Ballon d'Or back to its root

World football governing body FIFA and French publication magazine France Football has parted ways so the FIFA  Ballon d'Or trophy will end. Both parties will award their own trophies for best player in the world. So now we will have two awards for best player, namely FIFA World Best Player and Ballon d'Or.

So the Ballon d'Or will be back to its core rules before they merged the award with FIFA world best player.
Ballon d'Or will be awarded by France Football by the end of the calendar year in December.
There will be 30 candidate shortlist instead of 23.
Only Journalists from all over the world will vote for a winner from the shortlist.
National team captains and coaches wouldn't vote.

Implications:
Journalists wouldn't have to consider the feeling of players and team mates.
As we all know, national team coaches and captains usually vote not for the best players in their opinions but for the players from their own team or country if they are in the shortlist.

So Ballon d'Or will now seem more fair.

Barcelona to sue Santos over Barbosa transfer deal

Barcelona and Santos FC signed a transfer agreement back in 2013 to give Barcelona the right of first refusal over Santos striker Gabriel Barbosa and Santos need to give Barcelona 3 days to respond to any offer from other clubs to buy the player.
Santos did inform Barcelona of their intention to sell the player to Inter Milan for 29.5 million euro 2 days before the transfer window closed in Spain.
With such little time of intimation and so close to end of transfer window, there is not much time to negotiate with club and player so it is obvious that Santos does not intend to sell the player to Barcelona but it did its part of the agreement. It is Santos way of paying back to Barcelona in relation to the Neymar deal.
Currently Barcelona is considering whether to report to FIFA or take the case to the court.
It might be prudent to just settle the matter amicably so that it would not affect any future dealing. It is important to maintain good relations with other clubs.

Messi is injured!

Lionel Messi made his comeback with the Argentina national team in a world qualifier match against Uruguay where he scored the only winning goal and crucially he sustained an injury during the match, he went back to Barcelona with the Argentina coach not going to risk him in the other qualifier against Venezuela. On further test, it was confirmed by Barcelona that Messi has sustained a hamstring injury and is expected to miss the next La Liga match against Alaves. Fans can only hope it is not very serious and he would be able to recover and continue his good form. It also give Enrique a chance to test out their new signing Paco Alcacer while Messi recovers from his injury.

Update: it is learned that Messi's injury is not very serious and he would just miss out the next La Liga match against Alaves and would return in the champions league match against Celtic.

Real Madrid transfer policy has become prudent?

Real Madrid has only signed one player Alvaro Morato from Juventus for 30m euros so far despite an impending transfer ban. One would expect them to spend to buy players to cover for the transfer ban. Instead more players left the team,  they sold Jese to PSG for 25m euros; Denis Cherysev to Villarreal for 7m euros; Alvaro Medran to Valencia for 1.5m euros; and Omar Mascarell left for Eintracht Frankfurt for 1m euros, while Borja Mayoral went on loan to Wolfsburg for a fee of 3m euros. They have net transfer income. Not simply signing players to match rival teams like Barcelona is a good sign.

Many would be thinking if they would be in trouble if there are major injuries to key players but if one takes a look at the team currently, it has sufficient backup as their benches are pretty strong.

Barcelona's La Masia in decline?

Barcelona in recent times has to rely on buying talented and established players to bring the club forward, this is in part due to the decline in La Masia youth players talent and readiness to step up into the first team and make an impact.

At one point of time, when almost all first team players were promoted from the La Masia football academy, it shows it cannot be repeated and that is a mere coincidence when they have such a talented crop of young players in that particular generation, they still need player with inherent football talents and trained them to fit into Barcelona footballing philosophy. Thats one reason.

Thanks to the success that a team filled with mostly La Masia graduates dominated club football for a period of years, every aspiring youngster whose parents has the means would want to be trained at La Masia, so they are accepting young players who may not have been talented and good enough to be part of the Barcelona club, the club La Masia academy main objective is to select players who can rise up and play for the first team with the training. And training is one thing, they need to have the necessary qualities to be able to make it. So why the club accept such players?

Even though even seemingly talented players do not always reach their potentials.

Messi is back!

Lionel Messi is already back home in Castelldefels just outside Barcelona, Spain where he is currently living. And he make it known to the club that he would be joining the squad for pre-season training in England. He is back and recharged after his vacation with families in Ibiza, Spain.

Barcelona FC Summer 2016 Transfers

Barcelona FC Summer 2016 Transfers

Transfer Budget according to club = 60m euro

Transfers IN:

Samuel Umtiti - France - CD - 25m euro
Facundo Bartucci - Argentina - FW
Denis Suarez - Spain - AM - 3.25m euro
Lucas Digne - France - LB - 16.5m euro
Andre Gomes- Portugal - CM - 35m euro plus var
Jasper Cillessen- Holland- GK - 13m euro plus var
Paco Alcacer - Spain - FW - 30m euro

      Total spend in cash so far = 122.75m euro

Transfers OUT:
Marc Batra - Spain - CD - 8m euro 
Daniel Alves - Brazil - RB - free 
Sandro Ramirez - Spain - FW - released
Alen Hallilovic - Crotia - AM - 5m euro
Alex Song - Cameron - DM - released
Claudio Bravo - Chile - GK - 18m euro plus var
Sergi Samper - Spain - DM - loan
Munir El Haddadi - Spain - FW - loan

      Total receipt in cash so far = 31m euro

Net Spend = 91.75m euro

Mourinho snatched away Pedro

Barcelona forward Pedro has joined Chelsea in a 30 millions Euro deal. Everyone was expecting Manchester United to ultimately buy Pedro as they keep bargaining and no solid offer was tabled, Mourinho makes a swift move to snatch the forward away.

