Far from riding on the euphoria of his team's 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique warned Monday that "flattery weakens" and said the club still had not won anything. "Flattery weakens. We are in a phase of flattery but the team is intelligent enough and the players know that playing football and […]

The judgement arm of FIFA's ethics committee on Monday opened a case against the body's suspended president Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, with a verdict in the corruption allegations surrounding both men due next month. The panel of judges, known as the adjudicatory chamber, received the final report from the ethics committee's investigative branch on […]

Arsenal have been dealt a blow with the news that midfielder Francis Coquelin will be out for at least two months with a knee injury. Manager Arsene Wenger announced that the 24-year-old Frenchman suffered knee ligament damage in Saturday's 2-1 Premier League defeat at West Bromwich Albion. Coquelin will now miss the busy festive period […]

Arsene Wenger insists Arsenal can still salvage their calamitous Champions League campaign as they prepare for Tuesday's do-or-die showdown with Dinamo Zagreb. Wenger's side are on brink of a stunning failure to make the knockout stages for the first time in 16 years after three defeats from their four Group F fixtures. The Gunners must […]

Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter revealed Sunday that he feared he was dying during a recent health scare. The 79-year-old, who has been banned for 90 days as the ongoing probe into widespread corruption at football's world governing body, was hospitalised earlier this month suffering from stress. "I was close to dying. I was between […]

French legend and Real Madrid reserve team coach Zinedine Zidane has played down suggestions he could be set to replace the under-pressure Rafael Benitez in the top job at the Santiago Bernabeu. Madrid were humiliated 4-0 at home by Barcelona on Saturday to pile the pressure on Benitez after just 16 games in charge. Zidane […]

Justin Meram scored the fastest playoff goal in Major League Soccer history Sunday and the Columbus Crew blanked the New York Red Bulls 2-0 in the first leg of the Eastern Conference finals. US midfielder Meram's tally after only nine seconds and Kei Kamara's goal in the 85th minute off stellar footwork by fellow African […]

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino played down his side's title chances after they closed to within four points of the Premier League summit by overwhelming West Ham United 4-1. Harry Kane scored twice, his seventh and eighth goals in five games, and defenders Toby Alderweireld and Kyle Walker were also on target at White Hart […]

If you can get away with it, writing a book on leadership lessons is the greatest gig ever. If your book isn't good or has bad advice, by default the reader is to blame because, well, the author was successful so the advice must work! In a sense, these kind of books are aggrandized autobiographies […]

Plenty has been put on the shoulders of Everton's Ross Barkley. Around this time last year, his club manager said when Barkley retired he would go down as the greatest player his country ever produced. The soon-to-be 22-year-old is far away from accomplishing that massive expectation but he's in the midst of the best campaign […]

For at least a brief while on Saturday, after a thrilling last minute goal gave them a win against Watford and before Manchester City and Leicester City played, Manchester United took a once-familiar spot on top of the English Premier League table. Since Alex Ferguson ushered in an era of almost constant success in the […]

Over 600 million people watched El Clasico, and I, like them, switched the match on to watch a rivalry that is so conceited that it assumes every game is a classic. What I saw was a ton of incredibly well-paid, well-groomed players on both sides who were wearing the stress of the day on their faces. […]

Today’s episode of NBCSN’s Premier League Download features a special one-on-one interview with former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. NBC’s Rebecca Lowe interviewed Ferguson on his book tour for Leading. The episode debuts today on NBCSN at 2pm ET. World Soccer Talk obtained a screener of the interview in advance of today’s broadcast. Lowe […]

Real Madrid coach Rafael Benitez insisted he is more worried about recovering his players' confidence than being sacked after the Spanish giants were thrashed 4-0 at home by bitter rivals Barcelona on Saturday. The former Liverpool and Chelsea manager has only been in charge for 16 games, but back-to-back defeats now leave Madrid six points […]

Javi Martinez scored his first goal for Bayern Munich for two years on Saturday as their 3-1 win at Schalke 04 opened an eight-point lead in the German league. After second-placed Borussia Dortmund's shock 3-1 defeat at Hamburg on Friday, Pep Guardiola's Bayern took their chance to extend their lead. David Alaba's early goal was […]