Messi, who scored 37 times in La Liga last season, has been at Barcelona since the age of 13, rising through their youth system to become one of the most successful and recognisable footballers in the world.
La Liga champions Barcelona fell to their first defeat in three games under new coach Quique Setien as they were beaten 2-0 away at Valencia on Saturday. Barca are still top of the standings on 43 points after 21 games but second-placed Real Madrid, who are also on 43, can go three points clear at the summit if they beat Real Valladolid away from home on Sunday.
'I am still hungry for running in the Olympic Games and winning a gold medal, so I still feel fresh every time I wake up.'
Barcelona forwards Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi fired the Catalans to a confidence-boosting 2-0 win at in-form Sevilla on Saturday to keep the pressure on La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid.
Suarez had joined Barcelona in 2014. He scored 198 goals in 283 games for the Catalan side and he also earned the Golden Shoe as Europe's top scorer after scoring 59 total goals in 2015-16.
Lionel Messi says he wanted Neymar to return to Barcelona this year as the Brazilian would have helped the club take a leap forward
Messi's first act as Barcelona captain was to tell the club's fans at a pre-season friendly in August against Boca Juniors that he and his teammates "will do everything possible so that beautiful and desired cup returns here to the Nou Camp".
Aged 30, Pjanic's arrival has been criticised in some quarters as Barcelona's first-team is already viewed as ageing.
Roger Federer has joined the list of sports stars helping out the needy during the coronavirus pandemic, with the former world number one and his wife donating one million Swiss Francs ($1.02 million) to vulnerable families in his native Switzerland. Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had each donated one million euros ($1.08 million) to help clinics and medical centres fight the outbreak.
IMAGES from the Champions League matches played on Tuesday.
Lionel Messi scored two spectacular free kicks as Barcelona thrashed local rivals Espanyol 4-0 in Saturday's Catalan derby to move three points clear at the top of La Liga.
Lionel Messi insisted his fifth-place finish in Monday's Ballon d'Or awards was not a motivating factor behind his sensational performance in Barcelona's 4-0 thrashing of local rivals Espanyol in La Liga on Saturday.
His records are a witness of his greatness. The year-on-year improvement speaks volumes of the Ronaldo's commitment.
'That is how it is. How we created the moments was outstanding, how we caused them problems was outstanding, we controlled the game so well'
Kohli is last on the list of top-100 athletes, headed by Barcelona and Argentina football superstar Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi was so distraught at Barcelona missing out on reaching the 2012 Champions League final that he was reduced to tears
Juventus are desperate to win a first Champions League title in a quarter of a century
'We're going to have time to talk in the future but any big player in the world will always be welcome at PSG.'
Atletico meet city rivals Real Madrid in the final at Jeddah.
Images from Saturday's action in La Liga.
Keep it simple as long as it is engaging and you are both enjoying texting each other back and forth.
Rediff.com encapsulates all the sporting action from the past week in this eye-catching photo feature.
Images from Sunday's action in La Liga and Ligue 1.
Rediff.com encapsulates all the sporting action from the past week in this eye-catching photo feature.
In the week of his 31st birthday, Messi was again a largely anonymous figure as they lost 4-3 to France in a thrilling last-16 match in Kazan.
Rihanna, who has frequently spoken out on issues such as LGBTQIA+ rights and racism, is the fourth most followed person, with 101.3 million followers, on Twitter after former US president Barack Obama and singers Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. Her tweet on India's farmers received hundreds of thousands of retweets and likes.
Lionel Messi returned from international suspension to score the winner in Argentina's 1-0 victory over Brazil in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
A late goal by Marcos Rojo gave Argentina a dramatic 2-1 victory over Nigeria in Group D on Tuesday and sent the twice champions through to the knockout stages of the World Cup.
Champions Real Madrid were beaten at home by promoted Cadiz, while Barcelona fell to their first defeat in La Liga under new coach Ronald Koeman as they lost to Getafe.
Lionel Messi scored his 650th goal for Barcelona while Antoine Griezmann struck the winner in a 2-1 home success over Athletic Bilbao
'Without Cristiano, it would be impossible. But with him nothing is impossible'
The film focuses on the period between 1958 and 1970 when Brazil won three out of the four World Cups and established itself as the country of football.
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic says he will turn to his Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic for ideas on how to stop Argentina's Lionel Messi in Thursday's Group D match between the two teams.
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said captain Lionel Messi could feature against Inter Milan in the Champions League, on Tuesday, little more than two weeks after breaking his arm.
Rediff.com brings you some interesting clicks from the by lanes of Indian cities that summarise the soccer madness...
Both sides had shots cleared off the line but Real were left feeling more disappointed after winning the tactical battle but failing to take their chances.
'The pandemic has caused football to change a lot, and for the worse. You can see it in the matches, and I hope this all ends soon and we can get fans back into the stadiums and return to normality.'
Real Madrid showed their character by beating Barcelona 2-0 in Sunday's top-of-the-table 'Clasico', leapfrogging their rivals at the La Liga summit after a week in which their pride had taken a beating at home and in Europe. Brazilian teenager Vinicius Jr scored the opener in the 71st minute with a strike that deflected off Gerard Pique, flummoxing goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen who had made some jaw-dropping saves, and substitute Mariano added the second in added time.
In his absence, the league champions have made a lacklustre start to the season, losing their opening game to Athletic Bilbao before taking just four points from fixtures against Real Betis and Osasuna.
Paris St Germain and Brazil forward Neymar has been ordered to pay his former club Barcelona 6.7 million euros ($7.51 million) after losing a lawsuit over an unpaid bonus, the Spanish champions said in a statement on Friday. Neymar moved from Barca to PSG for a world record fee of 222 million euros in 2017 but took the La Liga side to court over the terms of the last contract he signed with them a year earlier, claiming he was entitled to 43.6 million euros.