The Circus - 18 August

Jibber-jabber

Jozy Altidore, formerly of team USA and team Hull City, is now doing his thing for AZ in the Dutch top flight. By all accounts he is doing very well.

Having scored three times in three years before heading to the Netherlands, Altidore topped the club's scoring with 22 goals in his first season and began the new season by scoring twice in the 2-2 draw with Ajax.

He's also coping with the grillings by the country's hard-hitting journalists.

To be fair to Altidore, his take on Mr T is far from the worst comedy impression recorded on Dutch soil.

Piers off

Thursday's edition of The Circus revealed how the Robin van Persie deal got done. Now, The Circus can reveal why.

Back in November, talk show host and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan tweeted this:

No pressure @persie_official - but if you leave #Arsenal then I'm going to throw myself off Santa Monica pier in lead weights.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 19, 2011

Tweets since the announcement that the deal was going through have contained all the human kindness the internet has taught us to expect.

From Van Persie's new strike partner Wayne Rooney: "@piersmorgan whats up now big man".

From Rio Ferdinand: "Is it that time yet @piersmorgan ????".

From random others: "Enjoy the swim", "crack on then", "You don't need any lead weights, you fat c---".

And so on. Marvellous.

The art of passing

The Ricardinho in this clip is not the ex-Melbourne Victory striker. The name, it seems, is common in Brazil and Portugal, meaning either 'little Ricardo', or 'hitter of comically awful passes'.

Meanwhile, over in Canada, Germany international Torsten Frings set up in a subway station as part of what appears to be a marketing video for his Major League Soccer team, Toronto FC.

Frings stood with a football next to a little cardboard sign reading 'Want to play pass?'. Of the 350 people who the video's makers say walked past, guess how many recognised the two-time World Cup representative and stopped?

The spoken word

"The real reason I interrupted the protest was that the vice-president of the federation, Demetrio Albertini, called me again and showed great sensitivity." - Verona defender Emanuele Pesoli, banned for three matches under Italy's match-fixing scandal, ends his hunger strike. Pesoli had vowed not to eat until he could "confront those who accuse me".