'It's a prize that's called The Best and the guy who is, for us, the best player in the world wasn't there.'
Joginder Tuteja lists the most interesting ones, right here.
Both Harry Redknapp and Arsene Wenger have paid the price for leaving it too late, offloading a lot of key players at the EPL transfers, says Manu Shankar.
The 26-year-old reveals his delight at Croatia's qualification for Euro 2012 and the secret behind Tottenham's superb start in this season's English Premier League.
Olympique Lyonnais and Norway forward Ada Hegerberg won the inaugural Ballon d'Or award for the best player in women's football on Monday but the moment was tarnished when DJ Martin Solveig asked her to 'twerk'
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday.
The European champions, who were humbled 3-0 by tiny Eibar last week, took a fortuitous lead when Valencia midfielder Daniel Wass nodded a Dani Carvajal cross into his own net in the eighth minute after former Arsenal defender Gabriel Paulista had failed to clear the danger.
The Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the ATP Madrid Masters after getting a first-round bye.
Amidst controversies, the National Sports Awards were presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday.
India's leading 800 metres runner Tintu Luka won the gold medal at Karlstad Grand Prix in Sweden, the first of a series of events planned in preparation for this month's World Championships in South Korea. Tintu, who won a bronze in the Asian Championships at Kobe, Japan, last month, clocked 2:02.58 seconds to finish first.
Germany on Monday launched their new logo, including the use of term 'die Mannschaft', in an effort to increase international branding of the hugely popular World Cup winners.
Images from the soccer matches played across Europe on Saturday.
India grabbed a silver and bronze through Sudha Singh and Tintu Luka respectively on the final day to end their Asian Athletics Championships campaign with just one gold, two silver and seven bronze medals in Kobe.
Former champions and Indian veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi blew away a strong start to make a shock exit from the men's doubles event of the Wimbledon championships after a second round 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 4-6 loss to Arnaud Clement and Lukas Dlouhy in London on Saturday.
Asian Games gold medallist Sudha Singh set a new meet mark in the 3,000m steeplechase, while leading middle distance runner Tintu Luka made a glorious return after an injury lay-off on the concluding day of the Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bangalore on Tuesday. Sudha, representing Uttar Pradesh, ran a solo race in the women's 3,000m steeplechase to win gold in a new meet timing of 10:01.24 seconds at the Sree Kanteerava stadium.
Borussia Dortmund reached the German Cup semi-finals with a 3-1 win at VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday as fans protested against high ticket prices by staying away at the start and throwing tennis balls on to the pitch.
Leaders Real Madrid pulled three points clear of second-placed Celta Vigo when they held off the valiant 10-man Galicians to secure a nervy 3-1 victory in Saturday's top-of-the-table clash in La Liga.
'In the early years of this century, barely 10 years after liberalisation, drinking Coke was still cool,' notes Uttaran Das Gupta.
A round-up of Sunday night's matches in the Premier League.
Sushant Singh Rajput came, sparkled and left for a world that will hopefully understand and treat him better, hopes Sukanya Verma.
India's tennis stars enjoyed comfortable wins in the Australian Open on Thursday as Sania Mirza eased into the second round with partner Martina Hingis while Rohan Bopanna also registered a straight sets victory in the men's doubles first round.
Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger says he will not play for another club in Europe despite being unable to seal a place in the squad under new manager Jose Mourinho. Schweinsteiger, who is yet to make a first team appearance for United this season, has been made to train with the club's reserves and would be sold after Mourinho signed French midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus, according to media reports.
World number two and top seed Caroline Wozniacki, runner-up at the south coast event last year, cruised into the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Australia's Ashleigh Barty.
Adding to the joy of India's World Cup triumph, tennis players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their second title of the season by clinching the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to become number one in the ATP World Tour Doubles Team Rankings.
Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy overcame two rain interruptions and a strong challenge from Swede Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands Antilles 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 7-5 to enter the second round of the men's doubles match at the French Open in Paris on Thursday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
American Sam Querry became the latest Wimbledon giant slayer on Saturday as he beat defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-6(6) 6-1 3-6 7-6(5) in the third round. The defeat ended Djokovic's run of winning 30 consecutive grand slam matches. The world number one had arrived at the All England Club as the reigning champion at all four grand slam tournaments.
Yuki Bhambri, the country's No 1 singles player, will open India's Davis Cup campaign when he takes on world No 85 Lukas Rosol in the first singles of the World Group play-off match against the Czech Republic, in Delhi, on Friday. The second singles will be played between Somdev Devvarman and Czech No 1 Jiri Vesley.
India's Leander Paes and his Czech partner, Lukas Dlouhy, advance into the next round of the US Open.
Hurdlers Ashwini Chidananda and Joseph Abraham stole the limelight with gold medals while the Indian men's hockey team and talented middle distance runner Tintu Luka bagged the bronze as India added four more medals to their kitty on the 13th day of competitions in the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou on Thursday.
World champions France had eight players, one less than former holders Spain, in international players' association FIFPro's 55-name shortlist for its World XI of 2018 award.
Striving hard to secure a place in the season-ending World Tour Finals, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have got a first round bye in the Paris Masters event along with their respective partners.
Napoli brush aside lowly Crotone to go third in Serie A.
Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini says a major reshuffle of his squad is not needed in the January transfer window as they firmly sit on top of the Serie A table.
Germany coach Joachim Loew hailed his young team's "magnificent" display in a 4-1 World Cup second-round demolition of England on Sunday before explaining exactly how they targeted a suspect English rearguard.
Roger Federer opened his Australian Open title defence in belligerent fashion on Monday, thrashing hapless Slovak Lukas Lacko in straight sets to stroll into the second round of the year's first grand slam.
World number one Rafael Nadal suffered a rare second-set meltdown before recovering to beat plucky Slovakian Lukas Lacko and join rival Roger Federer in the Qatar Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Karim Benzema gave the European champions the lead in the 20th minute with an irresistible piece of control and finish after a pinpoint pass from Luka Modric.
Portugal had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Spain in a heavyweight friendly on Wednesday after hammering the crossbar twice and missing a last-gasp open goal.
