Spain

Is Messi injured still? That’s the question on every Barcelona fan’s mind as the Blaugrana prepare for their second LaLiga match of the 2019-20 campaign.

Sadly, it appears their talisman, Lionel Messi, is still out injured.

For the second straight week, Messi was not included in Ernesto Valverde’s LaLiga squad. In his place is 16-year-old phenom Ansu Fati.

Should footballers stick to soccer or should they use their platform to promote their beliefs? Would your answer be different if the footballer was trying to promote a particular religion, clothing line or political view, or if those beliefs differ from your own? How about speaking up for social issues? Where do you draw the line?

Juan Mata, for one, doesn’t think an athlete should be pigeonholed into only talking about his or her sport. 

Fernando Torres played the final match of his long, storied career on Friday. El Niño won everything there is to win in soccer: youth championships, two European championships, a World Cup and a Champions League. He scored everywhere he went (though it took him a while at Chelsea) and has never been disparaged as a bad teammate.

It’s that time of year again: FIFA has announced the 10 finalists for the annual Puskás Award, the trophy given to the player, male or female, “judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant, or ‘most beautiful,’ goal of the calendar year.”

This most certainly wasn’t the case last year when Mohamed Salah scooped the award after Liverpool and Egypt supporters spammed the fan vote. The goal Salah scored against Everton back in December of 2018 hadn’t even won the Premier League’s Goal of the Month, so it was an awful joke to see it given the prestigious Puskás Award.

Real Madrid led, but only just. Karim Benzema had given Los Blancos an early lead but Luka Modric picked up his first straight red card in more than 300 matches with Real. Then came an insane Toni Kroos goal vs Celta Vigo, ensuring all three points for the Merengues on Saturday. 

After Benzema’s goal in the 12th minute you’d be forgiven for thinking Real Madrid would cruise to an opening-day victory. But Modric’s 56th-minute red card complicated things a bit.

In January of 2018, Philippe Coutinho became the second-richest transfer in soccer history when he moved from Liverpool to Barcelona. Essentially a replacement for Neymar, who had months earlier become the richest transfer ever, Coutinho never really quite fit in, as the impending Coutinho Bayern loan deal illustrates. 

Lionel Messi has spent most of his preseason with Barcelona recovering from an injury suffered on his first day back in training. The Messi injury, a Grade 1 calf strain, could keep him out of the LaLiga opener on Friday against Athletic Bilbao. 

But the Argentine is working hard to be fit for the match at the San Mamés. 

What’s the difference between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi? It’s the time-honored question that’ll be debated long after both you and I are altered into cosmic dust, although I’ve personally maintained that the difference between the two is the empanadas they’d serve at a social gathering.

The new LaLiga season begins on Friday with defending champion Barcelona heading north to play Athletic Bilbao at the San Mamés. Last year, Barça cantered to the title by an 11-point margin over second-place Atlético while Real Madrid finished 19 points back. However, the La Liga preview 2019/20 sees the challengers refreshed and reloaded with the likes of Eden Hazard and João Félix ready to come at the king.    

According to the latest reports, Neymar is on the verge of forcing through his exit at Paris Saint-Germain. It’s his ultimate destination — either Barcelona or Real Madrid — that those reports really can’t agree on.