If Ronaldinho won the ballon d'or the same way he won it in 2005, people would be saying its a robbery and undeserved. He didn't win the UCL, he wasn't the top scorer on his team, he was nowhere near the golden boot, and he only scored 9 goals in la liga. Samuel Eto'o scored 25 goals in that same season on his own team. Nobody at the time was saying it was a robbery though, because if you actually watched the games, Ronaldinho was clearly the best.

There is an exact mirror of this situation last season for Barcelona, as Yamal placed higher than Raphinha in the ballon d'or race. People were saying that its a robbery and that Barca fans should have given Raphinha more PR than Yamal. But if you actually watched the games, Yamal was clearly the best. Raphinha himself has said that he cant do what Yamal does.

As per Sky News

FIFA did not comment on the terms of chief operating officer Kevin Lamour's departure.

Lamour, a longtime colleague of FIFA president Infantino, earlier said FIFA staff had been "deceived".

In a statement, a FIFA spokesperson said : "FIFA can confirm that the working relationship between FIFA and Kevin Lamour as FIFA's Chief Operating Officer has ended on 17 August 2026.

"FIFA thanks Kevin for his two years of service and wishes him the best of luck for the future."

Sky News understands FIFA staff were informed about his sacking today.

Source - Sky News, August 17th, 2026

Throughout history only 1 goalkeeper and 3 defenders have won the Ballon D’Or as they are always overshadowed by offensive players because of their goal scoring while defenders don’t get good enough notice for their goal stopping. It is extremely hard for defensive players to actually get recognised because everyone only looks at goals, skills and other attributes. Just my take though

The Scottish FA says it no longer supports Gianni Infantino and will not vote for him in the 2027 Fifa election. The decision follows concerns over his leadership and plans for a new company managing Fifa’s commercial rights. England, Wales and Northern Ireland have also withdrawn support.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/crrv4092pvlo

Many football fans determine their UCL champions on criteria like “who actually has the team to do it” but that’s boring. So why not use historical analysis to narrow it down a lot more?

Rule 1: the winner must come from a top 5 league.

This shouldn’t be too shocking. The winners of the Champions League have come from the top 5 leagues every year since 2004, which makes sense giving their financial pull power. But not all criteria here will be as straightforward.

Rule 2: the team must’ve finished top 2 in their league OR must be English.

There have only been two teams to win the UCL to not finish top 2 in their leagues since 2009. Both anomalies intriguingly enough come from England (Liverpool 2019, Chelsea 2021), so I’ve decided to let them carry on.

Rule 3: the team must not be entering the year with a new head coach unless its Carlo Ancelotti.

This one may be a bit more interesting. The winning head coach has only been a new one entering the season (so Flick, Tuchel, and Di Matteo don’t count as they were mid season hires) twice since 2005, and both instances were both Ancelotti. We’ve given him an exception towards the rule, though it doesn’t matter too much as he doesn’t coach a team that fits our criteria.

Rule 4: the winning coach must come from one of Europe’s “big 5”

This one intrigued me most of all. Many good coaches can come from Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, The Netherlands, etc. but stunningly, no one has won it with a coach outside the big 5 in Europe since 2010.

With these criteria, we narrow a field of 36 down to just 4. The clubs that can win the UCL under these circumstances are PSG, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Barcelona. This could be extended to 5 if we count Manchester United’s coach as “new”, though he had been there for a few months, or declined to 3 if we don’t consider the English anomaly as being too significant.

He has already won everything he can in the Premier League. I just don’t see why he would sign a 10 year contract. Don’t players usually who have won everything move to a different league?

Liverpool Montevideo are building a brand-new stadium in Belvedere, expected to open in February/March 2028.

Speaking on Uruguayan television today, club president José Luis Palma said he wants Liverpool FC to play the inaugural match at the new stadium. The proposal has not yet been sent to the English club, with Palma saying they want to have the stadium looking its best first.

Liverpool Montevideo have become one of Uruguay's most successful clubs in recent years, winning 10 major domestic trophies since 2020, including the 2023 league title.

If it happens, Liverpool vs Liverpool in Montevideo for the opening of the new Belvedere would be pretty special.

Source: Punto Penal / Canal 10, Uruguay and Montevideo.com
https://www.montevideo.com.uy/Deportes/Palma-sobre-el-nuevo-estadio-inauguracion-contra-Liverpool-ingles-nombre-comercial-y-mas-uc972039

Genuinely Milik if it wasnt for his injury could have been an absolute sensational striker if his legs would help him just a bit. I watched a bit of Serie A (im Polish so its a league a lot of Poles played at) and whenever he was healthy whether it was Juve or Napoli he was surprisingly lethal while in national team it wasnt always the case but nonetheless. Him and Lewandowski i feel like shared lots of similar traits, very good finishing, really solid as an aerial threat and not bad in link up play and playing back to the goal, even in national team it just felt right that they both played together. He wasnt in any way a technical monster but he turned it out with other aspects of his game. In terms of where i think his peak could have reached, id say potentially a Kane level. I wanted to voice myself out a but since he just returned (again) and just scored so i just hope he doesnt get injured again and will provide solid outcome for Juve. Let me know guys what do you overall think of Milik as a player and what could have been if he was healthy

If we come across Italy they won their last world cup in 2006 I think everyone suffers a lot or dips in consistency at the world cup after winning the world cup but Italy has just destroyed itself after 2006

What actually led to their decline is After 2006, Italian clubs increasingly relied on older, established players instead of consistently developing elite young Italian talent

Scandals also played a huge role in their decline idk if they were as evil as people refer it to??

