Luka Modric wins the Ballon d'Or

The 33-year-old became the first Croatian to claim the award after a year in which he has won the Champions League and captained Croatia all the way to the World Cup final.

With France having won the World Cup, Griezmann, Mbappe and even Modric's fellow Madrid team-mate Raphael Varane had been amongst the favourites alongside the evergreen duo of Ronaldo and Messi to win the prestigious award.

However, the Croatian's exploits across the year - which included being awarded the Golden Ball at the World Cup - have seen him emerge ahead of the rest of the pack and become the first player in ten years to win the award and not be Messi or Ronaldo.

Furthermore, a main talking point regarding this year's results is the fact that Lionel Messi was ranked fifth in the voting scheme. This has caused major uproar within the football world since despite Messi not performing particularly well in the World Cup, he still had a spectacular season with Barcelona.

Here's a selection of the best soundbites regarding this year's Ballon d'Or:

Luka Modric

on winning the Ballon d'Or

“These two [Ronaldo and Messi] were on some exceptional level for the last 10 years. Maybe in the past there are some players that could win the Ballon d’Or, like Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta or [Wesley] Sneijder, but it didn’t happen. People are finally, I don’t know, they wanted something else. I think it’s [a] victory for football tonight. I am happy that I am the winner but this award is for all these players that probably deserved to win but didn’t.”

 

Antoine Greizmann

on not winning the Ballon d'Or

"I won a Europa League, a World Cup, what else do I have to do? I don't know"

Ernesto Valverde

on Messi's fifth place finish

"I'm not going to get into that, whether it's right or wrong how an award ended up. I think the people who voted for it have to answer that. Everyone has their own opinion. To us it's absurd" 

 

Jordi Alba

on the Ballon d'Or

"The Ballon d'Or is a lie, There are many club and press campaigns. Everyone knows that Messi is the best in the word by far"

The Superclásico and Derby Day

It has been an eventful week in the world of football, filled with action, incident and drama. Here is some of the most noteworthy news of the last seven days. 

Copa Libertadores 2018: South America's biggest football match moved to Madrid 

The second leg of the 2018 Copa Libertadores final between Boca Juniors and River Plate will be played on December 9th at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. 

The Superclasico, the match between Argentina’s two biggest clubs (Boca Juniors and River Plate) is one of the most intense matches in world football. However, the two clubs had never met each other in the final before and this was the last chance for them to face each other at their home stadiums: Boca’s La Bombonera and River Plate’s El Monumental since the Copa Libertadores will adopt a single-legged final next season. 

But all that changed after numerous attacks involving the two teams took place. Most noteworthy being that the Boca Juniors coach was attacked on its way to River Plate’s stadium for the second leg of the final. The windows were smashed and one player was left needing eye surgery. Tear gas aimed at dispersing the fans also entered the Boca team coach. 

Boca Juniors player injured during attack

As a result, the match was postponed and after further postponements and complaints, CONMEBOL, South America’s soccer confederation decided to fine River Plate and order them to play two future matches behind closed doors. It also decided to move the final to Madrid in order to avoid further incidents. According to Reuters News Agency, the head of CONMEBOL said Madrid was chosen so that the final can be played in an elite stadium that can offer the level of security necessary for the match. 

 

Derby Day lives up to the hype 

An enthralling north London derby ended in a 4-2 victory for Arsenal, who now move above Tottenham into fourth in the Premier League table. Meanwhile, the Merseyside derby ended up with Liverpool grabbing a dramatic last-minute victory over rivals Everton.  

The Arsenal performance shown during the North London derby is what fans have been dying to see under newly appointed manager Emery. Besides getting a match-winning result, they played an aggressive, physical and fierce style of attacking football. Despite Arsenal going 2-1 down, Emery showed his tactical excellence after making two immediate substitutes in half-time which ended up changing the result in his favour. 

Besides the manager, Aubameyang also deserves praise for his brilliant performance, having scored 2 goals in a big game. In him, Arsenal now have a world-class striker who is capable of deciding these types of games on his own. 

Aubameyang celebrates his goal

Over in Merseyside, Liverpool snatched a dramatic late win thanks to a bizarre last-minute goal from forgotten man Divock Origi. Both sides had good goal-scoring opportunities but both failed to take their chances. The game had looked to be ending in a draw until England's goalkeeper Pickford shockingly failed to deal with a mis-hit effort from the edge of the penalty area, leaving Origi to tap in from close range in the 96th minute.  

Liverpool's result kept them within two points of Premier League leaders Manchester City.

Introduction to TekkersLife Football Blog

Hi everyone!
I am Gabriel Galea, a first-year student at the University of Malta studying European studies and Communication studies. As part of my communications course, I will be starting a blog which will be about the world of football - the beautiful game.
Football has always been a passion of mine, having trained at local academies all my life but also being a fan by supporting my favourite team of Juventus and following football news and events from all around the world.

In this blog, I will be reporting the most recent and important news regarding the community of football. What is reported will mostly be concerned about the current top leagues of football including transfer news, team news, player/manager conferences and match results.