Fifa have announced the three names that make up the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or awards.
Barcelona duo Lionel Messi and Neymar will compete with current holder Cristiano Ronaldo for this year’s FIFA Ballon d’Or.
Real Madrid forward Ronaldo has won the award for the past two years, with Messi winning it for each of the four years previous to that. And with Ronaldo named in 2008 too, one of the pair has been named the best player in the world on the last seven occasions.
Athletic Bilbao’s run in the Europa League has been nothing less than phenomenal. The Basque based club knocked out the likes of Manchester United and Sporting Lisbon to book themselves a May 9th final date with giants Barcelona.
Iker Muniain has promised to get a tattoo should his side beat Barcelona in the final. The young Spanish striker has been in scintillating form for Bilbao scoring 5 times in 15 appearances for Bilbao.
Speaking to sports daily AS, Muniain was quoted as saying that he would tattoo the Europa League cup on his body.
A hat trick from Barca star Lionel Messi took the Argentine’s tally for the season to 68 goals one more than Gerd Muller’s all time record of 67 set in the 1972/1973 season while playing for Bayern Munich.
Having failed o score in the Clasico against some two weeks ago and in their Champions League defeat to Chelsea, Messi has scored 5 goals in his last two matches to re-write the history books.
However, even this achievement could not steal from Madrid’s performance of the night. Madrid beat high fylers Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to clinch their first Liga title since the 2007/2008 season.
Looks like the Serie A will go down to the wire after last night’s round of fixtures. Leaders Juventus were held to a 1-1 home draw thanks thanks to an 85th minute goal from Luis Fernando Muriel Fruto after Juventus no 1 Gigi Buffon’s error.The draw coupled with Milan’s 2-0 win over Atalanta means that the gap between the two rivals was reduced to just 1 point with 2 games left to play.
Juventus still remain unbeaten in the league and should easily walk away with the Scudetto if they win in their two remaining games against Cagliari and Atalanta a fact their coach Antonio Conte easily recognised at the end of the 90 minutes.
What Mourinho wants, he gets. Reports emerging suggest that Mourinho will try to force out sporting Director Zinedine Zidane for his alleged involvement in first team affairs.
Zidane who was referred to Madrid as an advisor to then incoming president Florentino Perez three years ago, has seen his roles change eventually being named as the Sporting director at the season.
Mourinho who had requested for Zidane’s profile to be elevated is believed to not be satisfied with the Frenchman’s performance so far and now reports claim that Mourinho will force the icon out at the end of the season.
Chelsea’s fixture against Newcastle tonight is a must for Di Matteo if he hopes to get the Blues back into 4th place and clinch the final Champions League qualifying slot.
However, with both star forwards Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres showing remarkable improvement in their form these past couple of days, the Italian tactician faces a hard decision in whom to start.
Reports emerging claim that Di Matteo could gamble by playing both Strikers, a decision Chelsea no 1 Petr Cech would love to see. In fact, Cech who believes a Drogba-Torres partnership could work, has pleaded with Di Mateo to give the pair a chance in tonight’s game.
Dutch Play maker Arjen Robben looks like he could be on his way out of the Allianz Arena. Robben has been at the centre of a protracted contract extension with Bayern Munich after his hesitancy on signing a new deal emerged early last month.
Club president Uli Hoeness yesterday revealed that negotiations with the winger on a new deal broke down and his future with the club is now uncertain. Bayern were ready to offer Robben £170k per week to keep him at the Allianz Arena longer than 2013, but according to Robben ‘recent developments’ have forced him to think twice about signing the contract.
Real Madrid and Barcelona returned to their winning ways on Sunday after a torrid week which saw them both exist the Champions League. Real Madrid were 3-0 winners over Sevilla at the Bernabeu while Barca thrashed Rayo Vallecano 7-0 to keep their slim title hopes alive.
Madrid’s win keeps them only one game away from their first League title in 5 years! However, as is becoming the norm, Madrid coach Jose Mourinho once again failed left all the talking to his assistant.
“It was an important win and the team deserves to be champions as the players have shown their mentality and character,” Aitor Karanka said.
Juventus remain on course to win their first Scudetto in 9 years after they beat Novara 4-0 yesterday to remain 3 points clear of their nearest challengers AC Milan with 3 matches left to play.
A brace from in form striker Mirko Vucinic and strikes from Marco Boriello and Arturo Vidal were enough to see off a weak Novara side that failed to provide any real threat.
Should Juve win or draw their remaining fixtures, they will surpass Milan’s record of 34 games unbeaten in the Serie A which the Rossoneri set back in the 1991/1992 season.
Fernando Torres netted his first hat-trick for Chelsea to help them onto a 6-1 home win over Queen Park Rangers on Sunday. The win coupled Newcastle’s shock loss to Wigan on Saturday means that the battle for 4th place lives on for a couple more days with Wednesday’s decisive meeting between the pair at Stamford Bridge being the highlight of the 36th round of fixtures.
That said, the night belonged to Torres just like it did against Barcelona at the Nou Camp 5 days ago. Oozing confidence from his performance against the Catalan’s in their Champions League semi final, the Spaniard did not fail to deliver as his scored the first of his three with only19 minutes.