On a night when Sunil Chhetri scored two goals against Thailand in Indias 4-1 victory in their Asian Cup campaign opener, the highest Indian scorer in international football preferred to play down his achievement.

Argentine football legend Diego Maradona has been admitted to hospital with internal bleeding in his stomach, the media reported. The 58-year-old was under observation on Friday at the Olivos clinic on the outskirts of Argentina's capital Buenos Aires after a routine medical check, according to the Clarin newspaper.

The best football player in the world Luka Modric got his first Croatian Sportsman of the Year award while discus thrower Sandra Perkovic won her seventh Croatian Sportswoman of the Year title. Croatian sports daily newspaper Sportske Novosti was handing out the awards for the best man, woman and team for men and women for the 67th year in a row and this time the jury didn't have an easy task with a group of world and European champions among the candidates. However, the majority of the votes from 322 sports journalists that took part in the process went to the best footballer of the year and the discus queen who won the European champion title in 2018 for the fifth time in a row, reports Xinhua news agency.

Barcelona midfielder Arthur Melo has expressed the hope that Brazil teammate Neymar will return to the Catalan club, less than 18 months after his world-record transfer to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Neymar has scored 44 goals in 49 matches for the French side but there has been speculation that the 26-year-old is unhappy and angling for a return to the Camp Nou. "Personally, I'm praying that he comes because he is a great player," Arthur was quoted as saying by Brazil's Uol news portal on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

Spain's Real Sociedad on Wednesday announced that it has parted company with its first team's head coach Asier Garitano as well as his staff member Miguel Perez.

Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp said he was not excluding Chelsea or Arsenal from English Premier League (EPL) title contention despite trailing the Reds by 11 points in the standings.

Premier League team Manchester United on Wednesday appointed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the interim manager of its first team until the end of the 2018-19 season.

Valencia ended their 2018-2019 Champions League campaign with a 2-1 victory against a listless Manchester United.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Argentina to attend G20 Summit, met FIFA President Gianni Infantino on his third day of visit. Sharing a picture of a football jersey gifted to him, Mr Prime Minister said Argentina is unimaginable without the sport.