It is incredible to think that, with athletes across sports getting bigger, faster and stronger each and every the year, the two players most dominating their respective sports are not "big guys" at all. The two players are, of course, Messi and Curry (a.k.a. Lionel Messi and Steph Curry).
Dutch journalist Michel Abbink has apparently got ahold of the results for the 2015 Ballon d'Or award, given to the best player in the world, and the reported winner will surprise approximately nobody: Lionel Messi.
This would be Messi's fourth Ballon d'Or win in the six years the award in its current form has been given out. Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo are also finalists.
Abbink tweeted a photo that shows Messi as the male Ballon d'Or winner, and German Celia Sasic as the female winner.
Since we were kids, we've looked around for inspiring figures, people that we can imitate and learn from. And very often we tend to find them on a pitch or a court. The world of sports — and soccer in particular, due to its huge reach — is full of inspirational people for the fans.
But have you ever wondered who the biggest players admire? No matter how perfect we see them or how many qualities we project on them, they are as human as you and me, and they also grew watching other inspirational figures that pushed, motivated and taught them.
It is a near-universal truth that soccer fans want to be Messi, to live Messi's life and do what Messi does. This holds true, apparently, for other footballers as well. Just ask Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos.
Ramos tweeted out his New Year's collage earlier today, which is a thing a lot of people do. What most people don't do, however, is include in their collages pictures of other people's significant others and children.
Lionel Messi made his 500th appearance for FC Barcelona on Wednesday and, naturally, was on the scoresheet. Messi was named in the starting XI, as well as captain for the night, despite having just passed a kidney stone and traveling between Japan, Argentina, Dubai and Barcelona over the past 10 days.
No matter. Messi put in another Man of the Match performance during Barca's 4-0 La Liga victory over Real Betis.
Neymar got a new haircut. This in and of itself is not super noteworthy. Neymar gets new haircuts all the time.
What is noteworthy is how Neymar's partners on the Barcelona forward line, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, reacted to Neymar's new look, which looks kid of like a starter version of an '80s rocker mullet, with the sides shaved and the top and back slightly grown out.
Ronaldinho wore the number 10 shirt at Barcelona. When Ronaldinho Left Barcelona, Messi began wearing the number 10 shirt, a shirt he still wears today.
It may be just a jersey number, but the story behind how Messi ended up with the Barcelona number 10 jersey after Ronaldinho left is actually pretty interesting.
Paul Pogba and Lionel Messi hung out in Dubai because they are awesome. And Paul Pogba dabbed.
If you are unfamiliar with what "dabbing" is, it's the latest popular sports celebration dance, popularized by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, that makes old white people very nervous and spawns comments like this from them:
The past was always better. That seems to sum up Pelé’s vision of modern soccer. He said that nowadays he would be a much better player than he was in his day because there is more preparation and care for footballers.
Luis Enrique stands on the touchline and watches FC Barcelona’s tremendous troika of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar (MSN) nearly every day in matches and in training.
And yet, the Blaugrana boss remains amazed at what the trio can accomplish when they are at their best.
“They are the best in the world,” Enrique told the press recently. “They have a great understanding and when they don’t all score [in a match] they’re not happy.”