Cristiano Ronaldo has won the UEFA Best Player in Europe award for the third time in four years.
Barcelona star Lionel Messi and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon were beaten to the accolade by Ronaldo.
The Real Madrid star, 32, scooped the honour after helping his side to Champions League glory in 2016-17, scoring 12 goals in the competition.
A magnificent campaign from Ronaldo saw him score a total of 42 goals across all competitions as Madrid added a LaLiga title to the defence of their European crown.
[My goal is] the same every year the same challenge to win everything, if possible, with my club and the national team, Ronaldo said.
As I said before, I m so glad to be here. It is an honour to win this trophy again. I have to say thanks to…
Rudi Voller believes England and Belgium are capable of challenging a Germany team he feels is capable of becoming just the third nation to successfully defend the World Cup.
Germany remain the top-ranked side in the world having lifted the World Cup for the fourth time in 2014.
They are unsurprisingly the favourites to retain the title but Voller expects 2010 winners Spain and Euro 2016 finalists France to be in contention, along with England and Belgium.
England have not reached the quarter-finals of a World Cup since 2006 and were stunningly beaten by Iceland in the knockout stages of Euro 2016.
However, they went through qualifying unbeaten and held Germany to a 0-0 draw at Wembley on Friday.
Belgium, quarter-finalists at the last World Cup an…
Verdict: Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score anytime
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Premier League heavyweights Manchester United travel to Switzerland to finish the job in the group stage and secure their place in the knockouts. Jose Mourinho’s troops only need a point to secure the top-table finish but they will know better than to underestimate the Basel side.
Basel
If anyone knows how to stage an upset against Manchester United than that’s definitely Swiss giants Basel. It was in Switzerland that Basel knocked Manchester United out of the group stage of Europe’s elite competition following the scintillating 3-3 draw, back in the 2011/12 season.
Manchester United have moved past on that disappointing times and changed quite a bit, but so did Basel who …
Everton are interested in signing Folarin Balogun from Premier League rivals Arsenal in the summer transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that although the Gunners do not want to sell the striker at the end of the season, if the youngster does push for a move away from the Emirates Stadium, then Arsenal could ask for around £30 million in transfer fees for him.
Balogun is on loan at Reims at the moment. The 21-year-old striker moved to the French club on a loan deal in the summer of 2022 and is scheduled to return to his parent club Arsenal at the end of the season. The England Under-21 international striker has made 27 starts and three substitute appearances in Ligue 1 for Reims so far this season, scoring 18 goals and providing two assists in the process.
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Quique Sanchez Flores says the FA Cup is not the best for a club like Watford due to the number of wins needed to clinch the trophy.
Watford are set to play Newcastle United in the third round of the competition on Saturday in what will be Sanchez s first taste of the FA Cup.
The Spaniard has relative success in cup competitions, guiding Atletico Madrid to the final of the 2009-10 Copa del Rey.
Premier League and Championship clubs must win six games to lift the FA Cup, and the Watford manager says an extended run in the tournament may cost his side.
The FA Cup is more historic than the Copa del Rey in Spain because that has only been running since 1978, he said.
Everyone wants to go to Wembley. We are able to win any single match at this mo…
Thomas Muller insists Germany are not scared of France and dismissed their five-goal haul in the quarter-finals as being partly due to poor Iceland defending.
The world champions take on the Euro 2016 hosts at the semi-final stage in Marseille on Thursday with France looking to demonstrate again the firepower which saw them beat the tournament surprise package 5-2 at the weekend.
And while Muller – who has yet to score at the Euros – has respect for France, and their offensive players in particular, he is confident Joachim Low s men can find a way to combat them.
We are not scared of them. We ve seen the videos and we know that France have got many good individuals, he said.
The goals they ve scored against Iceland were individually very nic…