The legendary Brazilian would love to self-fund a transfer for the Barcelona forward to join Fort Lauderdale Strikers, who he currently plays for

Brazil legend Ronaldo claims he would splash his own cash to bring Lionel Messi from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

Messi has lit up La Liga for over decade and, since the turn of the calendar year, has been in fantastic form for Luis Enrique’s side as the Catalans have returned to the summit in the Spanish championship.

Ronaldo, who played for Barcelona and Real Madrid in his prime, recently became part-owner of second-tier US side Fort Lauderdale and revealed his ambition to lure Messi away from Camp Nou using his own money.

“I’d pay out of my own pocket to sign Messi,” he told reporters at an event to launch the North American Soccer League (NASL) season, which the FL Strikers will take part in.

Messi is not the only global superstar on Ronaldo’s wishlist, with the World Cup-winner also hoping his new club can someday convince his namesake Cristiano Ronaldo that the Florida club are worth leaving Real Madrid for.

“The sky is the limit for Strikers. This club will become great,” he added. “Why not Messi? Why not Cristiano Ronaldo? In a few years’ time we will be able to make it happen.

“Nothing is impossible. The US is the second-fastest growing country in the world in terms of football, after China. A lot of famous players will want to come and play in South Florida because of the quality of life. Who wouldn’t want to live here?”

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The Blues winger was the star of the show as Jose Mourinho’s side edged past Stoke City on Saturday to maintain their seven-point advantage at the top of the table

Eden Hazard believes Chelsea have the title in their hands as victory over Stoke City on Saturday edged them closer to being crowned champions.

Jose Mourinho’s side were being held at half-time by Mark Hughes’s side before Loic Remy struck midway through the second period to move the Blues seven points ahead of second-placed Arsenal.

Chelsea have a game in hand over the Gunners and Manchester United, who currently occupy third, and Hazard is convinced the Premier League title is in their grasp.

“We are confident. We are first in the league and we take it game after game,” he told ChelseaTV. “We have the title in our hands. We want to bring the trophy to Stamford Bridge.

“In the first half against Stoke we created a lot of chances. We played beautiful football and okay, we scored just one goal, but we deserved to score three or four.

“The most important thing was the victory and we did very well till the end.”

Hazard also reserved high praise for Blues team-mate Remy, whose winning goal ensured Mourinho’s men made it two wins on the spin.

The Belgian added: “Remy can score every time when he’s on the pitch. This guy deserves to score a lot of goals.”

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The striker says his side cannot ease off in the Scudetto race following the Giallorossi’s win over Napoli, despite a 14 point gap between them

Carlos Tevez has warned his Juventus team-mates that Roma are “still alive and kicking” in the Serie A title race.

Rudi Garcia’s men ended their dismal recent run of form with a valuable 1-0 win over Napoli in the capital on Saturday, before Juve’s 2-0 victory over Empoli restored their 14-point lead at the top.

Despite their healthy advantage, Tevez – who scored his 25th goal of the season in Saturday’s victory – is adamant his side cannot afford to let their standards drop until their fourth-consecutive title is secure.

“Before the game, Roma showed they were still alive and kicking,” he told the club’s official website. “We mustn’t ease off and we need to keep working until we’re mathematically confirmed as champions.”

Stefano Sturaro was handed a place in the starting line-up due to Claudio Marchisio’s injury and the Italy Under-21 international says he is improving all the time alongside quality team-mates following his recent move from Genoa.

“Having the opportunity to play with champions makes everything easier,” he told reporters. “I really like the environment here and have settled in well. It’s my third game and I can only get better.

“I don’t want to give myself a vote as Marchisio’s long-term replacement, I’ll leave that to the others. Each of us knows our role and sticks to our respective task.

“Empoli are a well-drilled side with pace and move the ball around nicely. They caused us problems and were more ambitious in the second half, but we were able to bag that second goal and secure all three points.”

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The Portuguese attacker has been criticised for his lack of goalscoring in 2015 but he was on fire against Granada in Real Madrid’s 9-1 triumph on Sunday

Cristiano Ronaldo scored five goals in one match for the first time in his career as Real Madrid hammered Granada 9-1 on Sunday.

The Portugal international began his goalscoring spree at the Santiago Bernabeu after 30 minutes and scored a hat-trick in eight minutes in the first half, netting his final two strikes in the 54th and 89th minutes.

