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Messi Presented with Inaugural MARCA America Award

Messi Presented with Inaugural MARCA America Award
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Messi Presented with Inaugural MARCA America Award

Messi Presented with Inaugural MARCA America Award

Inter Miami's Lionel Messi added another award to his collection on Thursday.

Messi became the first recipient of the MARCA America Award, presented by the Spain-based media company, The Associated Press reported. The award recognizes Messi’s championship-laden career — one with a record 46 trophies won for club or country, and at least 56 other awards on the individual level.
“It has been quite the journey,” the Argentine superstar said in Spanish during a moderated question-and-answer session at Chase Stadium, Inter Miami's home field. “We have experienced so many beautiful things but also complicated moments. In 20 years not everything is beautiful. You cannot win all the time."
For Messi, no title outshines the 2022 World Cup with Argentina that helped cement his legacy among the sport’s greatest players. However, the 37-year-old Messi has won plenty and still feels the drive to continue adding titles. Similar to his titles with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, Messi already has helped Inter Miami win hardware since he joined the MLS club in July 2023.
Although limited to 18 MLS matches this season because of an ankle injury and national team commitments, Messi has 17 goals and 15 assists to help lead Miami to the 2024 Supporters Shield. Miami will have home-field advantage throughout the MLS Cup playoffs which begin next week.
“I was able to achieve the biggest prize, which is the World Cup,” said Messi, who had three goals and two assists in a 6-0 Argentina romp past Bolivia in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday. “It is the trophy all of us want when we start playing and I managed to fulfill my dream. We won many titles in Barcelona, Paris. Now we are here with the objective to fight hard for another title.”
Messi’s contract with Inter Miami runs through next season. And, after his recent goal-scoring performance on Tuesday, Messi could remain energized in his commitments with Argentina through the next World Cup cycle.
“I still have a deep love for this sport and I will continue to aspire to win more titles,” Messi said. “At this level, you have to enjoy things day by day.”
Inter Miami has one regular-season match left, coming at home Saturday against New England. If Inter Miami wins it would set the MLS single-season points mark with 72, one more than New England had in 2021.

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Past and Present Weighing Heaving on Borussia Dortmund

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v VfL Bochum - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - September 27, 2024 Borussia Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin reacts REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v VfL Bochum - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - September 27, 2024 Borussia Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin reacts REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler
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Past and Present Weighing Heaving on Borussia Dortmund

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v VfL Bochum - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - September 27, 2024 Borussia Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin reacts REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund v VfL Bochum - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - September 27, 2024 Borussia Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin reacts REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

It’s been more than 10 years since Borussia Dortmund won back-to-back titles in the Bundesliga.
There have been minor successes — German Cup wins in 2017 and 2021, and reaching the Champions League final last season — but they’ve served only to raise the long-suffering Dortmund fans’ expectations by showing the team’s potential.
Despite the return of former player Nuri Sahin as coach, this season already seems to be following the well-worn path of the last few, The Associated Press reported.
Before the international break, Dortmund routed Scottish champion Celtic 7-1 in the Champions League, then followed with a meek 2-1 loss at Union Berlin in the Bundesliga. Dortmund has won only half of its six German league games so far. A 5-1 loss at Stuttgart had already put the team’s league ambitions in perspective.
Sahin believes it’s too early for alarm.
“To start doubting our path after six match days would be fatal. And we won’t do that,” Sahin said this week. “And despite criticism, it is my job to always offer solutions, to show the solutions, and to improve things together with the guys.”
Sahin said he had no room for any doubts.
“We are very, very confident about the path we are taking as a club and we will follow it to the end and be successful. I am sure of that.”
Sahin is the seventh coach to take charge of Dortmund since Jürgen Klopp stood down in 2015. It was Klopp who led the team to back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, then runner-up finishes behind Bayern Munich in 2013 and 2014, before his team’s form unraveled during the 2014-15 season.
Dortmund never recovered amid ongoing questions about the team's mentality. The closest it came to ending Bayern’s dominance was in 2023, when it squandered the chance of winning the Bundesliga on the final day during Edin Terzić’s second stint in charge.
Terzić resigned after last season’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid, saying he wanted to make way for someone else to begin a new era at the club – a reference to Klopp’s mostly successful seven-year stint in charge.
Red Bull’s recent announcement that Klopp is to join the company to oversee its soccer clubs’ development has added to Dortmund fans’ pain.
Another former coach, Thomas Tuchel, who won the German Cup in 2017, was appointed England coach on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old Sahin — Terzić’s former assistant — faces a tall order to restore Dortmund’s status as Bayern’s biggest challenger in the league. Other clubs have assumed that mantle, with Bayer Leverkusen becoming the one to finally end Bayern’s 11-year run as champion by claiming its first Bundesliga title after a remarkable unbeaten campaign last season. Stuttgart and Leipzig also both finished ahead of Dortmund last season.
Summer signings are yet to settle in. The arrivals of star Guinea forward Serhou Guirassy and Germany defender Waldmar Anton from Stuttgart have yet to improve the team’s attack or defense, while the 33-year-old Pascal Groß from Brighton can’t be seen as a long-term solution to the team’s vulnerability.
Off the field, there have been reports of disharmony between Dortmund’s new managing director for sport Lars Ricken, sporting director Sebastian Kehl and team planner Sven Mislintat. Chief executive Hans-Joachim “Aki” Watzke is stepping down at the end of the year.
One of Watzke’s last major contributions was the signing of a sponsorship deal with an arms manufacturer before the Champions League final, leading to protests from Dortmund fans this season.
Dortmund next hosts promoted St. Pauli in the Bundesliga on Friday, before another tussle with Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday. Madrid won their final 2-0 in June.