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Barcelona president Joan Laporta has reflected on his connection with Lionel Messi, a relationship that faced strain after the Argentine’s unexpected departure from the club. 

Speaking candidly in an interview with 3Cat, Laporta shared his thoughts on what it means to lead Barcelona, his admiration for Messi, and his confidence in current manager Hansi Flick.

Laporta began by describing his passion for the role, saying, “I like being president of Barça. I like what I do. Many people could be the president of Barça and who could do it well. 

“I love Barça very much, and when there have been difficult moments, I have felt called to try to save the situation.”

When asked a light-hearted but meaningful question – Who is God, Cruyff or Messi? – Laporta answered with honesty while acknowledging both legends’ importance to the club. 

“Cruyff. We have had a very good relationship with Messi. When we did not renew the contract, it was damaged, and then we recovered it to some extent. 

Laporta’s remarks suggest a gradual healing of his relationship with Messi after the emotional fallout of 2021, when financial constraints prevented the Argentine from staying at Camp Nou. 

The Barcelona president has since expressed a desire to properly honour Messi for everything he achieved with the club.

“What we hope is that he can be given the great tribute he deserves.”

Praise for Hansi Flick’s character

“M’agrada ser president del @fcbarcelona.”

Joan Laporta ho té molt clar: vol que els culers estiguin contents.#Bestial3Cat

▶️ https://t.co/qTmv6jXoFw pic.twitter.com/4JNbVVH4xw

— 3Cat (@som3cat) October 12, 2025

The 63-year-old also had glowing words for Hansi Flick, describing him as a perfect fit for Barcelona’s culture and dressing room. “He’s Gladiator, he looks like Russell Crowe. 

“He’s a great discovery, he’s a great coach and a very easy-going guy, he’s very emotional, he’s German, but he’s sensitive with the players and everyone else. 

“He’s very demanding. You can’t change his plans, but at the same time, he’s very sensitive. I feel very comfortable with him,” Laporta explained.

He also elaborated on the qualities a Barcelona president must have, emphasising integrity and love for the club. 

“A Barça president has to be responsible, has to tell the truth because Barça only has one word. You can’t believe anyone, but they have to believe you. 

“And for that, you have to deliver on what you say. And above all, you have to love Barça and the people. 

“You have to put the interests of Barça and others ahead of your own,” he continued.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Carter Gordon has been rushed into Australia’s touring squad for tests in Japan and Europe within hours of returning to eligibility for the Wallabies by leaving the National Rugby League.

The 24-year-old Gordon was added to the Wallabies squad in the absence of flyhalves Tom Lynagh, who started against the British and Irish Lions, and Noah Lolesio, who hasn’t played since sustaining an injury in the opening win over Fiji.

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Gordon had been lured back from NRL club Gold Coast Titans and his signing with the Queensland Reds and Rugby Australia was announced Monday, hours before Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt unveiled a 34-man squad for the five-test northern tour.

“Carter Gordon will get the opportunity to integrate back into the Wallabies environment,” Schmidt said. “We’ve taken a long-term view with Tom Lynagh, who is still just 22. He has had a few injury frustrations since the third test versus the Lions in early August and will follow an individualized program, guided by both Wallabies and Queensland staff, which will allow him to recover to full fitness.”

Gordon made his debut for the Wallabies in 2023 and played eight tests before switching to rugby league, where he had limited game time in the top-flight and decided to return to the 15-a-side code.

Schmidt stuck with the bulk of the Wallabies squad involved in the Rugby Championship. He didn’t select foreign-based players, including veteran flyhalf James O’Connor, but was considering options to add players when the tests fall inside the World Rugby international window.

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Outside backs Dylan Pietsch and Andrew Kellaway were picked after recovering from injuries.

Ex-All Blacks prop Aidan Ross and scrumhalf Kalani Thomas are the only uncapped players in the squad.

The Wallabies will play Japan in Tokyo on Oct. 24, followed by tests against England in London on Nov. 2, Italy in Udine on Nov. 9, Ireland in Dublin on Nov. 16 and France in Paris on Nov. 23.

Squad:

Backs: Filipo Daugunu, Tane Edmed, Josh Flook, Carter Gordon, Jake Gordon, Max Jorgensen, Andrew Kellaway, Ryan Lonergan, Hunter Paisami, Dylan Pietsch, Harry Potter, Hamish Stewart, Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i, Kalani Thomas, Corey Toole.

