As expected, Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his fourth Ballon d Or on Monday, beating Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann to the accolade.

Ronaldo added to his 2008, 2013 and 2014 awards after a stellar 2016 for club and country, winning the Champions League and Euro 2016 with Real Madrid and Portugal respectively.

Messi, a five-time winner of the gong, was unable to add to his haul despite helping Barcelona retain their LaLiga title in 2015-16.

Griezmann s impressive performances with Atletico Madrid and, in particular, France helped him to make the podium, while Messi s Barca colleagues Luis Suarez and Neymar were fourth and fifth respectively. 

Final ranking of Ballon d Or France Football 2016 :

3rd

ANTOINE GRIEZMANN

— France Foo…

This season we will have several teams competing for the top 4 spots, which makes it very exciting.

Up until the final few rounds of the season, the top 4 race in the Premiership was as exciting as ever, with Arsenal ultimately pipping Everton to the final Champions League berth. And with top 5 sides from last term all adding some high-quality players to their ranks plus seventh-placed Manchester United bringing Dutch maestro Louis van Gaal to replace David Moyes, chances are the chase for the top 4 positions in the 2014/2015 season could prove more interesting than ever before. Considering that the new campaign kicks off this weekend, now is as good a time as any to assess teams chances of achieving Champions League qualification through league finish.

Chelsea

Market:…

Trent Alexander-Arnold admits England s players agreed with Gary Lineker s controversial description of the Three Lions Euro 2024 performances as s*** .

Lineker hit out at England s display in a 1-1 group-stage draw with Denmark on his podcast, The Rest is Football, in comments that attracted a fierce response from captain Harry Kane.

Kane responded by saying former England players in the media had a responsibility when it came to discussing the national team, calling on them to be more supportive.

Alexander-Arnold, however, says many in the camp agreed with Lineker s criticism and feels some used it as motivation as the Three Lions grew into the tournament, finishing as runners-up to Spain.

We had all seen it and heard it and felt it, the Liverpool ace …

Jodie Taylor made history by becoming the first female England player to score a hat-trick at a major tournament when she netted three goals against Scotland, on this day in 2017.

The Lionesses romped to a 6-0 victory in their opening game of Euro 2017, with Ellen White, Jordan Nobbs and Toni Duggan also amongst the goals as England made a fast start to the tournament in the Netherlands.

Taylor – then of Arsenal, who she rejoined last season – fired her country into a 2-0 lead inside 26 minutes in Utrecht before completing her historic feat with a brilliantly-taken lob just after the break.

“The hat-trick meant a lot to me,” said Taylor, then aged 31. “The last two years have been a tough ride. Just to be here fit and healthy is a huge achievement.

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As we enter Week 6 of the NFL season, there’s plenty of wear and tear on teams both physically and mentally. And that’s where we pick our spots — spot bets to be exact.

While diving into the mountain of data and eating up all the advanced analytics will help you narrow down the best NFL bets in Week 6, situational handicapping can unearth hidden betting value by dissecting the challenges the schedule rolls out and how teams will cope with them.

Here are our top NFL spot bets — letdown, look-ahead, and schedule — for Week 6.

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If you bet on the Minnesota Vikings last season, there’s a good chance your Fitbit shows wild swings in heart rate and stress levels for those three hours of action. The Vikings finished 8-9 straight up and 9-8 against the spread after playing in 13 games decided by eight points or less, including three overtime finishes. 

Minnesota was 5-8 SU in those nail-biters (2-5 SU in games decided by four or less), which was enough to show Mike Zimmer the door and flip the philosophy of the franchise with new head coach Kevin O’Connell — a product of the McVay machine out of L.A.

The Vikings’ NFL odds are encouraging, especially considering how the lookahead lines are rolling out for the 2022 slate, which peg Minnesota as a point spread fav…

The nation’s top college football prospects will be center stage at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis this week for the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine. They’ll be poked, prodded, and pushed to their breaking point as scouts and general managers from all 32 teams size them up from the sidelines in the lead-up to the 2023 NFL Draft.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a professional talent evaluator to get in on the action. Select sportsbooks have released a wide variety of NFL Combine betting markets so you can now wager on players’ speed, strength, and athleticism from the comforts of your couch.

I’ve awoken from my post-Super Bowl hangover and have my top picks ready to go for this year’s combine. My analysis — as well as this year’s schedule — are below.<…

Underdogs went a solid 8-5 ATS in the NFL odds last week, highlighted by the Patriots’ shocking win over the Bills and the Vikings’ upset victory over the 49ers. That said, I like the Dolphins as heavy favorites over New England in the Week 8 odds, so I’m throwing them into a three-leg parlay with two additional favorites.

I’ll also discuss my best same-game parlay for Week 8 featuring the Jaguars as I make my free NFL parlay picks.

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The Dallas Cowboys entered the NFL playoffs with the second-best record in the NFC and opened as 7.5-point favorites over the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card Round.

Well, so much for that. The Packers jumped out to a 27-0 lead and never really looked back en route to a 48-32 victory. It was the first time in NFL history that a No. 7 seed had beaten a No. 2 seed. All in a day’s work.

That it came on Dallas’ home turf only adds insult to injury. Will it be enough for Jerry Jones to pull the trigger and dump head coach Mike McCarthy after three winning seasons in four years? The Cowboys haven’t advanced beyond the Divisional Round since winning Super Bowl XXX in 1995, so maybe Jerry will turn to someone who knows a thing or two about winning the big one.

<…

Time flies when we’re having fun. NFL Week 3 odds are here with another week packed with football betting action.

Sunday’s afternoon’s slate was headlined by the Dallas Cowboys’ clash with the Baltimore Ravens, while Sunday Night Football saw Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs take on Kirk Cousins (off a rare prime-time win) and the Atlanta Falcons.

Week 3 betting closes out with an intriguing Monday night doubleheader of Jaguars vs. Bills and Commanders vs. Bengals. 

Let’s look at the current NFL odds for Week 3 heading into kickoff on Sunday, September 22.

NFL Week 3 Odds

These are the current NFL odds for Week 3, headlined by a late-window showdown between the Baltimo…