Europe

If Lucas Leiva is known for one thing, it's scoring amazing goals in European competition. Trust me on this. No, don't look it up.

Lucas added to his CONSIDERABLE GOALSCORING REPUTATION Thursday for Lazio. The former Liverpool man scored a backheel (!!!!!!!!!) in the Europa League.

Just your standard Lucas Leiva backheel goal  pic.twitter.com/tVZR5sEegM

What do you do in life? How do you make the most out of life? I don’t know. Maybe the best advice comes from golfer John Daly: grip it, rip it and sip it. Konyaspor’s Mehdi Bourabia knows what I’m talking about.

Everton travelled to Cyprus to play Apollon Limassol in the last match of the Europa League group stage Thursday. They did so without most of the first team and new manager Sam Allardyce. Neither team had any chance of advancing, so Everton used the opportunity to hand debuts to some academy kids and prepare the first team for Sunday's Merseyside Derby.

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the 2017 Ballon d'Or from France Football. It is his fifth such award. Ronaldo and Messi are now the only players with five Ballon d'Ors.

Ronaldo's exploits in 2017 include winning the Champions League and La Liga, as well as continuing to be the highest-scoring Champions League player of all time.

American midfielder Keaton Parks only made his competitive debut for Benfica on November 18, but the 20-year-old native of Plano, Texas, has shown enough with the reserve team to have his contract extended until 2022. Benfica have also reportedly placed a release clause of nearly $50 million on the player.

We’ve got it, we’ve pinned down two-year-old Mateo Messi’s future on the pitch. After graduating from La Masia summa cum laude, the phenom will replace a 45-year-old Sergio Busquets in Barcelona’s holding midfield role, because, according to father Lionel, Mateo is “un hijo de puta.” He’s a real mean sumbitch.  

Bayern Munich star Thomas Muller has called into question everyone and everything following his side’s 3-1 defeat of Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.