Soccer

11:57 PM ET Second-half substitutes Alberth Elis and Mauro Manotas rallied Houston to a 2-1 win against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday at BBVA Stadium to extend the Dynamo’s unbeaten streak to five games. Manotas entered in the 80th minute and scored the winner five minutes later on a header from 12 yards off a

8:50 AM ET Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal trained separately from their Barcelona teammates on Saturday, sources have told ESPN, as both players prepare to leave the club. ESPN reported on Friday that Suarez, 33, had agreed to join Juventus while Vidal, also 33, is in talks with Inter Milan. – Lowe: Messi set for

7:46 PM ET Sid LoweSpain writer Lionel Messi was late. He was late to formally tell Barcelona he was leaving, which is why in the end he couldn’t — held to the June 10 deadline he’d missed. And now he was late to tell everybody he was staying. Ten days after he had sent a

7:00 AM ET Gio Reyna is terrified. It is June 13. His team, Borussia Dortmund, beat Dusseldorf earlier in the day. On the bus after the game, everyone is ecstatic. But Gio didn’t feel right. His throat is raw and he is tired. Only now, he can’t sleep. It is late, near midnight in Germany.

11:03 AM ET Lionel Messi will stay at Barcelona after a dramatic U-turn saw him end his bid to leave the club this summer. The decision, reported by Goal.com, comes after days of intense speculation sparked by Messi’s attempt to unilaterally rescind his contract on Aug. 25. Messi and his legal team argued on Friday

3:00 AM ET Welcome to ESPN’s Insider Notebook, featuring contributions from our reporters across the top leagues around the world. In this edition, there’s the latest on how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is rebuilding Man United after past mistakes. Plus: Real Madrid are planning yet more pay cuts as COVID-19 continues to disrupt football. Jump to:

12:31 AM ET Manchester City would clearly love to bring Lionel Messi to the Etihad as part of their short-term quest to win the Champions League in the next three or four years. But the club are also looking to South America in their long-term planning. They have recently brought in two teenage attacking right-backs

9:55 AM ET Cristiano Ronaldo‘s attempt to score 100 goals for Portugal could be put on hold with a toe infection forcing the Juventus forward to miss training ahead of Saturday’s UEFA Nations League clash with Croatia. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star goes into this weekend’s fixture in Portugal on 99 goals

3:14 AM ET Some of the world’s best players were snapped up for a tiny fee; others cost a small fortune. But which do we think are the top moves, via position, a club has made since 2000? 2 Related In the second of our two-part series we explore some of the best attacking transfers

1:37 PM ET A former sideline reporter for Real Salt Lake was among 13 current or former employees to detail a toxic, sexist company culture at the Utah soccer organization currently under investigation by both MLS and NWSL for its workplace environment. “It was definitely the most toxic environment I’ve ever worked in in my

10:22 AM ET Tor-Kristian Karlsen Editor’s note: Tor-Kristian Karlsen is a Norwegian football scout and executive and is the former chief executive and sporting director at AS Monaco. He will write regularly for ESPN on the business of soccer and the process of scouting. In his latest column, he looks at Donny van de Beek,

3:24 AM ET International football in Europe has been largely on hiatus since November 2019. The COVID-19 outbreak cancelled the March fixtures and saw Euro 2020 postponed until the summer of 2021. This second edition of the Nations League — a multi-divisional competition for UEFA’s 55 member nations divided into merit-based groups on coefficients —

12:15 PM ET Lionel Messi‘s father will meet Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu for crunch talks aimed at resolving his son’s future on Wednesday afternoon, sources have confirmed to ESPN. • Sources: Messi father in Barca talks• Sources: Arsenal to resign Ceballos• Rakitic rejoins Sevilla for €1.5m• Sources: Man Utd eye Upamecano deal• Mkhitaryan joins

2:48 PM ET Jeff Carlisle Close U.S. soccer correspondent Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC. Austin Lindberg With the MLS is Back Tournament a distant memory and the regular season well and truly underway, with a schedule jammed full of matches, ESPN’s Power Rankings make their long-awaited return. With

3:00 AM ET Some of the world’s best players were snapped up for a tiny fee; others cost a small fortune. But which do we think are the top moves, by position, a club has made since 2000? 2 Related In a two-part series we explore some of the best transfers to have happened across

10:44 AM ET The problem with analyzing the future of Lionel Messi is that, after 20 years, his relationship with Barcelona lies somewhere between the professional and the romantic. You can use reason and logic on the first part to come up with plausible scenarios. You can’t account for the second, partly because it’s intensely

8:30 AM ET It is the transfer story that won’t go away, but of all the summer sagas, Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich to Liverpool is the one that is least likely to happen… for now. Within that league table of “will they / will won’t they?” deals you can include Lionel Messi from Barcelona

6:25 AM ET Sam Marsden Moises Llorens Barcelona believe the only way Lionel Messi can legally leave for free is if he commits to not playing football next season, sources have told ESPN. Barca’s interpretation of a much-debated clause in Messi’s deal is that he could quit the club but would have to forgo his