Paul Pogba could spearhead Manchester United's Premier League title challenge if the playmaker can be lured back to Old Trafford, the club's former midfielder Paul Ince has said.
Each Round of 16 game was entertaining. Laxmi Negi/Rediff.com picks the games to remember.
If history ultimately judges the finest talents by their achievements on the international stage, where neither player has tasted success, then the Portuguese captain could use Sunday's Euro 2016 final to land a haymaker blow in one of football's great rivalries.
The Spanish football federation (RFEF) said on Twitter that the news conference would take place at the team's World Cup base in Krasnodar at 0930 GMT (1230 local time).
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
Manchester City's eight point advantage after 11 games is leading to talk of the Premier League title race being over in November, but as Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho noted - English football has a habit of throwing up surprises.
'This award is not just mine.' 'It is my team mates' from Real Madrid and Croatia.' 'Without my coaches, I would not have won this and without my family I would not be the player I am today.'
Breaking records has become Cristiano Ronaldo's favourite pastime. Very few footballers can do everything and Ronaldo is of that rare breed
Football fans in Goa are shaking off their sussegado and becoming an animated, raucous, even belligerent lot.
Sporting Director of Spain's Football Federation (RFEF) Fernando Hierro has been named the national team's new coach for the duration of the World Cup in Russia, the Federation said in a tweet on Wednesday.
New coach Julen Lopetegui has been tasked with rebuilding the side following the Portugal forward's departure and the early signs are good, with Real already looking more of a unit than a collection of individuals.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The draw for the eight groups for the final round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which will be played from June 12 to July 13 in Brazil, was just held in Costa do Saupe near Salvador de Bahia.
The winners will play either Belgium or Portugal in the quarter-finals next Friday in Munich.
IMAGES from the Euro 2020 qualifiers
A lot has changed for France goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris and defender Bacary Sagna since they were part of the team that left the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in disgrace.
The three sides who have bossed the ball the most in Russia, Spain, Germany and Argentina have all said "do-svidaniya" before the quarter-finals.
Uruguay, with 3.3 million people, are into a quarter-final with Argentina's conquerors France after four straight wins including a stunning 2-1 knockout victory over Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.
'I'm very happy and I can say that 2016 was the best year of my career, the trophy shows that people aren't blind and watch the games.'
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...
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone said Argentina look lost and have no leadership after the 3-0 loss to Croatia which left them on the verge of a disastrous early exit from the World Cup, in an audio message leaked to Spanish and Argentine radio stations.
A hat-trick by in-form Scotland midfielder James Forrest earned them a 3-2 home win over Israel in the Nations League and promotion to the competition's second tier on Tuesday.
Deschamps has proven both innovative and brave as coach, and is now one victory away from joining an elite club.
Teams involved in racial incidents should suffer more severe punishment like the docking of league points, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Wednesday.
>The World Cup captain was a remarkable species: Always trying, pushing, lifting, harassing, delivering; the kind who would unhesitatingly jump into the deep end to save the day. They're all gone now, says Dhruv Munjal.
Iceland joint-coach Heimir Hallgrimsson likened his team to an army on Sunday heading for a "win-win" second-round battle with England at Euro 2016. Iceland are the smallest country at the tournament with a population of just 332,000, the size of a city such as Leicester whose club won the English Premier League title this season.
Cristiano Ronaldo will not be the only number seven hoping to redeem himself when his Portugal side meet Austria in their Euro 2016 group F match in Paris on Saturday. Ronaldo's less heralded opposite number for Austria, Marko Arnautovic, also came into the tournament with high hopes only to start with a below-par display made worse by a sulky attitude.
Luis Figo was one of the most talented, successful and exciting players of his generation, leading Portugal to a series of impressive performances which put many bigger countries to shame.
I am not the best person to judge, I cannot separate sentiment from my objective decision. Whatever season Messi has had on footballing grounds, I would still vote for him.
Factbox on Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who announced his retirement from international football on Friday.
Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano accepted a one-year prison sentence for tax evasion on Thursday as part of a plea bargain, Spanish media reported, although he is unlikely to serve time in jail. The 31-year-old Argentina international, who joined Barca in August 2010, pleaded guilty last year to defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of more than 1.5 million euros by concealing earnings from his image rights by using companies set up in the United States and Portugal.
The captain of the Czech national team and 2003 European Footballer of the Year topped a poll of local sports journalists.
England have lost to Germany in their last three knockout meetings at major tournaments
It has been a busy World Cup for Kazan's mural artists and in the early hours of Thursday morning they were back at work again painting the face of Neymar on a wall behind the Brazil team hotel.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo are the three final contenders for the 2013 Ballon d'Or award.
The Euro 2020 soccer Championship, trumpeted as a continent-wide feast of football from Dublin to Baku to mark UEFA's 60th anniversary, was postponed for a year on Tuesday as the coronavirus pandemic claimed its biggest sporting casualty yet. Europe's flagship tournament, staged every four years and second only to FIFA's World Cup in terms of prestige in soccer, will now be staged from June 11 to July 12, 2021.
A brief history of previous World Cup semi-final appearances by England and Croatia, ahead of their last four match at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on Wednesday.
The Kolkata giants will leave on July 28 to participate in Leicester City's 120th anniversary celebrations.
A summary of Saturday's UEFA World Cup qualifiers.
