The Fußball Chatter

When Xavi Hernandez left Barcelona in 2015 to play out his final playing days with Qatari side Al-Sadd, it would not be a surprise that the former Spanish international will return to the Camp Nou in some form of capacity, possibly as a manager. Retiring as a player in 2019, he became manager of Al-Sadd, winning five trophies in the process. Now, he has returned to Barcelona as a manager, replacing Ronald Koeman. Pep Guardiola, who managed Xavi during his time at Barcelona, gave his stamp of approval, stating that Xavi has more experience in the dugout than he did before he took over Barcelona. However, there is scepticism around Xavi's appointment, given that Xavi has only managed in Qatar and the huge task he's about to encounter. Various former players have returned to their sides as managers. Zinedine Zidane with Real Madrid, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Manchester United, Frank Lampard with Chelsea and Andrea Pirlo with Juventus. Aside from Zinedine and Guardiola, these appoi...

Great players come and go, they define an era of their teams and the sport itself. They produce moments that we tell to younger generations decades after, the innovate the game that many follow what they did and their success adds to their immortality. Pele defined the Brazil side of 1958 to 1970, Johan Cruyff defined the Netherlands team in 1974, Franz Beckenbauer defined West Germany and Bayern Munich during the 1970s, Diego Maradona defined Napoli and Argentina during the 1980s, Ronaldo Nazario defined the 1990s, etc. There's without a doubt that Lionel Messi has defined Barcelona over the past 15 years producing incredible moments, taking Barcelona to the top of world football and has rarely let his performances drop despite being in his 30s and seeing Barcelona's decline as a force in the European game. Now, he's finally leaving Barcelona after an emotional press conference on Sunday confirming he is leaving the club where he came in as a 13-year-old from Rosario, Arge...

The long relationship between Lionel Messi and Barcelona has now come to an end. Or has it? On Thursday evening, Barcelona announced that they could not sign Lionel Messi to a new deal. This was a shock as the Argentine and the club agreed on a new deal where the player will take a 50% wage cut with an announcement imminent. However, strange turns of events saw Barcelona unable to sign Messi to a new deal, leaving the Argentine a free agent, which he has been since July 1st when his former Barcelona contract expired. It is a very bitter pill to swallow for Barcelona fans as the greatest player the football club has ever seen is gone. A relationship between the player and the club spans over twenty years when Messi was in La Masia before making his first-team debut in November 2003 and has gone on to make 778 appearances, scoring 672 goals and winning 35 trophies with the Catalan club. Although this scenario was there, it is still a shock as some thought Messi would see out his career a...

Premier League   All 10 games were played on Sunday simultaneously to determine each team's final position. The main focus was who misses out on Champions League football next season. Liverpool will play in the Champions League next season after a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace with Sadio Mané scoring a brace while being Roy Hodgson's final game as Crystal Palace boss. Chelsea lost 2-1 to Aston Villa at Villa Park with Edouard Mendy sustaining an injury which leaves a doubt for next week's Champions League final. Fortunately for Tuchel and Chelsea, they will play in the Champions League next season because Leicester City missed their chance after losing 4-2 to Tottenham. Jamie Vardy scored twice for the Foxes but Goals from Harry Kane, Gareth Bale and an own goal from Kasper Schmeichel means that the FA Cup winners will be playing in the Europa League. Manchester City says goodbye to Sergio Agüero with a 5-0 win over Everton and the league trophy presentation with the Argentin...

  La Liga 26 goals were scored in the Spanish top flight this past weekend as we are approaching the business end of the season, with only ten games remaining. Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and, Real Madrid all won their games this past weekend, as the title race drags on. Barcelona got the biggest win of the three, beating Real Sociedad 6-1 at the Anoeta with Lionel Messi and American right-back Sergino Dest both scoring braces in a big win for the Blaugrana. Atletico Madrid kept their four-point lead at the summit of the league table, beating Alaves 1-0 at home. Luis Suarez scored the only goal of the game, which was his 500th career goal, a milestone for the Uruguayan. Real Madrid went away to Celta Vigo and, got a 3-1 win thanks to Karim Benzema, who scored two goals. As well as Marco Asensio, who continued off his cameo performance in the Champions League from mid-week. In the relegation dogfight, everybody failed to win their games to get some breathing space. Cadiz lost 2-1 awa...

  Premier League Nine games were played in the Premier League this past weekend, with 21 goals scored. The biggest clash in the English top-flight was the North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates. Arsenal went out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Martin Odegaard and Alexandre Lacazette. Spurs went in front thanks to a wonderful rabona goal from Erik Lamela, who later got sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Another wonderful goal was scored by Dwight McNeil for Burnley in their 2-1 win against Everton at Goodison Park. The Burnley wide-player breezed past Allan before curling the ball past Jordan Pickford. Chris Wood also scored for Burnley with Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled one back for the Toffees . Kelechi Iheanacho scored his first Premier League hat-trick as Leicester City trashed Sheffield United 5-0. The Nigerian, who scored in Leicester's last two, was too much for the Blades , with Jamie Vardy acting as a perfect foil. His third was...

