Samuel Eto’o has provided his two cents on how important it will be for Barcelona to retain Lionel Messi amid talks of the Little Maestro wanting out. Whispers and rumors of Messi wanting out escalated to the next echelon of transfer rumors when top football journalist Marcelo Bechler said the Argentine wants out this summer.
The La Liga season restarts Saturday, September 12, and Real Madrid will again be heavy favorites for the title. Los Blancos used a late surge to overtake rivals Barcelona and win the league by five points.
The final 2019-20 La Liga table pic.twitter.com/RBzufwDvDQ
— Goal (@goal) July 19, 2020
The transfer rumor mill has been swirling following Barcelona's embarrassing defeat to Bayern Munich on Friday, as many of the club's top players have been linked with moves away from the Catalan club.
Friday’s 8-2 humiliation against Bayern Munich will undoubtedly see heads roll at Barcelona, from dead man walking Quique Setién to the elderly cohort of Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Luis Suárez and Ivan Rakitić.
But the biggest question mark remains the future of Lionel Messi, who dictates his own future following the most humiliating defeat in Barça history.
Mauricio Pochettino once said he would rather return to his ranch in Argentina than coach Barcelona, yet he is now the top candidate to be their next manager as they look to the future after Friday's 8-2 drubbing by Bayern Munich.
Quique Setien is certain to be sacked after Barca were humiliated in the Champions League quarter-final, a result which completed a miserable season, as for the first time since 2014 they failed to win a major trophy.
LISBON — For the first time in 13 years, there is no Spanish team in the semifinals of the Champions League and the way in which Barcelona were dumped out, with an 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich, emphatically ended the era of LaLiga supremacy.
There was one basic similarity in the way that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid exited Europe this season — they simply looked too slow.
It is not that their players individually lack speed but that their styles of play lack the intensity and dynamism, the relentless pressing of the top German and English teams.
From start to finish, the 2019-20 LaLiga season extended across 338 days. When it can prove difficult to remember what you had for dinner last night, it’s equally as challenging to remember that spectacular overhead kick that Aritz Aduriz scored against Barcelona back on August 16 of the venerated year of 2019.
The18’s Prodigal Son returns. Five years, two months and 19 days since Norway’s mischievous sprite sent Cristiano Ronaldo to the substitutes’ bench with a tender hug, Martin Ødegaard is set to the return to the Bernabéu with Zinedine Zidane ready to hand him his second LaLiga appearance for Los Blancos.
161 days since punching their respective tickets to the Europa League Round of 16 (and 322 days since the group stage began), Sevilla and Roma returned to the pitch in Duisburg, Germany, on Thursday in a match that exemplified the strangeness of European football’s return.
This tie was one of two that failed to play a first leg back in March, so a single-leg format at a neutral venue in Germany (where the remainder of the tournament’s matches will be played from the quarterfinals on) was used to determine this one.
James Rodriguez looks set to end his time with Real Madrid but could be staying in the city as reports say he is set for a transfer to Atlético Madrid.
Atletico Madrid have reportedly agreed a fee of just €15m with rivals Real Madrid for James Rodriguez pic.twitter.com/fjU9UnP2bc
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) August 5, 2020