Shocking

LONDON — Argentine Lionel Messi retained the FIFA men's player of the year trophy on Monday, beating Manchester City's treble-winning Norwegian striker Erling Haaland and France's Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappé to the award.

Spain's 2023 World Cup winner Aitana Bonmati was voted the best women's player of the year.

Messi, who also secured the men's award in 2022 after guiding Argentina to World Cup victory, clinched the Ligue 1 title with PSG alongside Mbappe following that success, before moving to Major League Soccer team Inter Miami.

ABIDJAN — An angry supporter attempted to strike Ghana coach Chris Hughton after their upset 2-1 loss at the Africa Cup of Nations finals on Sunday and was taken away by police, team officials confirmed on Monday.

Ghana were beaten by a stoppage time goal by the Cape Verde Islands, the smallest of the 24 teams at the tournament in the Ivory Coast in one of several shock results on Sunday.

Hughton was accosted at the team hotel as Ghana returned from the match but the angry fan was intercepted by security officials.

Real Madrid and Átletico Madrid faced off in the Spanish Super Cup semi-final this Wednesday in what would turn out to be one of the most entertaining matches of the season held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Embed from Getty Images

ABIDJAN — Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet said he and his players feared for their lives after the plane taking them to the Africa Cup of Nations finals made an emergency landing, delaying their arrival at the tournament in the Ivory Coast.

Gambia’s squad set off from Banjul on Wednesday on a short trip to Yamoussoukro, where they will play their opening two group games, but minutes after take-off they turned around because of a lack of oxygen inside the plane, he said.

Napoli’s horrendous season has a new dramatic chapter as star forward Victor Osimhen has called out teammate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s agent for claiming a rumor about him wanting to leave the club for a Saudi Arabian side.

Kvaratskhelia’s agent, Mamuka Jugeli, spoke on Georgian television saying that he thinks Osimhen plans on leaving Napoli at the end of the season.

Osimhen didn’t let that slide and retorted with a fiery Instagram story directed at Jugeli.

Osimhen Instagram story about Jugeli

Al Nassr and Senegal star Sadio Mané, 31, married his long-term girlfriend Aisha Tamba, 18, during a private wedding ceremony in Dakar, Senegal.

The wedding reportedly took place on Sunday.

Jack Grealish's home was burgled when Manchester City were playing away at Everton earlier this week but fortunately none of his family members were harmed, his coach Pep Guardiola said on Friday.

British media reported Grealish's home in Cheshire was targeted by burglars on Wednesday when his fiancee and family were at the property.

Reports said jewellery and watches worth $1.27 million were stolen.

French striker Jeremy Menez received two yellow cards in the span of six seconds on Tuesday when the referee wasn’t a fan of his sarcastic clapping.

The incident occurred in stoppage time of the Serie B game between Menez’s Bari FC and Andrea Pirlo’s Sampdoria.

In the 95th minute Menez received a yellow card. Things appeared to be normal. That was until Menez gave the referee a sarcastic round of applause for the booking and in an instant the other yellow card came out.

Jeremy Menez red card vs. Sampdoria

All professional soccer leagues in Turkey were suspended earlier in December after the president of Ankaragucu punched a referee in the face. Fast forward a little over a week later and another brawl has taken place at a Turkish soccer game.

The incident with the referee getting punched forced the Turkish Football Federation to suspend all leagues for one week on Dec. 11.