He just retired from the International scene after Captaining Sweden at the 2008 Euros and Freddie Ljungberg is an even richer man today after accepting a 6 Million Pound payoff from Premiership side West Ham.

While he was due to make 8.84 Million Pound just in salary alone over the next two seasons, an extended settlement came about over conversations with West Ham Chief Executive Scott Duxbury after Head Coach Alan Curbishley informed the Swede he’d never play again for the Hammers.

image via Njmg

What’s up fellow addicts of The Original Winger! I figured since it seems to be the cool thing nowadays to express ones professional thoughts on here, I would give in to the peer pressure and show some love to the TMZ of soccer websites (minus the awkward up-skirt photos of soccer players getting out of the cars!)

Anyways, its been an eventful off-season for myself to say the least. At the end of 2007 I had just finished my third year in MLS and was one of the few original members left from the 2005 season with Real Salt Lake. If I tried to count the number of guys that had come and gone in the time I was there, I would probably need a calculator (sorry dunny, miss ya as a teammate bud, but I don’t miss the pranks you used to pull on me).

[Editor’s Note- Brand new shoes out of the box being Gorrilla Glued together, sleeves being cut off or Tiger Balm in the underwear before 5 v 2]

I never quite understood just how hard it is on someone, both as a player and as a person when they get the news that they are being let go. For me, it was always something I could never quite understand since I had never been in that situation.

Well, all that changed this past off-season when I got a harsh reality check that this is just as much a business as it is a game. It is never something you can fully prepare yourself for, but what I’ve come to realize is that it’s not “how” it happens, but how you react to it that matters. For sure it sucks when that decision is made and it is a tough pill to swallow, but is isn’t going to change the situation. And when you get drop kicked in the pants by life, what else can you do but get back up, enjoy the ride and hope the next time you get kicked in the nuts, that it doesn’t hurt as bad as the one before!

Its weird to think that something that was so devastating at one point can turn out to be potentially one of the best things that has ever happened to you. I am for sure going to miss all the wonderful people and the best friends I met over the years in Salt Lake and my time living there will always be something truly special to me. All the fans were so unbelievable to me and I can’t thank them enough for that. It’s times like these when you find out who true friends are, the people that mean the most to you and the ones that are standing by your side, going through thick and thin. The people who I truly consider best friends know who they are and I want them to know they mean the world to me.

But now it seems like things are slowly getting back to normal for me. I’m sitting in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, waiting to catch a flight to meet up with Toronto FC for a second training camp, this time in San Antonio. All the guys are cool as hell and I’m really enjoying being with them, although it’s always weird the first couple of days being with a new team. New styles of play, new teammates, trying to figure out their playing tendencies and even the different jerseys take a quick second to get used to. Even if it doesn’t work out with TFC, there’s always somewhere else, but hopefully I’ll be listening to the Canadian national anthem in the next few weeks! Pretty crazy, eh?!

Yea ok, sorry that was ridiculous and probably my clue to quit writing and let you go. Anyways, I’ll be checking in in the near future and thanks to the boys at TOW for letting me show some love! Keep up the good work fellas!

Jamie

Image via Julia/Jamie’s Myspace

All that talk of the original Ronaldo coming to MLS after the Serie A season won’t be happening after tonight as reports out of Italy are suggesting that he’s torn his ACL on his good knee. If you watch closely (and I know it’s not fun), you can see when he pushes off to jump something seems to go wrong.

image via DupontRegistry

The guys over at BallerHouse tossed this 2008 Lamborghini Reventon up today after Dupont Registry had it listed for the low, low price of $750k with only 10 miles on it.  I’m a huge fan of gun metal grey (or Grigio as the fine wine people like to refer to it as), especially sinec Rob Dyrdek from Rob & Big threw his SUV down in the same color, but this takes it to an all new level.  I was telling Ben last week that I couldn’t imagine spending that kind of dough and his response was if you could, you would.  I’m starting to believe him now.

image via HitMen

So I just got this E-mail from one of my boys, Hercules Gomez (he’s gonna be doing some stories with us very soon) and I had to put this out there because this has been such a huge song, especially for a 17 year old.  He even had Natalie Portman doing his dance on TRL the day after his this song was featured on Entourage.

“Subject: The real meaning of Souljah Boy (Superman) ?

(I knew there was a reason I didn’t like that song…)

Just passing along a little F.Y.I.

  I wanted to pass this information on, I didn’t know if anyone else was as behind on things as I was. Thanks to Tom Joyner’s show recently with Kirk Franklin I was enlightened.

 Kirk Franklin said he did not let his children listen to the song Souljah Boy because of the words and the meaning of Superman.

  With that information I needed to find out exactly what superman meant other than the super hero. I google searched Urban Dictionary and put the word in and this is what I discovered:

         Superman is when a guy cums or ejaculates on a girl’s back and puts a sheet on her back.

        When she wakes in the morning and stands up, the sheet is stuck to her back (like a cape),

         you have officially supermanned that hoe. 

             As in the lyrics:“Watch Me crank dat Souljah Boy now superman dat hoe”. 

There’s no denying that I love snowboarding and I’m addicted to Brighton Ski Resort in Utah.  Yes, I have a season pass and now that Nike has come out with its Air Force 1 inspired snowboarding boot, I need to give them just a bit of love.  Now I’m wondering when we’ll see 59 different colors on this one style.

image via BallerHouse

I remember it being after a game in Columbus one night, over at Dante Washington’s house.  Warm night, legs were heavy, beers were cold, music was playing and a few honies just to top it off.  That night I decided I wanted one of these tubs for myself, but I never had room for one.  After seeing this La-Z-Boy hot tub with massaging/reclining seats, floating remote, LED lighting and flat screens, I am gonna find a way to make room.

image via Adi

If you love Adidas like I do (Ben loves Nike), then you need to know where you can spend $75 and get your monies worth.  The ZXZ Advanced are the updated snake skin version of the runners that I grew up with.

Not that this is any big surprise, but big Sam Allardyce has officially been sacked by Newcastle.  After a promising start to the season, Newcastle have dropped points to everyone, including Derby County.  New chief Mike Ashley had apparently seen enough and finally given Big Sam his walking papers.  The Newcastle job seems to be one that nobody can succeed in.  I don’t know if it the pressure from the Geordie  faithful, or some weird curse, but things are not looking good for the Magpies.  There is continued speculation that Alan Shearer will take over, but I don’t know that he can cure what ails Newcastle.  Be interesting to see what happens next.