Lionel Messi beat Virgil van Dijk to the 2019 Ballon d Or by a slender seven-point margin, the award s organisers have confirmed.

France Football declared Messi s record sixth victory to be among the narrowest in the 63-year history of the prestigious prize.

The Barcelona captain finished top of the count with 686 points, just ahead of Liverpool defender Van Dijk s 679.

Third-placed Cristiano Ronaldo, who did not attend Monday s ceremony, tallied 476 points, 210 fewer than long-time rival Messi.

Sadio Mane, fourth on 347 points, was the only other player to exceed the 200-mark.

The history of the award has had tighter scores, but the number of voting journalists 176 this year was [in the past] much smaller, read a post on France Football s websit…

Despite the fact that the transfer window is closed at the moment, there are still many rumours circulating around clubs in the English Premier League. Most the the speculation seems to be concerning the top teams in the league, including Liverpool and Chelsea. The rumours will only increase following big away defeats by Liverpool and Chelsea so let s get started.

We start off my addressing the transfer speculation surrounding Chelsea and Stamford Bridge. According to a Andre Villas-Boas, striker Nicolas Anelka wants to leave Stamford Bridge for greener pastures. It remains a mystery why Chelsea did not sell Anelka, who is in the last year of his contract. Surely, Anzhi Makhachkala would have coughed up 15 million pounds for the Frenchman, right?<…

It’s a matchup of two teams looking to improve their playoff standing in their respective conferences when the Cincinnati Bengals host the San Francisco 49ers.

The Niners saw their three-game winning streak snapped last week and are still dealing with a plethora of injuries, while the Bengals were left licking their wounds after giving up 41 points in a loss to the Chargers.

Which team will bounce back, cover the short spread and move one step closer to the playoffs? Find out in our free NFL picks and predictions for 49ers at Bengals on December 12.

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Tis the season for scary movies with Halloween happening on Monday. And under all that slashing and screaming and gore that populates the film genre, aren’t horror movies just underdog stories at their core?

We have lone survivors like “Final Girls” Laurie Strode and Ellen Ripley, who overcome the odds to whoop the big baddy and win the day. You also have guys like Chris Washington in “Get Out” and Ash Williams in “The Evil Dead” going to great lengths to come out on top, like chopping off their own hand and braining someone with a bocce ball.

And, even considering the evil antagonists in horror flicks, you often have a one-man wrecking crew like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, who are massively outnumbered, seem to …

The Indianapolis Colts had their win streak broken in a bad way last week in Cincinnati but are still very much alive in the playoff hunt. They return home this evening to face off against the struggling Pittsburgh Steelers. 

The Colts are slight favorites in the Week 15 NFL odds and will be looking to win the battle of 7-6 AFC playoff bubble teams behind the play of Zack Moss in place of the injured Jonathan Taylor. 

We take a closer look at the Zack Moss odds and give our best free NFL picks for Steelers vs. Colts on December 16. Be sure to keep up to date on the Saturday odds and check out our Steelers vs. Colts predictions, along with our Steelers vs. Colts props.

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It’ll be another NFL preseason game with limited starters when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday. 

Tampa Bay will not be playing any of their starters, which means plenty of backups will be vying for their spots on the squad. The Jaguars are likely not going to risk many starters either due to injury issues, but Mac Jones and C.J. Beathard will both hope to claim QB2 honors.

Our Buccaneers vs. Jaguars predictions and NFL picks break down the best betting angles for Saturday’s affair.

Buccaneers vs Jaguars prediction

My best betBuccaneers 100+ rushing yards (-130 at DraftKings)

My analysisThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers know their quarterback depth chart at this point, with Kyle Trask bei…

Honduras coach Jorge Luis Pinto is confident his team can control Neymar in their Rio Olympics semi-final against Brazil.

Neymar is under pressure to deliver the host nation football gold, an achievement that has eluded them in their history.

The Barcelona star and his men meet Honduras in the last four on Wednesday, with Nigeria and Germany in the other semi-final.

Pinto, also the senior team boss, said he is considering how to deal with Neymar.

I am thinking a lot about Neymar and how I can control him. I m looking for that player to mark him, he said.

I have played against him with Deportivo Tachira and we managed to control him, also with Honduras and we controlled him too.

Pinto knows the challenge awaiting his side, who were for…

Marco van Basten believes Holland have earned the right to dream of glory at Euro 2008 after their 3-0 demolition of world champions Italy kicked the tournament into life.

Holland s first win over the Italians in three decades and Italy s heaviest defeat in 25 years has left the Dutch in control of a group of death that also includes France and Romania, whose turgid goalless draw could not have been further removed from the exhilarating encounter served up here on Monday evening.

For the Dutch coach, the manner of the victory was every bit as important as its unlikely scale.

To beat the world champions playing football to the last minute it was for us a very nice game and also a historical game, he said. We have never beaten Italy by three goals.

If …

Depending upon which narrative you chose to embrace, Neymar will either look to start a Paris Saint-Germain dynasty in which he is the jewel when they face Real Madrid in the Champions League or turn in an audition to be the Santiago Bernabeu s latest galactico.

The Brazil forward was apparently motivated in part by his desire to win the Ballon d Or when he swapped Barcelona for Paris last August and dumping the reigning European champions out at the last-16 stage would certainly do much to further his ambitions.

Madrid s reported courting of Neymar has much to do with Cristiano Ronaldo s perceived decline over recent months but the Portuguese icon appears to be coming good at just the right time.

Quietly – by his standards – Ronaldo has scored seven goals in…

Bayern Munich midfielder Hamit Altintop is unlikely to make another appearance before 2009. This was announced by manager Jürgen Klinsmann on Friday.

Altintop fractured his metatarsus six months ago but recovered in time to represent the Turkish national team at Euro 2008.

But the injury returned in August, and the player has been able to spend only 64 minutes on the pitch this season.

Klinsmann revealed that Altintop needs surgery to correct the injury. It will be the second operation within a month time for the 25-year-old.

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