The big news: Steven Gerrard retires

Liverpool and England legend Steven Gerrard on Thursday decided to hang up his boots and say goodbye to the beautiful game. Considered to be one of the greatest Liverpool players of all-time, Gerrard was an inspiring figure off and on the field. Beginning his career at Liverpool, he left the club in 2015 after featuring in more than 700 games.

Gerrard tried his luck in the United States as he featured for LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer. He has captained England and has featured 114 times for the national side, the fourth-most capped player on the list. Gerrard won all major domestic and European trophies when he was at Liverpool except for the league title, which might be the only glitch in an otherwise perfect football career.

Other top stories

  1. Manchester United thrashed Feyenoord 4-0 in their Europa League encounter on Friday. Wayne Rooney scored to become United’s leading scorer in European competitions by netting his 39th goal. He set up Juan Mata for the second and continued to show amazing form throughout the game. Brad Jones scored an own goal to make it 3-0, before Jesse Lingard completed ithe rout after netting in the 92nd minute of the game.
  2. Southampton lost 1-0 against Sparta Prague in their Europa League encounter, with Costa Nhamoinesu scoring the winner within the first 12 minutes of the game. Southampton will either have to win or draw 0-0 with Hapoel Be’er in their next encounter if they are to go through. 
  3. Inter Milan’s Europa League came to an end after they were beaten by Hapoel Be’er. Inter threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2. Goals from Mauro Icardi and Marcelo Brozovic had put Inter ahead. However, Hapoel fought back with strikes from Lucio Maranhao and Anthony Nwakaeme, with Ben Sahar scoring the winner in injury time. 
  4. Leicester City’s Danny Drinkwater is set to serve a three-match ban after he accepted a charge of violent conduct during their clash against Watford. Drinkwater elbowed Watford’s Valon Behrami in the second half of the 2-1 defeat. The England player will miss clashes against Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Manchester City.
  5. Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale is set to miss around four months of footballing action owing to an ankle injury. Bale will have a surgery next Tuesday and is expected to be out for four months. Bale was injured during Madrid’s 2-1 Champions League win at Sporting Lisbon. 
  6. Spanish prosecutors want former Barcelona and Cameroonian footballer Samuel Eto’o to be jailed for 10 years and fined a €14.3 million as penalty for an alleged tax fraud. Eto’o, while at Barcelona, set up front companies to avoid paying taxes from 2006 to 2009. The fraud amounts to some €3.9 million, the prosecutors stated.
  7. FC Goa are on the verge of becoming the first team to be eliminated from the Indian Super League as they lost 2-1 to Atletico de Kolkata on Thursday. They still stand a chance to qualify for the semi-finals if certain results go their way. However, the possibility of that happening is highly unlikely.