Welcome to a slightly late edition of La Liga Lunes (La Liga Monday!) Over the weekend, the Women's FIFA Ballon d'Or winner Homare Sawa met up with Barcelona maestro Xavi at the club's training ground. Her team, INAC Kobe from the Japanese Women's league, played a friendly against Barcelona's female squad (highlights below).

Two of Spain's oldest rivals square off today in another Clasico in the Spanish Copa del Rey quarterfinals at Bernabeu. FC Barcelona head coach Pep Guardiola recently crowned FIFA 2011... Read more »

By Chris Wright

It's competition time here again on Pies folks, and this prize is going to take some beating!

As you'll be aware, Lionel Messi nabbed his third-straight Ballon d'Or gong earlier this week, and to celebrate Adidas have produced a very special pair of boots for him to wear during Barcelona's La Liga tie against Real Betis on Sunday.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Tweet from SBI: "I'm told Philadelphia Union midfielder Michael Farfan will be heading to England for a training stint with Premier League side Sunderland." As of this writing, we are waiting for confirmation from the Union about this report.

Eigentlich ist diese Veranstaltung richtig langweilig geworden, denn das Ergebnis steht ja sowieso schon immer im Vorfeld fest und überrascht auch schon lange niemanden mehr. Es gibt ja anscheinend auch nur noch einen guten Fussballer auf der Welt, der zwar mit seiner Nationalmannschaft einfach nichts auf die Reihe kriegt, dafür aber im Klubfussball schon so [.

The hips don't lie, but he does Not happy with simply annoying almost everyone in football with his views from the dark agaes on racism and women's football, Sepp Blatter did his best to make everyone wretch at the Ballon d'or awards on Monday night. As he entered the stage with Shakira, Blatter wiggled his [.

Leo. The Best. 3x.

24 years old. An ego that is pushed far beneath an incomparable will to win. 5 feet, 6 inches of skill and athleticism. The players, the media, and the coaches have spoken. Lionel Messi is, for the third time, the FIFA World Player of the Year. With so many years left in his career, it's mystifying.

Welcome to Offbeat Wednesday, where it's all about the Football Gossip! Today, read about the Persies' short trip to Dubai, the ladies at the Ballon D'or, Irina Shayk's Birthday celebration and Sthefany Brito's latest ad campaign!

To kick things off, here's a delightful photo of Robin van Persie's family posing with the legend.

What is the term for a male cougar, someone who preys on markedly younger women? A 'guy'? Is there a term? Is it worth a foray into the bowels of Urban Dictionary?

Whatever it is, Sepp qualifies, if only for the soundtrack which accompanies his little dance for Shakira.

Or maybe he's just a creep.

Sawa potentially begins her Ballon d'Or reign as Messi continues his own, picking up his third in as many years.

If history is anything to go by, expect 2011 Women's World Cup winner Homare Sawa to be collecting her second Ballon d'Or prize this time next year. Marta had won five years running as the top female player in the world, but no more.

In this week's review of the footballing action, we congratulate Lionel Messi for winning his third FIFA Ballon d'Or award, look back at a bad week for his club Barcelona and an ugly end for Neil Warnock as he is fired from QPR.

After Platini, Messi is the only other player to win the Ballon d'Or 3 times in a row. This is fully deserved because:

• Messi is both a fuoriclasse dribbler and plays for his teammates.
• Messi is decisive in the games that count.
• A unique style made of robustness, speed, technique.

There's a lot of things about USA Women's National Team striker Abby Wambach especially here- that screams "Ellen DeGeneres!" From their wackiness to similar hairstyles, Abby can easily pass off as Ellen's footballing twin. Yesterday, Abby spoke up about the Women's World Cup final to Japan en route to this awesome photo shoot she did in Hollywood, admitting the US Women's team has come a long way from that loss.

Feliz Martes! The FIFA Ballon d'Or preliminary list of 23 men has been finalised and although the final 3 names will be announced on December 5th, you have an entire month to gloss over this. There haven't been many surprises and we've highlighted whom we think will probably and predictably make the cut based on the votes and if it doesn't work out, they can still make this into a Ballon d'Or reality TV show!

