Central & South America

The Rio de Janeiro state championship restarted once again on Sunday as Botafogo — one of the clubs opposed to what they see as a premature resumption of top-level football —— took the field with a banner protesting the decision.

The move to get back underway in Rio has focused attention on the wider confusion surrounding football's stop-start status in the South American nation. Although many clubs are back in training, only Rio has restarted its state league as the daily number of dead and infected due to the new coronavirus remains high.

World Cup 2022 is scheduled to begin Nov. 21 in Qatar, less than 18 months from now, but it will not be without controversy.

Colombia's soccer chief and the head of South American football confederation CONMEBOL have written to FIFA complaining of "erroneous and discriminatory conclusions" in the assessment of the country's bid to host the 2023 Women's World Cup.

The Colombian proposal to bring the tournament to South America for the first time received the lowest score in an evaluation of three bids to host the tournament carried out by world soccer's governing body ahead of next Friday's vote.

And then there were three. On Monday, Brazil withdrew its candidacy to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup, leaving Colombia, Japan and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand as the remaining contenders before the final FIFA Council vote on June 25.

Barcelona star forward Lionel Messi said that both life and soccer have forever been changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 is responsible for the deaths of 370,000 people worldwide as of Sunday afternoon. It has also wreaked havoc with the sports landscape for much of 2020.

LaLiga, Spain's top-flight soccer league, is set to resume on June 11, albeit without fans in the stands. The first match on the slate will feature the Seville derby between Real Betis and Sevilla.

French champion Paris Saint-Germain has signed striker Mauro Icardi on a permanent deal from Inter Milan, the Serie A club said on Sunday. Argentine Icardi, 27, joined PSG in September on a season-long loan with a buy-out option.

"FC Internazionale Milano announces the transfer of Mauro Icardi to Paris Saint-Germain FC: the striker, born in 1993, has permanently moved to the French club," Inter said in a statement. "The club thanks the player for the six seasons he spent with us and wishes him the best for his future professional career."

The adidas #hometeam campaign continued today with an exclusive interview with the G.O.A.T. Lionel Messi. Like the rest of the world, Messi’s life has been thrown upside down by the coronavirus with LaLiga suspended since March 12 and the Argentine’s prospective international summer — a Copa América on home soil — delayed until 2021. 

SAN JOSE — Costa Rica became the first country in the Americas to restart their professional soccer league on Tuesday, with an afternoon game played behind closed doors and substitutes sitting in the stands to ensure their distance from others.

The Costa Rican league was suspended on March 15 but Guadalupe’s 1-0 victory over Limon was the first of six games due to be held across the Central American nation this week.

"It is difficult to get up to speed again," said Arturo Campos, scorer of Guadalupe’s winning goal. "We feel heavy, but we are happy to return."

We all know the true worth of a footballer is measured by how they perform against the best of the best, when everything is on the line. In men’s soccer, there is no stronger barometer of greatness than how one fares against the U.S. men’s national team. So to resolve the Ronaldo vs Messi debate once and for all, here’s a look at how the two GOATs have performed against Michael Bradley and Co.