Research from Wake Forest University in 2011 showed that female soccer players are half as likely as men to flop and fake an injury during a match, and this video featuring Barcelona’s Barbara Latorre demonstrates just that.
Andres Iniesta is a consummate players’ player — his injury was felt around the planet as the loss of the Barcelona star is a loss to football as a whole. The knock he took against Valencia could’ve been a lot worse, but Iniesta is still expected to miss six to eight weeks.
At 32, serious damage to his lateral collateral ligament would’ve been devastating, and his presence was sorely missed in Barcelona’s loss to Manchester City in the Champions League.
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.
When Neymar first burst onto the world stage, he was only 18. So we gave him a pass for his actions, assuming he would grow up and stop flopping and starting fights as he got older.
However it seems that he might never grow up, as, despite playing internationally for six years now, he is still apparently doing things like this:
Neymar pushes Granada's player down the stairs while approaching tunnel. pic.twitter.com/DjQWR8yYms
Last week, we implored the lot of you to look at Cristiano Ronaldo.
This week, we are imploring the lop of you to keep looking at him. He really wants you to.
Good night pic.twitter.com/v9aHmCggSz
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 30, 2016
Warning: please do not continue reading this article or scroll down if you do not want to see a gross soccer fan butt. Thank you.
Cristiano Ronaldo continued his run of good form Saturday against Alaves, scoring three goals in a 4-1 victory.
One Alaves fan wasn't impressed, or maybe was really super impressed, or not impressed at all with his side's defending, or just really hot, or hot for Cristiano Ronaldo, or really confused and didn't know what else to do.
Cristiano Ronaldo would like very much for you to look at him, please. Right now, if possible.
Here he is, or at least here his upper half is:
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 28, 2016
In a recent interview with Coachmag.co.uk, Cristiano Ronaldo spoke at length about his inspirations, his toughest opponent and the opposing player he most admires. The biggest surprise came when asked about the opponent he most admired, as Ronaldo bucked the peddled notion of a rivalry steeped in hatred and answered:
In order to talk smack, don’t you have to back it up? Goalkeeper Diego Alves failed to do so on Saturday in Valencia’s last-second loss to Barcelona:
When it comes to penalties, Diego Lopez is one of the best. Of the last 35 penalties he's faced, Alves has saved a staggering 17 of them; so he has good reason to be a little cocky. Two years ago, he even smack talked Cristiano Ronaldo before saving his penalty to end their title run.
France Football announced the 30 finalists for the 2016 Ballon d’Or award with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi the favorites to take home the award they’ve entirely dominated since Kaka won in 2007. Real Madrid have six nominees on the list, Barcelona have four and Leicester City’s dream season has resulted in nominations for Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy.