French club Lyon stoked the flames of the Ronaldo-Messi rivalry in their announcement video for Argentine midfielder Thiago Almada.

With the January football transfer window currently open and clubs across Europe looking to add talent to their rosters for the run-in in the second half of the season, French team Olympique Lyonnais have made the exciting signing of Argentine midfielder Thiago Almada. Almada joins on an initial loan from Brazilian club Botafogo, but his announcement was made in style in the latest in a long line of iconic transfer videos.

The 23-year-old midfielder’s signing was announced through a video shared by Lyon in which he receives a text message from ‘Lionel’ along with a goat emoji, clearly meant to be the legendary Lionel Messi, Almada’s compatriot and teammate in the Argentine national team. The text sent to Almada in this video reads “Don’t listen to Cristiano, Ligue 1 is incredible.”

Lyon’s retribution for Ronaldo’s comments
The text provides a sneaky tongue-in-cheek remark from the seven-time French champions, who are referencing Cristiano Ronaldo’s past comment regarding Ligue 1 being a weaker competition than the Saudi Pro League, where he currently plies his trade for Al Nassr. Ronaldo had claimed there was a better standard of football in Saudi Arabia, with the French league considered the weakest of the ‘top five’ leagues in Europe.

Messi, meanwhile, spent two years playing in France, having spent a period in the capital with Paris Saint-Germain after leaving Barcelona. Messi was the latest star at PSG, playing alongside Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe, before the trio was broken up as they left France with Messi heading to Inter Miami, Neymar to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia, and Mbappe finally getting his marquee move to Real Madrid.

Almada was part of the Argentina squad that lifted the World Cup trophy in Qatar in 2022, helping Messi finally get his hands on the coveted trophy and firmly setting his status as the greatest of all time in stone. Almada has represented Argentina six times, scoring twice, and finally earned a move to Europe after playing for Atlanta United in the MLS and a brief spell in the Brazilian Serie A at Botafogo. Almada will be joining fellow Argentine Nicolas Tagliafico, who also made a cameo appearance in the announcement video.

Lyon currently sit in sixth place in the Ligue 1 table with half the season concluded, but will have intentions of fighting for spots in next year’s UEFA Champions League with a strong end to the season, in which Almada could play an important role.

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Jagbir suffered a heart attack while the doctors were treating him for the blocked artery.

Former India forward and hockey coach Jagbir Singh on Friday complained of chest congestion and was rushed to the hospital, where he suffered a massive heart attack during a procedure.

The two-time Olympian is here for the Hockey India League (HIL) with Team Gonasika.

Jagbir felt breathing problems during the team’s training session on Friday afternoon and was immediately taken to Apollo Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a blocked artery.

He suffered a heart attack while the doctors were treating him for the blocked artery.

“Jagbir felt breathing problems after he went to hotel following the Team Gonasika’s training session with whom he is associated. He was instantly taken to Apollo Hospital where he is under ICU now,” a source told PTI.

An excellent forward of his time, Jagbir is currently in ICU.

The 59-year-old former Air India employee represented India in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

He played for India between 1985 and 1996, winning a bronze medal in the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul and a silver in the 1990 edition in Beijing. In all, he earned 175 international caps.

Jagbir coached the Indian men’s team in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

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Bumrah, who is in the running for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award, has moved up from his previous tied high of 904 with Ravichandran Ashwin

Jasprit Bumrah is the only reason why India still go into the Sydney Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy with a chance of levelling the series, and everybody in the world knows it.

With 30 wickets in the series at a remarkable average of 12.83, the pacer has kept Australia on the edge, and as a result of that performance he is not only the highest-ranked bowler in the ICC Test rankings but has also recorded the highest peak rating points ever achieved by an Indian bowler.

Bumrah, who is also in the running for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and also the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year award, has moved up from his previous tied high of 904 with Ravichandran Ashwin. His tally of 907 rating points — he is on top of the rankings released on Wednesday with Josh Hazlewood of Australia at 843 a distant second — now places him joint 17th in the all-time ratings list.

Ashwin had achieved the 904 rating in December 2016 after the fourth Test against England at Wankhede after picking up 24 wickets in his previous three Tests.

The peak ratings list is led by England seamers Sydney Barnes (932) and George Lohmann (931), who played more than a century ago, while Imran Khan (922) and Muttiah Muralitharan (920) are third and fourth.

The nine-wicket match haul at Melbourne also saw Bumrah become the only bowler in Test history with more than 200 wickets at an average under 20. That’s better than the great Malcolm Marshall (20.94), Joel Garner (20.97), Curtly Ambrose (20.99) and Fred Trueman (21.57).

Incidentally, the highest ever rating points achieved by an Indian batter is 937– by Virat Kohli after the Test against England at Southampton in 2018. He is 11th in the list of all-time highest rated batters.

While ratings form the basis of the ICC’s weekly rankings, plotting of week-on-week cumulative rating points also offer a clear insight on how a player’s career panned out over the years. The highest rating points achieved goes on to show where a particular player reached the peak of his career.

The ICC says its ratings “take account of the opposition strength; so there shouldn’t be any obvious advantage to playing against any particular team”. But the ratings are not really comparable over different eras. The reason for that is simple: how a player performs is linked to the quality of the opposition in any given era, so a rating of 900 during the time of the West Indies bowling greats may actually be at par with 950 at a time when such a bowling attack not in operation. Still, the ratings are a useful tool that tell you about a player’s consistency and impact on the sport at a given time.

“He (Bumrah) has been their most influential player and he’s made it difficult for us at times,” Australian skipper Pat Cummins said about Bumrah after the Melbourne Test. “He poses the biggest threat. Bumrah is still going to create a threat no matter where he enters the game. In Sydney, he’ll be a threat again, so we’re going to have to be able to combat that.”

To be sure, Cummins has a ratings peak of 914 — achieved after the 2019 Old Trafford Test against England — which places him fifth on the all-time list. He is currently third in the ranking with a rating of 837.

On the batting front, Kohli, who once ruled the rankings, has fallen to No 24 with a rating on 633. Rohit Sharma comes in at 40, with a rating of 560 (his best-ever rating was 813 after the Test against England at the Oval in 2021). Yashasvi Jaiswal is currently the top Indian batter in fourth place in the rankings at 854, which is also his peak rating.

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