By Andrew Warshaw
January 10 – Once the world’s most expensive footballer and a five-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, Wales captain Gareth Bale has ended his playing career at the age of 33, he announced on Monday.
January 10 – It didn’t take Roberto Martinez long to find a new role. The Spaniard has become the third foreign coach to lead Portugal, succeeding Fernando Santos.
January 9 – Holders Liverpool were held to a 2-2 home draw by Wolverhampton Wanderers on a weekend when no fewer than eight of the 20 Premier League sides were dumped out of the FA Cup, the world’s oldest domestic knockout competition, at the first time of asking.
January 9 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has unveiled a three-round competition structure to qualify two women’s teams for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
January 9 – French coach Didier Deschamps is to stay until the 2026 World Cup after leading his country to the final of the last two editions of the tournament.
January 9 – Not for the first time, French football has been hit by an internal war of words, this time over controversial comments made by French football federation (FFF) president Noel Le Graet about national icon Zinedine Zidane (pictured).
January 9 – Former Cameroon and Paris St Germain midfielder Modeste M’Bami has died aged just 40 after suffering a heart attack.
January 9 – Brazil is once again mourning the passing of a footballing great. Following the funeral of Pele, Vasco da Gama legend Roberto Dinamite died on Sunday, also following a battle with colon cancer, aged 68.
January 6 – UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin looks set for a third term as UEFA president after the deadline passed yesterday for any challengers to come forward for the April 5 election at the UEFA congress in Lisbon, Portugal.
January 6 – The football world has lost yet another iconic and hugely popular figure with tributes pouring in following the death at just 58 of former Italian great Gianluca Vialli.
January 6 – Lazio have been handed a partial one-match stadium restriction after fans directed racist chants at Lecce defender Samuel Umtiti and winger Lameck Banda in an away Serie A game earlier this week that prompted widespread outrage.
January 6 – Brazil 1970 and Pele will forever remain the standard bearers of the beautiful game. In the book ‘Brazil 1970 – How the Greatest Team of All Time Won the World Cup’, author Sam Kunti chronicles the story of Brazil’s landmark victory.
By Samindra Kunti in Sao Paulo
January 6 – Following a media storm, Ricardo Kaka has failed to explain why he did not attend Pelé’s funeral procession. Kaka, Ronaldo and other World Cup-winners as well as Neymar have been heavily criticized for failing to pay their last respect to Pele in Santos.
January 5 – Cameroon football has again been rocked by an age fraud scandal with 21 out of 30 Under-17 national team players disqualified after failing MRI tests ordered by the country’s FA (Fecafoot) chief Samuel Eto’o.
January 5 – Supportive messages have poured in, including from FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after French international Samuel Umtiti was racially abused by Lazio fans who have once again tarnished the sport in Italy.