Premier League top sides Chelsea and Manchester United have reportedly joined the race to land Everton star Ross Barkley this summer.

Tottenham Hotspur were the preferred side to land the top rated local talent but the big boys wants to muscle out the north London club.

There are reports that the defending league champs are monitoring the situation in case the purported move fails. Spurs have been trying to get the Toffees to lower their £50 million valuation but the Ronaldo Koeman led side is not having it.

If the Blues enter the fray or United submit a bid, it could tilt the situation significantly as Everton would strengthen the resolve on their valuation. Well, Everton allowed the deal enter its final year when they could have sorted it earlier.

Barkley and his reps have a decent case now as they can decide to allow the contract run down next year and leave as a free agent. They have the edge in the negotiations. Ahead of the player’s move to Spurs, there were reports that the player wanted £150,000 weekly. That salary band would make him the highest earner at the club, above Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris. The player and his reps refused to comment on those rumours, so the silence sent a message.

Everton have offered the player a new deal. Koeman has reportedly asked that Barkley gives the club a response on the offer soonest so they can prepare for the next move. At Tottenham, there is no guarantee that Barkley would be a regular as the youthful team is packed with top talents. Everton are a decent side with ambitions and recent strides as proof. It seems Barkley is just keen on moving away from his boyhood club. Koeman’s issue with him might have played a part though as Barkley was placed on a higher scale by Roberto Martinez.

With Paul Martin allegedly the player’s agent, it seems a big money move from Goodison Park is almost certain. Martin of Wasserman Media Group handled the move of John Stones, JoleonLescott and others. Well, he also managed Tim Cahill and Landon Donovan as well. Happenings all point to a move to Spurs this summer.

The San Diego Soccer City project to repurpose the Qualcomm Stadium site and build a 30,000 seat stadium is getting more and more support by the day.

More than 112,000 people signed the petition within 12 days. The proposal has been send to the City Council for the next stage of consideration.

The people of San Diego want to move past the loss of NFL side San Diego Chargers with the prospects of having a beautiful park along the San Diego River, a sport and entertainment district and a multiuse stadium. All of these would come at no cost to taxpayers hence the response.

There has been public review of the proposal with the media scrutinizing the move. Over sixty percent of the city favour the deal. Twenty five percent are against the idea while the rest sit on the fence. The ownership group are supposed to fundthe whole concept privately while paying fair market value for the site.

The jobs that would be produced would employ many while generating tax revenue for the city. It is a big win for the city that you would wonder who would oppose it. It costs USD12 million annually to maintain the rotting Qualcomm Stadium. The city can use the money for other ventures as the project would take over.

Landon Donovan and his ownership group have a long way to go for the high stakes project to come to fruition. The proposed stadium would serve the new MLS team, San Diego State football, high school football and championship matches. Concerts, events and others would also hold to generate funds and keep the city busy.

San Diego has grown into a soccer-loving city that the project seems just right. Donovan joined Shannon Mac Millan with the hope of creating a soccer academy in Soccer City to develop young talents. The blend of residential, commercial and fun centres is the way to go.

Netherlands are in danger of missing the 2018 World Cup in Russia after missing the European Championship in France.

Immediately after the 2-0 loss to Bulgaria, the KNVB opted to sack head coach Danny Blind.

While the governing body of the football giants think they have quickly reacted, it does not seem to have come early enough with Russia closeby.

“We have for some time seen an upward trend after the failure of last year. We were pleased. But we always felt that it was paper thin,” KNVB director Jean-Paul Decossaux said after Blind’s sack.

Blind remained in his role despite regularly overseeing a string of poor results. His record: seven wins, three draws and seven losses. Of the seven matches the Dutch side won in his tenure, only three were in competitive scenarios.

The selections he made were mind boggling and they always haunted him. On Saturday, he decided to play 17-year old Matthijs De Ligt despite the shaky defence. Many always questioned his credentials and his strategies were poorly though out. All of this is perplexing considering the impressive performance at the 2014 World Cup.

After the tournament, Louis van Gaal resigned as he accepted Manchester United’s offer. GuusHiddink was called upon ahead of the Euro 2016 where Holland had high hopes but they lost faith in him, firing him during the qualification campaign. The success of Germany with Jurgen Klinsmann and his assistant Joachim Low forced the resolve to give Blind a chance ahead of Russia 2018. However, the coach failed utterly.

Ronald Koeman was the first choice to support Hiddink with the hope of taking over, following his success at Feyenoord. The manager on the rise then rejected such moves and the KNVB stuck with Blind. Blind lacked the necessary basics with his managerial career being a one-year poor run in charge of Ajax in 2005/06. The way he took over a destabilized side after Hiddink’s methods failed forced the fans to be patient with him.

