Barcelona sent birthday greetings to Lionel Messi as the club captain turned 34 on Thursday – at a time when his future remains unresolved.

The man who holds a near clean sweep of individual club records has yet to sign a new contract, with his deal due to expire at the end of June.

There was customary warmth towards Messi in the social media posts by Barcelona, who showcased a reel of his 10 best goals, and now they must hope he has more birthdays to come while serving at Camp Nou.

Messi, whose career has been a one-club odyssey, is currently on Copa America duty in Brazil with the Argentina national team.

He is Barcelona s record goalscorer and has made more appearances for the club than any other player, also winning an unsurpassed six Ballon d Or tr…

Bayern Munich have emerged as the front-runners to sign Dayot Upamecano from RB Leipzig next summer, according to David Ornstein of .

Upamecano has a release clause of €42 million (£38m) set in his contract which kicks in at the end of this season, which is quite a reasonable price for a player of his age and quality. Apparently, the Bavarians have been one of the two favourites for the defender s signature for a while, the other being Manchester United.

United are looking to strengthen their central defence and Upamecano has been high on their target list for a while, but Ornstein says they ve made it quite clear that they won t be pursuing that deal, leaving the path clear for Bayern to swoop in.

As for Upamecano himself, the 22-year-old centre-back is keen…

Jorge Sampaoli has ruled out leaving Sevilla to become the new coach of Argentina, saying such a decision would be irresponsible .

The beaten Copa America Centenario finalists are still searching for a successor to Gerardo Martino, who stepped down after the tournament in the United States.

Institutional chaos and allegations of financial misappropriation have blighted the Argentine Football Association (AFA) recently and made the hunt for a new coach a difficult task, and the prospect of a club boss taking on the role on a part-time basis has been mooted.

Sampaoli has admitted he was sounded out by the AFA even though Sevilla sporting director Monchi said the club had not been contacted  but says he could not consider taking the job after just a month in char…

Former Juventus forward David Trezeguet has urged Alvaro Morata to stay in Italy if he wants to continue to grow as a footballer.

Mo
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rata, 23, has established himself as a key figure in the Juventus line-up since his switch from Real Madrid in 2014. 

However, reports claim the La Liga club are keen to use their buy-back option on Morata before next season, while Chelsea are also among those apparently interested in the Spaniard.

But Trezeguet believes Morata needs to stay in the Serie A with Juventus if he wants to become a world-class player.

Morata finds himself in a good and important [transfer] market. For him he does not only depend on Juventus, the former France international said. 

He has grown a lot in Turin and he has to s…

Wayne Rooney s agent Paul Stretford on Monday lost an appeal against an 18-month ban imposed by the Football Association in July for breaking regulations when signing up the England striker.

Stretford was also fined 300,000 pounds (then 377,000 euros) in July after being charged by the FA following his troubled appointment as Rooney s agent in 2002.

Seven of the nine charges brought by the FA against Stretford for breaches of world football governing body FIFA s players agent regulations were proved.

The charges included failing to protect Rooney s interests and failing to respect the rights of third parties.

Stretford was also hit with an improper conduct charge in relation to the making of false and/or misleading witness statements to police and gi…

Chelsea winger Eden Hazard wants to lift his first trophy with the club when they take on Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup.

Belgium star Hazard joined the west London side from Lille, where he won Ligue 1 in 2010/11, and is eager to make a good start as last season s Champions League winners take on Diego Simeone s Europa League holders.

The 21-year-old has made a big impression in the English Premier League already, scoring once and notching six assists in his opening three games in the English top flight.

However, the creative midfielder was keen to stress victory is not a foregone conclusion against a tough Atletico side.

He told Uefa s official website: They (Atletico) are a great team with great players. I hope it will be a good game and that w…

Maurizio Sarri has left Chelsea to take over Juventus on a three-year contract, it has been confirmed.

Sarri had only completed one of the three seasons Chelsea contracted him for, but an agreement was reached to allow him to return to Serie A, where he led Napoli to a second-place finish in 2017-18.

The Italian coach s position had been in doubt for several months due to a number of issues at Chelsea, and Frank Lampard has been tipped to replace him at the helm.

Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia said: In talks we had following the Europa League final, Maurizio made it clear how strongly he desired to return to his native country, explaining that his reasons for wanting to return to work in Italy were significant.

He also believed it important to be ne…

Thiago Alcantara is edging closer to a Liverpool return after rejoining first-team training.

The Spain international has missed more than two months of action since sustaining a knee injury in the Merseyside derby against Everton on October 17.

Having also had a spell out after testing positive for coronavirus, the 29-year-old has only played twice for Liverpool since arriving from Bayern Munich in a deal that could reach £25million.

After a period of individual training, Thiago took to social media on Wednesday to confirm he had started training with the rest of the squad, posting on Twitter: Back with the lads.

back with the lads

— Thiago Alcantara (@Thiago6)

Thiago made an instant impact on his debut against Chelsea on September …

Aaron Cresswell has signed a one-year contract extension with West Ham that will see him remain at the Premier League club until 2021.

The left-back, who arrived from Ipswich Town in 2014, has been a cornerstone of the team s defence under both previous manager Sam Allardyce and current boss Slaven Bilic.

He becomes the second player in as many days to sign a new deal at West Ham, with team-mate Michail Antonio having also agreed to a 12-month extension on Monday.

It s great news for me, the 26-year-old former Ipswich Town defender told West Ham TV. 

I ve been here for two years now and I m looking forward to the next five seasons now that I ve signed.

Last season, especially with it being the last season at the Boleyn Ground, was pretty…

Germany international forward Max Kruse is set to be offloaded by Wolfsburg in the summer transfer window, .

The 28-year-old only joined last summer from Borussia M’gladbach, but the club chiefs became fed up with his off-the-pitch incidents and they have decided to place the striker on the transfer list.

According to Bild, Wolfsburg have placed a €9 million price tag on the experienced footballer, and it remains to be seen whether there will be clubs ready to match their valuation.

Kruse is reportedly held in high regard by sides in England, USA and China, and he recently admitted he wouldn’t mind moving to an exotic destination.

The German forward scored a total of 6 goals in 32 league matches for Wolfsburg last term, while netting 2 times in 9…