In a story about the 2021 Ballon d’Or, which takes place in a Paris gala on Monday, Pascal Ferre said that Ronaldo has “only one ambition”: to win more player of the year awards than his long-time rival for the biggest awards in global football. “Ronaldo has only one ambition, and that is to retire with more Ballons d’Or than Messi,” Ferre told The New York Times , “and I know that because he has told me....

Chelsea and Arsenal want Sokratis The Real Madrid star won his first major international title with Portugal last summer at Euro 2016, and the shoes that Ronaldo will sport reflect that. Coloured in the red and green of the national team, they are trimmed with gold – the colour of a champion. Fans will be disappointed that the boots are not available for sale, with Nike claiming “they were created specifically for the world’s best player”....

The question of who is better between the Portuguese phenomenon and the empyrean Argentine has dominated the minds of football fans everywhere for the past decade and will persist into the future. Club and national loyalties can cloud judgement on the matter, while personalities also play a part in how good a player is perceived to be, and most people know who they’d pick. MORE: Sign up for ESPN+ to stream Serie A live all season...

The 2022 World Cup was billed as the final chance to see the two icons share a pitch for the final time, but it was Messi leading Argentina to glory in Qatar, while Ronaldo and Portugal were upset by Morocco in the quarterfinals. However, they are set for a shock reunion in the coming days, as Messi and PSG travel to Saudi Arabia, to face an Al Nassr/Al Hilal select XI, captained by Ronaldo after he signed with Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr....

This is only possible because the duo spent much of their careers at Barcelona and Real Madrid, their own rivalry subsumed by the heated rivalry between the two clubs, and their fan bases. At times the clubs seemed to be competing with each other on almost a weekly basis. Between April 2010 and April 2012, the clubs faced each other a dozen times. On top of that, the duo also faced off in an international friendly in that time....

GOP Senator Rick Scott of Florida, chairman of the NRSC, on Monday tweeted a photo of Trump smiling while holding the award, which was taken during a Republican event on Saturday. “This weekend I was proud to recognize President Donald Trump with the inaugural @NRSC Champion for Freedom Award. President Trump fought for American workers, secured the border, and protected our constitutional rights,” he wrote. In a statement, the NRSC announced that Scott “presented President Donald J....

France was pinned back for a majority of the first half, with Croatia dominating possession and shot total. It appeared as though Croatia was going to lead the game before long. Then the soccer gods stepped in. LIVE STREAM: Watch the 2018 World Cup on fuboTV (7-day free trial)​ France opened the scoring with a free kick that was deflected into the goal off the forehead of Mario Mandzukic for an own goal....

In a tweet, Aaron Black said: “A large protest is happening outside of Mark Zuckerberg’s home right now. Members of his community are calling him out for allowing foreign governments to interfere in our elections, misleading voters with fake political ads, violating antitrust laws, and selling their privacy.” The protesters gathered at Zuckerberg’s home on Presidents Day chanted, “Wake the Zuck up.” Queenie Wong, a reporter at CNet, tweeted: “Wake the Zuck Up!...

Elder is leading in a field of more than four Republican candidates and a recent poll indicates that Republicans are twice as certain they’ll vote in the September recall than Democrats. However, in a heavily blue state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one, an election that has five Republican candidates on the ballot makes the uphill climb even steeper for the GOP. An August 4 survey from the San Diego Union-Tribune found Elder leading the Republican field with 43 percent of GOP voters’ support....

The passenger on the SeaDream I ship, which left Barbados on Saturday, was confirmed to be infected based on the “preliminary” results of a rapid virus test, the ship’s captain, Torbjorn Lund, said Wednesday. Gene Sloan, a writer for The Points Guy travel website who was aboard, reported the captain’s ship-wide announcement. The ship is understood to have 53 passengers. They include 37 Americans who all boarded on Saturday, according to a reporter for Cruise Critic, Sue Bryant, who was also on the ship....

This process will start Monday and continue throughout the playoffs. Previously, the decisions have been strictly internal. MORE: Anthony Mason passes away at age 48 | Jordan, Ewing release statements on Mason | Kobe questioned decision to turn pro “Our policy in the past was pretty much to wait until we had something that was controversial enough to really garner a lot of interest, and we didn’t think that that was a practical approach,” NBA executive vice president of referee operations Mike Bantom said....

Before that time begins, let’s look back at what will stick in the mind during this international break with Five Thoughts from the Liga MX weekend: Cruz Azul not a flash in the pan Cruz Azul managed to stay undefeated while also sinking in the table and nearly falling out of the playoff positions. Still, Paco Jemez will hardly be concerned. The Maquina manager watched as his team held one of the league’s best attacks, and a team that has thus far been in a league of its own, to just one goal....

The 29-year-old limped off in Palace’s 1-1 draw with West Ham United at London Stadium on Tuesday after a fractured ankle. Prior to the injury, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers’ winger scored three league goals in 16 appearances for the Selhurst Park outfit this term. And ahead of the Eagles’ tie with Newcastle United on Sunday, the English tactician has stated that the forward will be out for the rest of the season....

Thanks to a 5-4 loss by the Giants to the Athletics on Friday night, the Cubs are guaranteed at least a spot in the NL wild-card game Oct. 7 against the Pirates. MORE: 100 years of classic Wrigley Field photos | Flashback: Why we picked the Cubs to win World Series in 2015 Led by the Cy Young-caliber arm of Jake Arrieta (20-6, 1.88 ERA), consistent production from first baseman Anthony Rizzo (....

More than a few eyebrows were raised when the Cubs took Schwarber, then a slugger at Indiana, with the No. 4 overall pick in the MLB draft on June 5. He was considered a first-round offensive talent by pretty much everyone, but defensively he was going to have to move from catcher to first base or the outfield. You would have been hard-pressed to find anyone outside the Cubs’ organization who thought he would be a top-five pick....

Baez, one of the game’s elite prospects, was batting .260/.323/.510 with 23 homers and 16 stolen bases in Triple-A and has been absolutely unstoppable since the All-Star break, reeling off a .342/.395/.753 line with nine homers in 20 games. Of course, he’s also struck out 130 times in 388 at-bats, a 33.5 percent whiff rate. But who the hell cares about a strikeout every three at-bats when you can do this:...

Chicago beat the Indians 8-7 in a thrilling 10-inning Game 7 to win the Fall Classic. Here’s how it unfolded. Box score. MORE: Greatest Game 7s in World Series history 12:47 a.m.: And that’s it! The Cubs are the World Series champions of the first time since 1908. They beat the Indians 8-7 in 10 innings. 12:36 a.m.: Carl Edwards Jr. enters for the Cubs. He will try to get historic save....

CureVac has filed a lawsuit against their competitor, claiming patent violations in the creation of the vaccine’s revolutionary messenger RNA (mRNA) tech. The two companies are due to clash in court after CureVac demanded “fair compensation” over BioNTech’s vaccine. CureVac’s own vaccine, produced during the pandemic, was a medical flop while Pfizer went on to be distributed around the world. The case was brought to the Dusseldorf Regional Court in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday (July 5)....