He has won it all at club level and has three world player of the year awards but on Sunday Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated as never before -- with tears of joy streaming down his face after his Portugal beat France 1-0 to win the European Championship.
In-form Borussia Moenchengladbach struck three times in 14 minutes in the second half to floor champions Bayern Munich 3-1 on Saturday and inflict their first Bundesliga defeat of the season.
The largest athlete's village in the history of the Games is a visceral monument to now-faded optimism. Planned when Brazil was booming, its harnessing of private sector wealth was meant to set the gold standard for a sustainable Olympics. Instead, the worst recession in generations pushed the luxury apartments out of reach.
Portugal head into Sunday's Euro 2016 final after another disciplined performance, proving again in their 2-0 win over Wales that they perform like a well-rehearsed orchestra rather than a solo act. That has a huge amount to do with their 61-year-old conductor and coach Fernando Santos who took charge in September 2014, vowing to put "tactics first and technical ability second".
Wednesday night saw a few surprise results while a debutant club makes a mark
Ecuador said it would take months to decide on whether to grant asylum to United States whistleblower Edward Snowden, currently staying in Moscow airport for the fourth day in a row after fleeing Hong Kong.
Portugal continue to be a paradox at Euro 2016, reaching the semi-finals without ever giving the kind of uplifting performance that their talented team should be capable of.
Poland have an impressive defensive record at Euro 2016 but standing in their way to a semi-final spot is arguably one of sport's greatest-ever athletes, Cristiano Ronaldo.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said he would "soon" leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after being holed up at the mission for nearly two years, amid reports that he has developed life-threatening ailments that require hospitalisation.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Argentina and Brazil both lost their opening World Cup qualifiers on Thursday as the South American campaign for Russia 2018 started in unexpected fashion.
Croatia edged closer to next year's World Cup with an emphatic 4-1 home win over Greece on Thursday in the first leg of their two-legged playoff.
Wayne Rooney's Everton homecoming ended in a 1-0 win over Slovak side Ruzomberok with the former Manchester United striker having a quiet return to Goodison Park in the Europa League, third qualifying round, first-leg on Thursday.
There was also the exciting Rugby Union match that added that much more excitement to the past week. Rediff.com has that and more snapped right here. We bring you a glance of all the action from the week gone by
Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal smashed home a second-half penalty to earn a 1-0 win at home to Monaco in an absorbing Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday, leaving the tie on a knife-edge.
A Swiss amateur footballer has been handed a 50-year ban from the sport for kicking the ball at a referee and insulting him in a fourth-tier match, local media reported.
Argentina's injured captain Lionel Messi has been named in a squad missing the suspended Javier Mascherano and Gonzalo Higuain for next month's World Cup qualifier against South America's bottom side Paraguay.
The victory celebration over, new FIFA president Gianni Infantino's first major decision in charge of the troubled world football organisation will be to appoint a secretary general, effectively a chief executive, to run day-to-day operations.
Sergio Ramos equalled Iker Casillas's record of 167 appearances for Spain on an emotional night at Sporting Gijon's El Molinon stadium, which paid tribute to the late Spain and Sporting forward Quini before kickoff.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Jeison Murillo became Colombia's unlikely hero, scoring his first international goal to give his side a 1-0 victory over Brazil.
Willian and Lionel Messi scored as Chelsea and Barcelona finished 1-1 after an absorbing first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie on Tuesday, while Bayern Munich, helped by two typical Thomas Mueller goals and two from Robert Lewandowski, romped to a 5-0 home win over Besiktas.
The Australian Olympic team refused to move in to Rio de Janeiro's village for athletes on Sunday, saying the accommodation was "not safe or ready" for next month's games."
The departing Didier Drogba threw down the gauntlet to the young Chelsea squad on Sunday as he led Premier League celebrations at Stamford Bridge, telling them they had to win more titles to stand comparison with the class of 2005.
Croatia clinched a place in next year's World Cup finals on Sunday after holding Greece to a goalless draw at the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium in Athens to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in their playoff tie.
Charred bodies of all eight soldiers onboard the US Marine chopper that crashed in a remote hilly area while delivering aid in quake-hit Nepal have been recovered.
Brandon Kiel, the deputy director of community affairs for California's Justice Department, which Kamala Harris heads, is currently on administrative leave as he faces charges of impersonating a police officer. Ritu Jha reports
A Harvard study says India's GDP will grow at 7.9 per cent annually in the next 8 years, well ahead of China's 4.6 per cent
Having reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals without winning a game in 90 minutes it is probably time for Portugal fans to stop worrying about their misfiring forwards and instead give credit to the coach and defenders who have got the to the last four.
They were two small Argentina players with the same enormous challenge -- to meet the expectations of a soccer-mad country. Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi have both proved themselves to be skilful giants on the world soccer stage despite their diminutive frames of 1.65 and 1.70 metres respectively.
Four-time European Champions Ajax Amsterdam were felled at the first hurdle of the continent's second tier Europa League on Thursday, exiting in the group stage two days after rivals PSV Eindhoven celebrated long-awaited success.
Rediff.com has compiled a few photographs to show you the kind of selfies our world leaders have taken a fancy to. Different strokes for different folks, eh?
Emirati Ahmed Khalil got a modicum of revenge on Guangzhou Evergrande captain Zheng Zhi when he pipped the Chinese to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Player of the Year award on Sunday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Barcelona closed in on the La Liga title after beating 10-man Atletico Madrid 2-0 in Saturday's top-of-the-table showdown at the Nou Camp as late strikes by Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi gave the Catalans an 11-point lead at the top of the table.
The Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics countdown got under way on Thursday with the lighting of the torch at the site of the ancient Olympics, with organisers hoping it will shift attention away from Brazil's political and financial turmoil.
A round-up of results from the Nations League matches played on Sunday
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Narsingh Yadav's chances of making it to the Olympics will be known on Thursday. The National Anti-Doping Agency's disciplinary panel adjourned its hearing on the dope scandal surrounding the wrestler on Wednesday evening, even as he failed a second dope test and lodged a police complaint against two fellow-grapplers.
France substitute Kylian Mbappe engineered two late goals to rescue a 2-2 draw against Iceland and spare the blushes of the world champions in their friendly.