Ronaldo has scored four goals in a single game three times since joining the Blancos from Manchester United in 2009, most recently in September last year, but never before in the three-time Ballon d’Or winner’s career has he bagged five efforts in 90 minutes.

His five-star performance against Granada, who are four points off the bottom of La Liga, leaves him level with Barcelona rival Lionel Messi in terms of hat-tricks in the Spanish top flight.

Ronaldo almost doubled his tally for goals in 2015 in La Liga (he now has 11 for the calendar year and 36 for the season in the Primera Division) and now sits eighth on the all-time list having overtaken former Real Madrid striker Pahino this weekend.

The 30-year-old will be delighted that he has scored four goals in a single game more than twice in a season for the first time in his professional career, while toppling his own record for his fastest hat-trick.

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The Liverpool vice-captain has insisted that they will not give up in the battle to finish in the Champions League places, although the task is becoming increasingly difficult

Jordan Henderson insists Liverpool will not give up the chase for a place in the top four despite Saturday’s 4-1 Premier League defeat to Arsenal.

Having been beaten by Manchester United before the international break, Liverpool slipped to a second successive league defeat to one of their closest rivals, as three goals in eight minutes before half-time effectively gave Arsenal the points.

That blitz came after Liverpool had missed multiple chances and, although Henderson pulled one back from the penalty spot in the second half, Arsenal cruised to victory, adding a late fourth through Olivier Giroud after Emre Can had been sent off.

The Merseyside club now sit seven points adrift of the top four with as many games remaining, leaving their Champions League ambitions hanging by a thread – although Henderson is not about to accept they are out of the race.

“To concede three goals in such a short space of time is not good enough,” the England midfielder told Liverpool’s official website. “Our one-v-one defending needs to be better.

“I’m sure we’ll work on that in training. We’ve just got to be a little bit more aggressive defensively, and then also in the final third be more ruthless.

“We knew finishing in the top four was going to be difficult even before we came here, but it makes it even more difficult.

“That doesn’t mean we’ll just give up. We’ve got seven games left now and we need to try and win every one. If we do that, then you never know.”

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The 20-time champions were poor for much of the season but have turned it around with their last two performances as they march towards the Champions League

A 90-minute documentary about Louis van Gaal was aired on MUTV this week in which the Manchester United manager spoke passionately about his fabled philosophy.

Philosophy. It is a word we have heard from Van Gaal almost every time he has opened his mouth since he started the job last July, but finally it is starting to produce results at Old Trafford.

The Dutchman began the season asking for three months to get United back into shape. It took twice as long as predicted, but the manner of United’s back-to-back victories over Tottenham and Liverpool suggests the players are now implementing the message.

“I attack in four phases and I defend in four phases. I think the players here know everything about the philosophy now but now they have to perform it,” he said in Louis van Gaal: My life, my philosophy on Tuesday night.

United have certainly delivered in the last two matches as Van Gaal has stumbled across a winning formula that leaves the club fourth in the Premier League table, five points clear of fifth-placed Liverpool as they seek a place in next season’s Champions League.

It has been a rocky campaign. After 10 matches, United had just 13 league points and had suffered a humiliating League Cup exit to MK Dons.

Results improved gradually but performances remained dour and predictable into the start of March when they were dumped out of the FA Cup by Arsenal.

Big-money summer signings – particularly Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao – failed to make an impact, Wayne Rooney spent three months as a central midfielder and United played with a caution that had the Stretford End screaming for more attacking football.

Whether he meant it or not, though, Van Gaal then discovered the winning formula that brought United’s best performances since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement with a 3-0 victory against Tottenham and an even more impressive 2-1 win away at bitter rivals Liverpool.

Injuries to Robin van Persie and Luke Shaw, a suspension for Di Maria and the return of Michael Carrick coincided with Van Gaal’s decision to stop tinkering with his formation and return to the 4-3-3 system that won him titles at Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AZ Alkmaar.

Rooney was deployed in his favoured striker role, supported by a Marouane Fellaini freed to employ the strength and movement opposition defenders found so hard to handle in his time at Everton. Carrick’s return restored a calmness to United’s midfield, while Van Gaal’s aversion to out-and-out wingers finally found its reflection in a compact central unit that was able to shut down opponents whilst interchanging to great effect with a fluid front three.

