Central & South America

The stage is set for the biggest international tournament in the United States since the 1994 World Cup finals. The 2016 Copa America Centenario promises Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, James Rodriguez and another chance for both Mexico and the United States to disrupt the accepted international footballing hierarchy. This is your ultimate guide to the ultimate tournament of the Americas, the 2016 Copa America Centenario. 

Your Ultimate Guide to the 2016 Copa America Centenario

*All times indicated are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) 

When we last reported on Ronaldinho Gaucho, it was to alert you that the great Brazilian No. 10 was delaying his decision on where to play next until after Carnival.

Poor Neymar. The Barcelona striker finds himself embroiled in a battle between the Brazilian government and Barcelona over how much his transfer fee from Santos to the Catalan giants was. To make matters worse, as a result of some (read: more money than anyone reading this will see in their lives) unpaid taxes the Selecao captain has had $50 million worth of assets frozen.

This sum includes his plane. How is he supposed to fly to places now? Charter? Helicopter? Could he be reduced to flying (shudders) commercial? 

A referee has died on the pitch during a game he was officiating in Argentina after apparently being shot by a player he had red-carded earlier.

Cesar Flores, 48, was officiating a match in Cordoba, Argentina, when a yet-unnamed player was sent off and reportedly returned to the field after retreiving a gun from his bag, shooting Flores and killing him.

From FOX Soccer:

Estudiantes de Caracas, a Venezuelan First Division team, wants to project an image of betting on the future, and to do that they recorded a commercial that broke the social networks. The commercial features 10 babies playin soccer — while still in the bellies of their mothers.

In the commercial, scientists created a software that was used by 10 mothers who were in the 28th week of gestation. The babies' movements became electronic impulses that were captured on a computer and displayed, simulating a soccer game.

Three of the best Colombian players have just left well known clubs from Europe and landed in the Chinese Super League, where their new teams paid a lot of money for them.

The latest to sign to play in the Far East is Jackson Martinez. Martinez failed to convince at Atletico de Madrid, the team that bought him last summer for €35 million and has now sold him for €42 million euro to Guangzhou Evergrande. Atletico made €7 million profit on Martinez.

So, a match in an Argentinian tournament called the Copa Ciudad de Plata made it to the 93rd minute without incident. And then there was an incident. A flying karate kick incident.

The kicker is Alvaro Pereira, who has played a not-unimportant role for the Uruguayan National Team over the years and had an excellent 2014 World Cup. Here, though, he shows us that he's adept at kicking things other than soccer balls.

Ronaldinho is one of the best attacking midfielders of the modern era, up there with Kaka, Zinedine Zidane, Andres Iniesta, Pavel Nedved and others. That's exceptional company to be in, and he has now anointed a player he believes will join that group: fellow Brazilian and Liverpool man Roberto Firmino.

From The Mirror:

"I didn't ever question if he would be a great player for Liverpool, I knew that he would be," said the World Cup winner.