Germany coach Joachim Loew has named four talented youngsters, including three uncapped players, in his preliminary 27-man squad for Euro 2016.

Barcelona's star striker Lionel Messi has backed Atletico Madrid to seal this year's Champions League title, saying his team don't want to see Real Madrid claim the trophy.

Exactly four months after succeeding Rafael Benitez and inheriting a Real Madrid side on the brink of institutional crisis, Zinedine Zidane completed the team's revival by guiding them past Manchester City to the Champions League final.

Atletico Madrid are not seeking revenge for their 2014 Champions League final defeat but instead want to write a new chapter in the club's history with their first European Cup after getting past Bayern Munich.

From soccer genius Lionel Messi to sprint king Usain Bolt, a shimmering array of the world's greatest sports stars are in the race for top honours at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards -- also called the 'Oscars of Sport' -- to be presented.

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says Frenchman Karim Benzema is "distraught" about being left out of the squad for this year's European Championship, the only major tournament to be played in his home country during his career.

Formula One world championship leader Nico Rosberg's contract with the Mercedes team has shown up in the Panama Papers, leaked documents which reveal offshore financial dealings, German broadcaster ARD reported on Monday.

An earlier tax fraud case against Messi is to be heard in a Barcelona court between May 31 and June 3 after the World Player of the Year and his father Jorge were accused by the tax office in 2013 of defrauding the Spanish state of 4.2 million euros ($4.5 million) from 2007-09.

A leak of 11.5 million tax documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.

Arsenal have only themselves to blame after a run of two wins in nine games in all competitions has left them with only an outside chance of winning any silverware, midfielder Mesut Ozil was quoted as saying on Thursday.

World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi found himself the unlikely figure of controversy in Egypt after a local politician and a soccer official reacted angrily when he donated a pair of his boots to raise money for charity. MBC Masr channel broadcast an interview last Saturday with Barcelona's Messi on the television programme 'Yes I am Famous', but the announcement that the Argentina forward would auction his boots for charity provoked an unexpected response. Member of parliament and television presenter Said Hasasin, appearing on his own talk show, took off his shoes and said he would donate them to the poor of Argentina. "Whose shoes do you want to sell, Messi? How much do you think it will get? You don't know that the nail of a baby Egyptian is worth more than your shoes? Keep your shoes to yourself or sell them to Israel." "Messi, we Egyptians are 90 million people, who have pride, we have shoes."

Kaka wants Real fans to show more gratitude to Cristiano Ronaldo.

Brazil's Olympic soccer team trained in the headlights of a lorry on Monday after the floodlights failed at their training ground, local news media reported.

Uruguay striker Luis Suarez is set to play his first competitive international later this month since being banned for biting an opponent at the 2014 World Cup after he was called up on Friday for qualifiers against Brazil and Peru.

Top European soccer clubs have discussed changing the Champions League to ensure the elite are always in it and the likes of Leicester City are not, according to a US sports executive involved in the talks.

Arsene Wenger remained defiant on Sunday after Arsenal's 3-2 capitulation at Manchester United prompted much criticism, with one distinguished former international suggesting their performance bordered on 'a joke'.

Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton has lashed out at the plans of new qualifying format in the Formula One, saying the drivers should be consulted before changing the rules.

Aditi and Akshay Maliwal are mentoring young sports athletes from Asia to get through to top US universities.

Zuckerberg is kicking off a tour of Europe on Monday.

'It's a great job by the team. Usually in the first day you don't get that many laps so I'm really happy'

Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder Dmitri Tarasov insists he acted alone when he wore a T-shirt praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving the player and team facing an anxious wait over possible sanctions for Tuesday's incident in Turkey.

Lionel Messi reclaimed the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for the world player of the year on Monday from his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo who had walked off with the award for the previous two years.

Zinedine Zidane's appointment as Real Madrid coach in place of Rafa Benitez has handed the club's former France great his chance to follow up a stellar career on the pitch with management success at the highest level.

Barcelona star Neymar was subjected to allegedly racist chants during Saturday draw at local rivals Espanyol, his teammate Andres Iniesta confirmed. Though manager Luis Enrique declined to comment on the chants, Neymar's teammates called for the individuals responsible to be punished.

Away from the cricket field, it was a year in which Sania Mirza was unarguably the biggest success story with her staggering 10 titles on the Tour -- two of them Grand Slams.

After the spectacular implosion of the Jose Mourinho regime at Chelsea, there is now just one world-beating coach left in the global game with a glittering curriculum vitae unsullied by the stain of any striking failure. Step forward then Pep Guardiola...

Real Madrid included Denis Cheryshev in their starting lineup for their first match of the 2015-16 competition even though he should have been serving a one-match suspension and the Russia forward opened the scoring in a 3-1 victory.

Italian anti-doping authorities have called for two-year bans on 26 athletes, including Olympic bronze medallist Fabrizio Donato and European champion long jumper Andrew Howe, for allegedly failing to provide doping samples.

Shell-shocked AS Roma followed up their midweek Champions League debacle in Barcelona by losing 2-0 at home to nine-man Atalanta in Serie A on Sunday.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is hoping the home crowd in Sweden sing his name on Wednesday, despite his determination to fire Paris Saint Germain into the knockout stages of the Champions League and end boyhood club Malmo FF's European adventure.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has rebuffed calls from angry fans for him to step down and backed coach Rafael Benitez after Saturday's humiliating 4-0 defeat at home to Barcelona in the La Liga 'El Clasico'.

Real Madrid great Zinedine Zidane has quashed speculations that he is going to replace under-fire Rafael Benitez as the team coach, saying that he is still in a learning process when it comes to coaching a senior team.

The Spanish government's top sports official has sent out a message of calm and said there is no reason for Saturday's La Liga 'El Clasico' between Real Madrid and Barcelona to be postponed following Friday's attacks in Paris.

A Neymar double and a clinical finish from Luis Suarez handed Barcelona a comfortable 3-0 victory over BATE Borisov that put them on the verge of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League for the 12th consecutive season.

Barcelona have given their full backing to Lionel Messi in the Argentina forward's tax fraud case and vowed to fight "external decisions" they say are unfairly targeting the club.

Barcelona's Argentina international Javier Mascherano has been ordered to appear in court on October 29 to answer charges of two counts of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of a total of more than 1.5 million euros ($1.67 million).

The parents of Brazil forward Neymar have denied any wrongdoing after a judge froze 188.8 million reais ($47.6 million) of the player's assets in a tax evasion case.

Celta Vigo thrashed Barcelona 4-1 on Wednesday with Iago Aspas hitting a double.

Higuain had a disappointing Copa America tournament in July, scoring two goals during the competition and missing his spot kick as Argentina lost on penalties to Chile in the final.

'More than 95 percent of the players are happy with their contract and happy with their club; they want the kids to go to school, they have a normal life; so I don't think that will happen'