Messi: Life, soccer will never be the same again
Barcelona star forward Lionel Messi said that both life and soccer have forever been changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID-19 is responsible for the deaths of 370,000 people worldwide as of Sunday afternoon. It has also wreaked havoc with the sports landscape for much of 2020.
La Liga, Spain’s top-flight soccer league, is set to resume on June 11, albeit without fans in the stands. The first match on the slate will feature the Seville Derby between Real Betis and Sevilla.
Organizers have only released scheduling details for the first two rounds of fixtures, although La Liga chief Javier Tebas confirmed that there will be matches every day of the week until the season is completed on July 19.
“I don’t think football will ever be the same,” Messi said in an interview with
El Pais on Sunday. “But beyond football, I don’t think life, in general, will ever be the same, either.
“All of us that have experienced this situation will remember what happened in one way or another. In my case, it’s with a feeling of sorrow and frustration for those that have suffered the most due to the loss of loved ones.”
Messi didn’t stop there.
“I am sure that football and sport, in general, will be affected,” he said. “Financially, because there are companies linked with sport that will maybe experience some difficulties because of the coronavirus.
“But also professionally, because with the return to training and competing, what was normal before now is going to be different. It will be a strange situation for us as athletes but also for anyone that has to change their usual work dynamic.”
Barcelona resides in first place with 58 points, two points ahead of Real Madrid.
The Spanish top-flight is poised to be the second of Europe’s top five leagues to resume after the Bundesliga, with England’s Premier League re-starting on June 17 and Italy’s Serie A kicking off again on June 20.
Klopp: Return to contact training a big boost for Reds
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said resuming contact training has made a “massive difference” for the Premier League leader as the club steps up preparations for the restart of the season on June 17 following the COVID-19 disruption.
The league was suspended on March 13 due to the pandemic, with teams returning to training in small groups before voting last week to return to contact training.
“It’s absolutely brilliant, a massive difference... we could work on all the things we wanted to work on,” Klopp told the club website.
“The first week was already really good with small groups, I enjoyed that... it was important to get on track again, to get used to the pitch, ball and boots... now we work on tactical things, that works really well.
“Hopefully we can make progress in the next two or three weeks, there are a lot of things that need to be organized... we need to get hopefully a couple of bits of information but we take it like it is and use each second we are together.”
Liverpool has a 25-point lead over Manchester City and need two wins to secure its first top-flight title in 30 years. The Reds are scheduled to face Everton in their first game back. (Reuters)