The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Wednesday, January 20

Hello, all!

There was a lot of discourse around the Christian Pulisic photoshoot for GQ in American soccer/football circles, but this was my favorite.

Ramble of the Day

We can consider this a guest ramble of sorts, because this one is almost entirely led by my younger sister; though she involves me in this, only she remembers to do this. Every year, she decides to comb through the college profiles of players eligible for the MLS draft to see if there’s anything interesting there. We usually find out one or two unique things, which ends up making it worth the while. Since the MLS draft is this week, I’ll share some of the gems (with a pretty sizable quality filter).

Lorne Bickley, Wilmington University: “If he could date a celebrity, he would date Rita Ora”

I’m only including this because I only wrote about Rita Ora last week, but it’s also slightly weird this ended up being a question someone asked for a college student’s official profile page.

Rafael Bustamante, St. John’s University: his favorite athlete is Francis Coquelin

That’s a choice!

Joshua Jackson-Ketchup, the Ohio State University: Taraji P. Henson is his cousin

I have nothing to add on the Henson connection, but that’s pretty interesting! Also, we can add him to the list of footballers with food names if he gets drafted; Kevin Lasagna and Diego Polenta come to mind.

Noe Meza, Seattle University: “enjoys hot summer days”

The implication here is that hot summer days are Meza’s favorite, and I have to disagree. Hot summer days are not the best days; warmer spring and fall days are much, much better.

Yannik Oettl, University of Central Florida: “was in FIFA 2016”

“FIFA 2016” isn’t a movie, so I think they’re going to have to be more specific than that. After all, it is pretty unique that a college athlete ended up in FIFA so it’s probably worth explaining.

Karim Riley, Florida International University: he would like to meet Robert Green

This is technically from the profile of the college he used to go to, but this piques my interest. It’s pretty unconventional, but I respect that.

Clayton Torr, Cal State Fullerton: his favorites include spaghetti, Sergio Busquets, and Fast and Furious

What a lovely and random collection of interests. I never would have grouped these items together.

tl;dr: There are a few fairly interesting college players eligible for today’s MLS draft.

Stay informed, read this: Kevin Seifert on Sarah Thomas, who will become the first woman part of a refereeing team at the Super Bowl this year for ESPN

Links of the Day

A Colombia women staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

The Premier League is investigating West Brom’s omission of Robert Snodgrass against West Ham through an agreement that may have broken competition rules.

England women hired Hege Riise as the team’s interim manager after Phil Neville’s departure.

Transfer updates: AC Milan signed Mario Mandžukić on a free; Schalke signed Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Ajax

A longer read: Oliver Frankin-Wallis interviews Christian Pulisic on his rise through the game and to one of the world’s biggest clubs for GQ