BARCELONA/PARIS - Barcelona fans gathered outside Lionel Messi's house on Monday and spoke of their sadness at the club's greatest player leaving after 21 years, while Paris Saint-Germain fans eagerly awaited his arrival in the French capital.
One Barça member filed complaints with a French court and with the European Commission to try to block any move by PSG to sign Messi, according to documents seen by Reuters on Monday.
After all the tearful farewells to Lionel Messi in the morning, Barcelona still had a match to play on Sunday evening. And in the 10th minute, the limited fans in attendance gave a preview of how they’ll honor the club legend throughout the upcoming campaign.
BARCELONA — From posing for selfies to enjoying seafront meals and taking his children to bouncy castles, Lionel Messi's down-to-earth existence won him the admiration of many locals in his longtime hometown Barcelona.
Messi bade a tearful farewell to FC Barcelona on Sunday, preparing to find a new life away from the Castelldefels suburb where he lived a peaceful, homely existence.
BARCELONA — Lionel Messi wept on Sunday as he bade farewell to his boyhood team FC Barcelona and confirmed he was talking with French club Paris St. Germain over a possible move.
The 34-year-old Argentine's emotional news conference followed Barca's announcement last week that it could no longer afford him after a glittering two decades.
No lo voy a negar, el discurso de despedida de Leo Messi del Barcelona me tocó una fibra. No al nivel del adiós de Marcelo Bielsa a la selección chilena, pero una pena moderada como fanático del fútbol, lo más importante dentro de las cosas menos importantes.
Hay -o quiero creer que hay- algo profundamente triste en su poco ceremoniosa salida, gatillada supuestamente por las normativas de fair play financiero de LaLiga, sin la oportunidad de despedirse a estadio lleno, con una ovación acorde al legado que construyó en sus 21 años ligado al club.
PARIS — Paris St. Germain started its Ligue 1 campaign with a comeback 2-1 win at promoted Troyes on Saturday while anticipating the arrival of six-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi, who appears set to join the French giant.
Messi will be holding a news conference at 10 a.m. GMT on Sunday after Barcelona said earlier this week that the 34-year-old Argentine will leave the club.
Zack Steffen did his best to keep Manchester City in its Community Shield match with Leicester City, but he couldn’t quite do enough. Kelechi Iheanacho converted on an 89th-minute penalty kick to finally find a way past the American goalkeeper as the Foxes won their second Community Shield title on Saturday, the first coming in 1971.
Steffen made four saves, including one that was arguably the play of the game, but could only get his fingertips to Iheanacho’s well-struck penalty in the closing minutes.
No one in the world has won more men’s soccer trophies than Dani Alves. You’d never know it from how he celebrated his first Olympic gold medal on Saturday.
The 38-year-old Alves helped his country to a repeat gold at the Olympics as the Seleção beat Spain 2-1 in extra time. When the final whistle blew, Alves broke down in tears of joy.
¡Un título más para @DaniAlvesD2 !
Lionel Messi is set to join Paris St Germain after Barcelona were forced to let their Argentine talisman go as they could not afford to give him a new contract under La Liga's salary limit rules, L'Equipe reported on Friday.
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Canada triumphed with its first gold medal in women's football by beating Sweden 3-2 on penalties after Friday's final ended 1-1 following regular and extra time.
Julia Grosso kept her cool with the decisive penalty in sudden death to give Canada top spot on the podium after bronze medals at London and Rio.
The Swedish team, who had enjoyed far greater pressure throughout the 120 minutes and were one kick away from victory in the shootout, collapsed on the ground, with several members of the squad breaking into tears.