Flashback – Van Dijk backs Messi to win Ballon d’Or

Lionel Messi has written to Barcelona executives expressing his desire to leave. The Spanish club recently suffered a humiliating loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

Football superstar Lionel Messi will stay at Barcelona for another season, avoiding a lengthy legal battle against the "club of his life." But he also accused the club president of going back on his word.

Wall-scaling artists have painted a mural of Lionel Messi in the Argentinian town where he was born 34 years ago. The mural covers one end of a four-story apartment building in the La Bajada neighborhood of Rosario where the star lived as a child, and faces the primary school he attended.

Barcelona, Spain - August 05, 2021 - FC Barcelona officially announced that Lionel Messi would not be returning to the club.

Barcelona players train without Lionel Messi, after the club ruefully accepted it cannot afford the star player who joined Barcelona aged 13 and went on to lift 10 league crowns and four Champions Leagues. The team will face Juventus on Sunday for the Gamper Trophy pre-season game.

Lionel Messi says he is "extremely happy" after signing a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain, as he speaks during a press conference for his official presentation at Parc des Princes.

Lionel Messi says he is "dreaming" of winning a fifth Champions League after signing a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain. Hundreds of fans gather outside the Parc des Princes with supporters queueing near the club shop on the Champs Elyseees to buy Messi shirts.

"I'm really happy that he joined the club (...) he's really humble as a person and also on the pitch, he tries to help the team and tries to help you as a player," says PSG midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum about Lionel Messi. The Argentian star could make his hotly anticipated debut for Paris Saint-Germain against Reims in Champagne on Sunday.

The soccer star is self-isolating after a positive coronavirus test. His fellow PSG players Juan Bernat, Sergio Rico and Nathan Bitumazala have also tested positive for the virus.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Saturday.

A viral photo on Twitter allegedly shows two images of Lionel Messi's injured ankle, 24 hours before Argentina's World Cup debut in Qatar. One of the ankles in the photo belongs to Messi, while the other one doesn't. In other news, did football fans find a clever technique for smuggling alcohol into football stadiums in Qatar? We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Brazil’s Ronaldo Luís Nazário has congratulated Argentina and Lionel Messi after they beat France to win the World Cup. Messi was also honored with the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player. In a tweet, Ronaldo said that “football of this type dispels any rivalry”. He noted that many Brazilians were cheering for Messi during the "electrifying final”. "A farewell worthy of the genius who, far beyond being a World Cup star, led an era.