Rediff.com have put together a picture gallery of the legendary footballer, model, businessman, doting father, loving husband, ambassador. Take a look...
England soccer coach Roy Hodgson's four-year reign came to an abrupt end after their shock 2-1 defeat by tiny Iceland at the Euro 2016 round of 16 stage on Monday.
This and more from the happenings in the world of footbal.
'Indian hockey will lose out on one of its most important nurseries of good hockey talent.'
A summary of Friday's night's qualifying matches for Euro 2020.
Sepp Blatter comes across as an amiable character with eccentric ideas about football but he has shown in the past that he possesses a ruthless instinct for survival and extraordinary political nous.
Surprise Euro 2016 quarter-finalists Iceland want a fairytale ending to their run, like the one that Leicester City enjoyed when they stunned the soccer world by clinching the Premier League title this season, team coaches said on Wednesday. Leicester, with no big names in the squad, finished ahead of far more illustrious English clubs in what was one of the biggest upsets in club football.
Former England defender Sol Campbell believes he would have been national team captain for more than 10 years if he was white, according to extracts from his new biography that is being serialised by The Sunday Times newspaper.
2016 is at the halfway stage and the year has already seen some stunning sporting wins, underdogs emerging triumphant on the biggest stages of them all.
FIFA announced that clubs will not get compensation for losing players and suffering domestic disruption due to a 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar.
Caterham owner Tony Fernandes warned on Tuesday that he could walk away from Formula One unless his tail-end team showed significant improvement this season.
Emotional Platini says Blatter must go for good of FIFA.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The enduring image of Luis Enrique for many soccer fans is the Spain player with blood gushing from his nose after a vicious elbow from Italy defender Mauro Tassotti during the 1994 World Cup quarter-final in Boston.
Peru fans take $800 taxi to get to World Cup game
Despite widespread speculation that FIFA will vote to switch the dates of the 2022 World Cup on Friday, soccer's world governing body will probably delay making a decision and instead set up a task force to analyse the huge implications of moving the tournament from the searing heat of the Middle East summer.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Running highlights from FIFA's congress. World soccer's governing body has voted on a series of reforms and will elect a new president later on Friday (all times GMT): 13.30 The voting process is proving a long, drawn out affair. After an hour's voting, we have crawled to L for Latvia with little to get excited about apart from the brief appearance of Davor Suker, Golden Boot winner as the top scorer at the 1998 World Cup, as he cast Croatia's vote. Time then for a reminder that for a candidate to be elected in the first round, he must obtain at least 138 votes, two-thirds of the 207 votes cast. If this does not happen, a second round is held. This time, a simple majority -- 104 votes, which represents more than 50 percent of the votes -- is sufficient for a candidate to be elected. If no candidate gets that majority, the one with fewest votes will be eliminated and a new round will be held. This continues until one candidate obtains a majority. 12.45. Having begun his speech by promising to "die with my boots on", Sexwale ends it by withdrawing from the race, "I have got a surprise for you. My campaign ends today and I suspend my participation. With only four people it is your problem now." Markus Kattner, FIFA general secretary then reminds delegates of the voting procedure, reminding them not to photograph their ballot papers.
Olympic organisers say they will not reveal the final torchbearer's identity until the torch arrives in the stadium on live television, watched by billions of spectators.
The country of 1.3 billion is finally waking up to the most popular sport on the planet. Kushal Das, secretary general of the All India Football Federation, has said the country is aiming to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
In Mumbai to launch a business venture, Portuguese football legend Luis Figo, winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2000 and the FIFA World Player of 2001, discusses Barcelona, Real Madrid...
This and more from the happenings in the world of football
Lionel Messi will have another chance to match or surpass Telmo Zarra's six-decade-old La Liga scoring record of 251 goals when Barcelona host promoted Eibar on Saturday.
Rediff.com recaptures these and other exciting sporting moments from the week gone by....
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Luis Suarez is likely to play his first competitive game for Barcelona in La Liga's "Clasico" against Real Madrid later this month and he says it is no coincidence his four-month biting ban expires the day before one of biggest fixtures in world soccer.
'That has always been my ambition -- to take the reader behind the scenes, to the places he was not allowed to visit, but which I had the privilege of entering.' Haresh Pandya remembers Ted Corbett, sports journalist extraordinaire, who passed into the ages on August 9.
Sports psychologist Steve Peters has been called on to give England renewed hope at the soccer World Cup having worked wonders for Britain's cyclists at the Olympics and helped Liverpool's Premier League title challenge.
Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Paris Masters ahead of the tournament's start on Monday for "personal reasons", the French Tennis Federation announced on Friday.
Aditi and Akshay Maliwal are mentoring young sports athletes from Asia to get through to top US universities.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been named Sweden's footballer of the year for the ninth time and although his eighth victory in a row came as no shock, his acceptance speech showing a more sensitive side surprised many.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
'The captain's duty should be to ensure that the plan is enacted the way the coach wants the same to be enacted,' says Sudhir Bisht.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric is set to miss the rest of the year with a thigh injury, the La Liga leaders said in a statement on Monday.
Australia's cricket board will launch an 'immediate' review into player safety in the wake of Phillip Hughes' death, as the global cricket community mourned on Friday.
'The World Cup is being played in the football crazy country after 64 years and nothing excites the Brazilians more than the sacred game,' says B S Prakash, India's former ambassador to Brazil.
Images from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers played in Europe on Monday