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Forwards: Allan Ala’alatoa, Angus Bell, Josh Canham, Nick Champion De Crespigny, Matt Faessler, Nick Frost, Fraser McReight, Josh Nasser, Zane Nonggorr, Billy Pollard, Tom Robertson, Aidan Ross, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Pete Samu, Carlo Tizzano, Taniela Tupou, Rob Valetini, Jeremy Williams, Harry Wilson.

___

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

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Matt Harmon and Chris Allen recap a wild Week 5 in the NFL by providing their biggest instant fantasy takeaways from all the action on the Sunday slate. The two place games in three fantasy buckets: Games we care about the most, games we sort of care about and games that could have been an email. But first, Harmon recaps the Lions-Chiefs SNF game and provides the biggest fantasy storylines from the primetime affair.

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(1:05) – Matt’s solo SNF recap: Chiefs 30, Lions 17

(17:30) – Boom and Bust players of Week 4: Rico Dowdle and Garrett Wilson

(26:00) – Games we care about most: DAL@CAR, SF@TB, LAC@MIA,

(58:00) – Games we sort of care about: CIN@GB, SEA@JAX, NE@NO, AZ@IND

(1:25:15) – Games that could have been an email

🖥️ Watch this full episode on YouTube

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv

The Chiefs have successfully doubled up and now have a two-possession lead over the Lions.

Receiver Hollywood Brown took a push pass 9 yards to the end zone for a touchdown, giving Kansas City a 20-10 advantage.

The Chiefs faced little resistance on the way down the field, facing just two second downs and no third downs.

There was some potentially controversy, as Travis Kelce caught a 13-yard pass over the middle while going to the ground and may not have maintained possession. But before the Lions could challenge it, the Chiefs were on the ball and ran a play. Kansas City also caught Detroit with a defensive offside penalty for a free play, though Patrick Mahomes scrambled 11 yards for a first down, so the Chiefs declined the penalty.

Mahomes is now 15-of-20 for 193 yards with two touchdowns. He’s also rushed five times for 26 yards with a TD.

Nebraska soccer (7-3-5, 2-3-3) closed out the weekend at home against Maryland (6-9, 2-6) after winning its first match in over a month. The Huskers continued their streak, shutting out the Terrapins 2-0 in a lopsided afternoon.

Nebraska dominated offensively, outshooting Maryland 29-6, which included 12 shots on goal. Though the Terrapins stood their ground on defense with goalkeeper Faith Luckey finishing with 10 saves, the sheer onslaught from the Huskers proved to be too much.

Nebraska’s Cece Villa, meanwhile, only faced one shot on goal the entire match, finishing with one save to earn her fifth complete shutout win. Lauryn Anglim and Ella Rudney scored each of Nebraska’s goals and finished the match with two shots. Anglim earned her second goal of the season, setting a new career-high for goals in a season. Rudney is now up to five goals on the year.

Reagan Raabe led the Huskers in shots, tallying five in the win with two on goal. Jo Sees and Kayma Carpenter both finished with four shots, one on goal. Carson Bohonek totaled three shots with one on goal. Sadie Sant and Ellie Felt each fired two shots, one on goal.

Nebraska now visits Los Angeles, California, for its next two matches, taking on USC on Thursday night and UCLA on Sunday afternoon. The Huskers’ match against the Trojans is set for 9 p.m. on B1G+.

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes and opinions.

One under-the-radar subplot of just about every Major League Baseball postseason series is the battle in the media to establish between each team to establish itself as the underdog, the ones with no pressure on them.

Usually, it’s nothing more than eyewash. But as the Milwaukee Brewers, residents of baseball’s smallest market, get ready to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers, the payroll princes of the league, in the National League Championship Series, it isn’t difficult to deduce who the real underdogs are. 

“They’re definitely not going to pick us now,” Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich said.

FanGraphs gives the Brewers just a 29.1% chance of beating the Dodgers. Their odds to win the World Series are +400, lowest of all four remaining teams. 

This is all, of course, in spite of the fact the Brewers had baseball’s best record this season, winning a franchise-record 97 games. 

“I think that’s kind of been the narrative all year long,” third baseman Caleb Durbin said. “So it’s not really anything new. Since opening day, that’s been kind of the idea, but I think we just really worry about ourselves, and that’s why we’ve been able to click throughout the entire year. It’s not really about who is on the other side; it’s about us. Obviously the Dodgers have a really good team over there, but it’s no different this series.” 

Anyone who’s sat in on a Pat Murphy press conference or two would know exactly what he was going to do leading up to this series: Play up the Dodgers’ star-laden roster. 

