Barcelona have been linked with just about every half-decent striker in Europe this transfer window: Nolito, Mario Mandzukic, Carlos Bacca, Mario Gomez, Kevin Gameiro and Luciano Vietto have all been run through the rumor mill. They've also looked to the other side of the pond, being linked with Andre-Pierre Gignac, Gabriel Jesus and Luan Vieira.
This is a public service announcement: do not attempt to hug Lionel Messi. It will go poorly for you.
Especially don't attempt to hug Lionel Messi by jumping a barrier and landing at the entrance to the stadium tunnel.
KEEP WALKING
Lionel Messi pic.twitter.com/lfnOk696N3— Doentes Por Futebol (@DoentesPFutebol) August 3, 2016
It’s not often that you see a player absolutely embarrass the Barcelona defense. When that player is wearing a Leicester City jersey doubly so. Ahmed Musa arrived in Leicester on July 8th for a club record £16.6 million.
While experts have been dissecting where the Nigerian winger/forward fits in the Leicester City setup, Musa has let his ridiculously quick feet do the talking.
Musa scored two goals in Leicester’s 4-2 loss to Barcelona, and it was his first strike for the club that really got people talking.
The first half of the Leicester City vs. Barcelona ICC match was a trial by fire for Leicester. For a side looking to make an impression in their first Champions League campaign this season, the ICC has been a wonderful exercise in witnessing the excellence of the competition. It’s only preseason, but Barcelona showed the kind of quality that Europe’s top club competition offers.
Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi were particularly disrespectful to the English champions — Suarez registering a goal and an assist while Messi contributed two assists in the first half.
It’s the question that has plagued Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane throughout his time in charge of the club: What’s the deal with James Rodriguez? Does the French coach even rate the Colombian playmaker?
Following a season in which James only appeared in 26 La Liga games for the club, his lowest total since arriving in 2014, would James be shown the door this summer? The player has continued to excel for Colombia on international duty, where he's the focal point of the attack, but he's taken a back seat in Zidane's preferred 4-3-3 formation at Real.
Like a character from a Leo Tolstoy novel, Alex Song is off to the Republic of Tatarstan — a former Barcelona nobleman whose links with high society have been severed.
Alex Song’s career has taken in the sights of beautiful Barcelona, Spain and both West and East London with Arsenal and West Ham United, but the 28-year-old is about to embark on his greatest adventure yet.
The former Cameroon midfielder has accounted for €23 million worth of transfer fees throughout his career, but his latest move will cost Russian club Rubin Kazan nothing.
Sources from Lionel Messi’s family have told Goal.com that the former Argentina captain will not return for his country’s September World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela.
As FourFourTwo set about compiling a list of the top 50 managers in world football, one of their resident experts, former Dutch international Pierre van Hooijdonk, revealed the difficulty in ranking such a role: “If you changed all the managers in the league for cats, there would still be a champion.
105,826 crowded into Michigan Stadium, better known as “The Big House”, to get a glimpse of Real Madrid and Chelsea stars like Marcelo, Oscar, Eden Hazard and James Rodriguez. At the end of they day, they were all talking about Real Madrid’s 22-year-old Dominican forward Mariano Diaz Mejia, simply known as Mariano.
Marcelo put in a man of the match performance, and Eden Hazard scored two wonderful late goals for the Blues, but Mariano’s goal was absolutely world-class.
Barcelona used some rather unorthodox training methods ahead of their game against Celtic in Dublin Saturday.
The team walked out onto the pitch at St. George's Park expecting maybe some shooting drills or perhaps a little El Rondo action, only to greeted by the sight of a dozen human bubble suits.
That's right folks. The secret to Barcelona's success is intensive rounds of bubble football.