  Bundesliga 20 goals were in the Bundesliga this past weekend with six teams keeping clean sheets. RB Leipzig kept the pressure on Bayern Munich in the title race, winning away at Freiburg 3-0 with Nkunku, Sorloth and Forsberg scoring. That put Leipzig top of the Bundesliga before Bayern's game against Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker . There was early trouble for Bayern when Erling Haaland scored twice for Dortmund in the first ten minutes. Bayern initially clawed back, winning the game 4-2 with Robert Lewandowski scoring a hat-trick, taking his goal tally to 31 this season. Three goals off his total of last season. Borussia Monchengladbach has been on a bad run of form with no wins in their last four games. That run continued following a 1-0 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, dropping down to 10th in the league table, seven points behind Leverkusen. Hertha Berlin scored two late goals to win the game 2-1 against Augsburg, their first win since January with two late goals from Du...

  Serie A 21 goals were in the Italian top flight this past weekend but only three games had three goals or more. One of those games was between league leaders Inter Milan and Genoa. The Nerazzurri had a comfortable 3-0 victory with Romelu Lukaku, Matteo Darmian and Alexis Sánchez. That's now five straight wins for Inter as they are still four points ahead of AC Milan. Speaking of their city rivals, they beat top-four hopefuls AS Roma 2-1 at the Olimpico on Sunday. Goals from Franck Kessié and Ante Rebić ensured the win for the Rossoneri, after losing back-to-back games. a 77th-minute equalizer from Antonín Barák meant the points were shared between Hellas Verona and Juventus. A blow in their chances of gaining ground on the Milan clubs, as they are six points behind Milan and ten points behind Inter, albeit with a game in hand. Atalanta moved into the top four following their 2-0 win over Sampdoria with goals from Ruslan Malinovskiy and Robin Gosens, who scored his seventh goal in...

  Premier League Six teams kept clean sheets in the Premier League this weekend with just 18 goals scored from the nine games played. It was a momentous weekend for Everton Football Club as they made history, finally beating their city rivals Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield on Saturday. That was Everton's first win against Liverpool in ten years and also their first win at Anfield since 1999. It took them level on points with the defending champions with a game in hand while Liverpool has now lost four home games in a row, with a strong possibility of missing out on Champions League football next season. It was not a good weekend for Mourinho's Tottenham as they lost 2-1 on Sunday to West Ham United. Goals from Michail Antonio and Jesse Lingard gave the Hammers the win, taking them to the top four while Spurs' form has taken a big hit, with only one win in their last five. A penalty from Mason Mount gave Chelsea a point against Southampton on Saturday with Thomas Tuchel being very...

The 2020/2021 Football season has gone underway with the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A all in action. The Premier League has been covered, so this is on the Bundesliga, La Liga, and Serie A to look at how this season will pan out from the title race to the race for European places.  La Liga The 2020/2021 La Liga season started on the 12th of September with Eibar playing against Celta Vigo, which ended in a goalless draw. The likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atlético Madrid rested on the first weekend due to their participation in the latter stages of the Champions League last season. Barcelona has dominated La Liga over the past decade, winning six titles between 2011 to 2020. However, the Blaugrana missed out on the title last season to Real Madrid, with Zidane's side favourites to retain La Liga this season. Barcelona's troubles both on and off the field have not made things a lot easier, with heavy surgery required to get close to their main rivals. Al...

 First Weekend of the Premier League The Premier League made its return for the 2020/2021 season. Given how the 2019/2020 season ended, this coming season is going to be an odd one due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the tight fixture set-up of the new season. Nevertheless, we are all excited that the new season is underway. The first game of the season was Fulham hosting Arsenal at Craven where the Gunners blasted their opponents away with a 3-0 victory. Alexandre Lacazette scored the first goal of the season, putting the ball in the back of the net from two yards out after some heavy pressure that Fulham found it difficult to defend. New Arsenal signing Gabriel opened his Premier League account with a goal. The Brazilian scored from a set-piece early in the second half, with an Arsenal victory looking more imminent. Willian also had a good debut, creating two assists. The other was a long ball which found Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who put his shot in the top corner as Mikel Ar...

To say that Barcelona's season has been a failure would be the biggest understatement of the year. The Spanish giants complete the 2019/2020 season without any major silverware for the first time since 2008, losing the La Liga title to Real Madrid. They were knocked out of the Copa Del Rey to Athletic Bilbao and were completely humiliated in the UEFA Champions League at the hands of Bayern Munich who inflicted an 8-2 defeat, Barcelona's worst defeat in 75 years. Barcelona's decline has been noticeable for some time from the Roma defeat to the capitulation at Anfield last year. A team that was seen as the gold standard of club football just about a decade ago are a shadow of their former selves with drama both on and off the field, an ageing squad and a heavy reliance on Lionel Messi to make things happen. The embarrassment against Bayern truly marked the end of an era for Barcelona with massive wholesale changes needed to refresh the squad. There is also a question mark...

The 2019/2020 Spanish La Liga season ended on the 19th of July with Real Madrid winning the title, their 34th in history. Barcelona finished behind their rivals by five points while Atlético Madrid and Sevilla make up the final Champions League spots. Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Granada will play Europa League football next season but Espanyol, Mallorca and Leganes will be playing in the Segunda Division next season as they were relegated from La Liga this season. Lionel Messi finished as both top scorer and best provider this season with 25 goals and 21 assists while Thibaut Courtois won the Zamora Trophy for Best Goalkeeper. Here is a review of the recently concluded La Liga season. Best Player - Karim Benzema Real Madrid had a rock solid defence this season but you need goals to win games. Zidane's side scored 70 goals this season, 16 goals fewer than Barcelona. Karim Benzema has stepped up in terms of his goal output since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo and this ...