Soccer

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

12:45 PM ET Major League Soccer announced on Sunday that Dell Loy Hansen intends to sell Real Salt Lake FC, National Women’s Soccer League side Utah Royals FC and the United Soccer League Championship’s Real Monarchs. Hansen has been under pressure since a report from The Athletic detailed his repeated use of racist language to

4:41 AM ET Sid LoweSpain writer The bloke in the crowd said it best, until Pep Guardiola said it better. In the midst of the noise around the Romareda, a collective murmur of incredulity, came a short and simple phrase that was just about audible and elicited the highest eulogy. It was March, a decade

4:40 AM ET Sam Marsden Moises Llorens Lionel Messi has followed through on his threat and not turned up for the start of preseason as he continues to push for a move away from Barcelona. The Barca players were due in for coronavirus tests on Sunday ahead of Monday’s first training session since Ronald Koeman

2:54 PM ET LONDON — Mikel Arteta has already acquired a taste for winning at Wembley as Arsenal manager, and Liverpool became the Spaniard’s latest victims in the Community Shield on Saturday. Less than a year into the job at the Emirates, the former Gunners midfielder has delivered silverware in the FA Cup and Community

2:11 PM ET As protests against racial injustice continue to roil the country, MLS finds itself navigating a fraught situation. The league’s players staged a near-complete boycott of the six games scheduled for Wednesday night, with only the match between Orlando City SC and Nashville SC taking place with the fluid nature of events not

Aug 27, 2020 Here we go again! Thirty-three days after the 2019-20 season ended, and just six days after the Champions League final, English football returns on Saturday with Premier League champions Liverpool facing FA Cup winners Arsenal in the FA Community Shield at Wembley (stream LIVE on ESPN+ at 11:30 a.m. ET in the

Aug 27, 2020 Every big club in the world would want Lionel Messi. Some players are just too good, and too exciting, to turn down if the opportunity arises that they may become available. There is just one major problem with Messi, though. Or, to be more precise, 100 million of them. Whenever you find

11:03 AM ET Moises Llorens Sam Marsden Manchester City are confident Lionel Messi would snub any other approach to join them if Barcelona soften their stance and decide to negotiate the sale of the six-time Ballon d’Or winner, sources have told ESPN. Paris Saint-Germain have expressed an interest in signing Messi, too, and sources have

4:42 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 reaction from Barcelona’s bitter rivals on Lionel Messi’s shock news. Plus: Sadio Mane could have joined Manchester United … but for Louis van Gaal. Jump to: Mane rejected United over LVG