Netherlands have a mountain to climb with France, Sweden and Bulgaria ahead in the qualifying phase. The team lacks direction and confidence is at an all-time low.

It is believed that Salt Lake City has made enquiries about the possibility of signing Landon Donovan for the next season.

The player who came out of retirement at the end of last season to help LA Galaxy has yet to confirm these rumors.

Salt Lake City has stated that they are keen to sign the player as they want to build a team that will help them challenge for trophies in the MLS. They feel that Landon Donovan has the necessary skills and experience and that he will be a wonderful addition to the team.

Landon Donovan has however admitted that there are some teams in the MLS as well as abroad that have contacted him about a possible move next season. He said that he has not taken any decision and that he is still considering whether he will continue his career.

Indeed Donovan announced back in 2014 that he will retire from MLS and that he will not be playing again. However, he agreed to come back at the end of last season in order to help his former club LA Galaxy that was short on numbers.

Landon Donovan said that he stopped playing because he feels that he was enjoying his football anymore as it has become like a job for him. This is what prompted him to retire from professional football but when he made his return at the end of last season for LA Galaxy he fell the joy back, and it was a wonderful sensation.

However, he admitted that things have changed a lot during his retirement and that he now have to take care of his family. He said that any contract will have to be discussed with his wife and that he will need to take his family into consideration before taking any decision.

Sounders’ Roman Torres won FutbolMLS.com award on Sunday, making another award in a storybook 2016 for the Panamanian defender and his Seattle Sounder teammates.

After underperforming in the first half of the season, Seattle stormed into the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs with an incredible win run that took them all the way to their first-ever MLS title. Torres played a crucial role in the league triumph with a contribution on personal terms, returning from a severe knee injury in August to boost the Sounders’ defense.

Torres, who returned after a year out of action due to injury, coincide with the arrival of playmaker Nicolas Lodeiro and the impact of new coach Brian Schmetzer, sparked a rampaging side. Seattle sealed off an 8-1-3 record in matches in which the veteran Panama international featured, and he inscribed his name in the club history book by scoring the winning spot-kick in the penalty shootout that decided the MLS Cup after Toronto FC and Sounders played a goalless 120 minutes at BMO Field on December 10.

Torres won 53 percent of the total votes cast in the final round of Latino del Año voting, defeating NYCFC’s Costa Rican defender Ronald Matarrita (36%), Mexican star Giovani dos Santos of the LA Galaxy (10%) and Montreal’s talented Argentine Ignacio Piatti who has the lowest vote(2%). Torres also won the most votes cast throughout the week when the whole rounds of the competition (round of 16, quarterfinals and grand finale) are counted.

The award makes Torres the first Panamanian to ever the FutbolMLS.com award, although he’s the fifth Central American to be so recognized, and the third Sounder after Fredy Montero won it 2010 and Marco Pappa followed suit in 2014.

Introduced in 2010, Latino del Año is FutbolMLS.com’s annual poll to select the league’s top Hispanic footballer, based on a popular vote among MLS fans. It should be noted that Latino del Año is not an official MLS award, but just a recognition given by subscribers.

Former Everton striker Landon Donovan has declared that he is currently working in an advisory role at Swansea City.

The 34-year old, who scored 57 goals in 157 appearances for his country, has been brought to Swansea by the club’s new American owners Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien.

The former USA international revealed he had a talk with the new owners earlier this summer ahead of their takeover of the club.

“The new owners met with me a few months back and said this is likely going to happen and admitted that they didn’t know a lot about football,” the American told NBC Sports. “They said ‘we know that you know the game and you’re passionate about it, you played at Everton, spent time in world football and sort of understand it a little better, would you be willing to help us, advise us and consult with us on certain things?’ I responded yeah, that would be great and that’s something I am certainly open to.

“I made it clear from the very beginning that this isn’t going to be a situation where I am going to be in there telling them what players to sign. They have a chairman there in Huw Jenkins who has been arguably as valuable to a team as anybody in the Premier League. He has brought them from the lower leagues in England all the way to the Premier League”

The 34-year old remained tight-lipped over the specifics of his major role with Swansea but admitted he holds no influence over the club’s transfer policy this summer.

Swansea City are the latest in a number of Premier League clubs to be taken over by Americans and Donovan believes his compatriots have not always understood the implications of buying a football club in England.

The Guardian name the Major League Soccer (MLS) and English Premier League veteran the greatest American player of all time this summer.

Landon Donovan retired in 2014 after playing the game extensively in many countries for club and country. When he announced the retirement, the praise and acclaims were over the roof.

