MADRID (AP) — Giovani Lo Celso is returning to Villarreal on another loan from Tottenham, the Spanish club said Sunday.
The Argentina midfielder arrived at Villarreal in the beginning of the year but his initial loan expired at the end of the season.
PARIS (AP) — Known for splashing the cash on superstars, Paris Saint-Germain is changing its strategy as a 16-year-old midfielder became the youngest player in the club’s history.
Warren Zaire-Emery impressed on tour in Japan last month, showing great composure and a smart reading of the game.
GENEVA (AP) — Dynamo Kyiv’s unlikely run toward the Champions League continued with an extra-time win over Sturm Graz in the third qualifying round on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian club is now two games away from making the lucrative group stage of the Champions League as it faces a playoff against Benfica over the next two weeks.
MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid wants to start the new season the same way it ended the last one — winning a trophy.
Madrid won the Champions League in its final match last season, and on Wednesday it begins the new season by taking on Europa League winner Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Super Cup in Helsinki, Finland.
MILAN (AP) — New AC Milan signing Charles De Ketelaere is honored by comparisons to former Rossoneri hero Kaká and hopes he can achieve as much with the club as the Brazilian great.
The 21-year-old De Ketelaere was officially presented on Friday, shortly after completing a transfer of around 32 million euros ($32.5 million) from Club Brugge.
GENEVA (AP) — The world’s richest soccer league starts a new season in England on Friday as the rest of Europe looks for ways to catch up.
Off the field, the English Premier League is a commercial juggernaut with broadcasting deals worldwide fueling player transfers and wages most others cannot match.
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — The Champions League will use a camera-based system to judge tight offside calls in the group stage starting next month, UEFA said Wednesday.
The Semi-Automated Offside Technology, which was also approved last month by FIFA for the World Cup in Qatar, uses multiple cameras to more accurately track players’ limbs and the point when a key pass is made.
ROME (AP) — Always known as a great motivator, José Mourinho is also excelling as a pitchman in his latest coaching job at Roma.
When “Mou” calls, players come running to the Italian capital.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Russia remains barred from international soccer competitions including the Champions League after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected appeals by the national soccer federation and four clubs on Friday.
French senators said the chaos outside the national stadium that marred the Champions League soccer final was due to a series of mistakes by police and officials — and not the actions of previously blamed Liverpool fans — with “malfunction at every stage” before, during and after the game.
GENEVA (AP) — A group of top soccer clubs face Champions League organizer UEFA in court on Monday for a legal match that risks the biggest upheaval in European soccer for more than 25 years.
Having led Marseille back to the Champions League and united the hard-to-please fans behind him, coach Jorge Sampaoli left the team's preseason preparations in tatters when he quit on Friday.
After Marseille announced his departure, Sampaoli claimed his objectives were not met by the club — even though there was seemingly no bitterness between him and club president Pablo Longoria.
GENEVA (AP) — Streaming service Amazon will broadcast some live Champions League games in Britain for the first time when the competition expands in 2024.
MADRID (AP) — While he was still with Chelsea, Antonio Rüdiger experienced first-hand what it felt like to be a Real Madrid player.
He was on the losing end as Madrid pulled off one of its stunning Champions League comebacks that culminated with its record-extending 14th European title this season.
Sadio Mané looks to be headed for Bayern Munich, ending his trophy-filled six-year spell at Liverpool in a move that would finally split up one of the most devastating forward lines in the history of English soccer.
PARIS (AP) — Defending champion Paris Saint-Germain begins its bid for a record 11th French league title at modest Clermont in a season where games will be played on New Year's Day.
PARIS (AP) — French senators demanded Thursday that the state recognize responsibility and identify guilty parties behind the chaos outside the national stadium that marred the Champions League final last month.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Dani Alves is leaving Barcelona for a second time, five months after the veteran Brazil right back returned to the Spanish club he helped lead to 23 titles.
The 39-year-old Alves played for Barcelona from 2008-16, winning the Champions League three times and six Spanish leagues among other trophies.
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Ukrainian soccer will return to the Champions League next month when Dynamo Kyiv plays Turkish team Fenerbahçe in the second qualifying round — the club’s first competitive game since the Russian invasion started.
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — The long road for Sheriff Tiraspol back to the Champions League group stage will start in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the first qualifying round was drawn on Tuesday.
Sheriff beat eventual title winner Real Madrid 2-1 in Santiago Bernabéu Stadium last September after advancing through four qualifying rounds.
LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool has reached an agreement with Benfica for the signing of Uruguay striker Darwin Núñez for an initial fee of 75 million euros ($79 million), the Portuguese club said Monday, in a transfer that would further shake up Jurgen Klopp's attacking options.
Erling Haaland has come home.
The Norway striker finalized his move to Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund for 60 million euros ($63 million) on Monday to seal his return to England, the country of his birth.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Real Madrid and Barcelona will meet in an exhibition July 23 in Las Vegas in just the second edition of the El Clásico rivalry on U.S. soil.
The Spanish superpowers will visit Allegiant Stadium, the 2-year-old home of the NFL’s Raiders just off the Las Vegas Strip, as part of a summer tour also featuring Juventus and Mexican powers Chivas and Club América across five U.S.
