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Vinicius Believes Fighting Racism Led to Ballon d’Or Defeat

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Champions League round of 16 second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and RB Leipzig at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (AP)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Champions League round of 16 second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and RB Leipzig at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (AP)
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Vinicius Believes Fighting Racism Led to Ballon d’Or Defeat

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Champions League round of 16 second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and RB Leipzig at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (AP)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Champions League round of 16 second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and RB Leipzig at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (AP)

Brazil and Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr said on Monday that he will keep on fighting racism even if his activism is what led to him not winning the Ballon d'Or, sources close to the player told Reuters.

Vinicius took to social media after finishing second in the prestigious award voting behind Spain and Manchester City midfielder Rodri.

"I will do it 10 times if I have to. They're not ready," Vinicius posted on X after his LaLiga side Real Madrid cancelled their plans to attend the ceremony in Paris, boycotting it in anticipation of the Brazilian not winning the men's award.

Asked what Vinicius meant with his post, his management staff told Reuters that he was referring to his fight against racism and that they believe it was what led to him not winning the award, saying that "the football world is not ready to accept a player who fights against the system."

The 24-year-old Brazil international has been subjected to racial abuse on several occasions in Spain, leading to at least two convictions for racist insults in pioneer cases in the country.

Real also won the men’s club of the year award, and their manager Carlo Ancelotti was named men’s coach of the year after winning the European and Spanish league double in a near perfect campaign last season.

France Football, which organizes the Ballon d'Or awards, was not immediately available for comment.

The awards are based on voting by a panel of journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked countries.

"FOOTBALL POLITICS X. My brother, you are the best player in the world and no award can say otherwise. Love you my bro," Real's Eduardo Camavinga posted on X, while several other teammates shared messages with photos of Vinicius saying "You are the best".

"I waited all year for Vini Jr to be deservedly recognized as the best player in the world and now they come to tell me that the Ballon d'Or is not for him?" Brazilian women's great Marta said in a video on Instagram.

Vinicius was instrumental in Real's Champions League-LaLiga double along with 21-year-old Jude Bellingham, who scored 19 goals in a sparkling debut campaign and helped England reach the Euro 2024 final, and came third in the Ballon d'Or ranking.

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Thauvin Inspires Lens to Maiden French Cup Title with 3-1 Win Over Nice

Soccer Football - Coupe de France - Final - RC Lens v OGC Nice - Stade de France, Saint Denis, France - May 22, 2026 RC Lens' Adrien Thomasson lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates after winning the Coupe de France REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
Soccer Football - Coupe de France - Final - RC Lens v OGC Nice - Stade de France, Saint Denis, France - May 22, 2026 RC Lens' Adrien Thomasson lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates after winning the Coupe de France REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
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Thauvin Inspires Lens to Maiden French Cup Title with 3-1 Win Over Nice

Soccer Football - Coupe de France - Final - RC Lens v OGC Nice - Stade de France, Saint Denis, France - May 22, 2026 RC Lens' Adrien Thomasson lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates after winning the Coupe de France REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
Soccer Football - Coupe de France - Final - RC Lens v OGC Nice - Stade de France, Saint Denis, France - May 22, 2026 RC Lens' Adrien Thomasson lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates after winning the Coupe de France REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

RC Lens claimed their first French Cup with a 3-1 victory over Nice after Florian Thauvin scored one goal and set up another to help land the trophy at the Stade de France on Friday.

Thauvin, a 2018 World Cup-winner omitted from France's squad for next month's finals, opened the scoring before his perfect corner was headed in by Odsonne Edouard for Lens' second goal.

Djibril Coulibaly pulled one back for Nice on the stroke of halftime, Reuters reported.

Lens' second-half substitute Abdallah Sima sealed the ⁠victory with 12 minutes ⁠remaining, sparking wild celebrations among the 50,000 Lens fans who travelled to Paris hoping to see their club claim a first trophy since the 1999 League Cup.

The triumph capped a remarkable season for Lens, whose only top-flight title came in 1998 and who ⁠finished runners-up to Paris St Germain in Ligue 1 this season.

Nice, meanwhile, face Ligue 2 side St Etienne on May 26 and 29 in a two-legged playoff to preserve their top-flight status.

After a shaky start from both sides, Lens, who had Robin Risser to thank for two spectacular saves, took the lead in the 25th minute when Thauvin collected Matthieu Udol’s cross in the area and found the net with a clinical ⁠left-footed effort.

The ⁠Northerners doubled their lead in the 42nd with Edouard beating Maxime Dupe with a header from Thauvin’s corner.

Coulibaly, 17, reduced the arrears on the stroke of halftime, heading home a Jonathan Clauss corner.

Nice came close to levelling on the hour, but Antoine Mendy's header crashed onto the bar.

But Lens wrapped it up in the 78th minute as Sima, who had replaced Edouard 12 minutes earlier, outmuscled two Nice defenders to beat Dupe with a low shot for his fifth goal in six appearances in the competition.

