In an interview with ESPN, Lionel Messi detailed his ambitions for the remainder of the club season. Messi and Barcelona will be looking to capture two titles in the space of a week — a victory over Granada on May 14 will see them capture the La Liga crown, while Sevilla await in the final of the Copa del Rey on May 22.
Looking back, Gareth Bale’s first year at Real Madrid was a resounding success. He scored 22 goals and provided 19 assists in 44 matches in 2013/14, won the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. He lived up to his billing as the most expensive footballer on the planet, but it didn’t always look like he would.
Outside of Leicester City, one of the most improbable feel good stories of the year is the rejuvenation of French winger Hatem Ben Arfa's career. On January 4, 2015, Ben Arfa was released from his contract with Newcastle United, making him a free agent. Now, a little over a year later, he’s on the verge of signing for Barcelona as a vital back-up for their heralded front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.
Do you like jazz? Do you like Lionel Messi? Do you like one and not the other? Well, either way you're in luck. A redditor created a video that compiled all of Messi's passes with the sweet sounds of piano, bass, trombone and trumpet playing in the background. One thing you'll notice in this video is actually the amount of opportunities missed by Messi's teammates after he feeds them pin point passes. Alas, the Argentine still has 15 assists in La Liga, which is good enough to be tied for first in the league with his teammate, Luis Suarez.
Barcelona forward Luis Suárez surprised the world with statements he made to the European TV network Helden TV, in which he said he did not feel qualified to play for the Catalan club.
The Uruguayan is currently one of the figureheads of the FC Barcelona team. He is La Liga’s top scorer with 35 goals and joint top assistant with 14 assists, tied with his teammate Lionel Messi.
Barcelona came into their game against Real Betis knowing that they needed to win to stay in first place in La Liga over Atletico Madrid via head-to-head point differential, but they came out of the gates like a team with little to play for.
Seven yellow cards were given out between Barcelona and Betis in the first half, more than the number of shots taken by both teams in that time, six.
It's pretty clear that Lionel Messi is naturally talented. Even when he was 17, you could see that he was just inherently special. That being said, Lionel Messi didn't make it to where he is by pure talent alone. It takes a lot of hard work and discipline to play at the top level and produce the kind of numbers that Messi does. Needless to say, the Lionel Messi diet is probably a pretty good one.
Real Madrid fans will not want to hear this, but it looks like there is a chance that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema will miss Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Manchester City on Wednesday.
In 2015, Spanish club Athletic Bilbao started the "One Club Man Award," which aims to celebrate players outside of Athletic who spent their entire career at one club. The first award was given to Southampton's Matt Le Tissier last year, in recognition of "Le God's" 16 seasons at the the English club.
Here are some numbers concerning Barcelona's La Liga form during the last two weeks, none of which we are making up.
Barca have scored 14 goals in their last two games, eight against Deportivo la Coruna and six against Sporting Gijon. They have not been scored against. Eight of those goals were scored by Luis Suarez, four in each game. Four of those goals were assisted by Luis Suarez, three against Deportivo and one against Sporting.