South America

SAO PAULO — Spanish club Barcelona will play Argentine giants Boca Juniors in a December tribute match to mark the one year-anniversary of the death of their former player Diego Maradona, the two clubs announced on Monday.

“FC Barcelona and Club Atletico Boca Juniors will play the ‘Maradona Cup’ on Dec. 14, a game to pay tribute to the star Diego Armando Maradona when the first anniversary of his death is remembered,” Barcelona said in a statement.

With El Clásico, Reds-Red Devils, the Derby d'Italia and Le Classique all falling on Sunday, American viewers were presented with a smörgåsbord of hatred and fury from across Europe. 

Marseille’s standing as an epicenter of football culture and fandom has long been under-appreciated by the English-speaking world, but there’s no denying that — for better or worse — the Vélodrome had the best atmosphere of all the aforementioned games.  

Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino is confident that Neymar will play for many more years after the Brazil forward this week said that the next World Cup could be his last.

Neymar, 29, said Qatar 2022 could be his final appearance at the tournament because he was not sure if had the "strength of mind to deal with football anymore.”

BARCELONA - Sergio Agüero is finally set to make his Barcelona debut at home to Valencia in LaLiga on Sunday and the Catalans will be hoping the prolific Argentine can lift their spirits after a dismal start to the season.

Agüero joined Barça on a free transfer in the close-season after a trophy-laden decade with Manchester City in which he became the fourth leading scorer in Premier League history and struck 260 times to become the club's all-time top scorer.

Few left feet in the history of the game have been as magical as Lionel Messi’s. But the Messi goal vs Uruguay on Sunday night was something uniquely supernatural. It was as if the Argentine put some sort of forcefield around the ball as he sent it toward goal.

Messi’s strike in the 38th minute sent Argentina on its way to a 3-0 win over Uruguay in World Cup qualifying, maintaining a comfortable second place in the CONMEBOL table behind Brazil. La Celeste barely remain in the top four guaranteed World Cup positions with seven matches left to play. 

In an interview with DAZN fans learned that the date of a Neymar international retirement could come much sooner than anticipated. Neymar said that he expects the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be his curtain call with Brazil’s national team. It's not for certain if he will continue to play anymore international soccer after 2022. What is for certain in his mind is that he won't be playing in the 2026 North America World Cup.

“I don’t know if I have the strength of mind to deal with football anymore,” Neymar said.

On Saturday, France Football published Lionel Messi’s first wide-ranging interview since joining Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona.