Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Marseilles manager Andre Villas-Boas has backed compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo to win the Ballon d'Or come Monday. Villas-Boas said Cristiano Ronaldo's decision to leave Real Madrid for Juventus "should be appreciated". Despite backing Ronaldo for the win, he labelled both Messi and Ronaldo as extraterrestrials. "It's difficult... I am Portuguese so of course I support Ronaldo more," he said. "Cristiano took a risk by leaving the best team in the world, with more titles in the world. That kind of risk should be appreciated. Playing in Italy and scoring goals is difficult. "Messi is still in his club, Barcelona, which is a big club. He is able to make the difference. "But I am more for Cristiano because I'm Portuguese. Both of them are exceptional, it's difficult to choose. It [Ballon d'Or] will become a competition between them. "Having these two players in the same generation and watching them is absolutely i...

Atletico Madrid full-back Kieran Trippier has spoken with  The Athletic  about his Messi experience, ahead of Atletico Madrid's upcoming clash with Barcelona at Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday. Trippier faced Messi in last season's Champions League when he played for Tottenham Hotspur. Barcelona beat Tottenham 4-2 with Messi scoring two goals. Trippier joined Atletico Madrid during the summer transfer window. Talking about the Tottenham vs Barcelona game last season, he said,  "Everyone knows how good he is, but I think he turned up a few extra notches that night. "He scored two and he must have hit the woodwork about four times. He was unbelievable." When asked what it is like to defend against Messi, he added, "It’s weird in a way. He spends a lot of the game just walking and walking. "You play against ( Liverpool ’s) Sadio Mane, for instance, and if you take your eye off him for a second, he’ll just dart in behind you. "But with Mes...

Barcelona star Lionel Messi has broken yet another Champions League record. By scoring against Borussia Dortmund in Wednesday's Champions League game, he has become the first player to score against 34 different teams in the Champions League. It was a good night for the Barcelona captain as he was directly involved in all of Barcelona's three goals in the 3-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund, providing assists for Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann. Messi, Raul and Cristiano Ronaldo formerly shared the record for scoring against the highest number of teams in the Champions League; 33. He's now a step ahead of Ronaldo in that regard. Messi has scored against the following teams in the Champions League: Borussia Dortmund,  Slavia Prague,  PSV Eindhoven Spurs ,  Manchester United , Olympique Lyon,  Liverpool,  Juventus,  Olympiacos,  Chelsea,  Celtic Man City ,  Borussia Monchengladbach ,  Paris Saint Germain AS Roma,  Bayer L...

A managerless Bayern Munich romped to a 6-0 win at Red Star Belgrade yesterday, with their principal striker Robert Lewandowski scoring four goals in 15 minutes - 14 minutes and 31 seconds to be exact. That was the fastest four-goal haul in Champions League history. As of now, Lewandowski is the competition's top scorer with 10 goals in five games. Red Star has now conceded 10 goals in its two most recent Champions League outings, a 4-0 defeat to Tottenham and now a 6-0 defeat to Bayern Munich. "The most important thing is that we played really well, defensively and on the attack," Lewandowski told  Sky .  It doesn't matter who plays, we follow the same plan." "I am just as happy when I don't score and we win," he added. The Polish striker's goal tally for the calendar year stands at 51. He is now only the second player in Champions League history - after Lionel Messi - to score four goals in a game on more than one occasion. Yesterda...

Thanks to Paulo Dybala, Juventus beat Atletico Madrid yesterday night and now top group D in the Champions League. He scored the lone goal of the encounter, making headlines in place of Juventus' biggest star Cristiano Ronaldo. The latter seems to have been having a little bad luck with the Champions League this month. Three weeks ago, Aaron Ramsey poked in Cristiano Ronaldo's goalbound free kick, preventing him from breaking a new Champions League record by scoring against a 34th different club. Yesterday, Paulo Dybala's thunderbolt free kick scored within seconds to the end of the second half sent supporters and social media into frenzy. Paulo Dybala has been able to score a goal already in just two free kick attempts whereas Cristiano Ronaldo has scored none in 10 free kicks taken. Dybala is also Juventus' Champions League top scorer since Ronaldo joined the club in 2018. Dybala has scored eight goals in the Champions League since the 2018 season, and Ronald...

