International Football
CNN ON HOW THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MESSI AND BARCELONA TURNED SOUR
BY MATIAS GREZ
Overnight, angry Barcelona fans descended on the Camp Nou to lay the blame at the feet of the man they hold responsible for Lionel Messi’s desire to leave.
“Bartomeu, resign!” they chanted over and over again. On Wednesday, club Technical Secretary Ramon Planes desperately tried to quell fans’ anger.
“We have said on many occasions that we think of Lionel Messi as an FC Barcelona player,” he said at the press conference for new signing Trincão.
“Barcelona has rebuilt itself on many occasions throughout its history and has always come back stronger. Our thinking is to have [Trincão] alongside the best player in the world.”
“There is no division in the club about Leo, anyone who understands football wants him here to return to win again — he’s a winner.”
Many fans have been angry with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu for some time, unhappy with a seemingly scattergun approach to planning and recruitment that has seen the team regress following the retirement of the club’s previous generation of stars, notably the 2011 all-conquering homegrown vintage of Xavi and Iniesta.
Messi’s consistently brilliant match-winning moments of magic have papered over the cracks that have been steadily widening at the Camp Nou and some fans are rightly concerned about what will happen to their club should the Argentine talisman get his wish and leave.
The humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals — the biggest European defeat in Barcelona’s history — was unsurprisingly the straw that broke the camel’s back, but Messi’s discontent at the club he made his debut for 16 years ago has been evident for some time.
Messi’s has long endured a strained relationship with Bartomeu and the Barcelona hierarchy, but this came to a head in February when sporting director and former teammate Eric Abidal accused the players of downing tools to get former manager Ernesto Valverde sacked.
In response, the Argentine responded by posting a series of furious messages on his Instagram account, forcing Bartomeu to call an emergency meeting between the pair.
After the Bayern defeat, Abidal left the club, while head coach Quique Setien was sacked and replaced by Ronald Koeman.
Messy ending?
Earlier this year when Barcelona’s players announced they would be taking a 70% pay cut to help the club through the coronavirus pandemic, Messi took another not-so-subtle swipe at the board for the way they had publicly handled negotiations.
Eventually, the off-field battles with his own club, coupled with the team’s failings on the pitch — this is Barcelona’s first trophy-less season since 2007-08 — seem to have become too much.
It has now been five years since Barcelona won the Champions League, an almost unthinkable barren stretch for a team boasting one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.
Messi has been at Barcelona since moving to the La Masia academy from Argentina at the age of 13, but it appears their relationship is destined for a messy ending.
According to multiple reports, the 33-year-old is utilizing a clause in his contract which allows him to leave the club for free this summer.
Reportedly the clause expired on June 10, but Messi believes he still has the right to activate it now due to the season being extended because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Barcelona remains confident that will not be the case and any potential suitors will need to meet Messi’s €700 million ($824.8 million) release clause to secure his services — an amount no club in the world could afford due to Financial Fair Play regulations.
However, should Messi get his wish and leave, there are perhaps only two clubs in Europe that could realistically afford his reported $100 million per year salary: Manchester City and Paris-Saint Germain.
“We are not thinking about any contract clause,” Planes said. “The marriage between Messi and FC Barcelona has given much happiness to both parties … we are working internally to convince Messi to find the best solution for FC Barcelona and for Messi.
“Messi has not told us that he will not be showing up at training, but any communication will remain between the parties and we will not broadcast what is spoken out of respect.”
-CNN
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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