Following a blatant attack of racial abuse on Mario Balotelli during Nice’s match against Bastia last Friday, the Italian striker took to Instagram and said, “Is it normal that Bastia supporters make monkey noise [and] ‘uh uh’ for the whole game…?” Balotelli then criticized the French League’s disciplinary committee for failing to address the situation, summarizing the entire incident as “a real shame.”
Atletico Madrid fans might think French striker Antoine Griezmann is a superhero, but he hasn't had a chance to show that until now.
Griezmann, 25, will reportedly portray Superman in the French-language version of The Lego Batman Movie, due out on February 8. He announced his role in a video on his Facebook page.
2017 has just begun, and it’s already been extremely unkind to both Real Madrid and 2016 Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
The current club world champions had their historic unbeaten streak snapped by Sevilla in La Liga, cutting into their lead at the top of the table.
Last week, British magazine Coach published what they contended was an exclusive interview with Lionel Messi, in which the Barcelona star supposedly said he would like to stay at Barcelona.
It turns out they published nothing of the sort.
The "interview" has been taken down and replaced with this message:
It's unclear what Aston Villa chairman Dr. Tony Xia is a doctor of, but we think it might be math.
Xia, whose Twitter account is wildly entertaining and filled with optimistic projections for the future of his club (currently 13th in the Championship, but don't worry, Dr. Tony is on it), has been spouting off math problems in relation to the January transfer window lately.
Real Madrid ventured to Celta Vigo’s Balaidos stadium in Galicia needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit to advance to the Copa del Rey semifinals. In the end, Celta held their nerve to secure a 2-2 draw and advance 4-3 on aggregate.
The Celts earned a first half advantage when Danilo turned the ball into his own net, his second own goal in his last three appearances. A shot from John Guidetti was brilliantly saved by Kiko Casilla, but the rebound deflected off Danilo and into the net.
19-year-old Frenchman Ousmane Dembele was highly coveted by almost every club around Europe following his breakout season with Rennes in the French Ligue 1 over 2015-16. Like so many others of late, he was attracted to Borussia Dortmund’s track record in developing young players and letting them play regardless of age.
This 1994-95 Ajax team under the management of Louis van Gaal, who would go on to manage Barcelona, served as the blueprint of the short passing, possession-based style that was the philosophy of Johan Cruyff.
To employ such a philosophy, you need talented players. This Ajax side had that in abundance as they would go through the entire Dutch league season without losing a match and defeat AC Milan in the European Cup final.
With Cameroonian international Carlos Kameni firmly established as Malaga’s No. 1, Guillermo Ochoa elected to accept a season-long loan to fellow La Liga side Granada in July. This is Granada’s sixth consecutive season in the Spanish top-flight, an achievement they haven’t bettered since a run from 1968-76. If they’re to maintain their status in La Liga, they’ll have Ochoa to thank.
If Lukas Podolski’s career were ever made into a movie, it’d have to be a trilogy. The director’s cut would probably be thousands of hours long. His career began with a bang at childhood club FC Koln, stagnated at Bayern Munich, was reprieved back at Koln, stalled at Arsenal, almost died at Inter Milan and now continues at Galatasaray amidst interest from the Chinese Super League and Japan.