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Who’s going to win every Ballon d’Or award and how to watch the show
Get ready for a Barcelona sweep.


Soccer’s biggest awards show takes place on Monday, with the Ballon d’Or awards getting underway at 12:30 p.m. ET, 6:30 p.m. local in Switzerland. Wherever you are in the world, you can watch the show live on YouTube. Here’s what you can expect.
Men’s player of the year: Lionel Messi in a landslide.
Women’s player of the year: Celia Sasic over Carli Lloyd, just barely.
Men’s world XI: A lot of Barcelona players. Two or three Madrid ones. Manuel Neuer. Maybe Paul Pogba. Maybe a PSG player. No one from the Premier League.
Goal of the year: Probably Messi.
Men’s coach of the year: Luis Enrique.
Women’s coach of the year: Jill Ellis.
Goal of the day
Sami Khedira’s winner for Juventus. Silky. (r/soccer)
In the news
Roma are probably going to fire Rudi Garcia. (Football Italia)
We might find out the names on seized blood doping bags from 10 years ago. Or the Madrid courts might order them destroyed. (Telegraph)
PSG is making fun of their own players, calling this awful tackle by Marco Verratti their “skill of the week.” (PSG)
Also, PSG might sue M.I.A. if she doesn’t pay them for wearing a modified PSG shirt in a video. (Guardian)
Louis van Gaal doesn’t know why Manchester United fans left one of the worst games anyone has ever seen early. (BBC)
Lionel Messi is unlikely to play in the Olympics. (ESPN FC)
For funsies, here are the MLS combine numbers. (MLS)
Some Aston Villa fans claim Brad Guzan and Joleon Lescott told them to “f--- off.” (Mirror)
You’ll get to watch the UEFA Nations League and Euro 2020 on Univision. (SI)
You should be reading
Tristan Thomas on why Atletico Madrid’s defense is the best in the world. (Spielverlagerung)
Dan Altman on why Liverpool need to make big transfer gambles. (North Yard Analytics)
Mohamed Mohamed asks how bad Aston Villa really are. (Stats Bomb)
Fun with transfer rumors
Silly season has returned. Please don’t take anything in this section too seriously.
Newcastle are about to sign Henri Saivet and are gunning for Jonjo Shelvey. (Guardian)
Mohamed Elneny’s move to Arsenal is being held up by work permit issues. (ESPN FC)
The race between every huge team in the world to sign Leroy Sané now includes Barcelona. (Marca)
Fiorentina want to solidify their Champions League push by signing Tino Costa. (Football Italia)
Bolton’s Zach Clough looks set to move to a bigger club. (Daily Mail)
What happened this weekend
Chelsea won on Sunday to go through. (We Ain’t Got No History)
Spurs and Leicester drew, so they’ll have to play again. (Cartilage Free Captain)
The Zidane era got off to a great start as Madrid won big. (Managing Madrid)
Barcelona also had no problem winning. (Barca Blaugranes)
Juventus won their NINTH STRAIGHT Serie A game. (Black and White and Read All Over)











