The Brazilian is often said to have taken the young phenomenon under his wing at Camp Nou but stresses his influence was minimal.

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The Brazilian is often said to have taken the young phenomenon under his wing at Camp Nou but stresses his influence was minimal

Ronaldinho believes Lionel Messi didn’t need anything from him while he was breaking through at Barcelona.

The 2002 World Cup winner arrived at Camp Nou in 2003 and was at the club when a teenage Messi began working his way into the Catalans’ first-team.

After claiming a delightful chipped assist for the Argentine’s first senior goal, Ronaldinho would go on to forge an effective pairing with Messi as the two bounced off one another in the final third.

While seemingly helping Messi settle at Barcelona, the Brazilian is adamant his influence wasn’t needed, with his team-mate always destined to shine.

“When I arrived at Barcelona, there was already talk of a kid [Messi] who stood out,” Ronaldinho told Panenka magazine, via Marca.

“Then we were friends; we started playing together and we got on very well. He arrived being different to all the others, and we spoke with [Frank] Rijkaard so that he came to train with us – it was all very fast.

“I was lucky enough to give him the pass for his first goal.

“Over time, it’s very nice to see someone who starts out so close [to you] and then conquers the world.

“We were always very close. We learned things, he taught me Spanish and I taught him Portuguese, but with the ball we understood each other perfectly.

“I’d be left amazed by how calm he is. That’s something I love about him; he never gets into trouble, he’s always with his family and those closest to him.

“Leo has everything, he didn’t need anything from me.”

Ronaldinho spent five seasons at Barcelona, winning two La Liga titles, and declared Rijkaard was the best manager he played for during his distinguished career.

“He’s a great coach, a very quiet guy, the best I’ve ever worked with,” Ronaldinho said of the Dutchman. “He knew everything because he played at the highest level, and that made things easy for us.

“Everything he asked us to do, he has already done it before, so he spoke to us in a very simple and direct way.

“He gave me a lot of freedom to play my football. When we didn’t have the ball, we also had to fulfil our obligations. But when we had it, he made me feel completely free.”

Source – Goal.com

The pair failed to click in their short time together on the Cote d’Azur, with the striker soon moving on to Marseille.

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Patrick Vieira may be a relative newcomer in football coaching, but the Nice boss admits that taking on Mario Balotelli was one of his biggest challenges to date.

The former Arsenal midfielder began working at Manchester City after hanging up his boots, acting as the club’s football development executive to oversee the youth system.

He then switched to the United States to take the reins at MLS side New York City FC, before landing in Nice prior to the 2018-19 season.

One of Vieira’s charges was Balotelli, famed for his volatile temperament and tendency to switch clubs on a regular basis.

And true to his reputation, the Italy forward turned up late to his first Nice training session under the new coach and lasted just a handful of months before moving on to Marseille.

Balotelli is now at hometown side Brescia, and Vieira confesses that he had his hands full with the striker.

“Mario’s mindset was difficult for a collective sport,” he said to the Daily Mail.

“The philosophy I wanted to put in place, the togetherness and work ethic I wanted to build, it was difficult for me to work with a player like Mario.

“It was really difficult for both of us to work together, so we decided to go different ways.”

Vieira spent much of his career under the tutelage of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, the pair winning three Premier League crowns together in north London.

And he acknowledges that his compatriot is a huge influence now he has moved into coaching.

“Even when Arsene was in a difficult period, he remained at the same level. It was not like when we were winning he was higher or when we were losing he was low,” Vieira added.

“That is something I really like and it’s important because as a player it gives you confidence.

“But all the managers I had, from Wenger to Jose Mourinho to Roberto Mancini, knew the players and knew how to connect with them.”

Nice currently sit in 11th place in Ligue 1, but can close the gap on third-placed Rennes to five points with victory at home against the Breton side in their next league outing on January 24.

Source – Goal.com

The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations will start on 9 January after its dates were moved, hosts Cameroon have announced.

