Spain

Spain may have made beating Romania look difficult Thursday, but before the match Thiago made playing soccer look easy. A video released by the Spainish national team of Thiago skills has gone viral among the soccer community. 

The video captures the Bayern midfielder making cross-field passes with another teammate; sounds simple enough right? Oh yeah, I forget to mention that he's juggling and passing the ball between teammates without the ball touching the ground.

Sergio Ramos picking up a yellow card is about as newsworthy as Zlatan Ibrahimovic being narcissistic. This Sergio Ramos yellow card, however, was a bit different.

Barcelona slumped to a 2-2 draw with Osasuna on Saturday, leaving the Blaugrana in eighth place and five points back of leader Atlético Madrid following three match days.

Who needs Lionel Messi when you’ve got Ansu Fati?

Well, Barcelona still needs Messi, but the Catalan club has something special in this 16-year-old forward. 

With Messi out injured, Fati made his LaLiga debut last week as Antoine Griezmann stole the show. 

Against Osasuna on Saturday, Fati was the star.

Eden Hazard won Europa League Player of the Season honors on Friday. 

And it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

 2018/19 #UEL Player of the Season!

  #UEFAawards | #UELdraw pic.twitter.com/xcL4rwNdaW

With Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Ousmane Dembélé all sidelined through injury, new signing Antoine Griezmann took center stage in Barcelona’s 5-2 victory over Real Betis at the Camp Nou on Sunday night. 

After losing their season opener last Friday against Athletic Bilbao, Barça’s nightmarish start continued when Nabil Fekir opened the scoring for Betis in the 15th minute. 

Given a much more normal pathway to his footballing career, Martin Ødegaard is thriving. After establishing himself as one of the best playmakers in the Eredivisie last season while on loan at Vitesse (the former wunderkind scored eight goals and provided 11 assists in 31 appearances), the 20-year-old Norwegian is finally getting his chance in LaLiga, although he’s now on loan at Real Sociedad.

Is Messi injured still? That’s the question on every Barcelona fan’s mind as the Blaugrana prepare for their second LaLiga match of the 2019-20 campaign.

Sadly, it appears their talisman, Lionel Messi, is still out injured.

For the second straight week, Messi was not included in Ernesto Valverde’s LaLiga squad. In his place is 16-year-old phenom Ansu Fati.

Should footballers stick to soccer or should they use their platform to promote their beliefs? Would your answer be different if the footballer was trying to promote a particular religion, clothing line or political view, or if those beliefs differ from your own? How about speaking up for social issues? Where do you draw the line?

Juan Mata, for one, doesn’t think an athlete should be pigeonholed into only talking about his or her sport. 

Fernando Torres played the final match of his long, storied career on Friday. El Niño won everything there is to win in soccer: youth championships, two European championships, a World Cup and a Champions League. He scored everywhere he went (though it took him a while at Chelsea) and has never been disparaged as a bad teammate.