It has been a regular ritual for Norwich’s Teemu Pukki in recent years: helping Norwich City to promotion with a lot of goals and then getting relegated in the Premier League despite quite a few goals. This season, Pukki failed to help Norwich back to the highest level and left the club behind after five years. Pukki goes to work in America.
Pukki leaves Norwich City after missing out on promotion
He has signed a two-year contract with Minnesota United, the number twelve in the Western Conference. The club has an option to extend Pukki’s contract for another six months, until the end of 2025.
The Finnish striker was taken over by Norwich from Brøndby IF in 2018 and in England he went towards the hundred goals. In the 2018/19 season, Pukki became the top scorer in the Championship with 29 goals, the following year Norwich were relegated from the Premier League despite his eleven goals.
Then in the 2020/21 season it was again 26 times on the second level, after which Pukki again scored eleven times in the Premier League after promotion with Norwich. The club was also relegated in 2022, this season Pukki was in form in the Championship with ten goals less. Norwich eventually finished in the middle bracket.
United fans protest at the fan shop on the day of the leaked shirt presentation
Staying in England, a group of Manchester United supporters protested again at Old Trafford on Tuesday morning against the Glazer family, the Americans who still own the club.
A group of about a hundred people stood with banners in front of the club’s fan shop entrance. The message is clear: in the takeover turmoil at Old Trafford, supporters want the Glazer family to sell the entire block of shares. The changing of the guard in the boardroom has kept football-loving England busy for months.
The Glazer family put the club up for sale in November. But little has happened more than half a year later. Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe (INEOS) would still be the two main candidates. And the Glazer family would also consider retaining some of the shares themselves. The Americans themselves have not created any clarity, so the unrest continues.
The timing of the protest was no coincidence. Erik ten Hag’s club presented the new home shirt on Tuesday, with Lisandro Martínez as one of the models. The kit is no surprise, as it was secretly revealed on Saturday evening by Manchester United supporter rapper Aitch. Aitch wore the kit during his performance at the Glastonbury popular music festival.
