La Liga
MESSI CUTS HOLIDAY SHORT TO MEET NEW BOSS, ROLAND KOEMAN
Lionel Messi has dramatically cut short his holiday in order to hold urgent talks with new Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman about his plans to rebuild the crisis-stricken club.
Messi’s future at the Nou Camp is far from certain after Barcelona were ruthlessly thrashed 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League last week, prompting the departure of Koeman’s predecessor Quique Setien and sporting director Eric Abidal.
And according to Mundo Deportivo, Messi is returning from his family holiday in the La Cerdanya area of the Pyrenees to hear Koeman’s plans for himself.Barca boss Ronald Koeman doesn’t feel obliged to persuade Lionel Messi to stay at the club
Upon his unveiling as Barcelona manager, Koeman admitted he could have to convince Messi that his future remains with the club where has spent his entire career so far.
‘I don’t know if I have to convince Messi [to stay],’ he said. ‘He is the best player in the world, and you always want to have him in your team.
‘On my part, as a coach, I love working with Messi because he wins games. If he performs, I’ll be happy if he wants to stay.
‘Starting today, I’ll talk to him. We are going to work and talk with several players. In the case of Messi, hopefully he will continue here for more years.
‘If I say here what I am going to say, it would not be necessary for me to meet with him. I am the coach in order to make decisions.
‘Once again, he has a year left on his contract. He is the important player you want in your team as a coach.
It remains to be seen whether Messi can be convinced by Koeman’s plans for Barcelona
While Koeman clearly sees Messi as an integral part of Barcelona’s future, there are other mainstays of the current squad who are likely to be told to find a new team.
Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Jordi Alba are all expected to be moved on by Koeman as he plots a dramatic overhaul after inheriting the ruins of one of the most emphatic defeats in the club’s fabled history.
Suarez has been linked with a return to Ajax but it is believed he wants to stay and fight for his place in Spain.
In terms of arrivals, Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek – a player Koeman knows well from his time as Holland manager – has been linked with a switch to the Nou Camp in the summer transfer window.
Reports in Holland on Thursday have also said Koeman is paying attention to Georginio Wijnaldum’s situation at Liverpool.
The 29-year-old midfielder, who also played under Koeman for Holland, has a year to go on his Anfield deal and Dutch outlet AD claim the Barcelona boss has told Wijnaldum not to sign a new contract as he lines up a move.
The new Barcelona boss has been linked with a move for Liverpool man Georginio Wijnaldum
But for Barcelona supporters, it is the future of Messi that will be considered key. He has cut a frustrated figure for a while now at the Nou Camp, long before Bayern ripped Barca to shreds.
He hit out at ex-boss Setien and the direction he felt the club were drifting in when they surrendered their LaLiga title to fierce rivals Real Madrid this season with a 2-1 defeat at home to Osasuna.
‘This game represents the entire year. We have been an erratic and weak team,’ Messi said in the TV interview, just after the final whistle sounded at an empty Nou Camp.
‘Madrid did its part by winning all its matches, which is impressive, but we also helped them to win this league. We have to be critical of how we have played, starting with the players, and the rest of the club.
‘We have lost because of our mistakes and not because of Madrid’s successes, as many say.
The feeling on this team is that it tries, but that it cannot get the job done. Today in the first half they were better than we were and it seems we have to fall behind to react like we tried to do in the second half.’ Messi then underlined the importance of Barcelona winning the Champions League and avenging the demons from dramatic defeats in previous seasons ahead of their last-16 tie against Napoli.
Roma, Liverpool… the fans are running out of patience because we’re not giving them anything. If we want to fight for the Champions League, a lot has to change. Like this, we will lose to Napoli,’ he said.
As it was, they overcame Napoli but Bayern Munich ruthlessly showed just how much work Koeman has on his hands to restore Barcelona to their former glories.
Barcelona said their request for a permit to return to the Camp Nou for Sunday’s LaLiga match against Real Sociedad has been denied, with the city council highlighting safety and security issues with the revamped venue.
Barca had been hoping to return to a reduced-capacity Camp Nou with 27,000 spectators but have failed to obtain the necessary permits from Barcelona City Council.
Barca will instead host the match at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Montjuic, where they played during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons with renovations at Camp Nou now nine months behind schedule.
“We have spotted different elements that need to be fixed and have an impact in the safety and security of the stadium,” chief of civil protection Sebastia Massague said at a city council meeting.
Barca had to begin their LaLiga home campaign at the Estadi Johan Cruyff in their own training complex, where only 6,000 fans attended their match against Valencia on September 14, after a Post Malone concert left the Lluis Companys pitch in poor condition.
“The club is currently working on the new amendments that the council has shared today,” Barca said in a statement.
On Friday, the Catalan club also announced that their Champions League group stage match against Paris St Germain on October 1 would also take place at the Lluis Companys.
Barca are second in LaLiga, trailing leaders Real Madrid by five points but having played a game fewer.
-Reuters
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Villarreal midfielder Thomas Partey on Wednesday appeared in a London court and pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault involving three women.
Partey, a Ghana international, is accused of five counts of rape relating to two women, plus a charge of sexual assault against a third woman, between April 2021 and June 2022.
The alleged offences took place when Partey played for Premier League soccer club Arsenal. He left the club this summer and signed for Spain’s Villarreal.
The 32-year-old appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth and enter his not guilty pleas.
Partey was released on bail ahead of his trial, which was listed for Nov. 2, 2026 and is due to take between six and eight weeks.
He was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59.2 million) in 2020 and became a key member of the English side’s first team, before his contract expired at the end of June.
Partey played for Villarreal in their Champions League game against Arsenal’s bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.
He came on as a second-half substitute and was booed loudly by the Spurs fans every time he touched the ball.
-Reuters
Villarreal and Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey, who has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, walks outside Southwark Crown Court, in London, Britain, September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska
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Real Madrid on Tuesday denounced plans to stage a LaLiga match between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami, warning the proposal could undermine football’s competitive balance and vowing to petition global governing bodies to block the move.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Monday approved the December 20 fixture at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which could become the first LaLiga match held abroad and the first European league fixture staged in the United States.
“Real Madrid wish to express to its members, supporters and football fans in general its firm rejection of the proposal,” the club said in a statement, revealing they have already urged FIFA, UEFA and Spain’s Higher Sports Council (CSD) to intervene.
The club accused the RFEF of making its decision “without informing or consulting the clubs participating in the competition” and argued that staging the match in Miami “violates the essential principle of territorial reciprocity” in home-and-away league formats.
Real further stated that the move would “alter the competitive balance” and grant “an unfair sporting advantage” to the clubs involved.
The club also warned that approving the proposal could compromise sporting integrity and “set an unacceptable precedent,” insisting any change of this nature should require “the express and unanimous agreement of all the clubs participating in the competition”.
The plan still requires approval from UEFA, US Soccer, CONCACAF and ultimately FIFA before LaLiga President Javier Tebas can realise his long-held ambition of taking Spanish football to the U.S.
-Reuters
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