SoccerBlogs

"As the countdown to the World Cup in Brazil 2014 begins, I've created a handful of illustrative portraits of the legends of the tournament. These are the players who lit up the world with the performances at football's biggest stage.

Lionel Messi registered a record-breaking five goal haul last Wednesday, as a boisterous Barcelona swept aside a baffled Bayern Leverkusen outfit, to march promptly into the Champions League Quarter-Finals.

Messi once again exhibited his undeniable quality and complete understanding of the modern game, bringing to the boil the� debate that has simmered under the surface since he adopted Barcelona's number 10 shirt from the majestic Ronaldinho in 2008.

It's hard to take Pele seriously these days with the quality of stories he's been sharing with the children at your local playground. The Brazilian legend who hates Maradona and would never give him a "lift on a rainy day" (thankfully Kun's got that problem sorted) has attempted to go back on the "Cuando Messi" saga.

Lionel Messi has been named by FIFA as the best player of 2011 for the third straight year. Messi equals Platini, Cruyff and Van Basten, the only players to ever win three Ballon d'Or titles.

Messi took almost 48% of the vote, with Ronaldo second with less than 22% and Xavi was a distant third with just over 9%.

Salón de la Fama del Fútbol en Pachuca

Estructura de 37 metros de alto, en forma de balon de fútbol. Sede del Salón de la Fama del Fútbol. Alado de la sede del Mundo Futbol, en el Parque David Ben Gurion en Pachuca de Soto, Hidalgo, México. Foto por� ruber2011� Ruben Hernandez.

Michel Platini's grand experiment is one stop closer to fruition as UEFA has announced that 13 countries will host the 24-team 2020 European Championship.

In an effort to grab as many political votes as he can from each European federation, UEFA has announced that the vast majority of stadiums must have a 50,000 capacity, which at least 20 of UEFA's 53 member nations already have.

By Saf Hossain

I don't know exactly why, but the heads of football's most prominent organisations – FIFA's Sepp Blatter and UEFA's Michel Platini, respectively – often give the air of a deranged, despotic dictator, bursting at the seams with outspoken controversy and just waiting for a popular revolt to remove them from power.

By Max Grieve

Lo! And now the towers fall
Under some words too great
Alas, they had them built too tall
And they could not bear the weight
There Zlatan goes, and so goes all
Imagination. Allegri sighs, defeated
"Why have all my parts retreated?

By Chris Wright

Both the cheapest and most effective advert Paddy Power have ever taken out

UEFA have announced this afternoon that Nicklas Bendtner has been fined a ludicrous� €100,000 (£80,000) and will also be banned for one match after exposing the waistband on his 'Paddy Power' pants after scoring against Holland.

By Max Grieve

Xavi can't be wrong – nearly everything he does is right. "The European Championships are harder than the World Cup; more intense," he said. "There are no Cinderellas. In the Euros, anyone can beat you."

The plastic balls rolled as Marco van Basten dipped his hand down into the bowl and, almost as if by divine intervention, he plucked out the Netherlands.

After that racism escándalo that rocked England in the last few months brought about by John Terry and Luis Suarez, surely Manchester City's Yaya Toure has been living under a rock. A rock of delusion, that is!

By Matthew Richards

With the European Championships on the horizon, Matthew Richards profiles the tumultuous career of Yoann Gourcuff, who was somewhat controversially called up to the most recent French squad, in part one of a look at his remarkable journey that has taken him from France to Milan, and back again.

Aunque el titulo pareciera ser de un set de fotografías nada mas, esta tiene su historia. Si recuerdan en el mundial de Sudáfrica 2010 les mostré a las guapas aficionadas holandesas que causaron sensación en todo el mundo, resultaron ser modelos pagadas por un marca de cerveza que no era patrocinadora oficial de la copa.

Politics and Personality in Sport: In the Commercial Era, Does Tradition Matter? is a post from: Just Football

by Chris Woolfrey

In the last piece I wrote for Just Football I retold the story of Matthias Sindelar, the Austrian footballer who symbolised, in part, a nation's defiance of their Nazi occupiers; an archetype of Austria's considered and poetic passing game.

By Chris Wright

For those not au fait with fine dining, haute cuisine and the like, the Michelin Guide is a kind of gastronomic bible for those who are only truly happy when their steak is still twitching, their chips come served with a drizzle of helium-flavoured foam and it's all been ordered from a menu written in a language that requires a codex to decipher.

So we move reluctantly into the deepest recesses of the interlull; our hands tied, blindfolded we are frog marched into its lair with Platini's pointy rifle prodding at the napes of our necks. Hacks and headline writers are awash with panic and confusion, Arsenal.com forlornly fetches the scraper, rolls its sleeves up and dives into the barrel in search of some filler material for the official website.