The Africa Cup of Nations was switched to June and July in 2019 to avoid a clash with the European domestic season

The tournament was scheduled to take place in June and July but was changed because of the “unfavourable” weather in the country at that time of year.

It means a number of Premier League clubs could be without first-team players at a crucial stage of the season.

The 2019 tournament in Egypt was the first one to be held in the summer.

Before that, the Cup of Nations had been held in January and February, clashing with the European domestic season.

June and July in Cameroon are during the country’s rainy season.

The change back to a January start means that the tournament will not clash with the expanded Club World Cup, being held in China in June 2021.

Following a meeting on Wednesday with representatives from the Confederation of African Football (Caf), including president Ahmad, the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) tweeted: “It [2021 Africa Cup of Nations] will be played in Cameroon from 9 January to 6 February, 2021. Date changed for weather reasons at Cameroon’s request.”

Caf’s deputy general secretary Tony Baffoe said: “We have reviewed the period of the competition as requested by the Cameroonian party due to unfavourable climatic conditions during the period initially slated.

“After listening to the various arguments and viewpoints – and in particular from the Cameroonian meteorological authorities, the coaches and players – the representatives of the Afcon organising committee, which received the mandate from Caf Executive Committee to take the decision, has granted this request.

“A detailed reported shall be presented to the members of the Executive Committee during its next session on 6 February.”

Cameroon had been scheduled to host the 2019 Cup of Nations, but were stripped of that honour in November 2018. At the time, Caf said the decision had been made because of delays in the progress of Cameroon’s preparations.

A month later, Caf announced that Cameroon had agreed to host the 2021 edition instead.

Source – BBC News

The Red Devils boss believes his star attacker is ready to play through some pain in a bid to line-up against the Reds.

Manchester United will do “everything” to ensure Marcus Rashford is fit to face Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.

Rashford came on in United’s 1-0 FA Cup third-round replay win over Wolves at Old Trafford, but he lasted only 16 minutes before being replaced having sustained a blow to the back following a challenge from Matt Doherty on Wednesday.

Though Rashford was on the field when Juan Mata scored the winner, Solskjaer conceded the decision to bring him on “backfired” as he sustained an injury four days before the trip to Anfield.

Rashford has scored 14 goals for United in the Premier League this term and Solskjaer said the club would do all they could to get the 22-year-old fit for the weekend.

“He’s a quick healer and he’ll play through some pain, definitely, if he’s capable, if it’s not a bad, bad injury,” Solskjaer told reporters at a news conference.

“But we’ve seen that he’s struggled lately – but more when he’s been tired.

“He wasn’t on long enough to be tired so I think it might have been something that just happened there and then.

“He’s been absolutely top this season so we’ll do everything we can to get him fit for Sunday.

“If he’s not then we’ll play without him.”

Rashford himself tweeted after the match to reveal he attempted to carry on, while congratulating his team-mates on booking a fourth-round tie with either Watford or Tranmere Rovers.

United were already without key midfield duo Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba, as well as defenders Eric Bailly and Luke Shaw on Wednesday, yet Solskjaer was not about to bemoan an increasing casualty list.

“It’s football, I’ll never ever complain about all the injuries we’ve got,” he added.

“That’s just part and parcel of it and at the moment that’s Marcus. He’s been available and fit all season so you can’t complain.”

Liverpool are storming towards a maiden Premier League title having taken 61 points from a possible 63. The only points they dropped came at Old Trafford earlier in the campaign when Rashford scored in a 1-1 draw in October.

Solskjaer is therefore confident his team will have a game plan to make life difficult for Jurgen Klopp’s Reds.

“Of course it’s hard but I’ve had Liverpool here twice and we’ve drawn both,” said the Norwegian.

“Of course we want to win those but I think we’ve found a nice way of playing against them and we’ve deserved the points in both of them.”

