Barcelona playmaker claims award after a stunning seasonMessi wins his seventh title, edging out Robert LewandowskiAlexia Putellas and Lionel Messi have been crowned winners of the 2021 Ballon d’Or during a glittering ceremony in Paris.Putellas, who wa…
Simon Kjær on Ballon d’Or shortlist as men’s and women’s nominees revealed
Kjær played key role after Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrestEngland’s Ellen White and Fran Kirby on women’s shortlistThe magazine France Football has announced the shortlists for the Ballon d’Or awards, with the Denmark and Milan defender Simon Kjær a…
Rise of the petro-giants: PSG, Manchester City and Chelsea eclipse old guard | Jonathan Wilson
The travails of the traditional European elite as new money dominated the transfer window suggest things have changedIn times of crisis, the winners are usually the rich. As clubs across Europe continue to struggle against the financial impact of the p…
PSG’s signing of Lionel Messi shows celebrity is trumping competition | Jonathan Wilson
Ligue 1 looks unhealthily one-sided and it is not alone: the domination of the game’s super-clubs is only just beginningIt gets to Sunday evening. You’ve done your chores. You’ve had your dinner.You’re tired. You have work on Monday. You just want some…
The Guardian view on Barcelona and Messi: decline and fall | Editorial
One of the world’s greatest sporting institutions lost sight of the principles on which its success was basedTen years ago at Wembley, FC Barcelona won football’s Champions League with a performance that established an absolute hegemony in the world’s …
Difficult days for Real Madrid and Barça plunge La Liga into uncertainty
Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos are gone, while Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid will fancy their chances of back-to-back titlesZinedine Zidane was the first one out, so early it feels like a lifetime ago. Then Sergio Ramos departed, the full-time whistle…
Lionel Messi heading to Paris to seal PSG move after agreeing two-year contract
Deal worth about €35m a year net and has option to extendMessi in talks with PSG since plan to stay at Barcelona collapsedLionel Messi has agreed a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain and is due to fly to France to complete the transfer. The dea…
Messi’s case shows clubs, not elite players, are the real powerhouses of football | Jonathan Liew
Even in his moment of greatest sadness there was no recrimination, only departing tears, which Barcelona then repackaged as contentFittingly, it began and ended with a napkin. Lionel Messi’s first Barcelona contract was signed hastily on a restaurant s…
‘I wanted to stay’: Lionel Messi tearful at Barcelona exit as PSG move looms
Argentinian leaves Barça after more than 20 years at clubHe denies deal already agreed with Paris Saint-GermainLionel Messi hadn’t even started talking when he started crying. Holding a tissue handed to him by his wife, Antonella, he leant on the lecte…
Lionel Messi leaves with Barcelona in financial abyss … and it is not over yet
If there is one thing guaranteed to make it difficult to sell players, it is other clubs knowing you have to sell players“I don’t want to create false hopes,” Joan Laporta said, but that was all they had left. Barcelona’s president had been explaining …