The Barcelona and Real Madrid attacking trios of MSN and BBC took to Instagram to show us how they celebrated the New Year. From all of us at The18, we wish you nothing but the best for 2017!
Lionel Messi
A country's awarding of their footballer of the year award ultimately says a lot about the state of the game within that nation. For example, knowing that Argentina are loaded with talent but that one man has managed to win this individual prize on 10 occasions speaks to his standing as one of the greatest of all time.
For other nations, a player sweeping the prize time after time shows that he’s single-handedly carrying that nation to new heights à la Gareth Bale. These are the players that’ve utterly dominated their country’s player of the year award in recent times.
Real Madrid confirmed that Gareth Bale suffered damage to the tendons in his right ankle during Tuesday’s Champions League victory over Sporting Lisbon, but the severity of the injury was confirmed this morning via Madrid’s official Twitter account.
The biggest news concerning Gareth Bale this week had been the monster contract extension he just signed with Real Madrid, earning him $428,347 per week until 2022. Following his wonder goal against Legia Warsaw in the Champions League, the talk is once again surrounding what he’s capable of on the pitch.
A little over a week after Neymar put pen to paper on a new five-year deal with Barcelona, Real Madrid have announced that Gareth Bale has committed his future to the club by signing an extension running until June 30, 2022.
The pre-match team photo is so innocuous and brief that it hardly even registers when watching it take place. Like players holding the hands of little child mascots when entering the field, it's just one of those things that happens. Don't question it, don't even think about it, let's just get it over with.
The starting XI gets in two balanced rows, the players in the back drape their arms over one another and everyone stares blankly into the camera for a moment. What’s the point of the exercise? Where does the photo end up? Who’s getting any joy from this photo op?