Freddie Freeman is among his favorite people in baseball and Mookie Betts one of his favorite players, that much is not at all fabricated. But that doesn’t mean the Brewers manager wasn’t going to point to the Dodgers’ estimated $396 million payroll whenever the opportunity presented itself. 

“We’re not overconfident, that’s for sure,” Murphy said to the first baseball-related question he received on Oct. 12 as both teams worked out at American Family Field. “The Dodgers are a powerhouse, what can you say?” 

Murphy, who shortly thereafter pontificated on how many of his team’s position players would even be on the Dodgers roster, never diminishes the achievement of his team but is quick to point out how much less flashy they are when put on paper compared to other top clubs in the league. It’s why he calls them “Average Joes” and “cliffhangers”. 

The Dodgers, though, aren’t buying it. 

“I’m not falling for the ‘Average Joes’; they’re not,” said Dodgers Game 1 starting pitcher Blake Snell. “They have the best record in the NL. They’re a really good team.” 

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had plenty of praises to sing, as well. 

“They’ve done a great job with drafting, scouting, player development, roster construction,” he said. “They do a fantastic job. Then you take Murph and his staff, they’ve dominated it. The bullpen, they get you with the velocity from the right side, the left side. They’ve got sinkers, heavy sinkers.

“…We’ve got our work cut out. But as far as organization-wise, they’ve done a fantastic job.”  

Forget market size and payroll for a minute and focus on the matchup at hand, and there are some intriguing stylistic matchups – the high-strikeout, high-chase Snell against the patient, pesky but low-slug Brewers lineup being one of them. 

“I was able to watch last night’s game, so that was fun,” Snell said. “They feed off each other. It’s a very energetic lineup. They’re really good. They put the ball in play. You make them swing at your pitches, good pitches. You figure out what they’re good at, what they’re not good at, and that will just tell you how to attack them.” 

And then there’s the gamesmanship – some silly, some serious – that will unravel over the next week. The first of that may have come during Murphy’s meeting with reporters, which went over its allotted time as he had all Japanese media members, in town to cover Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki on the Dodgers, introduce themselves and later read off from his Dodgers scouting reports from 2018 in a thick stack of papers. While Murphy talked, Snell waited. 

“Feels weird asking anything normal,” one national writer said as Murphy pointed to him in hopes of extending the presser further.

This is Brewers and Dodgers, the matchup that held multiple shenanigans in the 2018 NLCS. The rich versus the, well, not quite as rich. Hollywood against flyover country. Shohei Ohtani against Chad Patrick.

Prepare for anything but the normal. 

“It doesn’t get more underdog than (this),” Yelich said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the regular season. They’re a different team and even if they weren’t, they’re still the defending champs. They have superstars all over their roster. We’re going to go compete our (expletive) off. That’s what we do.”

I don’t know if the Dallas Cowboys are going anywhere this year. After Sunday’s loss at Carolina, they’re sitting at 2-3-1. Like most NFL clubs, this is a flawed team. But the 2025 Cowboys are looking like a fantasy cheat code, the ultimate carnival. These guys move the ball easily, and they let their opponent drive at will, too.

Fantasy football as it oughta be.

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Week 6 followed the script nicely, with the Panthers scoring a 30-27 victory over the Cowboys. Carolina rolled up 410 yards of offense and 27 first downs. The Dallas defense can’t stop a nosebleed right now.

There were two primary Carolina fantasy angles we cared about, and both of them came in. Start with Rico Dowdle, who smashed in his revenge game against Dallas — 239 total yards, 34 touches, one touchdown. If you’re a Chuba Hubbard manager (I’m solemnly raising my hand), things look bleak. Dowdle has been so dynamic the last two games, I can’t imagine how Hubbard gets the full-time job back when everyone is healthy.

Tetairoa McMillan was a volume guy without touchdowns entering Week 6. The script flipped here — McMillan scored twice, but had a modest 3-29-2 line on five targets. No matter. He’s never looked like a rookie, and Carolina will often be playing from behind. He’s going to easily pay off his ADP if he stays healthy.

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If you needed to stream Carolina QB Bryce Young, it went fine. Young threw for three touchdowns and had 199 passing yards, good enough to put him in the top half of quarterbacks for the week. Young’s one interception wasn’t his fault, and the 114.8 QB rating was the second highest of his career. Even if we just want Young to play well enough to support McMillan and the backfield, this was an encouraging sign.

Then again, everyone looks good throwing against Dallas. Entering Week 6, the Pokes were handing out 8.4 YPA and a juicy 117.2 rating. To put that in context, Lamar Jackson posted a league-best 119.6 rating last year.

