The Ballon d'Or is an annual football award presented by French magazine France Football since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season.
The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2020 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of the Copa del Rey and La Liga.
Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi set numerous records for individual accolades won throughout his professional footballing career such as eight Ballon d'Or awards and eight times being named the world's best player by FIFA. He is the most decorated player in the history of professional football having won 45 team trophies, including twelve Big Five league titles, four UEFA Champions Leagues, two Copa Américas, and one FIFA World Cup. Messi holds the records for most European Golden Shoes (6), most goals for a single club, most goals (474), hat-tricks (36) and assists (192) in La Liga, most matches played (39), assists (18) and goal contributions (34) in the Copa América, most matches played (26) and goal contributions (21) in the World Cup, most international appearances (191) and international goals (112) by a South American male, and the second-most in the latter category outright. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi has scored over 850 senior career goals for club and country.
New Maradona or New Diego was a title given by the press and public to promising Argentine football players in reference to Diego Maradona as a benchmark. Since Maradona retired, fans had been anticipating someone to lead the Argentina national team to a World Cup final, like Maradona did in 1986 and 1990. As a consequence, very talented youngsters were quickly labeled as the New Maradona, sometimes without any similarity in playing style. The New Maradonas were predominantly players in attacking or advanced playmaking roles — forwards, wingers, or attacking midfielders. The term gradually fell out of use after Lionel Messi successfully managed to lead Argentina to World Cup finals in 2014 and 2022, winning it in the latter, arguably emulating and surpassing Maradona to become the most successful Argentine footballer ever.
"Anti-football" is a playing style in association football that emphasizes a highly defensive and aggressive approach, relying mainly on passing and involving the deployment of all team members except the striker behind the ball. The goal of the tactic is to prevent the opposing team from scoring, rather than pursuing an offensive strategy to win the game.
This is a list of statistical records for the Argentina national football team.
FourFourTwo is a football magazine published by Future. Issued monthly, it published its 300th edition in May 2019. It takes its name from the football formation of the same name, 4-4-2. Future acquired the magazine from Haymarket Media Group in 2018. Haymarket previously acquired Future's earlier football magazine Total Football in 2001 in exchange of subscriber list and the rights to the masthead of its defunct internet magazine The Net, Haymarket later absorbed Total Football into FourFourTwo.
The 2011–12 season was FC Barcelona's 112th in existence and the club's 81st consecutive season in the top flight of Spanish football. Barcelona debuted their new and first paid shirt sponsor Qatar Foundation after an agreement was reached in 2010 with the non-profit organization for a five-and-a-half-year, €170 million deal. The agreement with UNICEF continued and their name had been moved to the lower back portion of the shirt. This season also introduced a new away kit in black while the third kit was retained from last season.
The 2012–13 season was Futbol Club Barcelona's 113th in existence and the club's 82nd consecutive season in the top flight of Spanish football. The season marked the managerial debut of Tito Vilanova, who served as Pep Guardiola's longtime assistant. Vilanova assumed management of the club after Guardiola, who had managed Barcelona for the prior four seasons, declined to renew his contract.
The first match between Manchester United and Manchester City in the 2009–10 Premier League football season was played on 20 September 2009 at Old Trafford, Trafford. It was the 153rd Manchester derby between the two clubs. Heading into the game, both teams were level on points having both won four matches in the opening weeks of the season, and big-spending City were seen as a new threat to United, who had been the dominant force in English football for over 15 years.
The Messi–Ronaldo rivalry, or Ronaldo–Messi rivalry, is a sporting rivalry in football propelled by the media and fans that involves Argentine footballer Lionel Messi and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, mainly for being contemporaries and due to their similar records and sporting successes. They spent nine seasons in the prime of their careers facing off regularly while playing for rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The Memorial Aldo Rovira Award is a trophy awarded by FC Barcelona to its best players of the season and it is decided by a jury composed of board of directors and heads of sport in Catalan media. The award was created in 2010 in memory of the son of former FC Barcelona director, Josep Lluis Rovira, who died in a car/traffic accident one year earlier.
The 2018 Ballon d'Or was the 63rd annual award ceremony recognising the best footballer in the world for 2018. The winners were announced on 3 December 2018, and for the first time in its history, the Ballon d'Or Féminin and Kopa Trophy were awarded to the best female footballer and male under-21 footballer, respectively. Luka Modrić, who was integral to Real Madrid's Champions League victory and Croatia's surprise journey to the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, was awarded the Ballon d'Or. His win meant that it was the first time since Kaká in 2007 that a player other than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo won the award, ending the 10-year Messi–Ronaldo dominance.
Luka Romero Bezzana is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder and winger for La Liga club Alavés, on loan from Serie A club AC Milan. Born in Mexico, he represented Argentina at the youth international level.
The La Liga is a Spanish professional league for association football club. At the top of the Spanish football league system, it is the country's primary football competition and is contested by 20 clubs. The competition was formed in 1929, with an initial format of 10 teams.
Livano Comenencia is a professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Italian club Juventus Next Gen. Born in the Netherlands, he plays for the Curaçao national team.
The 2021 Ballon d'Or was the 65th annual ceremony of the Ballon d'Or, presented by France Football, recognising the best footballers in the world in 2021.
Lionel Messi 
Barcelona 
Cristiano Ronaldo 
Luka Modrić 
Robert Lewandowski 
Bayern Munich 
Paris Saint-Germain 
Erling Haaland 
Manchester City