Hamstring injury rules Lionel Messi out of Argentina friendlies

Bayern Munich have completed and the signing of Raphael Guerreiro on a free transfer after his contract with Borussia Dortmund expires at the end of this month.

Welcome to FC Bayern, Rapha!

— FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayernEN)

Though Bayern and Dortmund are fierce rivals (the fiercest in German football when it comes to battling it out for the Bundesliga title), players swapping one of those clubs for the other isn t as rare an occurrence as one might expect. The stories of Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gotze, Mats Hummels, as well as Niklas Sule last year, are known to anyone following the German top flight.

Guerreiro, primarily a left-back but frequently deployed in midfield as well, joined Dortmund from Lorient in 2016 and has established himse…

Pep Guardiola and defenders. It s been an expensive exercise for Manchester City.

Still trying to fill the glaring void left by long-serving captain Vincent Kompany in 2019, and reeling after a stunning 5-2 Premier League drubbing at the hands of Leicester City, Manchester City have turned to Ruben Dias.

Benfica and Portugal centre-back Dias will cost City an initial £62million (€68m), plus £2.1m (€3.6m) in add-ons should the 23-year-old trigger various performance-related clauses.

Sunday s announcement, with Nicolas Otamendi set to move in the opposite direction, takes Guardiola s spending as City manager on defenders to in excess of £410m (€451m) since 2016.

1 For the first time in 686 games as a manager, Pep Guardiola has seen his side concede…

Luis Rubiales has been re-elected unopposed as the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

Rubiales is set to serve a four-year term, with his return to office a formality after former Spain captain and 2010 World Cup winner Iker Casillas withdrew his candidacy in June.

The 43-year-old took on RFEF s top job in May 2018 after predecessor Angel Maria Villar was sacked amid corruption charges.

He quickly became embroiled in controversy on the eve of the 2018 World Cup, sacking Julen Lopetegui after the Spain coach was announced as Real Madrid boss for the start of the 2018-19 season.

Under caretaker boss Fernando Hierro, Spain limped to a last-16 exit on penalties against hosts Russia.

Rubiales then clashed bitterly with LaLiga ch…

Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), has refuted claims of wrongdoing amid controversy surrounding the Supercopa de Espana.

Messages and phone calls between Rubiales and Barcelona stalwart Gerard Pique have been leaked to the media.

The audio recordings revealed Pique helped negotiate a €24million commission when the Supercopa was expanded to four teams and moved to Saudi Arabia in 2020.

It was a deal reportedly worth €40m to the RFEF for every tournament played in the middle-eastern state.

Spanish publication El Confidencial, which released the audio on Monday, claimed Pique s Kosmos group, a sports entertainment company founded in 2017, would benefit to the tune of €4m per tournament over the six-year agre…

Jadon Sancho s long-awaited move from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United has finally been completed.

The 21-year-old England international arrives at Old Trafford having scored 50 goals and provided 57 assists in 137 appearances across all competitions for the Bundesliga side. 

He became the first Englishman to reach at least 10 assists for three straight seasons in Europe s top-five leagues since former United star David Beckham, who achieved the feat between 1997-98 and 2000-01.

The €85million (£72.9million) fee makes him the fourth most expensive signing in the Red Devils  history.

Here, Stats Perform looks at how the rest of the top five fared at Old Trafford.

Paul Pogba £94.5m from Juventus, August 2016

Four years after lettin…

Barcelona head coach Ronald Koeman complained about a lack of respect during his team s surprise LaLiga defeat to Getafe, singling out Allan Nyom.

Koeman suffered his first loss as Barca boss on Saturday – Getafe claiming a 1-0 victory thanks to Jaime Mata s 56th-minute penalty.

It was Getafe s first league win over Spanish giants Barca since November 2011, a run of 16 games.

Koeman, who replaced Quique Setien at the start of the season, was less than impressed with the behaviour of Getafe full-ball Nyom.

I told him [Getafe coach Jose Bordalas] that his number 12 [Nyom] had shown me a lack of respect, he had said two or three very ugly things to me which I won t repeat. He insulted me, Koeman said post-game.

I told Bordalas that he needs to sp…

Verdict: Home team over 1.75 goals

Best odds:

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Bologna will be looking to consolidate their position in the standings when they take on Verona. The match will be played at Renato Dall Ara Stadium, starting from 20:45 local time. A high attendance is expected following the hosts latest displays.

Bologna

Bologna impressed this season with their attacking football against top Serie A sides. The Red Blues are on the verge of making history, pushing for a top 4 finish. Such an achievement would see them playing Champions League football in the next season.

If the Scudetto battle seems to be already over with Inter dominating the race, the Champions League positions are still up for grabs. The Greyhounds sit 5th in the table, level on poin…

Mohamed Salah landed a bumper new contract through to 2025 and vowed to repay Liverpool s belief in him by firing Jurgen Klopp s Reds to more trophies.

Uncertainty over the Egyptian forward s future had lingered for months, with no clear sign of a breakthrough in negotiations between the club and the player s representatives until a deal was announced on Friday.

With Sadio Mane being allowed to leave for Bayern Munich since the end of last season, the importance of securing Salah was ramped up, and now the 30-year-old has confirmed he will stay at Anfield.

He could have walked away at the end of the 2022-23 season on a free transfer, had he not agreed to new terms, but that worrying prospect has been quashed.

With at least three years more to come of his…

According to , Bayern Munich have made Julian Nagelsmann their primary target to replace Thomas Tuchel in the Allianz Arena dugout this summer.

Despite taking over as the Germany head coach in September last year, the 36-year-old would apparently be prepared to leave the national team after the upcoming Euros in their homeland, in order to return to the club where he worked for just under two years, before his somewhat surprising sacking in March 2023. At the time, Bayern hired Tuchel to replace him, and it seems they ve come to regret their decision to do so, with Bayer Leverkusen ending the Bavarians 11-year domination in the German top flight this season.

Furthermore, the report denies recent suggestions from the Spanish media that Bayern had made contact with the re…

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is set to return for the final stretch of the season after making a full recovery from two knee injuries, Carlo Ancelotti said.

Madrid boss Ancelotti said he will be cautious with Courtois, who has not played this season after sustaining an ACL tear in August and a torn meniscus in March.

Stand-in Andriy Lunin will start Friday s LaLiga match at Real Sociedad and Tuesday s Champions League semi-final, first leg at Bayern Munich.

However, Courtois should be back next week.

I have to think carefully about the lineup moving forward. There has been a lot of wear and tear. Courtois is fine, he will be available next week and could play against Cadiz, Ancelotti said in a press conference on Thursday.

Courtois s i…