CloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.
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Euro 2020 ended barely five weeks ago; Copa America barely four. Hell, the Olympics ended last week, and now the new European club season is already here. Ligue 1 is underway, and the rest of Europe's Big Five leagues (German Bundesliga, English Premier League, Spanish LaLiga, Italian Serie A) will begin this coming weekend.
We'll have plenty of time in the weeks and months to come to talk about Champions League favorites, the Premier League title race or how hypnotic a hypothetical-for-a-bit-longer attack of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar might be. But a sport with this level of breadth and depth overflows with storylines at all times. I wanted to focus on 11 players, and the plot lines associated with them, that intrigue me the most as the season approaches.
(Does this list have more attackers than defenders on it? Absolutely. Goals are fun, and this is a list of mostly fun things.)
Jump to: Sancho | Pedri | Szoboszlai | Daka | Damsgaard | Buendia | Jordan | Ben Yedder | Musso | van Dijk | Sane
Jadon Sancho, the upgrade Man United have been waiting for
In his first season as a Borussia Dortmund starter, he scored 12 league goals with 14 assists at age 18. He followed that up with a 17-and-16 campaign at age 19. The England forward began slowly last season, then missed almost two months with injury and finished with only eight goals and 11 assists while leading BVB's late surge back into a Champions League position. (He had two goals in a vital 3-2 win over RB Leipzig, then two assists in a 3-1 win over Mainz 05.) In 21 career Champions League matches, he has five goals and six assists. He's still only 21.
Sancho is one of the best wingers in the world, even if, by his personnel choices this summer, England manager Gareth Southgate somehow sees things otherwise. But now he gets to prove himself at one of a small handful of clubs bigger and more visible than BVB.
Sancho should be the X factor that helps sharpen Man United's attack and break down stubborn Premier League defenses in a way they couldn't last season. Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty ImagesWith uncertainty around Paul Pogba's future at the club -- his contract expires in 2022, and there's been little notable movement towards an extension so far -- we don't quite know everything we need to know about how well Manchester United will be able to transition into attack this season. They did a large portion of their damage in short explosions in 2020-21 -- they scored 17 goals in possessions that (a) began in their defensive third and (b) ended within 30 seconds, most in the Premier League -- and that will likely remain a focus in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's system.
However, they could use extra help when it comes to pulling apart backed-in defenses, and Sancho's creativity will be vital if United hope to make a Premier League title push.
Will Pedri be fresh enough to star again for Barcelona?
Like Olmo, the 18-year-old Pedri racked up the mileage this summer. He not only played at both Euro 2020 and the Olympics, but he played major roles, logging 1,188 minutes, creating 16 chances and completing 90% of his 817 passes. He was 65-for-67 in the Euro semifinals against Italy, the biggest match of his life to date.
Pedri now returns to a Barcelona that is, to say the least, quite different from the one he left at the end of 2020-21. Messi, the face of the club for nearly 15 years, is gone. Other signings (Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum, Eric Garcia, Emerson) have not yet been registered. After trying to bluff its way through a transfer window while over a billion Euros in debt (and unable to find buyers for any of its more expensive sale items), the club enters 2021-22 desperately uncertain in nearly every way.
Pedri was a genuine find when he burst onto the scene for Barcelona last season, but will he be able to impact games after playing two international tournaments for Spain this summer? Koki Nagahama/Getty ImagesThe Blaugrana still have Pedri, however, and barring a truly shocking and desperate sale, they'll be able to retain his services for years to come. He's already one of the world's most reliable methods of "get the ball from Point A to Point B" transportation, and he might soon become the face of one of the sport's most famous clubs if he isn't already.
How he deals with all of this, especially after his summer star turn (and all those extra minutes in his legs), is one of the most fascinating stories of the season.
Dominik Szoboszlai and the remodeled RB Leipzig attack
I wrote excited words about Szoboszlai back in February after he had moved from RB Salzburg to sister club RBL, noting how he was three players in one: a fun, progressive midfielder, a set-piece whiz and an outright star in the making.
