This has been an astonishing week in football, with signings and a retirement no one expected!
On June 4th, Karim Benzema left Real Madrid. On June 6th, signed a three-year deal with Saudi team Al Ittihad, with a salary of €200m ($215m) per season! This was such a sudden move, since no one expected the French star to play for Saudi. Here goes another.
It doesn't end there. Following him, N'golo Kante signed a two-year deal as a free transfer from Chelsea. Now the two French stars will be united again at Al Itthihad.
Eden Hazard has also left Real Madrid, and is a free agent now. He was a beast at Chelsea, but at Real, he was mostly on the bench. Let's hope he'll find a club where he can be the Hazard.
Speaking of Real, Jude Bellingham has signed a deal with Real Madrid until 2029 for €103m ($111m) plus 30% add-ons! Bellingham is a brilliant midfielder and will have a fantastic future in Spain!
Liverpool signed Alexis Mac Allister for €35m (37.6m USD) as their new number 10! Really great for the Argentinean star.
West Ham won the Conference League,and Bayern Munich signed Rapha Guerreiro as a free transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
Also on June 6th, Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his retirement at AC Milan. The Swedish player had a marvellous 24 year career. He played 820 games, scoring 495 goals and assisting 201, with 122 international games, 62 goals and 25 assists. Happy retirement, Zlatan!
And finally,
Lionel Messi has signed a deal with the MLS team Inter Miami, and will start playing the next season. This was absolutely unexpected from Messi, as we all thought he was finally coming home to Barcelona, but he is going to Florida.
In an interview, Messi says that he wanted to join Barcelona, but he didn't want to be in the same situation again, after what happened two years ago.
For context, back in 2021, he had signed a new deal with Barcelona. Unfortunately, due to La Liga's salary cap rule, (Every team has a salary cap, if they go over that allotted amount, they won't be able to sign a new player.) Messi could not be registered as a player, and he had to leave and join PSG.
He doesn't want it to happen again, so he joined Inter Miami. He didn't want to play in any other club other than Barcelona in Europe, and he said he doesn't play for the money, so he won't go to Saudi either.