Despite having dominated club soccer in 2020, German champions and Champions League winners, Bayern Munich are planning to reinforce their squad for the upcoming seasons. After months of rumors and speculations, the Bavarian giants have finally confirmed the signature of French center-back Dayot Upamecano from RB Leipzig.
The Évreux-born defender will join his new club on July 1st, 2021. Upamecano is considered by many soccer pundits to be one of the most talented and capable young center-backs in European soccer.
RB Leipzig Was Quick To Buy Upamecano From Red Bull Salzburg
Upamecano made his professional debut at the age of 17 for FC Liefering GmBH in Austria’s second tier of professional football, where he was loaned by Red Bull Salzburg. In the summer of 2016, the French defender was reintegrated into Salzburg’s first team. After playing 21 games he was transferred to RB Leipzig on January 13, 2017, for a reported fee of $12 million.
On July 2nd, 2018, Dayot Upamecano was shortlisted by Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport for their prestigious Golden Boy annual award. Although he lost the trophy to Dutch defender Matthijs de Ligt, his nomination cemented his status as one of Europe’s most promising players.
The 2019-2020 season was arguably Upamecano’s most successful season, despite it being interrupted by the global pandemic. He managed to help RB Leipzig reach the Champion League semi-final where his side was eliminated by French champions Paris Saint-German in a 3-0 loss. In the Bundesliga, his team finished at 3rd behind German giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
Debuted for the French Men’s National Team at the Age of 21
In 2020, Upamecano reached another professional milestone when Didier Deschamps called him into the French national team. He made his international debut during a 1-0 victory against Sweden and scored his first goal for France, three days later in a game against Croatia.
Bayern secured the signing of the gifted center-back by paying his release clause, which was set at $55.2 million and which may end up being a real bargain given the current transfer market.
3 of the Most Important and Innovative PC Games of the Decade
Gaming enthusiasts can read about the best games they can play on PC all over the internet. However, the end of the decade is the perfect time to examine which games have changed the PC gaming industry itself. The list of games in this article will inform you about which games continue to matter for their themes, the impact on the technology or business of games, for forming relationships between developers and gamers, for having formed a new game genre, or for failing spectacularly.
EVE Online (2003-Onward)
This game is the closest people have come to the sci-fi dream of living a second life in a virtual society. The game itself can be accepted to be more like an alternate reality where players can become dictators, warlords, or just another scummy pirate blowing up poor space truckers for giggles. The point is that unlike so many other MMO games, EVE Online is the only one courageous enough to let countless players define their own experience.
Team Fortress 2 (2007)
Between 2009 and 2012, Valve dominated the FPS genre to an amount of experimentation and change that would have killed a lesser game. It launched as a stylish comeback of a shooter from 1999 that quickly became a guinea pig for Valve’s larger initiatives and ideas. In the process, RED versus BLU became the platform for great and innovative storytelling, new technology, and business models that can change PC gaming and Steam itself forever.
Minecraft for PC (2009)
Releasing a game before it’s even finished is practically the industry standard these days. However, before Steam Early Access, Kickstarter, Fig, and other crowdfunding platforms became popular, there was Minecraft. In 2009, it was in an alpha state, and it was nowhere near feature complete with many years of development still ahead, but its barebones free alpha had received an excited and positive response. Developer Markus Persson decided it was time to start making the money required to fuel the rest of its development. In 2014, Persson sold Minecraft to Microsoft, and it’s currently the best-selling video game of all time, with over 180 million copies on just about every platform – PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and more.