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Mario Balotelli is either the greatest brother or the worst brother of all time. The Nice striker claims he defeated his brother, Enock Barwuah, a forward for Ciliverghe Mazzano in Italy, in FIFA and Enock will not admit his defeat. So Mario being Mario called in a few friends to make his point.

Neymar, Falcao, Kevin-Prince Boateng and even AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani, among others, joined in with Mario Balotelli trolling to call Enock a liar and a sore loser. 

Ever wondered how defenders in the 60s and 70s coped with Pelé, perhaps the greatest player of all time? Defending Pelé was really quite simple: They kicked the sh*t out of him. And pushed him around. And threw him to the ground. And kicked him a few dozen more times.

Pelé scored 767 goals over his storied career but he would have had more were it not for the physical play of defenders who quickly realized the only hope they had to stop Pelé was to foul him. 

I had a teammate growing up who was our regular penalty kick taker. He would slowly walk up to the ball and kick it meekly toward the corner. Eventually, the ball would trickle into the back of the net, with supreme accuracy overriding the deliberate pace of the shot. Brazilian legend Zico’s free kicks would do the same thing, only from 20 to 40 yards out.

It’s hugely unfortunate for Carabao Cup quarterfinalists Bristol City, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s feel-good return following last season’s significant knee injury found its happy ending Wednesday after the big Swede scored in his first start of the 2017-18 season.

It’s a deflected effort from a free kick that should’ve never been awarded, but Bristol’s anger is Zlatan’s sweet redemption. Ibra has made substitute appearances for United in both the Premier League and Champions League over November and December, but the 36-year-old was handed his first start in the League Cup.

Unlike the Premier League, which increases its schedule during the holidays, the Bundesliga takes a winter break. The month-long hiatus began after Sunday’s matches. It’s sad for fans who want to watch German football over the coming weeks — and doubly so for the Bundesliga mascots.

Team mascots are created for one reason: to support a team. What do you do when your entire existence is based around something that won’t happen again for nearly a month?