Michel Sánchez was key for Marc-André ter Stegen would go to Girona in January. It was well known that Barça was looking for an exit for him and that the goalkeeper did not see himself leaving on loan. But the coach, through the sporting director Quique Cárcel, insisted until he received the go-ahead. It is an unknown what would have happened if Ter Stegen had not been injured and had been able to complete the second half of the season with the Montilivi team. Perhaps they would not have been relegated. The only thing known for sure is that Michel has not lost confidence in the Mönchengladbach goalkeeper, to the point that he has asked for him again to join Ajax, a club he has been coaching since this summer.

Neither Donald Trump nor FIFA president Gianni Infantino find the amnesty for American forward Folarin Balogun scandalous, following pressure from the US president on the World Cup organization. The Republican was the first to admit it this Monday morning to the press as a logical situation –"That wasn't a foul. So yes, I asked FIFA to review it"– and shortly after, Infantino came out to justify the decision and assured that he speaks "regularly" with the leader. The FIFA chief and the US president have unleashed the latest controversy amidst a competition already marked by the shadow of the current US administration.

It's a few minutes past four in the afternoon. There isn't a cloud in the sky over Barcelona. The sun is beating down mercilessly. Thirty-one degrees, the mobile says. The asphalt gives off an invisible vapor that rises up your body and makes you sweat even if you're in the shade, which is particularly sought after. The classic stuffiness, intensified in the middle of the heatwave. And despite all this, dozens, hundreds, thousands of people are defying this July Saturday to come out onto the street and wait patiently behind the metal fences. There's no shortage of caps or sunscreen. Nor beach chairs, fans, or pocket fans. It's time to wait, but it seems to be a wait that is enjoyed, especially by those who have already secured a front-row spot and don't want to give it up even if they risk sunstroke.

The last time the Spanish national team had overcome a World Cup knockout match was in 2010, the year they were proclaimed champions in South Africa. Since then, la roja had either fallen in the group stage or in the first knockout match. Sixteen years later, the Spanish national team broke the curse by defeating Austria (3-0) to reach the round of 16, where they will face Portugal. Oyarzabal around the half-hour mark, and Pedro Porro and – once again – Oyarzabal in the second half tipped the balance in favor of a team that played from less to more but ended up thrashing and dispelling the doubts they had shown at the start of the competition.

Joan Laporta is once again president of Barça. As the Blaugrana statutes dictate, the Barcelona lawyer took office this July 1st after winning the elections held in March, and he did so with an inaugural speech in which he called for the "unity of Barça followers" and promised an "exciting" future with the consolidation of the project his board began in 2021. His term ends on June 30, 2031.

The name of Julán Álvarez is on everyone's lips, including the president of Barça, Joan Laporta, who spoke about him on the day he was sworn in again as the club's top official. In an impromptu press conference after the swearing-in ceremony, Laporta assured that the offer made by Barça about a month ago remains firm, but that "it is not unlimited in time".

Ansu Fati was baptized as the heir because he was considered the natural successor to Leo Messi. Fast, skillful, cunning, a goalscorer... he had all the qualities to be Barça's new star. So much so that, with the departure of the Rosario forward, Ansu went on to wear the number 10 on his shirt. He seemed like a natural successor. But this fairy tale began to go wrong on November 7, 2020, when he tore his meniscus in a league match against Betis. A ordeal began that would lead him to undergo surgery up to four times and a slow and unsatisfactory recovery. Ansu would never be the same again. This June 30, he has ceased to be a Barça player for all intents and purposes.

That summer of 2010 when Sandro Rosell said that the Camp Nou needed "paint and plaster" seems very far away. During the electoral campaign, he rejected the Foster project and considered it an excessive investment. But a few days after winning the elections, a small group of stadium workers took him aside, him and vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu, to show them the deficiencies of a coliseum that was already more than half a century old. They were convinced that an integral reform was necessary. That visit was the embryo of Espai Barça, which four years later resulted in a project approved by the members in a referendum. But in 2014 it had a budget of 600 million euros. Today, with the works underway, the credit of 1.5 billion has already been exhausted and another one of between 350 and 450 million will be needed to finish the stadium completely.

One more season, Barça's season ticket holders will have to live with the provisional situation. The Camp Nou is not yet finished and, with 60,000 seats available, only a part of the season ticket holders can fit in the stadium. Therefore, provisional passes are maintained and season tickets remain on hold. However, the prices do change, being between 30% and 35% more expensive than last season. The club announced this to its members this Thursday, precisely on the day the process to renew these passes for the 2026/27 season began.

Despite Miguel Ángel Gil Marín breaking the silence to assure that Julián Álvarez is not for sale, the reality is that both the CEO of Atlético de Madrid and a good part of the employees in the offices of the mattress club are convinced that it is highly probable that the forward will leave the club this summer. Could he stay? Yes, if no agreement is finally reached with the interested clubs, but El Aranya wants to leave and Apollo, the investment fund that recently controls the entity, is already willing to do business with the Argentine footballer. The problem is the destination. Because Julián wants to play for Barça, a club he has dreamed of since he was little. However, the mattress executives do not want to strengthen a direct rival in the fight for the League, Cup, and Super Cup titles. They prefer PSG. Or Arsenal, which would be willing to make an exchange offering money and with the Swede Viktor Gyökeres as a bargaining chip. However it ends, everyone is clear that the saga will be long and will have plot twists.