PARIS (AP) — French champion Paris Saint-Germain continued its restructuring by hiring renowned talent scout Luis Campos as its football adviser on Friday.
The 57-year-old Campos was a former tactical advisor at Real Madrid under Jose Mourinho, but really made his name as Monaco's sporting director from 2013-16.
GENEVA (AP) — Hosting Champions League games in Poland and planning a humanitarian tour of the United States feel like natural next steps for Ukraine’s top soccer team after eight years exiled from its home city by Russian aggression.
The Paris police chief apologized for and justified the pepper spraying of fans and families amid the chaos that engulfed the Champions League final last month outside the Stade de France.
At a French Senate hearing looking for explanations for the organizational fiasco, Paris police prefect Didier Lallement admitted on Thursday that the evening in the suburb of Saint-Denis was “obviously a failure, because people were being pushed around or assaulted while we owed them safety.''
LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool has confirmed the departure of goalkeeper Loris Karius four years after his last appearance for the club when his concussion-related gaffes contributed to a 3-1 loss to Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Denmark stunned titleholder France 2-1 in their opening Nations League match at the Stade de France on Friday, ending the world champion's seven-match winning streak.
After Karim Benzema put the hosts in front, substitute Andreas Cornelius scored twice to earn Denmark its first win over France since the 2002 World Cup.
MADRID (AP) — After initially blaming fans, UEFA apologized to them on Friday for the “frightening and distressing” chaos at the Champions League final after Real Madrid joined Liverpool in demanding the organizer explains what went wrong at the Stade de France.
NEW YORK (AP) — Real Madrid's 1-0 victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final set a record for the largest audience to view the final in the U.S. on English-language television.
Nielsen ratings show the game Saturday averaged 2.76 million viewers on CBS, surpassing the previous mark of 2.6 million for the 2011 final between Barcelona and Manchester United on Fox.
MADRID (AP) — Gareth Bale bid farewell to Real Madrid and earned another honor on Wednesday — this time from Queen Elizabeth II.
The five-time Champions League winner, whose Madrid contract expires this month after nine years, was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List.
PARIS (AP) — France's interior minister admitted that mistakes were made in dealing with the crowd outside the Champions League final in Paris but justified the use of tear gas, saying the move was crucial to prevent supporters getting killed.
The French government is blaming Liverpool fans. The English club is enraged by the “irresponsible, unprofessional” rush to conclusions. European soccer's governing body, UEFA, will now try to uncover what went wrong in the disorder and chaos in Paris at the Champions League final before Liverpool lost to Real Madrid.
PARIS (AP) — French authorities defended police on Monday for indiscriminately firing tear gas and pepper spray at Liverpool supporters at the Champions League final, while blaming industrial levels of fraud that saw 30,000 to 40,000 people try to enter the Stade de France with fake tickets or none at all.
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — According to Lionel Messi, there is “no doubt” that Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema deserves to win his first Ballon d’Or award this year.
Messi has won a record seven Ballon d'Or awards as the world's best player, but saw his new club Paris Saint-Germain eliminated by Madrid in the round of 16 of the Champions League this year — after Benzema scored a hat trick in the second half of the return leg.
MADRID (AP) — A Real Madrid fan at the Champions League final held a Paris Saint-Germain shirt with Kylian Mbappé’s name and the number of European titles the France forward has won: Zero.
Back in Spain, Madrid supporters celebrating the club's 14th European title kept reminding Mbappé that he probably made a mistake by not joining their club.
MADRID (AP) — Lifting yet another Champions League trophy, Marcelo put an end to his era at Real Madrid.
The veteran Brazilian left back said after the team's 1-0 win over Liverpool in the Champions League final on Saturday that he will not continue playing for the club.
MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid fans celebrated a Champions League title yet again, packing the streets of the Spanish capital and the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to welcome back their players and watch them lift the European trophy at home.
MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti told Thibaut Courtois that he would take him to the Champions League final, then he would have to win it.
The goalkeeper did just that, with amazing save after amazing save to help the Spanish club win its record-extending 14th European title on Saturday.
PARIS (AP) — Tear gas fired indiscriminately around children and the elderly. Pepper spray unleashed at close-range on frustrated fans. Ticket holders blamed for delaying kickoff when they’d spent hours trying to enter the stadium in bottlenecks in tight spaces.
PARIS (AP) — Sixty-three games. Four losses. Two trophies.
And a whole lot of disappointment.
That’s the scenario facing Liverpool’s players as they return home on Sunday from their painful Champions League final loss in Paris to a trophy parade through their city.
PARIS (AP) — Riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray at Liverpool supporters forced to endure lengthy waits to get into the Champions League final amid logistical chaos and an attempt by UEFA and French authorities to blame overcrowding at turnstiles on people trying to access the stadium with fake tickets on Saturday.
PARIS (AP) — Yet another Champions League title for Real Madrid, the undisputed king of Europe.
Yet another showpiece European soccer game tarnished by chaotic crowd issues and disorder.
Madrid became European champion for a record-extending 14th time — double the number of any other team on the continent — after beating Liverpool 1-0 in a final that started 37 minutes late because of disturbing scenes outside the Stade de France on Saturday.