Whether we like it or not, time passes by for everyone — even for the greatest footballer of the XXI century, Lionel Messi. Being aware of this, he's changed his playing style, adapted to new tactics, new rivals, and mostly to his own physical changes.
Ajax struggled to break down AEK Athens in the first half of their Champions League opener on Wednesday in Amsterdam.
Then some Bob Marley made everything feel alright en route to a 3-0 win for the home team.
Ky-Mani Marley, son of the legendary singer Bob Marley, took to the pitch at halftime to get the crowd going. He sang "Three Little Birds" — with the crowd singing along — and the scenes were fabulous.
Johan Cruyff, the most famous of all atheist footballers, once explained his beliefs succinctly.
“I don’t believe in God,” Cruyff said. “In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before a game. If it worked, every game would end in a tie.”
And yet, soccer, and sports in general, is dominated by religious athletes, whether they're crossing him or herself before entering the field of play, praying after a touchdown or pointing to the sky following a match.
His tattoos sit on the surface, superficial representations of the inner thoughts of a man praised and vilified in near equal measure.
For the outside world, the tattoos are the only insight into the mind of someone who has reached the pinnacle of his craft by the age of 26.
For the world of “Inked,” they are so much more.
Brazil plays the second match of its post-World Cup tour on Tuesday after recording a solid 2-0 win over the USMNT in New Jersey last Friday. The Seleção will be looking to turn on the style against El Salvador — ranked 72nd in the FIFA World Rankings — at FedExField in Landover, Maryland after encountering an organized American side that was anchored by the stellar play of center back Matt Miazga.
To be a professional athlete, it takes a lot more than just talent. Obviously talent is a big help, but it will only take you so far. This is where training becomes vitally important. Footballers train for hours a day both on the field and in the gym. But how do soccer players train?
It can differ between clubs, but across almost all clubs there are some consistent themes. Players will do plenty of training exercises on the field to begin a session. It could be working out a pattern of play before a game, working on set-pieces, doing a shooting drill or a small-sided game.
If you follow college football, you’ve probably heard of 37-year-old University of Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck. He rose to prominence at Western Michigan after leading the unfancied program to a 13-1 record in 2016 and a trip to the Cotton Bowl, but it was his approach to coaching (hyper energy, hyper millennial-approved, hyper “elite”) that won him both fans and detractors in equal measure.
The Scotland women’s national team made history on Tuesday. A 2-1 victory over Albania saw it lock up the top spot in Group 2 and secure its place in the World Cup finals next summer for the first time ever.
Scotland’s WWC debut was made possible thanks to a little help from Poland. In one of the more surprising results of this qualifying series, Poland held 18th-ranked Switzerland to a 0-0 draw. A Swiss win would have put it in first to automatically qualify, but with points dropped, opportunity awaited Scotland and they seized the moment.
Socks: They’ve never been more celebrated. Whether it’s the “This Meeting Sucks” Happy Socks that your father discreetly wears to work or footballers risking it all to the tune of a $65,000 fine for wearing their beloved but banned hosiery at the World Cup, it’s all about covering your lil’ digits with the finest nylon. But how soccer players wear their socks has certainly come along way since the days slabbing together some leather or matted animal hair.
There’s something about soccer players born in September.
While talent should in theory be equally divided throughout the world by players born in each month, soccer players born in September make up a hefty portion of some of the best players in the world right now and throughout history. In fact, nine of the following best soccer players born in September were born in 1989, apparently a great month in the history of the sport, which gave us the likes of Thomas Mueller, Daniel Sturridge, Alexandre Pato and Gylfi Sigurdsson.