Few signings, illness and empty stadiums have led to a flat pre-season – but there is cause for optimism with Manuel Pelligrini back, the Deyverson show and Lionel Messi still aroundNineteen days after the first division’s 20th club was finally decided, 2019-20 ending with Pere Milla scoring the “goal of my life”, a dramatic 96th-minute strike that took Elche up, the new season begins on Friday. Excitement builds and it all starts at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in Granada, home for the first time of a European team. Spain’s great revelation head to Albania next week; first they raise the curtain on La Liga by welcoming Athletic Club, who are playing their 2,877th top-flight game – more than...
There are no winners after the Argentinian superstar was bluntly honest in saying he is only staying to avoid courtNo smile, no handshake and no reconciliation. Lionel Messi is staying at Barcelona but this was no happy ending. It is over, for now, yet there is no real closure and no one truly got what they wanted, maybe not even Josep Maria Bartomeu. A survivor clinging to power, he will no longer preside over the departure of the best player in the club’s history but nor will he evade responsibility for it. His victory, if that is what this was, is hollow one. Messi made sure of that.The prospect of his leaving after 20 years at Barcelona was sad and...
Bayern Munich showed that a committed collective triumphs more often than an assortment of talented individualsAround 15 minutes into the Champions League final on Sunday night, Kylian Mbappé latched on to a delicious long ball from Leandro Paredes and cut in from the left channel. To his right, Ángel Di María spotted a pocket of space on the edge of the penalty area and made a sharp diagonal run towards it. With Di María totally unmarked 18 yards out and screaming for the ball, Mbappé’s low shot was blocked by Joshua Kimmich.Around 17 minutes from the end, with Paris Saint-Germain desperate for an equaliser, Neymar gathered the ball about 25 yards from goal. Once again Di María spotted the space,...
Bayern Munich prevented all-out victory for sportswashing but PSG, with the Qatari state behind them, are not going awayFootball, or that part of it that professes to have a conscience, breathed a huge sigh of relief but as it did so, some still small voice perhaps niggled. The only goal of the Champions League final was scored by Kingsley Coman, a player convicted in 2017 of twice assaulting the mother of his child.The game was won by Bayern Munich, the swaggering superclub whose eight straight league titles means they have won more Bundesligas than the rest of Germany put together. Since 2011, they have regularly trained in Qatar, an emirate with a highly questionable human rights record, and in 2018...
Dutch manager has a big task to move out some massive names and must be quick to stamp his authority on the club“If nothing goes awry, the new manager will be Ronald Koeman,” Barcelona’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, said, and this time at least nothing did go awry. That was Tuesday night; on Wednesday morning it was confirmed, two days after the sacking of Quique Setién, one after the departure of Eric Abidal as sporting director. “Welcome home!” cheered the announcement, the club’s website calling him “one of us”.This was “the return of a blaugrana legend”, whose first task is to get rid of many others. Men even more successful than him. “It is time to offer an honourable farewell...