It was an eventful Thursday for 21-year-old Arsenal talent Bukayo Saka.
It all started with news of the England international gracing the cover of TIME magazine's "Next Generation Leaders" issue.
How @BukayoSaka87 became the inspiring new face of British soccer. Meet TIME’s latest class of Next Generation Leaders https://t.co/QZAXRmpNZX pic.twitter.com/gMGVdcs55s
After 17 straight seasons of advancing to the Champions League knockout stages between 2004-05 and 2020-21, Barcelona is about to drop down to the Europa League for the second straight campaign after a damning 3-3 home draw with Inter Milan Wednesday left the Italian side just a win against Viktoria Plzeň away from securing a top-two place in Group C alongside Bayern Munich.
Chelsea striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang clarified his comments on Mikel Arteta after a video showed him criticizing the Arsenal manager, saying that he had "a lot of bad feelings" for the north London club at that time but wishes them well now.
The video, which was leaked on social media, showed Aubameyang saying "Big characters and big players... he can't deal with it. He needs some young players who don't say anything" as the Gabon international spoke about Arteta.
I've played on long fields, short fields, skinny fields, wide fields. Fields with metal fencing as the net and fields so hilly you could barely see from one goal to another. In high school, the inauguration of our newly-turfed home field was even delayed because movable goals were brought in instead of anchored ones.
But never have I heard of the goals being two different sizes — as was the case at Saturday's EFL Championship match between Wigan Athletic and Cardiff City.
Liverpool fans are not happy with Darwin Núñez. The club paid a hefty $82 million to Benfica for the Uruguayan in an attempt to strengthen its front line after Sadio Mané's exit, while also providing talk for pundits about how he would compete with Erling Haaland for the Golden Boot. However, the striker hasn't hit it off and is starting to be called a bust.
Núñez has played a mere 340 minutes across all competitions and scored two goals (one in the PL and one in the Community Shield) — far from the 34 he bagged with Benfica last campaign.
Why such a difference?
While Mexico is still licking the wounds left by the 3-2 loss against Colombia in a friendly match played in Santa Clara, California, an unusual and unnoticed mistake made by U.S. referee Nima Saghafi is starting to make the rounds online. He let Colombia kick off both halves of the game.
We all know it. One team starts the game and the other restarts it in the second half, according to what is determined in the coin toss.
"Rule 8.1: Kick-Off
On Tuesday night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, Lionel Messi was limited to 34 minutes off the bench but again demonstrated why his form has Argentina firmly placed among the favorites in Qatar.
Messi scored twice — giving him nine goals in his last three international appearances — to continue his incredible start to 2022-23 (he has six goals and eight assists in 11 games for PSG).
The first was a 22-yard rip that skipped into the corner beyond a despairing Andre Blake in the 86th minute.
Oh boy. After getting played off the pitch against Japan last Friday, our USMNT vs Saudi Arabia player ratings from Tuesday's friendly in Spain aren't much better.
Saudi Arabia entered the match having recently gone goalless against Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, and that lack of a cutting edge was evident against the U.S. — although the Americans did take it in turns to gift opportunities to the Green Falcons.
Over 2.5 million people tuned into the Sidemen FC Charity Match vs. the YouTube All Stars on Saturday as some of the internet’s biggest personalities competed at a sold out Charlton Athletics’ stadium. The Sidemen FC vs YouTube All Stars highlights saw 15 goals and plenty of fun.
This was the fourth time the Sidemen have hosted a charity match and this year’s game helped raise money for Campaign Against Living Miserably, Teenage Cancer Trust, Rays of Sunshine and M7E.
Here were the starting lineups for Saturday’s game.
On Thursday night at 11 p.m. in Madrid, the Spanish women's national team — one of the favorites at the upcoming 2023 World Cup — was thrown into disarray after 15 players, in emails sent to the Spanish Federation (RFEF), reportedly made themselves unavailable for selection until the dismissal of longstanding manager Jorge Vilda.