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Mexico Ease Past Ghana in World Cup Warm-up in Puebla

Soccer Football - International Friendly - Mexico v Ghana - Estadio Cuauhtemoc, Puebla, Mexico - May 22, 2026 Mexico fans in the stands during the match REUTERS/Henry Romero
Soccer Football - International Friendly - Mexico v Ghana - Estadio Cuauhtemoc, Puebla, Mexico - May 22, 2026 Mexico fans in the stands during the match REUTERS/Henry Romero
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Mexico Ease Past Ghana in World Cup Warm-up in Puebla

Soccer Football - International Friendly - Mexico v Ghana - Estadio Cuauhtemoc, Puebla, Mexico - May 22, 2026 Mexico fans in the stands during the match REUTERS/Henry Romero
Soccer Football - International Friendly - Mexico v Ghana - Estadio Cuauhtemoc, Puebla, Mexico - May 22, 2026 Mexico fans in the stands during the match REUTERS/Henry Romero

Mexico beat Ghana 2-0 in Puebla on Friday in a World Cup warm-up that offered a glimpse of the excitement building less than three weeks before the country opens the tournament.

While Puebla is not among Mexico's World Cup host cities, fans in green shirts created a lively atmosphere throughout the night. Repeated Mexican waves rolled around the stadium ⁠despite visible empty ⁠sections closed under FIFA sanctions linked to discriminatory chants at previous national team matches.

Brian Gutierrez set the tone immediately, curling home from the edge of the box after two minutes at Cuauhtemoc ⁠Stadium.

Teenage Liga MX sensation Gil Mora struck the post in the first half, and Alexis Vega had a header ruled out for offside before the break.

Ghana, with recently appointed coach Carlos Queiroz absent and assistants leading from the bench, threatened an equaliser early in the second half after forcing a pair of saves from the ⁠Mexican ⁠goalkeeper and hitting the crossbar.

But substitute Guillermo Martinez ended the visitors' hopes in the 54th minute, finishing off a counterattack to double Mexico's lead.

Coach Javier Aguirre used the friendly to continue evaluating players ahead of naming Mexico's final World Cup squad on June 1, with Europe-based players Edson Alvarez, Jorge Sanchez and Luis Chávez making second-half appearances after recently joining training camp.

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Success Fuels Guardiola’s Campaign for a ‘Better Society’

Pep Guardiola giving a speech on Palestine in Barcelona earlier this year. (Getty Images)
Pep Guardiola giving a speech on Palestine in Barcelona earlier this year. (Getty Images)
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Success Fuels Guardiola’s Campaign for a ‘Better Society’

Pep Guardiola giving a speech on Palestine in Barcelona earlier this year. (Getty Images)
Pep Guardiola giving a speech on Palestine in Barcelona earlier this year. (Getty Images)

Pep Guardiola is more than a football manager, using his high-profile platform to highlight causes close to his heart.

Legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly may have believed football was "much, much more important" than life or death but for Guardiola several things outside the "beautiful game" matter almost as much.

The 55-year-old Spaniard will step away from the Manchester City dugout on Sunday after winning 20 trophies in 10 years.

From Palestinian children to Catalan independence and homelessness in the United Kingdom, Guardiola has strayed outside the borders of his job to bang the drum for a diverse range of causes during that time.

He has made no bones about using his position as a podium to "speak up to be a better society".

Guardiola's most recent foray into sensitive political territory has been his passionate embrace of Palestinian children in Gaza during the two-year war with Israel and their suffering in the aftermath.

The war, sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 72,568 people in Gaza. Victims included children from toddlers to late teens.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people still live in tents, and conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire that came into effect in October.

The devastation is acutely felt by the youngest in society, a topic Guardiola felt sufficiently important to miss a pre-match press conference and attend a charity event, Act x Palestine, in Barcelona in January this year.

With a Palestinian keffiyeh draped round his neck, he went on the offensive.

"I think what we think when I see a child in these past two years with these images on social media, on television, recording himself, pleading 'where is my mother?' among the rubble, and he still doesn't know it," he said.

"And I always think: what must they be thinking? And I think we have left them alone, abandoned."

- 'I will stand up' -

While widely lauded, his forays into the delicate issue also met with opprobrium, not least from the representatives of Manchester's Jewish community.

Remarks he made last summer prompted them to write a letter to the Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak warning his comments put the lives of Jews living in Manchester "in danger".

Guardiola, though, was unbowed -- just as he was when he was fined £20,000 ($27,000) by the Football Association in 2018 for wearing a yellow ribbon to support imprisoned politicians in his native Catalonia.

It is not just the suffering of Palestinian children that has exercised his mind.

He spoke out at a press conference in February to deplore not only the violence in the Middle East but also Ukraine, Sudan and the deaths of two people in the United States at the hands of ICE agents.

"When you have an idea and you need to defend (it) and you have to kill thousands, thousands of people -- I'm sorry, I will stand up," he said.

"Always I will be there. Always."

However, with anti-Semitism on the rise, the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region was angered that he made no reference to a terror attack on a synagogue in the city last October which resulted in two deaths.

Guardiola has also paid attention to those who suffer closer to home.

For several years his Guardiola Sala Foundation has supported the Salvation Army's Partnership Trophy, a five-a-side football tournament in Manchester which raised awareness of homelessness in the United Kingdom.

"It's so encouraging to witness how football can bring people together and help them overcome really tough personal challenges," he said.