Aston Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov believes his team can ambush Manchester United's plans to successfully defend a major cup for the first time when the two clubs meet in Sunday's League Cup final. The Bulgarian midfielder thinks team-mates like Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young and James Milner are ready to come of age while he himself is desperate to ...

Barcelona's Argentine winger Lionel Messi outshines both Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney in terms of media value, a team of Spanish researchers claimed on Friday. The team from the University of Navarra rated last year's Golden Ball winner as the player with the highest profile in the world for the second year running. Second was Real Madrid's ...

Nike will pay Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo six million euros per year until 2014 under a new sponsorship deal it has reached with the Portuguese winger, sports daily Marca reported Thursday. The 25-year-old earned 4.5 million euros (6.0 million US dollars) under his previous contract with the world's largest sporting goods maker, the newspaper said. While ...

Cristiano Ronaldo has warned Lyon they will face a Real Madrid on top form when they meet again during their Champions League return leg next month. Real suffered a 1-0 last-16 first-leg away loss to the French side on February 16 but bounced back to demolish Villarreal 6-2 on Sunday in La Liga in a performance which was roundly praised ...