It’s that time of year again, when football’s biggest stars trapeze around different Spainish isles, drop anchor off the coast of Ibiza and sleep on the streets of Tenerife. One of these days, The18 staff is going to invest in some large dolphin floaties and report live from the Mediterranean Sea while sipping on Skittles vodka, but today is not that day.
Luis Suarez is famous for three things: scoring lots of goals, biting the occasional person and throwing himself to the ground in mock panic like air-raid sirens are going off.
He hasn't bitten anyone in a while, so the flopping has lately become the most scrutinized and ridiculed part of Suarez's existence in the soccer universe. You may have partaken in this yourself, but I bet you didn't know there is a method to Suarez's madness. Behind his seemingly-spontaneous dives is an intricate technique that many can learn but few can master. Suarez is a master.
It doesn’t count on the scoresheet, but there’s something entirely satisfying about seeing an absolute crack smash off the woodwork. As humans, we like loud noises, and nothing makes us ooh and aah more than football’s own version of fireworks — the ball crashing into the crossbar from distance and flying into the heavens.
Apart from that spectacle, great goals can be denied for a myriad of other reasons: sometimes it’s the referee, sometimes it’s a curmudgeonly defender or goalkeeper and sometimes it’s that idiot Nani.
Social media is now the most powerful tool for marketing products and services. For celebrities and world-class athletes, social media plays an important role in engaging with fans. As social media becomes more and more commercially influential, it only makes sense that the more followers they get, the more income they'll receive.
From The Simpsons to Charlie Brown and Shrek to Tarzan, we've compiled a list of footballers who may or may not have been the insipriation behind these characters. Take a look at the 11 footballers who most look like cartoon characters.
La Liga took another step towards the finish line with Barcelona swatting aside Las Palmas, 4-1, and Real Madrid dispatching fourth-placed Sevilla 4-1 at the Bernabeu on Sunday.
The result saw Barcelona stay atop the La Liga table on head-to-head record, but Real Madrid maintain their vital game in hand. Barcelona’s final match is on Sunday against Eibar, while all eyes will be on Real Madrid in Galicia on Wednesday when they travel to play Celta Vigo before finishing away to Malaga.
Today was a big day for Lionel Messi. The Barcelona star scored his 50th and 51st goals of the season – in only his 49th match. This puts Messi well ahead of Ballon d'Or rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored only 35 goals to-date this season in all competitions. Messi has scored as many in La Liga alone.
El Clasico is this weekend, and we happen to have some Real Madrid and Barcelona partisans on the staff here at The18. So we asked Bryce (a Barcelona fan) and Javier (a Real Madrid fan) to write about why the opposing team will win on Sunday.
By Bryce Badwan
This video is dope. Barcelona, the Camp Nou, pregame warmups before a game against Sevilla featuring Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez — this has all the right elements.
And then…absolutely nothing happens. But it’s still somehow really good. The slow motion, the song lyrics that match nicely with what’s going on (“reverse that!”) and three of the best players on the planet kicking a football.
I don't even know the song, but it's stuck in my head now.
“When you’re lookin’ at me
what you see is the best