sport club

With the return of Florentino Perez as Real Madrid's president it was just a matter of time before big monies exchanged hands to sign up the world's most marketable soccer stars. This is all with a view to bring back Real's glory days by becoming champions in Spain and Europe once again...

Perez hopes to repeat his earlier success of building a formidable Real team comprising of soccer greats such as Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and David Beckham. The beginning of 2000 saw this man go on a shopping spree that ended with these four stars in Madrid's bag for a cost of £132 million.

It seems Real paid AC Milan $94.90 million for Kaka, while Ronaldo was bought from Manchester United for $131.2 million, finally bringing to an end to months of speculation. Kaka seemed to be a 'reluctant hero' though, with his heart still set on his club AC Milan. But with the reality of global recession and the realization that at the end of the day clubs are businesses, he agreed to the move. It's his way of helping Milan get over its financial crisis. The 27 year old Brazilian went through a medical check up at the Brazilian national team's training camp in Recife and with that transfer was complete. Speaking at a press conference, Kaka clarified: "I can officially say I'm a Real Madrid player. My professional link with AC Milan finishes now, but my sentimental link will never end."

But you'll have to wait until the end of June to see Kaka in the famous Real Madrid soccer uniform since he has to fulfill his duty towards national team Brazil, who are all set to play in South Africa for the Confederations Cup. Whether he wears the famous number five soccer jersey is not clear. Though Perez would like him to wear the soccer shirt, Kaka has expressed his reservations. The Brazilian star felt: "Wearing the number five would be a great responsibility. Zidane was a great player, both for Real Madrid and for France, and I wouldn't like to wear the same number as he did."

Another record breaking deal saw Man U forward Ronaldo move to Real for a whopping $131.2million! In this case, it seems Ronaldo was keen to join Real since he had always dreamt of playing for the club as a young boy. After much denial, Manchester United released an official statement saying that they have received an offer to sell Ronaldo to Real for a price of £80 million. This makes it the highest price ever paid for a player in the history of football!

Ronaldo's leaving Man U means the celebrated number 7 soccer jersey, worn by soccer greats like George Best, Eric Cantona David Beckham, will now become available. And coach Sir Alex Ferguson will be left with the formidable to find a player worthy of its ancestry...

Now that Ronaldo and Kaka have been won over, rumors are flying thick that Franck Ribéry is next on Perez's much talked about shopping list...

Adidas F50.8 Tunit [affiliate] has been the center of the soccer world buzz. It's won two awards this year, Most Innovative Shoe, and also Best Looking too. However, what is it that sets this shoe apart from all the rest? As an owner of this cleat, I've found several different pros and cons the Tunit brings with ownership. I'll start with the good.
Adidas Tunit F50.8

Adidas Tunit F50.8

* First off, this cleat looks amazing. I always get comments on my shoes (White/Metallic/Gold) from both fans and the other team. I hear "Wow. Look at those cleats. I bet he's a good player." The shoes look brilliant and make you brag about them. It also has a new feature which also brings attention. The see-through heel. Good reason to buy the shoes.

* Interchangeable studs, chassis, sock liner, and upper. Lets you change it however you want, whenever you want. I've gotten to a deserty field and had softy ground cleats, and my feet hurt the entire game. Now with the Tunit, you can change your shoe to match the conditions.

* Very lightweight. 7.4 oz making it easier to lift your feet up off the ground. It doesn't gradually drag your feet down after an exhausting 90 minutes, creating a feather-like shoe you barely even notice while running.

* Many famous professionals wear the Tunits (Lionel Messi, David Villa)

Now to the bad.

* Gave me blisters in two different spots on both feet. (Right behind my ankle and the left side of my heel) It may have not been broken in enough at the beginning, however made them worse after 2 weeks worth of wearing them.

* Only comes with 1 pair of chassis and sock liner. To buy the competitive versions, costs extra $50.00.

* It does not come with a string bag or ball sack, unlike Predators [affiliate] and T90 Lasers [affiliate].

* To buy another Upper it costs $80.00, when you could buy the Nike Mercurial Talaria [affiliate] for approximately the same price.

Altogether, it is a good shoe for the type of people who want to do tricks and have stylish shoes. To buy the F50 Start Kit [affiliate], it costs $169.00, a low price compared to other cleats. I'd say a resounding yes to most, to buy this shoe.