Daily Schmankerl: Gabriele Corbo spurns Bayern; a Lucas Digne update; and MORE!

Juventus in lead over Bayern for Italian starlet Gabriele Corbo (CalcioMercato)

The Old Lady has turned in its best Mrs. Robinson to lure in the Italian youngster, Gabriele Corbo. Corbo is a 6’1” center back, who may hold value given Kovač’s willingness to play a “back three” on occasion as coach of Bayern Munich.

According to what has been learned from CalcioMercato, Juventus are set to challenge, and beat, Bayern Munich to the signing of Spezia’s Italian wonderkid Gabriele Corbo. Exclusive: Juventus set to beat Bayern Munich to wonderkid signing. Corbo, born in 2000, is a product of Mino Raiola and, given the good relations between the agent and Juventus, the Old Lady are set to beat Bayern Munich to what would be an exciting coup looking forward to the future.

In the past few hours, Juventus representatives have met Guido Angelozzi, the sporting director of Spezia, in Milan to discuss a deal. Spezia only renewed the player’s contract in recent months, yet Juventus are looking to strengthen their homegrown contingent of youth stars, with Corbo set to be an important signing. Bayern Munich looked very close, yet the Old Lady are now in pole; with everything set in motion to bring Gabriele Corbo to Turin.

Corbo is valued at only €450K on Transfermarkt, which — if relatively accurate — would make him a very low risk gamble. Bayern was very high on Corbo, but something odd happened that stalled what appeared to be a done deal to bring the youngster to Munich. Perhaps it was the intervention of an experienced and sultry Old Lady that ultimately helped Corbo later his professional plans???

Corbo had even an Instagram post of himself in a Bayern kit.

Maybe Berni will show up at his signing and run off with him? Doo doo doo doo...

Lucas Digne’s agent trying to rile up interest for his client (CalcioMercato)

This may may some (most!) of you happy: Lucas Digne’s agent talks down any thoughts of a transfer.

According to reports from English outlet The Mirror, after Everton, Juventus and Bayern Munich have enquired about the availability of Barcelona’s French left-back Lucas Digne. Barcelona are said to want €25 million for Lucas Digne, yet, the player’s agent has spoken out about the possibility of a move, underlining the fact that Digne is in no hurry to leave Catalonia.

Basically Digne wants to play more, but maybe not enough to leave “the biggest club in the world.”

Mikkel Beck, Digne’s representative, told The Mirror:
We have a long contract still with the club. The club is very happy about Lucas. It’s not a situation where the club is saying Lucas has to leave or we are saying we have to leave. But you know of course you always want to play more. All footballers want to play week in, week out, but we made the choice to go to Barcelona. Let’s see what happens, but at the moment we are not really thinking about it. Lucas is at Barcelona; it is the biggest club in the world. You don’t just leave the biggest club in the world.

FC Bayern Amateure squad posts highlight video of season opening win (@FCBjuniorteam)

The FC Bayern Amateure squad’s opening win was capture brilliantly by our own Valentin King here, but the team’s Twitter account one-upped us and provided video. Do yourself a favor and read Val’s fine work first...then watch this video!

They #FCBAmateure won the first match of the season in the Regionalliga Bayern at VfB Eichstätt 5-1. Highlights in the video. #BayernAmateure #MiaSanMia

Mario Mandžukić on Ronaldo signing: “Meh” (SportBild)

Mario Mandžukić appears to have no interest in discussing the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo by Juventus:

The Ronaldo signing leaves Croatia star Mario Mandzukic (32) cold! The center-forward said before the World Cup final against France, “That doesn’t interest me.”

Okay, we’ll let that one one marinate until AFTER the World Cup final.

Liverpool signs former Bayern man Xherdan Shaqiri (@LFC)

Liverpool has reeled in Swiss international and former Bayern player Xherdan Shaqiri. After a really strong showing in the World Cup for Switzerland, it’s easy to believe that Jürgen Klopp will find a good way to deploy the talented winger. It’s certainly a step up from Stoke City, which was relegated last season.

Bayern and Inter Milan are the only clubs to feature a player in the World Cup final every year since 1982 (Mail Online)

This is a pretty cool stat:

Bayern Munich and Inter Milan may not have won the Champions League in a while, but both clubs have proved their European pedigree thanks to an incredible World Cup stat. After Croatia qualified for the World Cup final by beating England, it means that the two clubs will have had a player at every final since 1982. Ivan Perisic and Marcelo Brozovic both play for Inter and should now feature in Sunday’s showcase event. They could face France midfielder Corentin Tolisso of Bayern Munich who came on in the 86th minute of Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over Belgium.

Bundesliga fix? Solved...at least for this guy (@TheBarrelBlog)

Lucky for me, both Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt are playing in Philadelphia this summer, so I will be attending Die Adler’s friendly against the Philadelphia Union tonight.

The Eintracht Frankfurt squad will be a bit scaled down (Ante Rebić is a bit busy this weekend!) thanks to the World Cup, but should still be a fun one to watch in its new post-Kovač world.