Source – Goal.com

The Reds are set to be hit the hardest at the start of 2021 with three of their key players likely to be in Cameroon rather than on Merseyside.

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Where would Liverpool be without Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane?

We will find out next season, it seems, after the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) delivered the news Reds fans were dreading.

The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, it revealed, will kick off on January 9, with the final to be played on February 6. The dates, Fecafoot explained, had been changed at their own request “for weather reasons.”

Bad news for Jurgen Klopp, who now faces the prospect of being without Salah and Mane, as well as midfielder Naby Keita, for up to a month of the Premier League campaign. The Reds boss’ reaction, one imagines, will have been one of dismay.

Klopp is already of the opinion that elite players are expected to play too much football, and has regularly used press conferences to plead with the footballing authorities to revise the international calendar.

“We cannot carry on like this,” he said in November, and earlier this month he revealed that he had voiced his concerns to UEFA at a meeting of coaches back in August. “Like always in life,” he said, “it is about quality, not quantity.”

The former Borussia Dortmund boss has also made it clear that he believes both FA Cup replays and the two-legged aspect of the Carabao Cup semi-finals should be scrapped, but those demands continue to fall on deaf ears.

Liverpool suffered the last time AFCON was held in January, back in 2017. Then, they lost Mane for seven games, of which they won only one.

They had started the year second in the Premier League and competing in both the League Cup and the FA Cup. By the time the Senegal star returned, they were fourth in the table and had been knocked out of both competitions, their thin squad having been stretched without its most potent attacker.

Things have changed since then, of course. Liverpool have greater resources now, and are expected to strengthen their hand further in the transfer market this summer. By then, of course, they will almost certainly be Premier League champions, and they are strongly fancied to defend their Champions League crown too.

Some facts remain, though, and an extended period without either Salah or Mane, let alone both, would challenge Klopp’s team enormously. Throw in Keita, whose form has arrived in fits and starts largely due to injury, and you have something of a dilemma brewing.

They are not alone.

Arsenal could lose both Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Manchester City could be without Riyad Mahrez, while Leicester, Tottenham and Crystal Palace, among others, may also be heavily affected. Fans will be suddenly be taking a far greater interest in the upcoming AFCON qualifying matches, surely.

Whether this news forces the Premier League’s hand in terms of a longer winter break remains to be seen. This season teams will be given one weekend off in February, though it is spread over a fortnight so television companies do not have to do without top-flight matches for an extended period.

The loss of a bunch of star players could accelerate a process that would end in allowing the whole league to take a breather together following the busy festive period, but quite how that would go down with stakeholders is up for debate. The Premier League insist that their schedules are decided in three-year cycles, but this sudden change may yet force them into action.

How will the news affect Liverpool’s strategy going forward, one wonders? Plenty would argue that, despite the Reds’ lofty league position and remarkable form over the past 18 months, sourcing cover for their star forwards remains a priority.

Salah and Mane, as well as Roberto Firmino, are remarkably durable, but the drop-off in quality when they are absent is clear. Would Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri, both of whom have been linked with transfers away in recent weeks, be enough to sustain them next January?

Takumi Minamino, the highly-rated Japan international, is a step in the right direction in that regard. Seen as a player who can fill multiple positions across the attacking line, the 24-year-old arrived from Salzburg this month and is expected to feature regularly during the second half of this campaign.

Beyond that, there are high hopes surrounding a trio of supremely-gifted teenagers at the club. Rhian Brewster, a 19-year-old striker, has been sent to Swansea City on loan to pick up senior experience, while both Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones, 16 and 18 respectively, remain with the first-team. Both are likely to play against Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup fourth round on January 26, although both, naturally, still have some way to go before they are considered regulars by Klopp.

The summer should prove an interesting one, with Liverpool widely expected to spend big in a bid to strengthen their hand further. Speculative links with the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Jadon Sancho aside, we can expect the Reds to seriously look at bringing in at least one high-class attacker in the close-season, although club sources admit that sourcing players capable of immediately coming in and improving the world’s best club side is a more difficult task than you might imagine.