The result? Cohesive performances, with players in their best positions and using their quality to control matches and score goals. With a star-studded squad that has been boosted by more than £220 million spent on new signings over the last two seasons, it should be the minimum requirement.

The revival, and the likelihood of United finishing in the top four, means questions over whether Van Gaal will be in charge next season have faded away. Their season has turned around in just two games and former United defender Phil Neville believes Premier League rivals will now take notice.

“The unbelievable thing was things like the performances against Tottenham and Liverpool,” Neville told Goal. “The first half against Liverpool was probably the best Manchester United performance I’ve seen in three years and that includes some of the Sir Alex Ferguson era as well, including the year they won the title. It was that good, it was a special performance.

“I think really in that performance the rest of the league would have gone ‘wow’. You can see that it’s been building up to that type of performance and it’s been good that they can start moving forward and playing like a Manchester United team with the players looking like they’re enjoying it.”

Van Gaal is no stranger to slow starts, in fact they are a surprising feature of his career.

In his first season with Bayern Munich, for example, his side won just five of their first 13 Bundesliga matches and were seventh in the table towards the end of November.

By May, however, Bayern were German champions and domestic cup winners, as well as Champions League finalists where Van Gaal was only denied a treble by Jose Mourinho’s Inter.

Likewise, when Van Gaal led AZ to a surprise Dutch title in 2008-09, he lost the first two matches to NAC Breda and ADO Den Haag and the team sat fourth in the Eredivisie after 13 matches.

At Barcelona, the 1998-99 season was heading for disaster with the Catalan giants 10th in La Liga after 14 games having won just five matches. A run of 19 wins in their remaining 24 matches clinched the title.

It is too late for United to win the title this season, of course, but the scene is set for a title challenge next term, especially with another £150m available for Van Gaal to spend this summer.

“I think they can [challenge for the title],” Neville added. “I think you’ve seen this year that there’s very little to choose between second and seventh place. If United improve in the summer, bring in some quality, a couple of quality players, not too many, I think they can kick on. I think they’ll keep improving.  You’ve seen it this season, the improvement has been gradual.

“I think if they finish in the Champions League spots, that’s the key for United. That’ll give them the confidence and when you get into the Champions League the levels will obviously need to go up, this young team will become a year older and they’ll be ready to mount a challenge.”

Once Van Gaal realised the size of the task ahead of him, the 63-year-old claimed in November that he would need all three years of his contract to return United to greatness.

The comforting news for United supporters is that Van Gaal did not win his first title with his much-acclaimed and dominant Ajax team of the 1990s until his third season as manager.

His complex tactical instructions and scrupulous demands from his players have taken time to get through, with Van Gaal likening their learning experience to his attempts to drive on the left side of the road when he first moved to England.

Van Gaal has a roadmap, a blueprint. It has brought titles at every club he has managed. Now, perhaps, we are finally starting to see his philosophy in action for Manchester United.

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The attacker is being plagued by a foot injury, but the Primera Division leaders see no reason for concern as they expect him to return shortly

Barcelona are unconcerned by Lionel Messi’s latest fitness issues, but could decide to rest the Argentine for Sunday’s La Liga clash against Celta Vigo as they do not want to take any risks.

Messi was forced to sit out Argentina’s international friendlies against El Salvador and Ecuador due to an ankle injury, leading to concerns over the prolific attacker’s physical condition ahead of the business end of the season.

However, Barcelona see no reason for concern as they were already aware of Messi’s minor injury ahead of his trip with the national team.

The 27-year-old picked up the knock in his side’s Champions League win over Manchester City at Camp Nou last month, but was nonetheless given the green light to play in the Clasico win over Real Madrid.

The bruise slightly worsened due to his participation in the match against Madrid, prompting Argentina coach Gerardo Martino to rest him for both international friendlies, much to the satisfaction of Barcelona.

The Catalans were happy for Messi to stay with the national team for the duration of their trip as they were sent the results of the investigation he underwent in a clinic in Washington, too.

Messi completed a light training session on Thursday following his return to Camp Nou and the Catalans are confident he will soon be back to full match fitness.

They have no intention of taking any risks with their star forward, though, and could opt to rest him against Celta if there is a sense of doubt about his fitness, with the upcoming matches against Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Valencia all considered of greater importance.

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