Atlético Madrid's long-serving assistant coach Germán "Mono" Burgos has announced he is leaving the club at the end of this campaign after over eight years in order to become a head coach.

"At the end of this season I will start my journey as a first team coach. With more than 10 years experience in LaLiga I think I am perfectly capable of guiding a team's destiny," Burgos said in a video on Atlético's website on Wednesday.

Barcelona star forward Lionel Messi said that both life and soccer have forever been changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 is responsible for the deaths of 370,000 people worldwide as of Sunday afternoon. It has also wreaked havoc with the sports landscape for much of 2020.

LaLiga, Spain's top-flight soccer league, is set to resume on June 11, albeit without fans in the stands. The first match on the slate will feature the Seville derby between Real Betis and Sevilla.

With Bayern Munich taking what’s almost certainly an unassailable lead at the top of the Bundesliga, the La Liga return date of June 11 can’t come soon enough for those thirsting for a bit of sporting drama in their lives. With 11 matches still to go for every side in Spain’s top division, the La Liga return schedule highlights the twists and turns we have lying ahead.

The adidas #hometeam campaign continued today with an exclusive interview with the G.O.A.T. Lionel Messi. Like the rest of the world, Messi’s life has been thrown upside down by the coronavirus with LaLiga suspended since March 12 and the Argentine’s prospective international summer — a Copa América on home soil — delayed until 2021. 

As the world begins to go back to some sort of normalcy, the football world is also making a slow return. Clubs have started to return to training and all the players have clearly not taken their foot off the gas during quarantine — especially the one and only Lionel Messi.

FC Barcelona is back to training and oh how I’ve missed Messi leaving the world speechless with his insane talent. 

Football isn't ready. pic.twitter.com/4nmNnqJErr

After beginning individual training at club facilities earlier this month, Spain moved one step closer to the resumption of LaLiga and Segunda División play after teams began training in groups of up to 10 players on Monday.

According to LaLiga president Javier Tebas, the league is still hoping to return to action on June 12, but clubs will need the approval of the government’s department of health before advancing from small groups to full training.

Regardless, Tebas said that LaLiga has taken inspiration from Germany’s successful return to the pitch.

BARCELONA — Lionel Messi believes he is better off not thinking too much about the risk of being infected by the coronavirus as Spanish soccer clubs step up their return to activity, saying he looks forward to getting back to playing matches.

Messi and his Barcelona teammates have been back at the club's training ground conducting individual sessions since last week, following LaLiga's four-phase protocol for returning to activity since it was halted in March due to the pandemic.

Joan Laporta has said he will seek to bring former manager Pep Guardiola back to Barcelona if his bid to return as president of the LaLiga club in 2021 is successful, Spanish media reported. 

Laporta was Barcelona president from 2003 to 2010 and was at the helm when Guardiola was promoted from the youth team to manager of the senior team in 2008. 

A shy village boy who could not bear to leave his parents' bed, Andrés Iniesta may have seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of the best footballers of all time, but anyone who saw him play rarely had serious doubts. 

Iniesta, who turns 36 today, weaved his magic for Barcelona for 16 years and was one of the architects of the club's greatest era, playing a defining role as they won 32 trophies including nine Spanish titles and four Champions League crowns.