In the deliriousness following Brazil's Olympic win, Neymar has apparently gone a bit overboard and dyed his hair blonde. Apparently the entire team did this, which means that must have been some party.
Neymar with his blonde hair pic.twitter.com/ZaM3fAfPnF
— njrstats (@njrstats) August 21, 2016
Earlier this week at Barcelona practice, new signing Andre Gomes crashed his team-issued Audi SUV into the back of Luis Suarez's team-issued SUV. This doesn't strike a good way to endear yourself to your new teammates, but Europe is a weird place. Maybe Gomes was just looking for attention.
In July of 2014, FiveThirtyEight published an article entitled “Lionel Messi Is Impossible” which attempted to evaluate Messi’s goal-scoring abilities through the use of statistics and data.
One of the most ridiculous findings from all the number crunching was how much better Messi was than everybody else at shooting from distance. In fact, Messi’s efficiency from outside the box was almost as good as most other players inside of it.
As recently as January 2016, Real Madrid were a club in crises. Having been defeated 4-0 by Barcelona in late November, kicked out of the Copa del Rey in the round of 32 after fielding an ineligible player and dropping points to both Villarreal and Valencia in the space of a few weeks, manager Rafa Benitez was given his marching orders on January 3rd.
La Liga's season has officially started, which means Lionel Messi is back to obliterating everything and everyone with Barcelona.
Barcelona's first victims of the season were Real Betis. Barcelona were nice enough to give Betis a little hope before Messi did this to make it 2-1.
Like father, like son. Enzo Alan Zidane Fernandez, known commonly as Enzo, registered a fantastic assist in a friendly match between Real Mardid and Stade de Reims.
Enzo’s nonchalant style, his effortless ability to stroll beyond would-be tacklers and his penchant for Cruyff turns, step overs and beautiful passing makes him a carbon copy of his father.
Except for the head of hair that is.
Well, that’s that then. Barcelona have eliminated Arsenal in the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League round of 16, taken it to Paris Saint-Germain in the quarters and will finally receive their first stern test in the semi-finals.
Try as Arsenal might in their all-too familiar opening day loss to Liverpool, the Gunners were simply unable to overcome Barcelona, the Catalan giants throttling Sevilla 5-0 on aggregate in the Supercopa Espana.
The Barcelona squad put on their own mini Olympic games over preseason, trying out the different sports of the Rio Games. The one that came most naturally to them was a repurposed form of tennis, the one played with the head.
It’s not an official Olympic sport (yet) but watching the skill Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez possess means its only a matter of time.
Can you imagine an Argentina vs. Uruguay gold medal match featuring Messi and Suarez? Let's get a petition going.
These guys are out of control.
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Barcelona midfielder Arda Turan drew the ire of Blaugrana supporters by liking and retweeting photos celebrating Real Madrid’s 11 European Cup wins. The Turkish international then clarified that his “account was hacked for a brief period”, resulting in this outpouring of love for all things Los Blancos.
Two days ago my account was hacked for a brief period. During that period 1 RT was made and 2 photos were "liked" without my knowledge.
This is 100 percent, absolutely, undeniably intentional from Lionel Messi. Even if it had been a mis-hit, this would’ve been a world-class goal from Barcelona. As it stands, this bicycle assist from Messi to Luis Suarez is one of the most absurd team goals you’ll ever witness.
Andres Iniesta’s pass over the U.C. Sampdoria defense is perfectly timed — it finds Messi streaming through totally unmarked. But it’s what happens next that’s simply unreal. You can’t create team goals like this in EA Sports’ FIFA, only the real version of Barca can pull off magic like this.