Barcelona

Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembélé must leave the club before the January transfer window closes for both his sake as well as the Catalan club to ensure they get a fee as his contract ends in June, club director Mateu Alemany has said.

Dembélé, who joined Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund in 2017, has failed to deliver on his potential that made the Spanish club pay $119.11 million for his services, scoring only 31 goals in 129 appearances.

Alexia Putellas is the greatest player in the world after winning FIFA’s Best Women’s Player of 2021, the Ballon d’Or and a bountiful amount of trophies. After being inexplicably snubbed from FIFA’s FIFPRO World XI squad, she flexed on her doubters with a game-winning goal in the Supercopa de España Femenina semifinal vs. Real Madrid to win 1-0.

Alexia Putellas became the first woman to win the Ballon d’Or, UEFA Women’s Player of the Year and The Best FIFA Women’s Player in a single year, completing the historic treble on Monday at the FIFA Best awards. But there’s one honor she missed out on, and it’s hard for anyone to explain, though the Barcelona superstar tried her best to make sense of it all on Tuesday.

The official record for highest attendance at a professional women’s soccer game is held by the 1999 World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl between the USWNT and China with 90,185. Unofficially the 1971 World Cup Final between Denmark and Mexico had 110,000 in attendance.

A new candidate for the record is lurking in the shadows to take down the USWNT’s record. On March 30, Barcelona’s women’s team will host Real Madrid in the second leg of the UEFA Women's Champions League quarterfinals at Camp Nou.

Barcelona Femení's remarkable 2021-22 season continued Wednesday with a 5-0 victory over Sporting Huelva at Johan Cruyff Stadium. Dutch winger Lieke Martens has been the star of the show recently, and she went top of the Primera División scoring chart with a hat trick after 73 minutes before also assisting on an Alexia Putellas goal.

The first Martens goal was a right-footed volley in the 34th-minute that was hit with too much power for goalkeeper Chelsea Ashurst to deal with.

The Sergiño Dest Chelsea rumors are at an all-time high for the 2022 winter transfer window. Dest has been seeking a move away from the Catalan club for some time now as the American has fallen out of favor with Barcelona’s new manager, Xavi.

Barcelona shared the points with Granada on Saturday with a 1-1 draw that saw a peach of an assist from Dani Alves. This truly felt like a blast from the past to see the 38-year-old doing what he does best in a Barcelona kit.

We at The18 recently looked at some of Alves’ best assists to Lionel Messi. Luuk de Jong was on the end of Alves’ ball against Granada, but we’re sure Messi would have been proud.

Aston Villa have signed Brazilian international Philippe Coutinho on a loan deal until the end of the season from Barcelona, the Premier League club said on Friday.

He will be reunited with former captain Steven Gerrard, with the pair playing together at Anfield from 2013-15 and Gerrard now managing Villa.

Welcome, Philippe Coutinho!