Stars — they're just like us! (Except for David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic — they're celebrating the holidays like only they can.) Here's a collection of how some top footballers celebrated Christmas.
Lionel Messi and family
The winter-break period separating the first half and the second half of the season in Europe’s top five leagues is a great time for clubs to reflect on a club's season (although winter break doesn’t exist in England). Even before Christmas, but Europe’s top clubs are preparing for their second half of the season push. Here are some New Year's resolutions for Europe’s top clubs in the big five leagues.
No one is going to deny Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the greatest footballers of the last 20 years — perhaps even all time. But what if they didn’t play for the best clubs in the world? What if they played in smaller leagues? What if Messi and Ronaldo played in Ligue 1 and Liga NOS?
Well, they’d be Hatem Ben Arfa and Bas Dost, respectively.
The genius of Lionel Messi propelled Barcelona to a 5-0 victory over Levante on Sunday evening in Valencia — the Argentine was involved in all five goals with a hat-trick and two assists. Luis Suarez also had a goal and was heavily involved in setting up two of Messi’s. The 31-year-olds are alright.
The first goal arrived in the 35th minute after Messi danced across the top of the box. With defenders circling and closing around him, Messi pulled off an impossible reverse ball which Suarez converted with sublime control.
During an extensive talk with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo spoke about why he deserves the Ballon d’Or every year, how he’s loving life in Turin and how he doesn’t like to be compared to other footballers . . .
Lionel Messi had one of those matches where you just can’t defend him, inspiring Barcelona to a 4-0 win over Espanyol on Saturday. Not one but two perfect free kick goals from Messi vs Espanyol highlighted another magnificent performance from one of the legends of the game.
Messi was voted the fifth-best player in the world on Monday and wasn’t in the squad for Barcelona’s Copa del Rey win over Cultural Leonesa on Wednesday. In his first match since the absurd suggestion that he isn’t among the top one or two players in the world, he reminded everyone of just how good he is.