This evidently jinxed him: a minor injury turned out to be a much bigger one, and not only did he fail to log a single minute for his new club in 2020-21, but he also missed what was still a solid Euro 2020 run by Hungary.
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WEDNESDAY, June 4 (all times ET)
⢠Valencia vs. Villarreal (1:30 p.m.)
⢠Stuttgart vs. Frankfurt (2:30 p.m.)
⢠Atletico Madrid vs. Cadiz (4 p.m.)
⢠Getafe vs. Celta Vigo (4 p.m.)
THURSDAY, MAY 4 (all times ET)
⢠Sevilla vs. Espanyol (1:30 p.m.)
⢠Girona vs. Mallorca (1:30 p.m.)
⢠Athletic Club vs. Real Betis (3:30 p.m.)
⢠Rayo vs. Valladolid (3:30 p.m.)
FRIDAY, MAY 5 (all times ET)
⢠Mainz vs. Schalke (2:30 p.m.)
Szoboszlai finally made his RBL debut this past Saturday in an early-round DFB Pokal win over Sandhausen. Three minutes after coming on, he scored on a counterattack. Two minutes later, he created a gorgeous chance for Hwang Hee-Chan, who had assisted his goal. Finally.
RBL sold two strong defenders this summer, sending Dayot Upamecano to Bayern Munich and Ibrahima Konate to Liverpool, and combined with the loss of manager Julian Nagelsmann to Bayern, there's enough uncertainty to dampen the Red Bulls' Bundesliga title hopes. But the pieces they've compiled in attack make them a contender all the same.
It's possible that midfielder Marcel Sabitzer still ends up leaving during this transfer window, but Jesse Marsch's first RBL squad will return every other primary piece of last season's attack: forwards Emil Forsberg, Yussuf Poulsen and Alexander Sorloth (combined: 26 goals and 15 assists in all comps in 2020-21), the incredible left-side duo of Angelino and Christopher Nkunku (15 goals, 18 assists, 189 chances created) and, when he has recovered from the minutes logged during his breakout performance in both the Euros and Olympics this summer, press-friendly winger Dani Olmo. Hwang might be ready for more action, too.
Adding Szoboszlai, Ajax youngster Brian Brobbey and Eintracht Frankfurt's Andre Silva -- the latter is the biggest discount of the transfer window, having joined for only â¬23 million in transfer fees after scoring 28 goals in Bundesliga play last season -- to that mix is almost unfair.
The Red Bull style is eminently watchable by nature; RBL's watchability might be off the charts in 2021-22.
Patson Daka, Leicester City's new front man
The past two years for Leicester City have been defined by two things: twice losing their grip on a Champions League spot at the last possible moment, and preparing for life after Jamie Vardy.
The Leicester legend, scorer of 24 goals during the Foxes' miraculous Premier League title run in 2015-16 and of 147 total goals in a LCFC shirt, is now 34 years old. He's barely 12 months removed from winning the Premier League's Golden Boot, but he scored only two non-penalty goals in all comps after Dec. 20 last season. He missed time with a groin injury, and his iffy form thereafter correlated pretty well with Leicester's poor form down the stretch. (James Maddison producing no goals or assists after Feb. 21 didn't help either.)
However, we got sustained glimpses of a bright future. Kelechi Iheanacho, 24, finished the season with 19 goals -- 14 after March 1 -- and six assists in all competitions. Winger Harvey Barnes, 23, contributed 13 and four respectively, and even with an injury and a late-season slump, Maddison, 24, produced 11 and seven.
We'll see if Maddison is still with the squad when the transfer window closes -- all the whispers have him working out a move to Arsenal -- but we know that Patson Daka will be.
The 21-year-old from Zambia made RB Salzburg one of the most watchable teams on the planet over the past two seasons, scoring 51 goals with 10 assists in an admittedly offense-friendly environment. He has three goals and three assists on his Champions League and Europa League résumé, too, and his confidence and ability to both pressure the ball and pounce on opportunities will make him a fan favorite.
A look at @PatsonDaka20's first goal in a Leicester City shirt