lionel-messi Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

They’re still Manchester Damn City
It’s a little surprising, just a bit, how a team that cantered to the Premier League title and was a Champions League finalist just a few months ago can somehow fly under the radar. But with the noise of Cristiano Ronaldo and his rape accusations landing across town, or Romelu Lukaku giving Chelsea ...

Your 2021-2022 Champions League Guide
Despite the attempt to kill it from Europe’s leading clubs last spring (and UEFA’s eventual success in doing so in the coming years), the Champions League returns today in its usual form. While it has become the nexus point in all that’s wrong with soccer and has certainly widened the gap between th...

Harry Kane decides to stay with Tottenham
It just might not be as violent as we thought. But maybe weirder. ...

So what does this say about Neymar?
When it comes to anything off the field in La Liga, and especially the two giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, if one of my eyebrows isn’t raised then it’s certainly in the starting blocks to be so. So when news last Thursday broke that Lionel Messi was leaving Barca due to their self-imposed, financi...

Barcelona shows why fan ownership of sports teams works
There are takes, and “Barca’s Messi Debacle Shows Flaws of Fan-Owned Teams” is a take, for sure — one that hilariously appears at Bloomberg, of all places....

Hey, so uhh, if you bet Barca to win La Liga this season…
You may want to go ahead and tear those tickets up. Or not, because as with anything concerning Barcelona, Lionel Messi, and La Liga, nothing is ever quite as it seems....
![All roads lead to Manchester City [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/3e280cb34547477636cd586944d68a54.jpg)
All roads lead to Manchester City [Updated]
Boy the pandemic really handicapped Middle Eastern oil money, huh?...

Argentina, and Messi, finally win again
Saturday wound up being one of those days in sports where seemingly everything happens all at once....

Messi survives despite it all at the Copa
It’s been weird whenever I check in on Copa America. With the Euros taking place in front of fans and the mess that the Copa was before it even kicked off, it kind of feels like it’s taking place in some sort of dungeon club that you need a password to get into and you have to provide your own leath...

The problems with FC Barcelona
With the Euros wrapping up, the next few weeks will be filled with the usual summer madness of transfer stories and players signing here and there or not signing here or there and the rumors that cover both....

First it was very much Spain, then it wasn’t, then it was, then it wasn’t, and now we don’t know what to think
I’ve been using the term “Spain’ing” a lot during Euro 2020, harkening back to the era before Spain was drenched in medals, where they would always squander any tournament despite fielding one of the most talented squads. They could find any way to lose back then, whether through simple malaise, or ...

Luis Suárez gets his revenge
No one will ever feel bad for Luis Suárez. We’ve seen him try to eat several opponents (though it did lead to one of the best terrace songs of all-time, “He cheats! He dives! He likes his snacks alive!”) Even more seriously, he was suspended for racially abusing Patrice Evra, an event that, had it h...

Harry Kane wants out, and the summer striker showcase showdown is on
The rumors started a few weeks ago, but Tottenham’s firing of José Mourinho as manager seemingly has not been enough to keep their favorite son home. Harry Kane has reportedly told Tottenham he wants to move on this summer, to a club where he can win things instead of just waving at them as they go ...

Nobody wants to win La Liga
The pandemic soccer season hasn’t thrown up a lot of drama across Europe. Either alongside or because of the oppressive schedule, which has led to exhausted players and pretty wretched games at various times, we’ve mostly gotten title processions instead of races. Bayern Munich sauntered to a ninth-...

COVID could make next FIFA international window a bigger mess than usual
The club vs. country fight is a long and storied one in soccer, with clubs always more than a little peeved about releasing the players they’re paying millions to travel to different training schedules and medical staffs, for games they aren’t compensated for. Players getting hurt on national team d...

Is it bad that Barça’s CEO, lawyer, and former president got arrested?
This week on “What’s Gone Wrong At Barcelona Now?” we watch current and former execs go to the can!...

Kylian Mbappé ends Barcelona as we know it with hat trick
There really isn’t a better wielder of the axe that struck the final blow on this era of Barcelona than Kylian Mbappé and his three-goal night. While it’s been Lionel Messi’s world for so long, any minute now it’s going to be Mbappé’s to do with how he sees fit. That is, if it isn’t already....

$1.5B in debt, Barcelona are broke-ass broke — and royally FC'd
We’ve spent the past year casting doubt upon American sports franchises’ claims of just how much an effect the pandemic had on their finances. They claim “biblical” losses left and right, while never bothering to provide any information to confirm that. Well, thankfully, unless you’re a Barcelona su...

Mesut Ozil and the death of the #10
If it feels like the Mesut Ozil and Arsenal soap opera has lasted longer than most actual soap operas, you’re not alone. It’s been over three seasons, spanned two managers (and an interim one), a couple different Arsenal regimes, and certainly countless social media posts and anonymous whispers from...

Budweiser celebrates Messi by shipping bad beer to every goalie he’s beaten
Lionel Messi has driven many a goalkeeper to drink over the course of his legendary career. Now, all the more so....