Sports Burst - When Will Messi Play?

Could Messi's PSG playing life start against Strasbourg on Saturday?

By Tim Stannard

PSG's home-opener could be perfect way to finish wild week of Messi-mania

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Sports Burst has spent the first few hours of Thursday refreshing PSG's website on a regular basis. Not excessively so. Just every 3.5 seconds. Maybe one second. Perfectly reasonable.

The images being sought are those of Messi in his new PSG training gear and happily charging around the pitch looking as fit as a fiddle. That would indicate that Messi could be getting his biggest wish expressed in Wednesday's big presentation and be playing soccer as soon as possible. "I want to work and start with my teammates and start with this new moment of my life," said PSG's new number 30.

But so far, it's all quite on the Messi front today, which is quite the change from Wednesday when it was Messi-Mania.

That will all change on Friday when Mauricio Pochettino is asked up to seventy times when he thinks Messi will be ready for action. To be fair, Saturday could be a little optimistic despite Sports Burst's wild optimism with Messi himself suggesting that he needed a pre-season tune-up with the club. But surely there's nothing wrong with a cameo off the bench to loosen some legs?

The same question of 'when' can be said for others in the PSG squad ahead of the Ligue 1 home-opener against Strasbourg on Saturday, which is set to be in front of a full Parc de Princes after last season's COVID closure.

Gianluigi Donnarumma should be ready to make an appearance and we might even be able to see the return of Neymar. There are also questions on the fitness of Sergio Ramos, who is struggling with a calf injury and could be out for another month.

PSG vs. Strasbourg is live on beIN SPORTS on Saturday at 3PM ET / 12PM PT but the new round of Ligue 1 action gets underway on Friday at 3PM ET with Monaco at Lorient.

Anyway, back to refresh mode.

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Are Belgium still the world's best?

Here's a challenging question for you. Is the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the most prestigious international tournament in the entire world? Above the World Cup, Euros, AFCON, Copa America, Asian Cup and the Santa Claus North Pole Challenge? You'd think the answer was 'I doubt it' but FIFA disagrees.

The new FIFA rankings are out - it's like Christmas morning for Sports Burst - and the US of A have moved up ten places after their Gold Cup win to sit in 10th! Although that's when the confusion begins because the USMNT is still one place behind Mexico, the team the Americans vanquished in the Gold Cup final.

But at least it's not as big a mess as at the top. Belgium are apparently the best team in the world despite being knocked out of the European Championships in the quarterfinals. The Belgians are followed by Brazil, who lost to Argentina in the Copa America. The Albiceleste are down in sixth, one place below Italy who actually won the Euros.

Curiouser and curiouser.

River Plate let themselves down, their country down...

As Barcelona gets ready for the start of LaLiga without Lionel Messi, the injured Kun Aguero, and the unregistered Memphis Depay, Barcelona is in action on Thursday on beIN SPORTS. To be clear, that's the parallel universe Barcelona of Ecuador who might actually be in better shape than their Spanish counterparts.

Barcelona are in action at Fluminense in their first-leg Copa Libertadores quarterfinal clash live on beIN SPORTS Espanol and CONNECT at 8:20PM ET. beIN SPORTS has a double date with the Copa Sudamericana with the Brazilian pair of Athletico Paranaense and Santos leading the way in action kicking off at 6:05PM ET / 3:05PM PT.

Wednesday's matches saw River Plate - the tournament's last remaining Argentinean team - sink to a 1-0 home defeat to Atletico Mineiro while Gabigol and Flamengo had quite the time of it with a 1-4 at Olimpia.