Riyad Mahrez, who inspired Leicester City to an extraordinary Premier League title triumph last season, was named African Footballer of the Year on Thursday.
IMAGES from soccer matches played across Europe on Saturday.
An insatiable Lionel Messi scored for the eighth game in a row in all competitions as La Liga champions Barcelona saw off a gutsy Girona side 2-0 to go five points clear at the top of the standings.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Zinedine Zidane has been reappointed as Real Madrid coach nine months after resigning, replacing Argentine Santiago Solari.
Angel Di Maria delivered a near-perfect performance, scoring two and setting up another as runaway leaders Paris St Germain beat 10-man Olympique de Marseille 3-1 at home on Sunday.
Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane was named player of the month after scoring six goals in four league games.
Goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who made a mockery of his two-month exile from the starting lineup with a superb individual effort, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic secured an easy win that banished memories of their earlier group stage struggles.
Arsene Wenger withdrew Jack Wilshere from the heat of battle against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday and said he may have to protect the midfielder from his own desire to play.
Belgium finished five points clear at the top of League A Group 2 and will meet world champions France and former World Cup winners Italy and Spain in the final four next October.
Borussia Moenchengladbach's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League suffered a blow as they were beaten 2-0 at bottom club Hanover 96 on Friday.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is more worried about avoiding injuries on a poor pitch in Beijing than he is about winning their pre-season derby against Manchester City in the International Champions Cup (ICC). Mourinho criticised the conditions at the Bird's Nest stadium where torrential rain is forecast for next 24 hours. "I think Beijing is unlucky because the pitch is very wet," the manager told reporters on Sunday.
Arsenal and Galatasaray are facing disciplinary action after supporters of the Turkish club lit red flares and threw them onto the pitch, briefly holding up play, in their Champions League group match on Wednesday.
A relay gold medallist at the 2014 Commonwealths in Glasgow, the Jamaican said he was busier than ever after last year's retirement and focused, in the sporting arena at least, entirely on his nascent career as a footballer.
Former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur coach Andre Villas-Boas will take over Russian side Zenit St Petersburg this week after agreeing on a two-season contract, the club said on Tuesday.
The last time the five times European champions reached this stage of Europe's elite club competition was in 2009 when they went out to Chelsea in a dramatic 7-5 aggregate defeat.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
The 31-year-old is still recovering from the knee injury which forced him to limp out of the Euro 2016 final against France in the first half, coach Fernando Santos said.
It took Bayern Munich almost the whole of the first half to start playing on Saturday but as soon as they did they proved they are back in business by rattling five goals past hapless Borussia Dortmund.
Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey scored a contender for goal of the season when he blasted home a 30-metre volley to help his team cruise past Galatasaray 4-1 to finish second in Champions League Group D.
Germany's defensive midfielder Sami Khedira has been offered to Manchester United at 2,00,000 pounds-a-week by Real Madrid, as he will be out of contract in the summer and the top Premier League clubs have been alerted about the same.
Italian side Napoli has moved into second place in their Champions League Group F on Wednesday with a 3-2 win over French side Marseille at Sao Paolo.
Croatia will need their big-game players to step up.
German champions Bayern Munich sacked coach Carlo Ancelotti on Thursday, a day after they suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat to Paris St Germain in the Champions League.
VfB Stuttgart continued their unbeaten run under new coach Thomas Schneider on Friday, climbing to sixth with a 1-1 home draw against Nuremberg who are still looking for their first Bundesliga win of the season.
Werder Bremen snatched a 1-1 draw at VfB Stuttgart thanks to Anthony Ujah's second-half equaliser in a relegation derby of former German champions on Sunday to stay one point above the relegation zone.
These eight images show that we live in a crazy, mad world!
Schalke 04 needed Leon Goretzka's late deflected winner and an own goal to snatch a 2-1 win against Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday and leapfrog them into fourth place in the Bundesliga in the battle for a Champions League spot.
'Our plan is to put the best foot forward for the upcoming tournament and play good matches'
The reigning Ballon d'or winner gave a perfect start to his side's new campaign by scoring twice in Madrid's comfortable 3-0 win over Cypriot visitors APOEL in the opening match.
For the first time in 10 years, four English clubs have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League
Mesut Ozil helped Arsenal shake off the hangover of a midweek pounding in Germany with a starring role in a 3-0 win at Aston Villa while sloppy Liverpool lost 3-1 at West Ham United in the Premier League on Saturday.
Since winning 2-1 at home to Wolfsburg in September, United have scored only twice in three Champions League games. In the Premier League the record is five goals in the last six games.
Cristiano Ronaldo bagged his first five-goal haul in Real Madrid's 9-1 hammering of Granada while title-chasing Bayern Munich and Chelsea won again in Germany and England.
Undefeated Bayern Munich stumbled to a 0-0 draw at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday that ended a four-game winning streak in the league but they remain four points clear at the top.
The new managers of Manchester United and Manchester City will face an early confrontation when the teams meet in a friendly in Beijing on July 25. Jose Mourinho, officially confirmed as United boss on Friday, and old adversary Pep Guardiola, who is replacing Manuel Pellegrini at City, will renew hostilities in the pre-season International Champions Cup. There was little love lost between the pair when Mourinho was in charge at Real Madrid and Guardiola led Barcelona. The rivalry is likely to be just as fierce when United attempt to make up ground on their neighbours, who have finished above them in the Premier League for the past three seasons.
Bayern Munich eased into the German Cup semi-finals with a 3-0 victory over 10-man VfL Bochum on Wednesday with Robert Lewandowski scoring twice to keep their treble hopes on track.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Summary of World Cup qualifiers played across the world on Thursday
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