Nonetheless, it needs to be done. It probably needed to be even before the AFCON bombshell, in all honesty.

Source – Goal.com

Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette is an option for Atletico Madrid if they are unable to get a deal for Paris Saint-Germain’s Edinson Cavani over the line.

Atletico chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin met with PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the proposed Cavani transfer.

Any deal between Arsenal and Atletico involving Lacazette moving to Spain could also mean France forward Thomas Lemar coming to the Emirates.

Lemar has struggled for form since leaving Monaco for Madrid at the start of last season, a move which came about after he was heavily linked with Arsenal and Premier League leaders Liverpool.

Edinson Cavani joined Paris Saint-Germain from Napoli in 2013 for a fee in the region of £55m

The 24-year-old scored only three goals in his first La Liga campaign and he is without a goal so far this season.

Spanish football expert Alvaro Montero told Sky Sports News: “Lacazette is a second option for Atletico Madrid.

“If they can loan or maybe there is a transfer for Lacazette, it’s always if Thomas Lemar goes to Arsenal and that will be the agreement.

“As we said on Monday with Quique Setien being the first option [to become Barcelona head coach], the first option for Atletico Madrid is Edinson Cavani, the Uruguay striker.

“They are meeting in Paris to ask, maybe not for the transfer, but for a loan and that is Diego Simeone’s first option.”

Source – Sky Sport

Romelu Lukaku scored after just 22 seconds and added another goal to help Inter Milan to a 4-1 victory over Cagliari at San Siro on Tuesday and a place in the Italian Cup quarterfinal.

Romelu Lukaku scored twice on Tuesday. Getty Images

Napoli and Lazio set up a meeting in the last eight as they both won at home against second-tier opposition with Ciro Immobile continuing his scoring ways for Lazio as they beat Cremonese 4-0.

Napoli forward Lorenzo Insigne netted his first home goals of the season to lead his side to a 2-0 win over Perugia.

Lukaku took advantage of a panicked back pass from Christian Oliva to ram home Inter’s first goal inside the opening minute in the perfect start for the home side, who will next meet the winner of Fiorentina’s tie against Atalanta on Wednesday.

The Belgian striker then had a second ruled out by VAR and missed a chance to touch home Nicolo Barella‘s powerfully struck cross but veteran Borja Valero behind him scrambled it over the line for a 2-0 lead after 21 minutes.

Barella was the provider again after a quickly taken corner kick for Lukaku’s second four minutes into the second half and Andrea Ranocchia finished off the scoring with a replica header in the 80th minute.

Cagliari, who have now lost five successive games, scored a smartly fashioned consolation in the 71st minute as Alberto Cerri back-heeled the ball into the path of Oliva, who finished with a powerful strike.

Insigne, the Napoli captain, broke the deadlock in a last-16 tie featuring three first-half penalties with a 26th minute spot kick after Hirving Lozano had been fouled and then converted another 12 minutes later after handball by Pietro Iemmello.

Perugia were then awarded a penalty of their own, following a VAR review, for handball by Elseid Hysaj but Iemmello completed an unhappy afternoon when his effort was saved by David Ospina.

Napoli went on to record their first home win since Gennaro Gattuso replaced Carlo Ancelotti as their coach in December and now host last season’s winners Lazio on Jan. 29.

At Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, defender Patric scored his first goal for Lazio, who had rested several regulars, as they went ahead early before veteran Marco Parolo added another in the 26th minute.

Immobile took his season’s goal tally to 23 in all competitions as he converted a second-half penalty for Lazio’s third and Angolan international Bastos completed the romp in the last minute.

Source – ESPN

The Blancos chief has cooled talk suggesting he is interested in adding the World Cup winner to his ranks in the coming months.

