'Chicharito' Hernández to return to Spain
Yesterday’s breaking transfer news was the confirmation that Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández will be returning to Spanish football very shortly. Only he won’t be playing in LaLiga…
Neither will he take part in LaLiga SmartBank, which is Spain’s second division. His destination is the new and upcoming Kings League, founded by the recently retired defender Gerard Piqué.
For those of you who aren’t fully familiar with this new competition, it’s Piqué’s latest sports project involving a series of very popular streamers and ex-footballers. They will become presidents of their own club and will have to build a 12-man squad to compete against each other in 7-a-side football, which is very popular in Spain at an amateur level.
For now it involves some of the biggest Spanish-speaking streamers on Twitch and YouTube, as well as two extremely well known ex-football players who’ve adapted to the newer communication platforms, such as Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero who’s become a streamer on Twitch himself and Iker Casillas who’s presence is mostly on Tik-Tok.
To build their squads they’ll have to take part in a draft, similar to the NBA, in which they’ll pick 10 players. This will happen after 120 amateur players make it past the selection process carried out by the King’s League organisation.
But to make it more exciting, each club will have two wild cards of their choosing which they can use every game. The presidents have complete freedom to call up whoever they want, whether it’s a current football player (if their real club grants them permission), an ex-footballer, a friend or even the presidents themselves. They can also rely on them every week or make new selections for each game.
The first club to make a move has been Porcinos F.C., owned by Ibai Llanos, after convincing ‘Chicharito’ Hernández to take part as one of his wild cards.
A big move for the Kings League given the Mexican player still has a contract with L.A. Galaxy. But apparently he must’ve been granted permission before the MLS kicks off again in late February. Given the Kings League is expected to start in early January, he’ll probably be able to take part in a few games before returning to the USA.
Other active football players such as Bojan Krkić have been linked to the competition, specifically to Gerard Romero’s team. A journalist many football fans will be familiar with, after the crazy summer he had advancing the signings of Joules Koundé or Raphinha. Romero has also implied Marc Carmona might be his coach, a well-known Catalan manager that led Barça’s 5-aside team to their first ever Futsal Champions League title.
So be sure that more surprises are yet to come and fans will get the chance to watch some of their idols play once again, and some will even share the pitch with them!
To make things even more exciting, in line with Piqué’s obsession to think outside the box when it comes to football, many of the regular rules will be modified. Some will be chosen by the presidents and the organisation, whereas others have already been picked by the fans through voting polls on Twitter.
So far it’s been decided that if a game ends in a draw there will be no extra time but rather a 1 vs 1 penalty shootout like they used to do back in the days in the MLS. Fans also had the chance to get rid of offsides and for players to use their feet in throw-ins, but they opted for the classic approach.
The Kings League is scheduled to start in the afternoon of the 1st January, conveniently while people are hungover at home, which isn’t far off… so a lot will be happening during this upcoming month of December to get everything ready to kick off on time.