The exorbitant fees that the Chinese Super League has been willing to pay to land the world’s best look like peanuts compared to what one unnamed CSL club was willing to pay Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo to bring the Ballon d’Or winner to East Asia.
Cataluña, la comunidad autónoma ubicada en el extremo este de España con Barcelona como su capital y su ciudad más grande, ha estado pidiendo su independencia desde la Guerra civil española. Con una autonomía cultural y política, además del uso prevalente del idioma catalán, seguido de eso la región tendría su propio equipo nacional de fútbol.
Sin embargo, Cataluña no está afiliado con la FIFA o la UEFA y eso los descalifica de poder participar en la Copa del Mundo o en el torneo europeo.
Almost every FC Barcelona YouTube video, given the talent at the club, is worth a view. However, every once in a very long while, they release a video starring Lionel Messi during his La Masia days. These are particularly important because they showcase the unreasonable talents of a goofy looking 14-year-old with control like Diego Maradona.
It's talent like this that saw Messi rapidly progress through the club's ranks, making his first team debut as a 16-year-old.
We still have to wait over a week for Barcelona to return to action in the Copa del Rey against Athletic Bilbao, but the folks at Barca’s official YouTube channel have made the wait a little more bearable by sharing a video of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar warming up.
With any other attacking trio of teammates this would most likely fall flat, but here are three of the five best players on the planet performing tricks and volleying across the field at each other.
You could certainly do worse with one minute of your time.
A joint effort between the Japanese and Spanish has seen the first footballer successfully launched into space. Takashi Inui, a Japanese international and midfielder for Eibar, rocketed to infinity and beyond with the help of Spanish goalkeeper Iago Herrerin.
According to our planisphere star chart, Inui is currently near Mars’s moon Phobos, taking pictures of the Martian planet’s polar ice caps. He will hopefully return to Earth in time for Eibar’s next match against against Sporting in the Spanish Cup.
It hasn’t taken much, but Jonathan dos Santos has matched his career best for goals in a season. In 66 previous La Liga appearances, Dos Santos had managed a total of two goals, both during his debut season with Villarreal in 2014-15, but he’s already scored twice in only 14 appearances for the Yellow Submarine this campaign.
18-year-old referee Fahd Abbou El Mourabit was punched and knocked unconscious while refereeing a match in Zaragoza, Spain. According to Australian television network SBS, the match was between Miralbueno and San Juan in the regional first division.
After awarding a second penalty against Miralbueno in the game’s opening 28 minutes, El Mourabit was brutally attacked by a player and punched multiple times.
Cristiano Ronaldo has collected his fourth Ballon d’Or as the top player on the planet, according to France Football magazine, for 2016. Having led Real Madrid and Portugal to victory in the Champions League and at Euro 2016 respectively, Ronaldo now trails Lionel Messi, who has five in his collection, by only a single award.
Oriol Riera, in all good sense, has had a very good professional career. He’s achieved success in the lower divisions of Spain with clubs like Cultural Leonesa and Alcorcon, and he’s secured his role as a grafting, workmanlike forward in La Liga with stints at Osasuna, his current club, and Deportivo La Coruna.
However, history will always remember Riera best as the answer to an obscure piece of pub trivia, for Riera made his senior Barca debut alongside a 16-year-old who was making his own premiere, one Lionel Messi.
FC Barcelona have confirmed through their official Twitter page that they’ve invited Brazilian club Chapecoense to play in the 2017 Gamper Trophy, an annual preseason friendly match held in August at Barca’s Camp Nou stadium.
According to the club, the match “aims to help with the reconstruction of [Chapecoense]” following the tragic airplane accident which claimed the lives of 71 people, including 19 of Chapecoense’s players.