Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Media ID: 55371255
Caption:

Neymar is presented as a Barcelona player in June 2013 – the legal fallout from the deal continues to this day. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

Race for Neymar: the Inside Story of How Barcelona Sealed the Controversial Deal

by Alex Duff and Tariq Panja | Apr 10, 2017 | Sports

On a July evening in 2011 the football world’s focus was on the Vila Belmiro Stadium in Santos, which appears little changed from the days when a teenage Pelé lived in a dormitory under one of the stands. National-team coaches had arrived in Brazil before the World...

Media ID: 55371140
Caption:

Gareth Bale has scored in Champions League and Copa del Rey finals but his language skills are still critiqued. Photograph: Alex Caparros/Getty Images

La Liga’s Foreign Players are Easy Targets until They Master the Spanish Language

by Craig Timberg and Brian Fung | Apr 8, 2017 | Sports

n Spain, football is played in Spanish. There is a necessity to find both your feet and tongue in La Liga. In December, sports newspaper AS posted a video of Gareth Bale speaking about his recovery from injury under the tag: “Progress with Spanish, watch how he...

Media ID: 55370695
Caption:

‘It will be fascinating to see how this compelling little sprite of a footballer finds room to grow and assert his will, a mere superstar in the presence of greatness.’ Illustration: Nathan Daniels for the Guardian

Neymar Won’t leave Barcelona while He is Hovering Close to the Throne

by Barney Ronay | Apr 3, 2017 | Sports

Mourinho was surely right when he described the week’s most exciting transfer rumour, the notion Neymar might be lured to Manchester United, as “absurd”, “impossible” and “like trying to break into a safe”. Sadly for the Premier League, this must surely be the case....

Media ID: 55370508
Caption:

From left to right: Kasper Dolberg of Ajax, RB Leipzig’s Naby Keïta, Kylian Mbappé of Monaco and Celtic’s Moussa Dembelé. Composite: Getty Images

Who are the Most In-Demand Players for the Summer?

by Ed Aarons and Fabrizio Romano | Mar 31, 2017 | Sports

Kasper Dolberg (Ajax) Ajax’s production line of Danish talent shows no sign of abating, with Dolberg looking like being the latest to follow in the footsteps of such luminaries as Jesper Olsen, Jan Molby and Christian Eriksen. Manchester City have been monitoring the...

Media ID: 55370404
Caption:

Jermain Defoe celebrates his goal, his first for England for four years, scored midway through the first half in England’s 2-0 home win against Lithuania. Photograph: Sandra Mailer/Rex/Shutterstock

Jermain Defoe Rolls Back the Years to Show England What They Have Missed

by Dominic Fifield | Mar 30, 2017 | Sports

There was something very familiar about all this. The sight of a winger bustling to the byline and, even as he pulled the ball back across goal, being absolutely convinced the net would be billowing by the time his momentum had carried him on to the artificial turf...