Want to be a star? Throw it against the helmeted one.

Cowboys feature back Javonte Williams didn’t get going against the Panthers (34 total yards), though he PPR-scammed five short receptions. But the main parts of the Dallas passing game came home. Forever-underrated Dak Prescott chucked for 261 yards and three touchdowns, and two of the scores came to fantasy-reliable George Pickens (9-168-1) and Jake Ferguson (3-33-1). It will be interesting to see how much market share Pickens maintains when CeeDee Lamb (ankle) is able to return; that might be next week.

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If you feel like Dallas plays the same type of game every Sunday, the deeper metrics support that theory. Dallas entered the week slotted fifth in offensive DVOA and a horrid 31st in defensive DVOA. That’s what a good carnival does — move the ball consistently, then let the other guys move it.

Pinball football. Easy on the eyes, fun on the scoresheet.

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Now that we’re in the middle of October, it’s fair to look ahead at the schedule and dream those championship dreams. Dallas gets the Vikings, Chargers and Commanders in the money games, Weeks 15-17. Start planning accordingly. If you need a preview of that late-season Dallas-Washington point parade, they’re also playing in Week 7.

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Colts might be the AFC’s best carnival

Indianapolis improved to 5-1 on Sunday, edging past the Cardinals, 31-27. Despite playing with backup QB Jacoby Brissett, the Cardinals easily navigated for 25 first downs and 400 total yards. The Indianapolis defense has stopped two lesser opponents — Miami and Tennessee — but every bonafide opponent has done well against this unit.

No worry to the Colts, of course; they can simply outscore you. Daniel Jones tossed for two touchdowns and also ran one in, and he was mostly error-free (one pick, one sack taken). That hashes out to a 101.0 rating. Jonathan Taylor could be the most important player in fantasy leagues, racking up another 137 total yards and a rushing score. Michael Pittman Jr. had a slow day downfield (just two catches), but TE Tyler Warren (6-63-1) and WR Josh Downs (6-42-1) paid off. And the Colts keep the tree fairly narrow — only seven players were targeted.

QB Kyler Murray (foot) obviously isn’t going to lose his job in Arizona, but nobody missed him Sunday. Brissett is one of the better backups in the NFL and he showed up, throwing for 320 yards and two touchdowns against one pick. The backfield was split between Bam Knight (12 touches, 54 yards, one score) and Michael Carter (11 touches, 64 total yards, no scores). Hard to declare a winner there. Trey McBride scored a rare touchdown (8-72-1) — we always wonder if his red-zone woes are more a comment on Murray, not McBride. Sophomore Marvin Harrison Jr. suffered a second-half concussion and did not return.

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If you like what the Colts are cooking, next week at the Chargers could be a pinball game. The Indianapolis schedule for the fantasy playoffs slots this way: at the Seahawks, then home for the 49ers and Jaguars.

Browns more of a haunted hayride than carnival

What’s the opposite of a fantasy carnival? Maybe a ghost town? Whatever it is, the Cleveland Browns take up that space. Cleveland entered the week ranked 30th in DVOA offense and sixth in DVOA defense. They’ll stop you, but they’ll also stop themselves. I try to rewatch every game on the short cuts during the week, but the Browns test my resolve.

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Pittsburgh beat Cleveland in the expected rock fight Sunday, 23-9. There weren’t a lot of fantasy winners here, other than Pittsburgh wideout DK Metcalf (4-95-1, nine targets). Jaylen Warren was efficient on the ground (11-52-0), but Kenneth Gainwell and Kaleb Johnson also had six carries each. Yuck. Aaron Rodgers threw a second touchdown, and of course it was to afterthought Connor Heyward, a reserve tight end.

This is not a fantasy-friendly offense.

Quinshon Judkins ran fine for Cleveland (12-36-0) but was game-scripted out of the action. Rookie QB Dillon Gabriel averaged just 4.3 YPA and targeted 10 players on his 52 downfield pass attempts. Harold Fannin Jr. cobbled together 7-81-0 on 10 looks, but 13 Jerry Jeudy targets netted just five catches for 43 yards.

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The Browns had five quarterback answers when spring came around, and it’s possible none of them were actually right ones. Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett, of course, are gone. Deshaun Watson might be finished in the NFL, period. Gabriel hasn’t shown much. Shedeur Sanders is a long shot at best, but you figure he’ll get a chance later in the year.

Cleveland will look to win ugly against Miami and New England the next two weeks. For the fantasy playoffs, the nasty Browns defense will take aim at three cold-weather opponents — the Bears, Bills and Steelers.