France

PARIS - Paris Saint-Germain continued their march towards the Ligue 1 title as Marco Verratti inspired them to a 4-0 home victory against Reims on Sunday and Lionel Messi made his first appearance of the year.

Italy midfielder Verratti found the back of the net for PSG for the first time since 2019, while Sergio Ramos scored his first goal for the capital side. Wout Faes scored an own goal, and Danilo Pereira added another to put PSG on 53 points from 22 matches.

Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembélé must leave the club before the January transfer window closes for both his sake as well as the Catalan club to ensure they get a fee as his contract ends in June, club director Mateu Alemany has said.

Dembélé, who joined Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund in 2017, has failed to deliver on his potential that made the Spanish club pay $119.11 million for his services, scoring only 31 goals in 129 appearances.

Kylian Mbappé's global takeover continues this week following news of a multi-year partnership with eyewear brand Oakley.

PARIS — Lionel Messi will miss Paris Saint-Germain's Ligue 1 trip to Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday as he continues his recovery from COVID-19, the capital club said on Saturday.

The Argentine forward is back in Paris from his home country after testing negative but has not been cleared to play.

Lionel Messi will miss PSG's trip to Lyon as he continues his recovery from Covid-19 ❌ pic.twitter.com/CuLRzgi96R

Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi and three other players have tested positive for COVID-19, the French Ligue 1 club said on Sunday.

Argentina international Messi joined PSG from boyhood club Barcelona in August and the 34-year-old has scored six goals in 16 games in all competitions for the Parisian side.

PARIS — The French Cup last 64 game between Paris FC and Olympique Lyonnais was abandoned following crowd trouble on Friday, a stadium announcer said as violence continued to hit French football.

Supporters appeared to be fighting each other and some of them went onto the Charlety stadium's pitch and threw flares at halftime with the game tied at 1-1.

The draw for the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League took place on Friday, but that wasn’t the biggest Nations League news by a longshot. A massive announcement was made that in 2024 we will see a Neymar and Lionel Messi Nations League crossover. That’s right, South America is joining the UEFA Nations League. All 10 South American members will be joining Europe's best.