Luis Suarez signs with Inter Miami, DC United plans Saudi trip, and more: Christmas Freedom Kicks
Merry Christmas, everyone! Hopefully, everyone who celebrates has a terrific day full of family and the joy of the holiday season. And hopefully you got some cool soccer gifts! If you did and you don’t like it and you’re a XXL, contact me for my return policy. 🙂
There’s only one soccer game on TV today, and that’s in the Turkish Super Lig: Hatayspor-Besiktas at 12pm ET on beIN Sports. Boxing Day will see several EPL matches, but today is a chance to recognize one of the coolest teams in the world, FC Santa Claus! They’re in the 5th division of Finland soccer, and I was lucky to have a friend get me this jersey a couple years ago. It’s going to be my go-to Christmas jersey for a long time!
Luis Suárez joins Lionel Messi at Inter Miami (MLS)
It’s now official, as Luis Suarez has signed with Inter Miami to join his friends Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba. Missing is how it’s all going to fit under the current MLS roster rules, but I figure Calvinball will be at play here.
D.C. United is planning a preseason trip to Saudi Arabia (WaPo)
D.C. United is inexplicably planning to take a preseason trip to Saudi Arabia to play a couple of matches, and nobody should be happy about it. Why the team would participate in a sportswashing trip is anyone’s guess.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe completes 25% investment in Man United (ESPN)
Sir Jim Ratcliffe buys 25% of Manchester United from the Glazer family for $1.6 billion, and will be responsible for the sporting side of things as he puts an additional $300 million investment into the club. Will this be a positive for Man U? Only time will tell.
2026 World Cup host cities expect match schedule in January (The Athletic)
It looks like we could have a match schedule for the 2026 World Cup in January. That will help as we hopefully learn where the USMNT will be playing 2 years ahead of schedule.
Rating this year’s Christmas sweaters from top soccer teams (ESPN)
Which teams came out with the best and worst Christmas sweaters this year? ESPN takes a look!
Premier League: What does your club need for Christmas? (BBC)
The BBC breaks down what each EPL club needs under their Christmas tree to help them in the 2nd half of the season.
EPL history made as referee Rebecca Welch handles Fulham-Burnley (ESPN)
Congratulations to Rebecca Welch, who became the first woman to be the center referee at an EPL match! She was in charge for Fulham vs. Burnley.
Arthur Blank hopes Mercedes-Benz Stadium can be regular home for U.S. national teams (The Athletic)
No offense to Atlanta, but this is not a good idea for about 335 million reasons.
Enjoy the day everyone, and from all of us, Merry Christmas to all!
Many thanks, Donald, for the special effort on Christmas Day.
Merry Christmas, David!!
Merry Christmas and thank you for the Freedom Kicks present Donald! Sorry I didn’t open it until today.
Like a good batch of chili, sometimes the best gifts are best consumed a day later 🙂
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas.
The jersey is cool. I got a Colombian team jersey for Christmas for a team in the B division (Cucuta Deportivo) but it’s black and red so it still works.
Congrats to Rebecca Welch. That’s a big step symbolically for women.
I’m still peeved about the Saudi/Sportswashing deal with DCU. Unlike others, I can see some reasons to go there. But they don’t outweigh the ultimate factor that the Saudis are throwing money around to legitimize their league and get people to overlook a range of social, legal, and culture concerns.
Big assumption here is that DCU are reaping some big cash bonanza for going over there. I can’t believe that the Saudis would pay a lot of money to bring in a bunch of no-names like DC United. Inter Miami is probably getting paid, and Messi, too — maybe even a pre-existing deal in having him sign in Miami. I can’t see that DC United is attractive to the Saudis in that way. More likely, I’m guessing the attraction is that we’re Washington DC’s team, and for DC United’s owners, the reasons might even be more political than financial.
I picked up an FC Santa Claus scarf several years ago (ordering it, not in person). It’s a lot of fun!
The Saudi trip sucks, and it’s mostly odd because the team will be paying for international travel. But this team has also done events with the Qatari embassy ahead of the World Cup, so they’re not exactly averse to working with pretty morally questionable partners.
The fact that Jamal Khassoghi wrote for the Washington Post and that a team from Washington would go over… it really sucks.