Photo by Getty Images

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has dismissed speculation that the club are trying to sign Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, joking that he does not know who the France international is.

Pogba has often been linked with a move to the Spanish capital, enduring a great deal of criticism since his big-money return to England from Juventus.

However, the Blancos chief is keeping his cards close to his chest and giving nothing away with regard to a possible pursuit of the World Cup-winning midfielder.

“I don’t know who Pogba is,” Perez said jokingly following Real Madrid’s Spanish Super Cup victory over local rivals Atletico Madrid in Saudi Arabia.

It is possible that Perez’s desire to cool any talk of pursuing Pogba is down to the emergence of talented young midfielder Federico Valverde.

Real Madrid’s inability to land Pogba amid their summer spending spree has forced head coach Zinedine Zidane to use the 21-year-old more regularly this season.

The Uruguayan has made 21 appearances across all competitions so far and has taken his chance with both hands, impressing greatly and putting in a man-of-the-match display in the final against Atletico, despite his late red card for a last-man challenge on Alvaro Morata to preserve the result.

Perez has made no secret of his admiration for the young prodigy, insisting that he has what it takes to etch his name into Los Blancos folklore.

“[Valverde] will figure as one of the great stars at Real Madrid for years to come,” Perez said.

Given the hefty fee that would likely have been demanded for Pogba’s services, Valverde’s emergence means that Real Madrid can turn their considerable financial resources elsewhere, potentially pursuing a move for Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe.

Los Blancos are second in La Liga on goal-difference alone and qualified as runners-up from their Champions League group to progress to the knockout stages of the competition, but still have not performed to the standard expected following the significant investment in the squad and will look to add further star power ahead of next season.

Source – Goal.com

The richest man in Africa has expressed a desire to take over at Emirates Stadium, but remains focused on building his company for the time being.

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Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote has hinted he could buy Arsenal in 2021, if a number of multi-billion dollar projects for his company are completed on time.

The 62-year-old founded the Dangote Group – the largest conglomerate in West Africa – in 1981, which deals with the manufacturing and production of a number of consumer goods including sugar, cement, rice, flour and fisheries.

Dangote has a net worth of more than £8.5 billion ($11 billion) and has been heavily linked with a takeover at Arsenal in the past, with the club currently owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

Stan Kroenke is the majority shareholder at Emirates Stadium, but Dangote could be in a position to buy him out by next year, with his company set to begin the production of the largest single-train refinery in the world later this year in Lekki, Lagos State.

Africa’s richest man is concentrating on that business venture at the moment, but says he plans to buy Arsenal when the Dangote refinery is finished.

“It is a team that, yes, I would like to buy someday, but what I keep saying is we have $20 billion (£15 billion) worth of projects and that’s what I really want to concentrate on,” Dangote told the  David Rubenstein Show.

“I’m trying to finish building the company and then, after we finish, maybe sometime in 2021 we can.

“I’m not buying Arsenal right now, I’m buying Arsenal when I finish all these projects because I’m trying to take the company to the next level.”

The Gunners are very much in the middle of a transitional period at the moment, with the 2019-20 campaign disrupted by significant changes in the dugout.

Unai Emery was sacked in November after just over a year in charge of the first team, with his assistant Freddie Ljungberg then asked to step up to the role of head coach on an interim basis.

Arsenal took their time before appointing Emery’s permanent successor, and eventually identified Manchester City No.2 Mikel Arteta as the right man to take the club forward.

The former Gunners captain signed a three-and-a-half-year deal at the Emirates on December 20, with his appointment largely welcomed by supporters and experts.

Arsenal have won two of their last three matches under Arteta , with a crucial Premier League fixture at home to Sheffield United up next on Saturday.

The north London outfit are 10th in the standings at the moment, 11 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea in the race for the final Champions League spot.

Source – Goal.com

England Women will face USA at the SheBelieves Cup in a rematch of last summer’s World Cup semi-final.

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