Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has warned his teammates that they can expect a tough fight from Celtic when they face the Scottish club in the Champions League group stages.
Barcelona have been once again handed a group of death after being paired against Manchester City, Borussia Monchengladbach, and Celtic. Of the four teams, Celtic are seen as the least possible threat to Barcelona since the Scottish club have nowhere near of the quality of players at the disposal of Luis Enrique. Even though the
arrival of manager Brendan Rodgers in the summer has contributed to players like Kolo Toure coming to the club, they are expected to finish bottom of the group.
Messi is one of the few players in this current Barcelona team to have come up against Celtic. The two teams came up against each other in the group stages of the 2013 Champions League season. However, the world witnessed one of the shocking results in the 2012 Champions League group stages. Celtic were perceived to have less quality than this current team. Even then, they managed an astonishing 2-1 win over the Barcelona team at Celtic Park. They are largely relied upon their home advantage to produce this stunning result and Messi was one of the scorers on the night.
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It is said that true heroes cannot be rivals at heart and that has never been truly demonstrated as when Messi announced his retirement and even his so called arch rival Ronaldo was moved to make a statement in this regard.
The loss that Argentina had in the finals of Copa America was more heartfelt by Messi than by any other person. However, even at this time Ronaldo stated that he felt sad to see Messi in tears and
that he wished that Messi would reconsider ending his international career so soon. Indeed, the team has been facing trying times. After having made it to the finals of the Copa America team was not able to see victory.
Being only about 29 years of age, it is indeed too early for Messi to decide to retire. His legendary football playing skills will be lost to the major league tournaments if he decides to retire for good from international matches. The Barcelona star felt responsible for not being able to use the spot kick opportunity in the shootout that could have helped his team to gain victory. However, no matter how hard he is in himself, his fans and other fellow players have been pleading with him to reconsider his decision. Read more »
Former Argentina legend Diego Maradona has urged Lionel Messi not to leave Argentina. He believes that Argentina still needs him and that he should continue fighting for his country.
Indeed, the Barcelona player has announced that he would not play for Argentina again following their defeat in the Copa America final against Chile.
Lionel Messi that he has lost in four finals with Argentina and that it is no use trying again. He wants to give the chance to others so that he can focus on what he does best that is playing for Barcelona.
Since this announcement many personalities have tried to convince Lionel Messi to reconsider his decision and Diego Maradona is one of those. The latter believes that Messi has a chance at the next World Cup in Russia and that he should not give up now.
Maradona believes that Lionel Messi still has a lot to give to the Argentina team and that he is a big chance to become World Champion in Russia. He has asked Messi to listen to the Argentina players and also to people that want him to stay rather than giving heed to people that just want to see him leave. Indeed, there are a growing number of people that believe that the presence of Messi is just preventing the team from playing collectively and that the team will be better off without him. Read more »
Former Barcelona player Xavi has insisted that Lionel Messi is a honest player and does not overreact.
Indeed, there were accusations made by Atletico Madrid defender Filipe Luis that Messi play-acted, and this had resulted in getting him sent-off when both sides met in January.
The Atletico Madrid player claimed that Lionel Messi is protected by both La Liga officials as well as the Spanish media. Indeed, the Brazilian left-back was sent off for a tackle on Messi, but he believes that the Argentina player conned the referee by exaggerating the injury. The defender received a 3-match ban following the red card.
Luis stated that Messi was the favorite player of the Spanish league and that no one want to see him being challenged. He said that he played the ball on the tackle and that he was not late either on the challenge. For him, it is just the fact that the officials protect Messi and that they do not want him to miss a game due to injury. Read more »
Current Ballon’Dor holder Lionel Messi hails English skipper, Wayne Rooney. The embattled striker has come under fire for his recent performance for The Red Devils. Barcelona player, Lionel Messi says Rooney is “the great English player of his generation.”
Lionel Messi sings the praises of Manchester United striker and adds that there’s a great mutual respect between the two. He was asked about Rooney as there are doubts over his selection for Euro 2016, as there are lots of in-form young players. Lionel Messi threw his weight behind the English. He urged for his participation in France in the summer.
Messi told ShortList: “There’s been a great deal of respect between myself and Wayne Rooney. For me, he is the greatest English player of the generation.”
Head coach of England, Roy Hodgson has also thrown his weight behind the 30-year old player. He said: “It would take a lot before I say to Wayne Rooney after his captaincy over two years, after 19 games and two defeats, that because I am being pushed to make a brave, bold decision and show what a fantastic forward-thinking and adventurous coach I am, I am leaving you out. It would take an awful lot. Wayne Rooney is the captain and has done extremely well.” Read more »
Lionel Messi continues to stamp his mark as one of the absolute best players in the history of the sport after picking up his 5thBallon d’Or which is more than any other footballer ever. The Argentine attacker has recently been named as the first Global Ambassador for Dubai’s World Expo as he continues making history even beyond the pitch.
“Lionel Messi’s performances on the football pitch bring people together, and as a result his influence reaches far beyond it. He is the ideal person to be our first global ambassador. He overcame youthful health challenges to achieve his dreams of international excellence through hard work; making him an inspiration. He is perfectly placed to reach out to young people around the world, bringing them together to join us as we work towards hosting our World Expo in 2020’’ The Director General of Expo 2020 said as he told his reasons of why Messi was selected as an ambassador.
More Global Ambassadors will be announced within the approaching years and months; this selection is going to range from renowned figures in the world of: music, arts, culture, business, economics, education, philanthropy, design, architecture, science & technology. A few more categories could be added to this list in the near future.
The roles that these Ambassadors will have includes: travelling around the world and talk with stakeholders in an attempt to explore connections between their work and that of the Expo 2020. Read more »
New Barcelona signing Arda Turan claims that he is happy to have joined Barcelona just for the sake of not being humbled by Lionel Messi time and time again.
The Argentine superstar has scored a number of goals against Atletico Madrid.Turan joins from the former Spanish champions in a deal worth around € 41 million. Even though there is the possibility of this transfer of being cancelled by any new Barcelona president, it appears that this transfer will go through.Turan is expected to spend the next six months at another club on loan since Barcelona cannot bring in any new players into the squad until 2016.
The transfer ban given by Fifa is a source of major frustration toTuran, who has admitted that he cannot sit idle for six months. The Turkish international will be joining one of his former clubs like Galatasaray in a bid to stay fit until he joins Barcelona. This, however, will prevent him from the chance of winning one of the big trophies like the UEFA Super Cup. The 28-year-old has admitted that it will be a pleasure to play alongside big names like Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, and Neymar. More importantly, it means that he will not have to come up against Messi as an opposition. Read more »
September 22, 2016 7:38 am | 