Dutch club VVV-Venlo sign 1-year-old child

YouTube videos have led to a number of footballers getting signed by clubs around the world, but this might be the first time it's worked for an 18-month-old. It's very much a publicity stunt, but the popular YouTube clip of young Baerke van der Meij kicking balls into his toy chest caught the attention of relegation-threatened Dutch top flight club VVV-Venlo and prompted the club to sign him to a 10-year professional contract. Though, it is made clear that the contract is a "symbolic" one.

From the Telegraph:

The toddler joined VVV's star midfielder Ken Leemans during a training session in De Koel Stadium on Tuesday before being offered the "symbolic" contract.

"The toddler's favourite position has not yet been determined. However, we can speak of a right-footed player with a very good kicking technique, perseverance and, importantly: football genes via his grandfather," said a VVV Venlo press release.

Baerke's grandfather used to play for the club and his family still lives in the city of Venlo.
As silly as this whole thing is, VVV-Venlo really did a great job of selling it, even going so far as to have the little boy attend a press conference and sign a contract. Well, scribble on one, anyway. Here are some pictures from the event...

Of course, Arsenal have long been the subject of jokes about signing young players, so we'll have to wait and see how they react to seeing an 18-month-old signed by another club. Someone is probably trying to figure out how to have a fetus sign a contract right now.
All photos: VVV-Venlo's official website

Champions League Returns To Dstv next season

SUPERSPORT, a foremost premium sports content aggregator on the DStv platform has secured the rights to the UEFA Champions ’ League matches for the Nigerian territory for the 2011/ 2012 season. By this development, SuperSport will have the rights to all 146 live matches to the prestigious Champions ’ League as well as the UEFA Super Cup and 205 live matches in the Europa League. The deal was sealed as a result of an offer from the previous rights holder. The offer to SuperSport was made as a result of agreement between the rights holder and the previous broadcaster which gave the rights holder the authority to sub-license the broadcast rights
to a third party broadcaster. Speaking on the new development, the chairman of DStv Nigeria, Mr. Adewunmi Ogunsanya said that his company is happy that the Champions ’ League, just like the English Premier League, is returning to DStv which is the traditional home of the best sports content in the world. “I am personally delighted that we ave been able to underline our commitment to our subscribers that we will continue to make strategic investment decisions to keep DStv as the premium pay TV choice in the Nigeria”.