FELIZ MARTES! The shortlist for the Women's FIFA Ballon d'Or has been announced and surprise, surprise, three of the names drawn are from the US national team. The winners, Japan, also have two possible winners in the list, as do France. Abby Wambach (seen above with a fan), Hope Solo and Aya Miyama are a few of the key names but all these talented futbolitas are all winners in their own right.

So it seems that it doesn't really matter if Arsene Wenger ups the wages of Samir Nasri as that is not the reason he has so far rejected Arsenal's offer of a new contract. Wenger said when he asked about the contract talks that the diffrence was purely "financial", but according to Nasri today, there [.

This should have been posted last Friday but got lost in the shuffle. What do you think is going on in Greasano's head as he looks to his left and sees six little cules pose for the Ballon d'Or dream team of 2010? On the last La Liga Weekly podcast, A New Year And Copa del Rey Beginning there was some discussion on David Villa not being part of the Barca wolf pack as he was officially.

The dummy aerial move may be one of football's best, if often unscripted.

• The Prem's big money men. (The Best Eleven)
• Ronaldinho's missed destiny, among other things. (A Football Report)
• Ballon d'Or voting offers up interesting look. (Dirty Tackle)
• Prepping for a derby.

Messi won the Ballon d'Or last night he was named the best player in the world in 2010. Not Xavi. Not Iniesta. Not Sneijder. And not a single (Fantasy) Premier League player in sight. La Liga's dominance continues on ... Continue reading →

Former Virginia Tech assistant Matt Gwilliam has been named the new head coach for Temple's women's soccer program. Good luck, sir!

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Union have signed Bimbo Bakeries as a shirt sponsor. The deal is worth $12 million over 4 years, and also makes Bimbo a league sponsor, which opens up other advertising opportunities for the company, including stadium ads.

So the Lamborghini Murcielago, represented by Lionel Messi, takes top trumps. The Barcelona superstar and current FIFA World Player of the Year has capped off another annual by retaining his Ballon d'Or crown.

Messi fended off the challenge of fellow Barca compatriots Xavi Hernandez, and Andres Iniesta to become one of the rare few to have won the prize twice in succession.

Choosing the winner of the 2011 Ballon D'Or seemed like a tough decision to make. Three Barcelona geniuses, all with a chance to be crowned as the best player of the world. Iniesta and Xavi had just triumphed in the World Cup with Spain, but Messi was part of an amazing season for Barcelona, scoring 43 goals in 57 matches.

Choosing the winner of the 2011 Ballon D'Or seemed like a tough decision to make. Three Barcelona geniuses, all with a chance to be crowned as the best player of the world. Iniesta and Xavi had just triumphed in the World Cup with Spain, but Messi was part of an amazing season for Barcelona, scoring 43 goals in 57 matches.

Argentina and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi captured the inaugural Fifa Ballon d'Or award. This is the first time this award has been presented as the Ballon d'Or (former European Footballer of the Year award) and the FIFA World Player of the Year award have been merged.

Messi beat out fellow Barcelona teammates Xavi and Andres Iniesta both of whom had strong years for club and country.

Wir sind schon im Jahr 2011 und da wird es Zeit, dass man die besten Spieler und Spielerinnen des abgelaufenen Jahres 2010 kürt. Dafür hat man heute am 10. Januar 2011 auf einer große Gala in Zürich etliche Preise vergeben, allen voran den Ballon D'Or für den besten Spieler des Jahres und den Preis für [.

It's the results of the Ballon D'or tonight with Barcelona trio Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta battling it out for the most prestigious individual footballing prize. Fact time then...

Michael Owen was the last British footballer to win the Ballen D'or (European footballer of the year.

In a week that has seen the Christian festival of Epiphany come and pass, the world was reminded of the day that three very wise men from the East came and paid homage to an even more special baby boy.

Theology aside, the similarities bestowing the football world to this most sacred of Christian holidays can be drawn.

Nearly two years ago, the Daily Mail's Matt Lawton published a piece under what should surely be considered one of the most dunderheaded headlines in recent football journalism: "The best players of the world (and Xavi): Ronaldo crowned king of football." In the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo's ascension as the world player of the year in 2009, Lawton took the time to cheekily ridicule Xavi Hernández, a player whose patience, measure, and impeccable sense of the tempo in attack and defense has helped to make Barcelona the best club side in Europe (arguably) and Spain the best national side in the world (most certainly).