Lionel Messi meets ambassadors for canteen charity in Melbourne

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.

Serena Williams trains in Melbourne as officials announce that up to 30,000 spectators will be allowed to attend the Australian Open per day. About two weeks ago, the top stars are seen arriving in Adelaide ahead of flying to Melbourne to compete in the Australian Open.

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.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces a snap lockdown in Australia's second-largest city, bringing the total number of Australians under stay-at-home orders to around 12 million. Melbourne and surrounding Victoria will join Sydney in a 'hard and fast' lockdown, Andrews says, as Australia battles an outbreak of the Delta variant.

Melbourne's streets return to the eerie quiet of lockdown for the fifth time as Australia seeks to contain an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in its two largest cities. More than 12 million Australians are now under stay-at-home orders as Melbourne residents began their first day of a snap lockdown, joining Sydneysiders already deep into weeks-long restrictions.

A strict coronavirus lockdown is being lifted in the Australian state of Victoria, with the region reporting fewer cases. Follow DW for the latest.

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

Melbourne has gone into a sixth coronavirus lockdown as Australia falters in its efforts to bring a Delta outbreak under control.

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.

The leader of Melbourne's Victoria state, Daniel Andrews, comments on the current coronavirus outbreak, after the state returned to lockdown for the sixth time since the pandemic began. Australia's three largest cities are in lockdown, as New South Wales records 319 community cases of the virus and five more deaths -- a third straight day of record case numbers.

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.