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Evening Ticker: Costa Rica re-hires Pinto, European teams spend $2 billion & more

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Photo by ISIphotos.com


By JOHN BOSCHINI

Jorge Luis Pinto is returning to CONCACAF.

The Costa Rican Federation has announced the hiring of Pinto as coach of the national team.

The Colombian native has reportedly reached verbal terms with Costa Rica and will replace Ricardo La Volpe, who stepped down last month. Pinto, 58, returns to the job from which he was fired during qualifying for the 2006 World Cup. He has previously been coach of the Colombian national team along with a string of South American clubs since his last stint with Los Ticos.

Costa Rica will be coached by interim manager Ronald Gonzalez during Friday's friendly against the United States. It's being reported that Pinto's first game in charge is likely to be on Oct. 7 in a friendly against Brazil.

Here are some more stories from around the soccer world:

EUROPEAN TEAMS SPEND $2 BILLION

If anyone thought UEFA's financial restrictions would deter some big spending during this summer's transfer window, they were sadly mistaken.

Before the international transfer window slammed shut on Wednesday, clubs from the top division of England, Spain and Italy had spent a staggering $2 billion on transfers over the past three months. England led the way in spending with $790 million spent with Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal spending more than $81 million apiece.

Spain and Italy saw a slight downturn in spending with $448 million and $651 million spent, respectively.

ITALIAN CLUBS PROPOSE DEAL

Hope for a start of the Serie A season was renewed today with the news Italian clubs have proposed a temporary agreement aimed at ending the players' strike.

The Italian top division has already been delayed one week due to the strike with the second round of games scheduled for Sept. 9. The proposed deal would run until June, 2012, with a stipulation that the two sides resolve the hotly contested issue of clubs having the power to make unwanted players train by themselves.

A response from the players association is expected tomorrow.

SNEIJDER NEARLY A RED DEVIL

Of all the deadline day rumors swirling around late Wednesday afternoon, few were more intriguing than the destination of midfielder Wesley Sneijder.

In the end, Sneijder ended up staying with Inter Milan, but the Dutch international revealed that a potential move to Manchester United almost materialized.

"I just felt like it was close, yes [I thought I was going]," Sneijder said while on international duty with the Netherlands. "Manchester United are one of the biggest in the world so it did not seem like a bad thing but at the same time I do not want to leave Inter."

Sneijder joined Inter Milan in 2009 from Real Madrid and won the treble with the Italian giants in 2010.

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Do you think Pinto is the right coach for Costa Rica? Is Europe's massive spending a good thing for the sport? Confident Italy can put legal issues to the side get back to soccer? How do you feel about Sneijder staying with Inter?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. England is not near bankruptcy. They had the same economic issue as the USA. Whereas the US just borrowed more money (hence the $15 trillion debt), the UK actually (gasp!) cut their spending.

    Also keep in mind – most of the football spending came from foreign owners.

    Reply
  2. http://arabic.cnn.com/2011/sports.intv/8/31/Bob.Bradley.interview/index.html

    If there are any Arabic speakers on here please translate. Here is the somewhat nonsensical yet still useful translation that Google gives:

    “each school advantages and disadvantages, in the United States respects the professional greater, but in Egypt talent more, A good American is committed to a tactical, and depends on the strength and fitness, the Egyptian player depends on his talent, as is the case in South American football seen her most important factor in football.”

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  3. There is not a chance in hell Bradley said American soccer players don’t have talent. No one who is at all familiar with Bob Bradley would believe that.
    It’s either the Egyptian/Arab media making it up or a translation issue.

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  4. Cool … Didn’t know that. How in debt are these mega clubs anyways? And why do they not pay it off? Do these clubs not make enough money to pay off the banks? Banks and soccer don’t sound like they go together.

    Don’t tell me Man City’s in debt with the amount of cash that they’ve been throwing around … ?

    Ives … ? Can you run a fox soccer story on debt in/with these mega clubs?

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  5. Spain and England are in the throes of near-bankruptcy and austerity measures that inspire rioting, yet these clowns have the expendable cash spend billions on a game. It’s almost as laughable as USA presidential election budgets…

    When the pitchforks and torches are handed out and these fat cats are eaten don’t say I didn’t tell you first.

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  6. There are different levels, and types of debts. Man united has secured loans from banks and creditors that they continue to pay off. Portsmouth couldn’t pay their bills from transfers, and and even payroll. They were more like the Dodgers earlier this year when they almost midweek payroll

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  7. I thought they deducted point is your club was in debt. No? Ok, sorry Portsmouth. I guess Man U, Barca, and Real are just better so they get a free pass …

    Debt is dumb

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  8. The truth hurts, as the great Cesar Menotti once said:
    “You can make an athlete out of a football player, but you can never make a football player out of an athlete”

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  9. I already said it shocked me to see the quote, i was just seeing if there was anything on him getting the job and an article popped up that had it. I hope the guy who wrote the article misquoted or lied. Because as we all know Bob was a deep thinker and very quiet.

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  10. There is no way that Bradley said that quote. Just think about it– the guy didn’t say anything remotely quotable for 6 years, and now he suddenly goes off the deep end and insults his old team?

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  11. It shocked me to see the quote, but it would at least explain why we were so defensive in all of our games. I always felt we had a better team than the way we were allowed to play. But he could have said it to help him get the job.

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  12. I do not believe that quote floating around one moment.

    Either it’s completely unfounded and made up or the translation is horribly skewed.

    Bradley, I am not fan of, but even then I wouldn’t associate him with that quote, verbatim.

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  13. any news on Bob going to Egypt? “The Egyptian team is well qualified to be a dangerous opponent, but it only lacks some organization on the field. The Egyptian player is a talented one unlike the American who depends mainly on his fitness,” That is according to Bob, which explains why he made us play defense because he thought we never had talent.

    (SBI-That quote is false. I was told tonight that Bob Bradley never said that or anything close to that. Anybody paying attention to Bradley’s coaching career would know he’d never say something like that.)

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  14. Wrong – The player and Agent get a slice, so club that sells for 10 may get 7, but buy again at 10. Money is leaking out of the game.

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  15. I think what he means is that if my club sells you a player for $10 million and then my club uses that money to go buy another player, then the same $10 million gets counted twice, right?

    Reply
  16. Based on the form we saw against Arsenal, Sneijder to United would almost be unfair on the rest of the league.

    All hyperbole aside, the Manchester Derby is going to be incredibly fun to watch this year.

    Reply

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