tuesday, Guardiola wrote on social media Wednesday that he backs the club.”I want every single Man City fan to know I am here; more than…

Cristiano Ronaldo has walked out of Portugal’s training camp on Wednesday, hours after coach Jorge Jesus said the star forward would not start the game against Denmark in the Nations League on Thursday.Ronaldo said that “in time” he would “tell the Portuguese people the truth about the reasons” behind his departure.”Following the national team coach’s news conference, and after a conversation with the president of the Portuguese football federation, I decided to leave the national team’s training camp,” he said on Instagram, adding that he has always “dedicated” himself to the side.Jesus had said in the pre-game news conference he…

Tim Ream, the longtime captain and defender for the U.S. men’s soccer team, is ending his national team career.Ream had previously told head coach Mauricio Pochettino that he would not retire from national team play, but says now that the evolution of the team and the game has changed things.”The kids are getting younger and younger, and I don’t mean my own kids,” Ream said Tuesday before the Americans faced Chile in a friendly in his hometown. “It is retirement. We’ve used the word recognition. We weren’t really sure how we wanted to label it, but, yeah, that’s it for…

Cavan Sullivan just wanted to hug his mom and dad.The U.S. men’s national team prodigy — who celebrated his 17th birthday on Monday — was less than two hours removed from becoming the second-youngest starter in the program’s 113-year history, going a solid 62 minutes in Saturday’s 4-1 friendly win over Peru at Orlando’s Inter&Co Stadium that marked the start of a new World Cup cycle.When it was over, Sullivan rose from the bench, looked up into the stands behind the USA’s bench and waved to his parents, friends and the former youth coaches who had made the trip to…

Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé sustained an injury related to a hyperextension of his left knee during France’s Nations League win against Turkey on Friday.Mbappé limped off moments after scoring a record-extending 67th goal for his country in the 1-0 victory.France coach Zinedine Zidane said the prognosis was “not good” and on Saturday Madrid confirmed the result of tests.”After the tests carried out today on our player Kylian Mbappé by Real Madrid’s Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a hyperextension of the posterior capsule of his left knee,” the Spanish giant said.No time frame was given for his expected…

Inter&Co Stadium (Orlando) — The U.S. men’s national team’s long road toward the 2030 World Cup is off to a winning start.In the USA’s first match since being eliminated from the 2026 event by Belgium in the round of 16, the Stars and Stripes got goals from veterans Malik Tillman and Sebastian and teenage debutants Justin Ellis and Julian Hall to defeat Peru 4-1 on Saturday at the home of MLS side Orlando City in the first of four exhibitions over the next week-and-a-half.Here are my takeaways following Saturday’s victory.1. Cavan Sullivan Grabs The Spotlight …Two days shy of his…