Home Blog Page 975

Copa America publishes a moving film of the 2021 final

-
24

Copa America published on its official Youtube channel a moving film of the Copa America 2021 final between Argentina and Brazil. The short video, which was released this Wednesday and is four minutes long, is titled: “The movie of the great final Argentina – Brazil at the Maracanã.”

With suspenseful music, the film starts with the last seconds of the match and the camera on Lionel Messi before the referee’s final whistle. Then, all the Argentina players gather around the captain and celebrate together Argentina’s Copa America title.

Also, we can see Ángel Di María, Argentina’s winning goal scorer, saying some touching words while sitting on the grass, right after the game:

“You have to give your life. When you play with this jersey, you have to give your life. You have to leave everything. It does not matter what happens, it doesn’t matter if you get injured. You have to give your life.

“The joy we all had is something we wanted a long time ago. Argentina has been fighting to achieve it and I think there, they are all now celebrating. That is the only thing that matters to us.”

The movie finishes with some very emotional footage showing Lionel Messi’s hug with Neymar and with coach Lionel Scaloni, and the whole national team lifting Argentina’s captain.

Luka Romero, 16 year old Argentine wonder kid, set to join Lazio

Roy Nemer
-
54

The 16 year old wonder kick is set to leave Spain and join Lazio in Italy.

Luka Romero, who has represented Argentina at youth level, has been part of the Mallorca set up for several years. However, it now looks like he will be leaving Spain as his contract with Mallorca has ended.

According to several reports coming out of the Italian media, Romero will be signing with Lazio. Similar to Lionel Messi’s case, Romero is a free agent and Lazio appears to be his next destination.

An attacking midfielder by nature, at international level, Romero has attracted the interested of not only the Argentina national team but the Spanish one too. Spain have tried getting the Mexican born Argentine to play for their youth team but Romero has already decided on the sky blue and white. That is not to say that he cannot still switch as he has yet to play a senior international match.

Argentina U23 Olympic coach Fernando Batista did not select Romero for the tournament which begins later this month.

Lionel Messi will reportedly stay at FC Barcelona

-
46

After winning the Copa America with Argentina, Lionel Messi will stay in FC Barcelona. According to the Spanish media, both parties have reached an agreement on a five-year contract, with a reduction of 50 percent of the Argentine’s salary.

On July 1st, Messi became officially a free agent since his four-year contract had come to an end. Although many rumors came to light whether the Argentine star would continue or not his career at FC Barcelona, journalist Fabrizio Romero, who is specialized in transfer news, stated via his Twitter account that “it’s never been in doubt”, Messi’s staying.

Messi’s main concern when choosing his future at Barça was that the club needed to have a good project. Leo wants to compete in the Champions League and with his club he was not able to do so during the last couple of years. That was one of the reasons why Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City were seen as possible destinations for the Argentine.

Even in September of 2020, Messi affirmed he wanted to leave FC Barcelona, after his friend Luis Suarez was kicked out in confusing fashion. At that time, Leo could hardly stand FC Barcelona’s president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his relationship with coach Ronald Koeman was not the best too.

Today, things are quite different. Joan Laporta is the club’s president and Messi’s relationship with Koeman seems to have improved. In addition, there have been spectacular signings like Memphis Depay and Leo’s friend Sergio Agüero, which give hope to the club ambitions.

What remains the same are FC Barcelona’s economic struggles. That is why three of the four club signings came as free agents, and that is also why Messi would have accepted to cut his salary by half.

Argentina rumored to play Italy in Diego Maradona Cup

Roy Nemer
-
88

With rumors flying high, reports are now coming out that Argentina will play Italy in the Diego Maradona Cup.

It’s a match that has been played in the past, the Copa America winners against the European Cup winners. While the FIFA Confederations Cup has, in recent years, been the go to tournament in regards to seeing the different confederation champions clashing against each other, that doesn’t appear to be the case for this year.

With no Confederations Cup because of COVID, rumors have been flying around for several weeks and months that we could be seeing a match between the Copa America winners and the Euro winners. And with Argentina winning the Copa America and Italy winning the Euro’s, the legendary name of Diego Maradona has served as a link between both nations.

Per unofficial reports, FIFA have agreed to have the Diego Maradona Cup played between both countries. It’s being rumored that the match would be taking place in Naples, the city where Maradona made himself a legend in, at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium. Per the unofficial reports, the match could be played in December but seeing as how there are no official FIFA dates for that month, it could be difficult.

The 2021 Copa America winners have World Cup qualifying matches in September, October and November with other rumors being that if the match would not be taking place in December, it could be played after the European club season ends, a few months before the 2022 World Cup.

Argentina have previously taken part in a match like this one but back in 1993. Alfio Basile’s team, who had won the Copa America, played 1992 European winners Denmark for the Artemio Franchi Trophy. A match which Argentina won in a penalty shootout and also the match which saw Diego Maradona win his last ever trophy with the national team.

Lionel Messi leader in nine Copa America stats

-
62

In addition to winning and lifting the trophy with Argentina, Lionel Messi had an amazing performance in the 2021 Copa America and leads in nine of the stats.

Here, all the Copa America stats where Messi was the best:
– Most goals (4)*
– Most assists (5)
– Most free kick goals (2)
– Most key passes (22)
– Most chances created (26)
– Most successful dribbles (36)
– Most goal creating actions (8)
– Most shot creating actions (46)
– Most accurate through balls (4)

*Luis Díaz, from Colombia, also scored four goals.

This is the video Messi posted via his Instagram account, which is a great recap of his best plays during the tournament:

With the stunning Copa America Messi had, which ended up with his national team lifting the trophy, the Ballon d’Or FIFA 2021 seems to have a clear candidate. Will Lionel Messi be able to win his 7 th Ballon d’Or, this year?

1...974975976...1,664Page 975 of 1,664