Spanish Clubs

It is a near-universal truth that soccer fans want to be Messi, to live Messi's life and do what Messi does. This holds true, apparently, for other footballers as well. Just ask Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos.

Ramos tweeted out his New Year's collage earlier today, which is a thing a lot of people do. What most people don't do, however, is include in their collages pictures of other people's significant others and children.

Lionel Messi made his 500th appearance for FC Barcelona on Wednesday and, naturally, was on the scoresheet. Messi was named in the starting XI, as well as captain for the night, despite having just passed a kidney stone and traveling between Japan, Argentina, Dubai and Barcelona over the past 10 days. 

No matter. Messi put in another Man of the Match performance during Barca's 4-0 La Liga victory over Real Betis.

Neymar got a new haircut. This in and of itself is not super noteworthy. Neymar gets new haircuts all the time.

What is noteworthy is how Neymar's partners on the Barcelona forward line, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, reacted to Neymar's new look, which looks kid of like a starter version of an '80s rocker mullet, with the sides shaved and the top and back slightly grown out.

Ronaldinho wore the number 10 shirt at Barcelona. When Ronaldinho Left Barcelona, Messi began wearing the number 10 shirt, a shirt he still wears today.

It may be just a jersey number, but the story behind how Messi ended up with the Barcelona number 10 jersey after Ronaldinho left is actually pretty interesting.

Sergi Guardiola is 24 years old, which is certainly old enough to know that nowadays potential employers always check out your social media accounts for bad stuff.

This is why every college and career counselor ever tells you to make sure your social media accounts are either squeaky clean or uber-private before you apply for jobs, to make sure your reputation isn't damaged in the eyes of potential employers.

Guardiola, it appears, has never talked to a career counselor (we don't even know if European footballers have that sort of thing), because he went from this:

Luis Enrique stands on the touchline and watches FC Barcelona’s tremendous troika of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar (MSN) nearly every day in matches and in training.

And yet, the Blaugrana boss remains amazed at what the trio can accomplish when they are at their best. 

“They are the best in the world,” Enrique told the press recently. “They have a great understanding and when they don’t all score [in a match] they’re not happy.”

Cristiano Ronaldo is stepping up his property game. Last week, Ronaldo unveiled his $80 million range of CR7 branded hotels that will open in Funchal, Lisbon, Madrid and New York. This week, he’s granted us access to his mansion in Madrid with a self-guided tour through Unscriptd.com. 

Barcelona star midfielder Ivan Rakitic was a big hit at the Club World Cup in Japan this month, but not for the reason you might think. Sure, he played well and Barcelona tournament, but the reason fans flocked to Rakitic is because he looks like Goku, the protagonist in the popular anime show "Dragon Ball Z."

Goku is beloved in Japan, and, because of that, now Rakitic is beloved in Japan. 

It seems like every heartwarming Christmas story features an adorable orphan, and Cristiano Ronaldo's heartwarming Christmas story is no different.

First there was this Tweet: