Today’s open thread. We’re going to try and do this daily for the remainder of the World Cup, just to give you a platform to discuss the games, while allowing the rest of the comment-sections to stay relevant to their respective articles.

Notes & Quotes

Lunin’s “3, 000 offers”

Real Madrid’s latest signing, 19-year-old Ukrainian Andriy Lunin, spoke about his enthusiasm for his new club. The former Zorya goalkeeper has inked a six-year-deal.

“Everyone knows that we had 3,000 offers but Madrid is my dream, I did not come here for money,” Lunin told Marca.

”I said it publicly in the press of my country, I am a fan of Real Madrid.

”Right now I do not think about being the first goalkeeper - I would like to be - but what I would like is to be here many years and to try to lift the Champions League with this team.”

Real Madrid reportedly interested in Nabil Fekir, per Lyon president

After Liverpool’s deal with Nabil Fekir broke, Lyon president Jean-Michael Aulus has mentioned that there are several clubs interested in signing Fekir this summer, with Real Madrid being among the shortlist.

“It was expected, at some point, that he could leave for Liverpool.

”I gave the green light, but things did not happen because they took too long.

”Nabil is an exceptional player. The fact that things did not come to fruition with Liverpool aroused the interest of many clubs, not just Real Madrid and their new coach.

“Everything is possible. My goal is to make him stay. I hope he will stay, but if he absolutely wants to leave, we will try to find the biggest club in terms of efficiency and size.”

Jose Fonte, on how ridiculously good Cristiano Ronaldo is

Ronaldo’s Portuguese teammate, Jose Fonte, spoke at length about how good Ronaldo is. When asked about the Messi vs Ronaldo debate, Fonte had no doubt:

“I think that for us Portuguese he is the best, he always will be,” Fonte said.

”This is always a difficult debate. For us he is the best and this is what matters. Cristiano is ours but talking about the best of all time is relative and very difficult to say.

“The fact that he is breaking all records, keeps scoring and surprises all of you, but not us because we see him every day. For sure he will keep on doing this. At the end we will see.”

”It’s obvious Ronaldo has a huge influence in our team. It would be the same in any other team in the world,” he added.

”But he’s Portuguese and we’re lucky to have him. We have to play in a way that suits the players we have and we have Cristiano Ronaldo.”