Over the last 19 years of his career, Alessandro Del Piero become a revered footballing legend while sticking with Juventus through good times and bad. He's won a World Cup and committed his time and financial support to cancer research. He also dresses up like Santa Claus and walks the streets of Turin at Christmastime.

Santa Claus came a couple days late to Mons but was seen around Stade Charles Tondreau this evening and delivered a gift to the Dragons' fans with a 1-1 tie against the league leaders Anderlecht.

Happy Boxing Day! To start off this marvelous day, here's Mario Balotelli's specially designed Christmas cake complete with an evil looking Santa Claus (is that a knife on good ol' Noel Noel?!) You see, Manchester City came up with a pretty brilliant idea where they got players to compete for the title of 'Best Christmas Cake Decorator'.

foto por _bianconero

Esto es compromiso y amor a la camiseta: el futbolista y el Capitano Alessandro Del Piero se vistio de Santa Claus para los fans de la Juventus de Turin en la vieja señora del Calccio.

Lo hizo de manera incognita y muy pocos se dieron cuenta que en realidad era el jugador de la Juve,tomado por sorpresa las calles de Torino Italia.

foto por _bianconero

Esto es compromiso y amor a la camiseta: el futbolista y el Capitano Alessandro Del Piero se vistio de Santa Claus para los fans de la Juventus de Turin en la vieja señora del Calccio.

Lo hizo de manera incognita y muy pocos se dieron cuenta que en realidad era el jugador de la Juve,tomado por sorpresa las calles de Torino Italia.

From the boys at FC Santa Claus (yeah, a real Finnish 1st div. team). Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas.Video: FC Santa Claus
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Always known for being a bit different (in a fun way), FC St. Pauli has released a video depicting its players killing Santa Claus with a stray soccer ball during a training accident. Relegated from the German Bundesliga at the end of last season, St. Pauli is currently in fourth position in the 2. Bundesliga [.

The hat tip here belongs to iron81 who found this article and made a fanshot. Normally I would just bump the fanshot to the front page and call it a day but the article actually takes from an original story that includes a hilarious video of Marco Pappa doing an awkward photo shoot as Santa Claus.

In the spirit of Christmas 2011, FC Barcelona and Spain midfielder Cesc F bregas was photographed with Santa Claus at a PUMA event earlier this week. Since moving to Barca from Arsenal over the summer, F bregas has signed an endorsement deal with PUMA and has been turning in some impressive performances in the firm's new PowerCat [.

WEEKEND WRAP : CHRISTMAS EDITION

Nothing warms our heart (and stockings) more than futbolitos who are committed to charity work and give back to their communities! To be fair, every club in world football makes an attempt do this but special mention must go out to Tottenham, whose efforts are equally impressive (na na, don't be hatin' this Christmas!

Ho, ho, ho Argentine midfielder Jonatan Germano thought he had the perfect seasonal celebration when he scored for Melbourne Heart against Brisbane Roar: he put on a Santa hat and did a happy dance over near the corner flag. Scrooge McReferee was having none of it though and booked Germano for his exuberance in the [.

They may be gearing up for one of the busiest periods of the campaign, but Liverpool's first-team players and staff took time out of their preparations for the Festive season to bring some Christmas cheer to Alder Hey children's hospital on Monday.
The Reds took on the role of Santa Claus for one very special afternoon to make their annual visit to the local hospital and spend time with youngsters who are facing up to the prospect of remaining on the wards for Christmas and beyond.

By Alan Duffy

As well as being a basketballing superhero, James is also a shareholder at Liverpool, but his Santa Claus act is slightly weird. And why didn't he ask any of the players to sit on his knee?

Everyone in the basketball world was hopeful over the last three days due to the many, many hours the players and owners were negotiating. The NBA lockout has to be coming to an end, right?

Not so fast.

After talking for more than 30 hours, the two sides say that hardly any progress has been made.

STARTERS
FC Porto has claimed the Primeira Liga championship in Portugal. Huge congrats to them.
-It sure seems awfully early in the year to be claiming league titles already!
dN
I was sent a link to a very intriguing blog: The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

Adding to the mysterious aura surrounding the make-believe soccer club, the New York Cosmos named Manchester United "Player of the Century" Eric Cantona their "Director of Soccer" today.
From the Cosmos' press release:

"I am very honored to join the legendary club New York Cosmos.