In 2014, Indian doctors performed a record-breaking surgery in which they extracted 232 teeth from the mouth of a then 17-year-old boy. The surgery had a seven-hour duration. Ashik Gavai, the teen from whose mouth the teeth were extracted, was brought to Mumbai for medical care, by his father Suresh Gavai. "I was worried that it may turn out to be cancer so I brought him to Mumbai," said Suresh. Dr. Sunanda Dhiware, head of Mumbai's JJ Hospital's dental department told the BBC Ashik was brought in with a swelling in his right jaw. After suffering for 18 months with local doctors in Ashik's village unable to diagnose Ashik's ailment, he was brought to the city. His condition was described as being "very rare". "Ashik's malaise was diagnosed as a complex composite odontoma where a single gum forms lots of teeth. It's a sort of benign tumour," said Dr Dhiware. "At first, we couldn't cut it out so we had to use the...

An exposé on Brazilian football prodigy Neymar Junior by Antoine Bourlon, via Ballon d'Or awarding France Football has revealed Messi's confessions to Neymar after Barcelona suffered a shock 0-4 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals. Messi allegedly told Neymar on phone: " Only together can we win the Champions League, I want you to come back. In two years I will leave and you will take over’. Messi and majority of the Barcelona squad were looking forward to a Neymar return this season. According to Gerard Pique, several Barcelona players including Messi were willing to take a pay cut to facilitate Neymar's transfer to Camp Nou. Messi, Suarez and Neymar formed a fearsome frontline back in the day, with the trio firing the Catalans to Champions League victory in their last spell together (in 2015).  Could Messi have just been speaking in the heat and hurt of the moment? Will he end his career at Barcelona? Time w...

Champions League fixtures return this week, and Atletico Madrid face Juventus today at Turin. Diego Simeone - Atleti coach - told the press Atletico would be facing a team and not Cristiano Ronaldo as an individual despite his goal-scoring prowess.  "Cristiano Ronaldo is a champion and we can't say anything," he said. "He is number one, extraordinary and always makes the difference. "However, I don't think it's Ronaldo against Atletico, as we have come to play against Juve." He also said Atletico Madrid follow his game-by-game philosophy and do not speculate on their qualification to the Champions League round of 16. "We have a way of working, thinking about tomorrow's game and then there are a lot of results that can generate satisfaction or not," he continued. "Then we will look at the match that remains. "The opponent is strong, with a powerful squad and a coach with a very strong style that he is transm...

Kylian Mbappe - one of the Ballon d'Or nominees this year - has made his stance known on who this year's Ballon d'Or winner should be. Messi is his choice. He told Der Spiegel it should be Messi as "In individual terms, he was the best this year." Messi has scored 45 goals for club and country this calendar year, guiding Argentina to a third place at the Copa America, and steering FC Barcelona to another La Liga title. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have won the Ballon d'Or a joint record five times each. Should Messi win the Ballon d'Or this year, he will become the gong's most frequent ever awardee with six titles. Kylian Mbappe was fourth in the shortlist for the 2018 Ballon d'Or. He won the first edition of the Kopa Trophy - an award given to the best performing player under 21 - last year as well. The French wonderkid has scored nine goals in 12 games for Paris Saint-Germain this season.

It's no secret that Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp has a lot of admiration for Lionel Messi. However, when it comes to who deserves to win the Ballon d'Or this year, Klopp doesn't think it should be him as he believes Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was the better performer over the year.  "If you give the Ballon d'Or to the best player of this generation then you should give it always to Lionel Messi. That's how it is," Klopp said. "But if you give it to the best player of last season, then it was Virgil van Dijk. I don't know exactly how it will work but that is how I see it. "The best player of all? That's Lionel. Best player of last season? That's Virgil. We will see." Should Van Dijk win the Ballon d'Or in December, he'll be the first defender since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 to claim the honor. Lionel Messi last won the Ballon d'Or in 2015. Should he claim it again this year, he would be ahead of Cris...

Football's greatest individual award - the Ballon d'Or will be handed out to the best male and female footballers for the calendar year on December 2, 2019, which is just a week away. Speculations about who might wind abound, with Real Madrid's Eden Hazard being one of the most recent players to cheap in their opinion on who the winner of the coveted award should be. He told Le Parisien, " I would give it to a Liverpool player. "Mané, Salah or Van Djik deserve it. If Sadio had won AFCON with Senegal, there would have been no debate. It would be beautiful if he won it. Or Momo (Salah), who is one of my friends. It would be a good thing for both African and English football," he continued. The five top contenders for the award according to public opinion are Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk.