Ramos and Carvajal aggresive foul on Mandzukic

Sergio Ramos raised his elbow while challenging for aerial ball with Mandzukic, it hit his face and blood oozes out of his face near the eyes, but referee see no problem with that and considered it to be not a bookable offense, is it because it happened inside the penalty box which would have otherwise resulted in a penalty being awarded against Real Madrid?

Check video of the incident here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puw0pfAgbWU

Mandzukic was later yellow carded for his raised elbow when challenging for an aerial ball which didn't resulted in any significant impact at all.

And Mandzukic later on in the match was again subjected to aggression by the opposition players, one Daniel Carvajal looked like he bite-lick Mandzukic's arm and then swing a punch at him, this happened inside the penalty box, and no foul was given. If it was Luis Suarez instead of Carvajal, everyone would be crying foul of his bite.

Check the video of the incident here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTjl0YOeT4E

Luis Figo to fight for the FIFA President post

Luis Figo declared his intention to run for the FIFA President post and one of the major reason he is running for the post is because of the current state the world football governing body FIFA is in after several controversies.
It is high time there is a change at the top to bring about sweeping changes and do away with all the corruption, cheating and match fixing. Police CCTV camera recording to nab wrongdoers and I don't see how during a game instant replay cannot be used to nail the cheating players and to make sure referee decision is 100% correct. If there are opposition to the introduction of such a way to prevent avoidable controversies and wrong decisions, then those opposing parties might have an inherent interest to allow such things to go on in the game to manipulate the results.

Cristiano Ronaldo only handed two-games ban

Cristiano Ronaldo has been handed only a two games ban for his unprofessional actions during Real Madrid match against Cordoba when he struggles to find a goal and vent his frustration on the Cordoba players. Is the La Liga's disciplinary committee showing too much leniency to the Real Madrid player since he is in any case automatically banned for one game? So it is only a one game additional ban.

Cristiano was given a red card in the closing stage of the game when he kicked and then raised a hand to strike Cordoba defender Edimar in the face. No amount of apologies from the offender can be accepted, everyone has to be punished severely for such unprofessional behaviors.

It is time the authorities concerned treat all players as equal.

Marcelo Bielsa sat on a hot cup of coffee

Look at the reaction of Marseille manager after he sat on a hot cup of coffee during a match.

Super Mario showing his brilliance at Liverpool FC

why Mario Balotelli is not doing well at Liverpool FC

As we all know Mario Balotelli is not enjoying a great start to his career at Liverpool FC, he has just  managed to score only one goal and that also against a team called Ludogorets in the Champions League. He was left out of Italy squad also and dropped for Liverpool last game against West Brom.

Goal reported that Balotelli has a pet pig called "Super" which was bought while he was at AC Milan and he is not allowed to bring it to England unless he registers himself as a breeder and provide a certificate of health from a vet for the pig.

Liverpool should be doing everything to get Super, the pig to join Mario at Liverpool FC as quickly as possible so that Mario can be SUPER MARIO again. Oink Oink.

Full-back Adriano is back in contention after heart problems

Brazilian full-back Adriano who has been diagnosed with an irregular heart beat problem and was out of contention since July 2014 is back.

src: soccerway.com

He has reportedly been given the all clear to play and is back in training. Hope his heart is 100% fine and wish him the best of health.

Things are going smoothly so far for Barcelona with injured players getting back to match fitness, they would have a more full strength squad.

Van Gaal told club supporters to keep the faith

Van Gaal who was praised for his tactics and shrewd guidance of the Holland national team in this year world cup just couldn't manage to replicate his success with his newly joined club Manchester United. He could just managed 2 draws and 1 loss. The 4-0 loss came against League Two side Milton Keynes Dons @MK Dons in the League Cup. With all due respect to Milton Keynes Dons, but have anyone of you heard of this football club? They lost to them 4-0 not some by fluke 1-0 kinda of win. It is complete humiliation for a club like Manchester United.

Out of Ideas
src: goal.com

This clearly shows whatever methods Van Gaal is using, no matter how sound it is according to him, isn't working out with the current squad of players that he has. He should be reminded that his Holland national has more versatile and talented players so he could have tactical options and it is just not possible to apply in the current within a short span of time. It has to be introduced gradually. I don't see how club supporters have faith in him given the brilliant start he has made. Moyes is not only smiling but laughing in his sleep.

Van Gaal, according to tribalfootball, said that he need over a year to get things right at Manchester United and is the club that broken to warrant so much of time for him to set things right? He is buying himself more time and then when things become good before one year is over, he will be considered to be great for turning things around so fast. The first thing he need to set right is to remove the person sitting next to him, the wannabe coach Ryan Giggs.

And according to bleacher report, Louis van Gaal has outlined Angel Di Maria's versatility as one of the reasons he opted to pay a British-record transfer fee for the Argentinian, likening the new Manchester United star's transfer to his decision to sign Arjen Robben for Bayern Munich in 2009.
But he forgot one thing that Arjen Robben is extremely good in which Di Maria couldn't potentially matched up to and that is diving skill, how to have hang time while diving. Frankly Robben would have won gold medals at the Olympics if he has chosen to be a diver.
Di Maria is a big capture for Manchester United and a loss for Real Madrid as can be seen in the world cup 2014, Argentina isn't as threatening with him out of the team injured and it would have been a different story if he isn't injured and would play the perfect combination with Messi.