Donovan enjoyed a decent level of success in his over 15-year career, holding the record of highest goals scorer in the United States Men National Team history with 57 goals in 157 games. He helped the national team to three World Cup tournaments. After he was excluded from the list that played in Brazil, he knew his time in the national team was over. The last two years before his retirement was sad as his performance had declined, but looking back at the career he had, he is arguably the best American soccer player.

He broke into the limelight at the Under-17 level when eh featured at the World Cup in New Zealand, winning the Player of the Tournament and Adidas Golden Ball Award. He decided to move overseas to play for Bayern Leverkusen signing a six-year deal. He couldn’t impress as much in Germany, so he moved back home to play for San Jose in the MLS. He became the face of the league and moved to LA Galaxy where he played second fiddle to English superstar David Beckham. He led the national team to the 2002 World Cup, winning back lost supporters of the American team.

His passion remains obvious despite many years in the game. He is one of the figures that the advancement of the MLS owes it success. Despite being retired, he is active in football in sport punditry roles and recently accepted the offer from Swansea new owners to act as adviser.

Landon Donovan continues to be a major figure in the world of US soccer.

Besides leading a home grown team for MLS and coaching the national team, he also voices the concerns of the US soccer teams, whether they are of the male or the female categories. He has been calling games in the Copa America and Sprint and feedback has been encouraging to say the least from the soccer fans. It is said that he might have found his calling. For instance, Chile won in the finals of the Copa America and Donovan spoke about a new chapter before the finals came on. He talked about wage discrimination for women when it came to US soccer.

He says that he is excited to be commentating for the games as Fox had made the offer to him. As he was getting good feedback on the kind of commentator ship he has been doing, he says that it will definitely be one of the things she can do. Being 34 years of age, taking on the coaching assignments is foremost in his mind these days.

Many will remember the moments when he inaugurated special games like in 2014 when he played the ball for the first half of the MLS cup match that was played in StubHub center in Los Angeles. He states that motor for the game should not be perfection but progress. As in other sports which have developed over decades, US soccer also needs to develop over time. He would be commentating for the 2016 Olympic Games that would be held in the next month. He talks about the US women’s team being his favorite. He wanted to highlight the fact that equal pay for the women’s team should be focused upon by the soccer authorities in the country.

United States star player Landon Donovan has stated that the United States might win the World Cup during his lifetime.

He believes that the team is progressing well and that it will not be long before they will be able to lift the trophy.

The United States will be participating at the centenary edition of the Copa America. For him, the United States need to get out of the group stage to prove that they are progressing.

Landon Donovan believes that you need some luck in addition to good preparation if you want to win the World Cup. The United States soccer team is doing everything they can in order to prepare themselves for the World Cup and that soon they will be able to field a side that should be able to rival the top nation.

He believes that there need to be an improvement in coaching in order for the young players to progress. At the moment, there is a lack of qualified coach in the United States and he believes that there need to be an improvement at this level if they want to reach their goal of winning the World Cup.

Landon Donovan hopes that he can bring his own contribution to the development of young players in the future. He said that he will need to prepare well before taking on coaching and that he will seize the opportunity if ever it arises in the future.

According to him, the United States team is on the good path and that sooner or later it will show in the results at international tournaments. The players have to believe in themselves and continue to prepare themselves well if they want to make their dream of winning the World Cup come true.

USMNT has had its share of star players who continue to be faithful to the club even if they do not represent the club anymore on the fields.

One illuminated example is Landon Donovan. Recently, in an attempt to put back faith in the team amongst the fans, Donovan tweeted that the team still has potential and fans should not be disheartened from the loss that the team suffered on Friday when they lost to Guatemala with a score of 2-0.

Donovan stated that he understood the feelings of disappointment among the fans, but that did not mean that they should lose faith in the club they support. He tweeted that he had full confidence that the team will be able to get back on their feet and be able to better perform in the upcoming games. With World Cup qualifying rounds coming up, much is hoped for the club. Donovan is definitely doing his bit to keep up the faith among the fans on behalf of the club.

As per statistics, US is third in position in Group C and they have gained four points in three games. The semi final rounds start on Tuesday when they will play the remaining games. There is another upcoming game with Guatemala at the Columbus Crew stadium. Los Chapines was defeated by the US which has put them in good position for qualifying in the Hexagonal. They will play two more games against Tobago and Trinidad in the month of September.

What is required is bolster of the spirits by legends of soccer and Landon is definitely one of the inspirational celebrities out there. US definitely needs his support as do the under age football groups. Recently Landon praised the goal achievement of Christian Pulisic who is a seventeen year old player of US Soccer team.