La crème de la crème of Hollywood's celebrities have responded present at the 2019 American Music Awards taking place at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Ciara is hosting the awards ceremony and is performing tonight as well.  Taylor Swift performed some of her career's biggest hits, and bagged the Artist of the Decade award and Favorite Album in the pop/rock category. Other performers at the awards include: Lizzo, Ciara, Selena Gomez, Shania Twain, Thomas Rhett, Jonas Brothers, Green Day, Dua Lipa, Halsey, Christina Aguilera, Toni Braxton and Billie Eilish. Taylor Swift has broken the record for most AMA wins for an artist, formerly held by Michael Jackson who amassed 23 AMA awards. With Swift's wins for artist of the year, favorite music video, favorite female pop artist artist, favorite adult contemporary artist and favorite pop/rock album, she now has 28 AMA awards. Congrats miss! See the complete list of nominees and winners below as it is upd...

Endearing, painful, powerful, sweet, dreadful, magical... what other adjectives can you use to describe the feeling humanity cannot do without? You guessed right, I'm talking of love. Irrespective of your thoughts about romantic love, here are some science-backed facts about it. 1. Falling in love makes you less productive. According to researcher Henk van Steenbergen, "high levels of passionate love of individuals in the early stage of a romantic relationship are associated with reduced cognitive control." As a result of being consumed by thoughts of one's love interest, one becomes less able to concentrate and perform tasks efficiently. "It could be that the obsessive nature of passionate love imposes important constraints on performing well in tasks that require self-control," added Steenbergen. This means your brain will be unable to focus on other things if it's consumed by thoughts of love. 2. Falling in love is chemically addictive...

If you're a tennis lover, then you're probably aware that Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique revamped and organized the just ended Davis Cup - a tennis tournament designed by Rakuten World Champions that took place in Spain from Monday, November 18th 2019 to today, Sunday, November 24th.  Colombian pop-star and humanitarian Shakira - who happens to be Pique's partner and mother of their two kids - opened up the Davis Cup finale today with an electric performance of a few of her top hits, including a remix of her countryman Camilo's hit, Tutu which she performed with him and Pedro.  Shakira dazzled and thrilled the audience at Madrid performing in a navy sequinned bodysuit. The Waka Waka hitmaker was joined by four female dancers on stage. Shakira's performance was followed by the singles final match between Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, at La Caja Magica, Madrid. In attendance were personalities such as Spain...

Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi joined Barcelona's academy La Masia at the age of 13 in February 2001 after being offered a contract on a paper napkin by then first-team director Charly Rexach. He graduated to the senior squad in 2004 and has since then been the club's most successful player. In a recent documentary produced by OTRO titled “Becoming Leo Messi”, Messi who may be winning his sixth Ballon d'Or this year opened up about the challenges he faced upon arriving Barcelona from his native Argentina. Messi left Newell's Old Boys - the club for which he played in Argentina - for Spain aged 13, and faced tough times especially with his family's return to Argentina.  He tells OTRO in the documentary: “I was in Barcelona for about 15 days and then I returned to Argentina. After a few months, they called me and I said yes, that I was willing to come. Let me come here and start my dream in Barcelona. It was a happiness for me and my family. ...

Menstruation/menarche refers to vaginal bleeding that occurs at the end of a menstrual cycle. The endometrial lining builds up throughout the course of every menstrual cycle and is shed at the end, when pregnancy fails to occur. In case you wonder why menstrual cycles are also called periods, they are called so to mean an "interval of time" or a "repeated cycle of events", and this since 1822. Here are 15 surprising facts you may not have known about menstruation. 1. There are more than 5,000 euphemisms for menstruation around the world. These are the most frequently used euphemisms for menstruation in English: Aunt Flo/Aunt Flow/Aunt, Time of the month/TOM/That time of the month, on the rags/rag/ragging, red tide/river, code red, monthly visitor, mother nature, lady friend, bloody Mary, shark week. The French say "Les Anglais ont debarqué", which translates to "The English have landed". 2. Menstrual taboo can still be observed in...