To suggest the next 12 months may well define Lionel Messi s career would be doing a disservice to what we have witnessed up close over the past 18 campaigns.
From boy wonder to the greatest player ever in the view of many, and now into a new chapter with Paris Saint-Germain, the Argentina forward has nothing to prove to anyone.
And yet on the day he turns 35 – the average age of retirement for a footballer – questions continue to be asked of Messi.
Will he win a World Cup – still in the eyes of many the real barometer of a truly great player, even in the era of the Champions League – before he retires?
Can he prove himself in a different country after a mixed first season in France? Both of those questions will be answered before he celebra…
Juventus still have hopes of re-signing Paul Pogba from Manchester United, according to .
The midfielder arrived to Old Trafford from Turin as a huge star in 2016, as one of the best players of a team that reached the 2015 Champions League final that year, breaking the world record at the time as the most expensive player the game had ever seen. Naturally, the expectations were great, but it s fair to say that things haven t worked out that way since. The France international had some issues with Jose Mourinho, the United boss at the time, and after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced the Portuguese, injuries replaced those issues as the biggest obstacle for him to give the expected contribution.
His future has lately been the subject of much speculation, starting with last s…
Prediction: Lechia Gdansk to win 2-1
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Lechia Gdansk and Rapid Vienna will face each other in the second leg of the UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round at Gdansk Stadium in Gdansk this week.The match is scheduled to kick off at 6:45pm UK time on Thursday.
Lechia Gdansk
Lechia Gdansk are a big club in Poland, but they have never become the champions of their country. They have finished third in 1956 and 2018-19, and that is the best that they have done so far in their history. Lechia Gdansk have won the Polish Cup twice first in 1983 and then in 2018-19 and the Polish SuperCup in 1983 and 2019.
The White-Greens finished fourth in the 2021–22 Ekstraklasa campaign with 57 points from 34 matches and entere…
Marco Reus is confident Borussia Dortmund have left last season s poor Champions League campaign firmly in the past.
Dortmund failed to make it out of their group last season, despite having one of Europe s most prolific forwards in the form of Erling Haaland.
Having started with successive wins over Besiktas and Sporting CP, BVB lost three games straight, including a 4-0 defeat to Ajax in Amsterdam.
A 5-0 rout of Besiktas in December was only enough to secure a play-off place for the Europa League last 16, and they lost to eventual finalists Rangers over two legs.
Dortmund get this season s Champions League campaign started with a home game against Copenhagen on Tuesday – it will be the first competitive meeting between the sides since 2001.
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Erik ten Hag told his Manchester United players to make sure they get straight back into the Champions League next season after a dismal European campaign ended in an early exit at the hands of Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.
Kingsley Coman’s 70th-minute goal, laid on by Harry Kane, gave the Germans a 1-0 win and ensured United finished bottom of Group A – beaten to second place by FC Copenhagen, operating on a fraction of their budget, and to third and the consolation of Europa League football by Galatasaray.
The final whistle was greeted with boos at Old Trafford, where United lost for the seventh time this season – having now lost more games in all competitions, 12, than they have won, 11.
Final standings
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLe…
Chelsea forward Callum Hudson-Odoi has completed a season-long loan move to Bayer Leverkusen.
Hudson-Odoi has struggled for game time at Stamford Bridge since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel as head coach in January 2021, and is yet to feature at all this season.
The 21-year-old has played 126 times for Chelsea in all competitions since making his debut in 2018, with 37 goal involvements (16 goals, 21 assists).
The Premier League club confirmed they have the option to recall the player in January.
Several clubs in England and Germany were credited in the media with an interest in Hudson-Odoi, but the winger has opted to join Gerardo Seoane s team for the campaign.
Speaking to the club s website after the move was confirmed, Hudson-Odoi said: The …
Cristiano Ronaldo finished in 20th place in the Ballon d Or voting as he headlined an array of stars to fall short of 2022 winner Karim Benzema.
Ronaldo, Benzema s former Real Madrid team-mate, was nominated following a strong season with Manchester United, but he could not come close to adding a sixth Ballon d Or.
The United forward instead fell to his lowest finish since he last came 20th in 2005, then tied with Liverpool s Champions League winner Jamie Carragher.
Great rival Lionel Messi did not even earn a nomination after his first year at Paris Saint-Germain.
Some of the biggest names of the future came rather closer to troubling Karim Benzema, with Kylian Mbappe sixth and Erling Haaland 10th.
But neither made the final four, where Robert Le…
Germany striker Mario Gomez has sealed a return to former club Stuttgart from Bundesliga counterparts Wolfsburg on a two-and-a-half-year contract.
The 32-year-old was a product of the youth system at Stuttgart, where he made his Bundesliga and international breakthroughs more than a decade ago, memorably firing Die Schwaben to the title in 2006-07.
Gomez has 155 goals in 281 Bundesliga appearances over the course of his career and 87 of those came with Stuttgart before joining Bayern Munich in 2009 for a then German top-flight record of €30million.
He went on to play for Fiorentina and Besiktas, with Gomez s form for the Turkish giants earning him a surprise Germany recall for Euro 2016, four years on from his previous competitive appearance for Die Mannsc…
Liverpool have confirmed the signing of Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia, with the goalkeeper immediately loaned back to Los Che for this season.
The Georgia international impressed at Euro 2024 with his country and has subsequently earned a move to Anfield, becoming the first major signing of Arne Slot s Liverpool tenure.
Mamardashvili will stay in Spain with Valencia for the remainder of the LaLiga campaign before moving to Merseyside ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
Widespread reports suggest the Reds have agreed a €30million deal (£25m), including add-ons, to sign the 23-year-old, who will be expected to challenge Alisson for the starting spot in goal.
We have reached an agreement for the transfer of Giorgi Mamardashvili, subject to a work permit a…
Blackpool forward Jake Daniels has said it was a slap in the face when Jordan Henderson moved to play in Saudi Arabia.
Daniels last year became the first openly gay active British male professional footballer since Justin Fashanu in 1990.
Former Liverpool captain Henderson had been a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community before his decision to join Saudi club Al-Ettifaq from Liverpool in the summer.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state, leading some to accuse the England midfielder of turning his back on the community.
Speaking to the BBC’s Newsbeat, Daniels said: “He (Henderson) messaged me when I came out. He was backing me and said: ‘We’re proud of what you’ve done.’ And seeing him move to Saudi, it kind of like, slaps me in my face…