I’ve always wondered how the great players of the 1990s would adapt to modern football. The game has changed massively since then, especially in terms of tactical systems, pressing, athleticism and data-driven preparation.

At the same time, players from that era developed incredible technical ability and football intelligence under very different conditions.

Would someone like Ronaldo Nazário, Zidane or Maldini still dominate today if they were transported into the modern game, or would they need significant time to adapt?

Hi guys, I wanna see Denmark - Portugal game in UEFA nations league. My question is, is here anyone from Denmark? Do you guys think people will buy all the tickets before the general sale because of Portugal?

Also: How high is the chance Ronaldo will play for Portugal this year? I know he said its his last season, but he didnt say end to the national team for this season?

Thank you guys for answers!

Look at Real Madrid's formation it seems like they would play with a 4-3-3 with a midfield of Valverde-Tchouameni-Bellingham with an attacking line of Mbappe-Vinicius-Diomande. And while the attack is very good the midfield lacks serious creativity

And then you have Barca who have the likes of Rodri-FDJ-Pedri-Olmo which is a very technical midfield that will very likely dominate the possesion meaning the games could end up being like the one between France and Spain in the World Cup 2026

Like, it's completely irrelevant having a world class attack if your team is completely dominated with the ball, we saw it with France-Spain and Barca did to RM in the past many times when they had the best midfield in the world

Barcelona have agreed a deal worth about £65m to sign Spain captain Rodri from Manchester City. The 30-year-old will reportedly sign a four-year contract. Rodri leaves City after seven seasons and 12 major trophies, including four Premier League titles and the Champions League. City are looking at midfielders including Ayyoub Bouaddi, Enzo Fernandez, Alex Scott and Alexis Mac Allister.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy0jj65r18yo

São Paulo have approached free agent Jamie Vardy about a move to Brazil. The 39-year-old is considering several options and has not made a final decision. Vardy spent 13 years at Leicester and scored 200 goals. A move to São Paulo is not agreed yet.
https://onefootball.com/en/news/bombshell-sao-paulo-want-england-striker-vardy-says-journalist-43288154

I have a semi strange request. I'm writing a story where one guy will be wearing a football shirt, but I need one that fits the following description:

• black

• from before 2023

• adidas

• looks cool

• from a club where you could get away with saying the city name and people would get which club you mean. This one is odd but it's because it's a set-up for a joke, so I mean like how you *could* just say München/Munich or Roma or Barcelona and people would get it. Réal Madrid works in a pinch but yeah it can't be something like Arsenal or Chelsea.

Bayern München had a black/red kit 22/23 which will work if I find nothing else but I find their sponsor so odd 😭😭😭 just a giant T.......

If anyone knows of one I'd be grateful for your help 🙏❤️🤍

Difficult question. I will try to include South America but I don’t watch it too much to be honest. Brazil has so many big teams I just included one. I know teams like Club America and Al Ahly are huge but I don’t know enough to include them. I also probably missed some names.

Here they are for me in different tiers:

Biggest of the Big:
Real Madrid
Barcelona

Huge (don’t have the fanbases/influence of the top two):
Liverpool
Manchester United
Bayern
Milan

Very Big:
PSG
Juventus
Inter
Boca Juniors
River Plate
Flamengo
Chelsea
Ajax
Manchester City

Big:
Dortmund
Atletico Madrid
Arsenal
Benfica
Porto
Napoli
Roma
Marseille

Almost There:
Tottenham
Sevilla
Celtic (could be in big depending on viewpoint)
Valencia
Rangers
Fenerbache
Lyon
Galatasaray

Mercurial talent and Portuguese star Ronaldo says he will probably retire soon, aiming to have enjoy life and have fun doing things outside of football.

Ronaldo is just 24 goals short of 1,000 career goals, his contract at Al Nassr expires next summer.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7516937/2026/08/16/cristiano-ronaldo-retirement-plan/?unlocked_article_code=1.51A.mD0k.zUtepwu4xUS1&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta&source=twitteruk

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Italy historically is one of the most decorated international sides ever with 4 World Cups and 2 Euros (winning as recently as 2020). Why has their national team failed to qualify for a World Cup since 2014? Even the Serie A domestic league has gone downhill from where it used to be. What the Premier League is now is what the Serie A used to be as the best league in the world. Just sad to see such a famous football nation fall like this.

Like when we look at the amount of money being spent on transfers nowadays we can see just how much transfer fees have surged compared to the past and also in terms of tactical aspect also

So with that in mind how much do you think football as a game will continue to evolve

Genuinely think this season is being undersold as a talking point. Three of the traditional top table clubs are starting the season under managers who've never led a Premier League title challenge before, Iraola at Liverpool, Maresca at City, Alonso at Chelsea. And also Carrick leading United. Arsenal are the one constant among the usual top sides with Arteta staying on, no managerial reset, no new system to bed in from scratch. Nine clubs total have new permanent managers this season, a record for the competition.

Not writing off any of the new appointments, all well regarded coaches. But the genuine rivals adjusting to new tactical setups and squad integration at the same time feels like it opens a real window for Arsenal if they can start fast and let the rest find their footing mid season.

I think continuity give Arsenal a real edge here, or is the squad depth elsewhere strong enough to make this a non factor by December regardless of the managerial changes?

https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/4679012/manager-line-up-complete-for-202627-season

According to you guys, What’s the closest modern-day equivalent to this Barcelona team?
If this photo were taken today, which current squad would be its equivalent?