There is a play that Leo Messi likes very much. While his team attacks down the left and the winger on duty reaches the byline, the center forward goes to the six-yard box to look for the finish. The defenders, normally, follow him. And while all this is happening, discreetly but totally intentionally, Leo Messi appears at the half-moon. The pass goes to him, of course. Like lightning, he loads his leg and finishes with power and precision. The shot, always with his left leg, has a bit of curl, enough to finally mislead and surprise everyone, from the defenders to the goalkeeper. It's a goal he's scored about two hundred times. Or more. But he keeps doing it. And he will continue to do it. A goal that had a double prize. It served him to open the scoring against Austria and become the top scorer in World Cup history. A decisive goal in Argentina's victory, which he would seal with a second goal in stoppage time to leave his team as first in group J, already qualified for the round of 32 (2-0).

If there isn't a radical plot twist, Salma Paralluelo will stop being a Barça player in a few days. The Aragonese footballer has decided not to accept the renewal proposal she had on the table because she considers it insufficient. Between budgetary limitations and the fact that raising the offer would have caused an upheaval in the wage scale of the women's team, the sporting direction has decided to stand firm. Thus, Salma will go abroad to collect the million euros she demanded and that up to four clubs are willing to offer her. The Blaugrana team could only pay her 700,000.

Marc Márquez does not know the word impossible. Neither injuries nor crashes at the start of the championship have kept him away from the fight for the MotoGP title, as he confirmed this weekend in Czechia, where he benefited from Bezzecchi's penalty to enter the World Championship fully, placing himself just 40 points behind the Aprillia rider. The sensational triumph of the rider from Cervera has had a double reward.

Magical night at the Nova Creu Alta, which celebrated Sabadell's promotion. The 'arlequinats' defeated Zamora (4-0) in the second leg of the play-off final, overturning the initial goal deficit from the first leg. The goals from López-Pinto in the first half, Eneko at the limit of regular time, and Quadri and Xavi Moreno in added time, brought delirium to the stands of a city that returns to professional football after five seasons.

Spain's disappointing debut in the World Cup, with a dull draw against Cape Verde (0-0), has generated much more fuss around the national team than in the locker room. While analysts are pulling their hair out over the coach's strategy and the players' execution, the result has been met with surprising naturalness in the camp. Or so it seems after hearing De la Fuente, who said the strategy was correct but that the only thing missing, and in a "strange" way, was the winning goal.

Florentino Pérez is not wasting time since he was re-elected president of Real Madrid. In just one week, the leader has made his mark on the transfer market. Besides signing José Mourinho as the new coach, he has also secured the arrival of defenders Ibrahima Konaté and Denzel Dumfries. But, above all, he has stuck his nose into Barça's plan to boycott him or, directly, take away the reinforcements he had in his sights. In just seven days, he has set out to increase the price of Julián Álvarez, has convinced Bernardo Silva with a hefty sum, and has finally managed to sign Marc Cucurella, a product of La Masia.

It had been two years since Lewis Hamilton last stood on the top step of the podium. The last time was at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, when he was still driving for Mercedes. Since the Englishman signed for Ferrari, there has been no way to be truly competitive. He even struggled to overtake his teammate. A bad streak that has been broken at Montmeló, in a Grand Prix marked by nostalgia, uncertainty, and plot twists. A race that marks a turning point in the World Championship, which is tightening up again. "You helped me achieve this. I don't have enough words to thank you. It wouldn't have been possible without you," said an emotional Hamilton, who achieved his 106th victory in Formula 1.

FIFA was eager for the ball to start rolling at the Azteca Stadium. It was the way for football to move past the multiple controversies that have surrounded the 2026 World Cup and that even threatened to derail it. The match between Mexico, one of the hosts, and South Africa, which ended with a local victory (2-0) with goals from Quiñones and Jiménez, kicked off a competition that for the first time will have 48 national teams, will last 39 days, with 104 matches scheduled, and will know its winner on Sunday, July 19.

After the express signing of Anthony Gordon in the early days of the summer transfer window, Barça made an initial offensive for Julián Álvarez. But while Newcastle gladly accepted the 70 million fixed plus 10 in variables offered by the Blaugranas, the mattress makers considered the initial offer of 100 million for the Argentine striker to be insufficient. The entry of Real Madrid into the scene and the public offer of 150 million for Julián are part of the football theatre, halfway between a gesture for show by the newly re-elected president Florentino Pérez and the meringue intention of increasing the transfer fee so that if the Spider ends up in Barcelona, it is at the highest possible price.are part of the football theatre, halfway between a gesture for show by the newly re-elected president Florentino Pérez and the meringue intention of increasing the transfer fee so that if the Spider ends up in Barcelona, it is at the highest possible price.

Barça has needed six years to face a summer transfer window without restrictions again. Not even 2022 is comparable, since then the club, despite strengthening itself with Kounde, Raphinha and Lewandowski, sweated profusely for the levers to adapt to La Liga's regulations. This time the tap is flowing and once Anthony Gordon's signing has been confirmed, the entity still presided over on an interim basis by Rafael Yuste is pulling strings to sign a world-class center forward and, if possible, to strengthen the defense with a reliable center-back.