Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of all ages.  Hello and welcome back to The SoccerNation Report brought to you in some way by Real Madrid because they seem to pull money out of thin air.  The reason for so many days of non-soccer related news is the Confederations Cup.  Not much was going on during the Confed. Cup, so I took the libery of being a fan.  Today I'll catch you up on some of the transfers that matter and also give you some more news from today.

Benzema to Madrid- The 21 year-old French striker has moved to Real Madrid and the new "galactico" era has sweetened ever more.  The striker could be worth 41 million euros to Lyon, a French giant, if Benzema performs well.  The French striker will sign a six-year contract with the Spanish giants.  That really won't come to mean anything because players move whenever they want anyway.  But this has to be considered a great move for Real Madrid.  Despite paying a lot for the services of Benzema, he is a young star that will score tons of goals if given the opportunity.  Last year Benzema pushed Barcelona to the brink and nearly advanced.  He also scored 23 goals- a goal every other game.  Benzema is a talent that will do Madrid good, but they can NOT neglect Benzema.  If Benzema is neglected, I feel that a talent might be wasted.  Madrid have a lot of footballers that can score goals, but Benzema has to be a starter from day one for this to work out.  Now on to Lyon.  Lyon comes out good from this, actually.  Last season in Ligue 1, they showed some inferiority in finishing in 3rd place.  They have a few holes to fill- and now they can do just that.  For his price, Lyon can re-load.  They need a replacement for Juninho and Benzema (which they can get fairly cheap if they want to) and then they can strengthen up that defence which always needs help.  If Lyon play their cards right, they can win Ligue 1 back and also make a nice little run in the Champions League.

One More Thing- USA to 12 in FIFA rankings.

Top 15

1. Brazil

2. Spain

3. Netherlands

4. Italy

5. Germany

6. Russia

7. England

8. Argentina

9. France

10. Croatia

11. Greece

12. USA

13. Switzerland

14. Serbia

15. Denmark

Notables

16. Austarlia

17. Portugal

29. Cameroon

30. Costa Rica

33. Mexico

40. Japan

70. South Africa

100. New Zealand

Transfer News to Catch You Up

Player Name/Club he left/Club going to/money (pounds) undisclosed unless indicated.

1. Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax to Arsenal

2. Ben Sahar from Chelsea to Espanyol

3. Roque Santa Cruz from Blackburn to Manchester City

4. Shunsuke Nakamura from Celtic to Espanyol- FREE

5. Matt Derbyshire from Blackburn to Olympiacos

6. Roger Johnson from Cardiff City to Birmingham-  5 million

7. Gael Givet from Marseille to Blackburn

8. Glen Johnson from Portsmouth to Liverpool

9. Antonio Valencia from Wigan to Manchester United

10. Kevin Doyle from Reading to Wolves

11. Daniel Sturridge from Man. City to Chelsea

12. Sebastian Leto from Liverpool to Olympiacos

13. Marcus Hahnemann from Reading to Wolves- FREE

14. Sami Hyypia from Liverpool to Bayer Leverkusen- FREE

15. Joe Hart from Man. City to Birmingham- LOAN

16. Luis Jimenez from Inter Milan to West Ham- LOAN

It's been Keeper and I'm out.  Have a good day.