What’s in a name?
For Nigerian-born striker Isaac Success, everything. But while the Granada CF star’s name – and personal style – are attracting attention, it is his play that has opened eyes and provided potential for a promising future.
In an interview with BT Sport, Rafa Benitez opened up about the complications of working under the high-pressure conditions at Real Madrid. Benitez was sacked after just seven months in charge of Los Blancos, despite losing just three times while at the helm.
"You have to do everything perfect," Benitez told Gary Lineker. "As soon as something is wrong, or the chairman thinks something is wrong, then you start having problems."
Lionel Messi set two more records today. Of course he did. Messi sets records every day, it seems. Today may have even been a down day, records-wise.
First, Messi continued to be the highest scorer in La Liga history, scoring his 300th goal.
.@ZiggoSport: “And here's the video. Number 300 for Lionel Messi in @LaLiga.” pic.twitter.com/ejuklSINAj
Carlos Vela's Real Sociedad season started slowly, but it seems to have picked up.
The 26-year-old Mexico international is Sociedad's third-leading scorer in La Liga with four goals. He also has three assist in the league.
Those don't look like super-impressive numbers, but the upshot is most of those stats have come in 2016. Vela scored and assisted in Sociedad's away win at Espanyol Feb. 8 and scored in a 5-1 loss to Sporting Jan. 22.
Cristiano Ronaldo is pretty good at soccer. Let's not forget that. That being said, Cristiano Ronaldo's form this season has led people to whisper about a "decline" at Real Madrid, which we think is pretty ridiculous. So, we decided to take a closer look.
What a fantastic weekend of soccer. So many brilliant goals, so many talking points. We compiled a list of ten of the best moments from the weekend, in no particular order.
10. Dutch club walks out with lingerie models instead of kids.
We’re ten years into the era when Lionel Messi does things like this, and they just never, ever age.
Poor Celta defender Jonny Gomes was hung out to dry, put in a spin cycle, or any other laundry phrase you’re inclined to turn. That’s also Ray Hudson bwaaaaaaaahh’ing his approval when the reigning La Liga Player of the Month freezes the poor guy, dangles the cheese, and then takes it away.That led to this, the ensuing penalty, where Messi . . . passed?
Trivia question: how many times has Lionel Messi won La Liga Player of the month? A hundred? Fifty? Seventy five?
Answer: one. And it was last month.
That's right, after 298 goals, making him La Liga's all-time leading scorer, Messi has finally been named Player of the Month in La Liga. The 28-year-old Argentine has won the FIFA Ballon d'Or four times, La Liga Player of the Year six times and the UEFA Best Player of the Year award twice.
And La Liga Player of the Month once.
As promised, my predictions for futbal were awful, 0-5…but I nailed the Super Bowl call, I will take it. Enough said about that, on to the top five matches you can’t miss this weekend:
Juventus vs. Napoli, Saturday 2:45 p.m. EST beIN Sports
It was a quiet weekend for Mexico internationals in Europe. Then Monday rolled around, and Carlos Vela reminded everyone that he is, in fact, a very good striker and Diego Reyes reminded everyone that he is, in fact, a professional soccer player. Carlos Vela and Diego Reyes were instrumental in Real Sociedad's 5-0 humiliation of Espanyol Monday.
Vela got going with this beautiful chip to give Sociedad a 2-0 lead.