Neymar bags first Barca goal in Thai rout

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Brazilian wonderkid Neymar scored his first goal in Barcelona colours as the Catalan giants swatted aside Thailand 1-7 in a friendly in Bangkok on Wednesday.

Spain international Pedro notched a neat hat-trick, while Argentine Lionel Messi scored a brace -- including one from the penalty spot -- in a first half appearance that delighted the near 50,000-capacity crowd at Bangkok's Rajamangala stadium.

Second-half substitute Alexis Sanchez scored the visitor's seventh and final goal early in the second half as new manager Gerardo Martino's side cruised to a routine win over a plucky but callow Thai side.

Thailand's star striker Teerasil Dangda scored the hosts' consolation goal from the penalty spot in the last minute of the first-half following a bungled recovery tackle by young Cameroonian centre-half Frank Bagnack.

Barca are the fourth big name side to travel to Bangkok this summer hot on the heels of English Premier League giants Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool who have all toured the kingdom.

The Catalan side return to Asia three years after their last tour of the football-mad continent -- home to a massive fan base and huge potential sums in sponsorship.

The tour is also final chance for Martino to assess his players in official friendly action before they start the defence of their La Liga crown on August 18.

All eyes were on Barca's flamboyant new signing Neymar, after reports he had been diagnosed with anaemia.

But the Blaugrana's 57 million euros ($75.7 million, £49.5 million) signing showed no sign of illness in a lively 45 minutes, the highlight of which was his landmark goal from close range on 12 minutes, sparking the rout.

The Brazilian international, who joined the Catalans in June, also showed promising flashes of link-up play with Messi as Barca cruised to a 1-5 half-time lead.

Cesc Fabregas, the subject of a major transfer bid from Manchester United, was at the heart of Barca's best moves, his metronomic passing from the left side of the three-man midfield reminding spectators why the club are so keen to keep the playmaker.

The second half saw Barca's first choice midfield of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets replace Alex Song and highly-regarded youngster Sergi Roberto.

Fabregas pushed up into the front three as Messi and Neymar also made way.

Xavi immediately stepped up the tempo, bouncing the ball off Fabregas before he too withdrew with 20 minutes to play.

Pedro completed his hat-trick with a nicely taken first-time lob on 47 minutes, which Sanchez followed a minute later, tapping home another sweeping Barca move.

Barca travel to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to play a Malaysia XI on August 10.

Messi's polished image faces first scandal

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The sporting world was shocked on Wednesday by the news that four-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi is being pursued by the Spanish tax authorities for an alleged fraud worth over four million euros ($5 million).

Messi is rightfully the world's most lauded and admired footballer as, on the pitch, he has achieved feats barely plausible in the modern game, such as his 91-goal haul in the calendar year of 2012 that overhauled German Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old European record.

However, in contrast to many of his contemporaries, it is his camera-shy, humble attitude away from the pitch that has allowed many to warm to him.

And that image is precisely why Wednesday's news came as such a surprise.

Messi, who is accused along with his father Jorge Horacio, strongly denied the allegations via his Facebook page, saying that he had not even been informed by the tax authorities of the complaint.

"We have just known through the media about the claim filed by the Spanish tax authorities. We are surprised about those news, because we have never committed any infringement," he said.

Ironically, given his squeaky clean image, it appears to be how he has handled money earned from image rights that the authorities are challenging.

They claim that the player and his father used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying tax on image rights from a number of the player's huge endorsement deals.

The pair are accused of defrauding the state of taxes related to that income in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, the year the Argentine won the first of his four Ballons d'Or.

Since that time Messi's exceptional performances on the field have seen his value as a marketable commodity soar.

He scored in both the Champions League finals of 2009 and 2011 as Barca overcame Manchester United to claim their third and fourth European crowns respectively.

Meanwhile, his individual goalscoring feats have become legendary. His 91 goals in 2012 helped him smash Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo's previous record of 40 goals in a La Liga season, as Messi registered 50 in the league and equalled the record number of goals in a single Champions League campaign with 14.

Those feats allied to the winning of his fourth Ballon d'Or in January saw him move up one place in this year's Forbes list of highest-paid athletes to 10th with an annual income of $21 million from endorsements alone.

Off the field, things appeared to be going very smoothly for Messi too as his long-term girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo gave birth to their first child, Thiago, in early November.

And the 25-year-old's relatable image was evidenced once more when he carried his seven-month old son around the Camp Nou field as Barca celebrated winning their fourth Spanish title in five years last month.

However, this latest news rounds off a frustrating few weeks for the world's best player as his brilliance on the field has also been tempered by injury.

A hamstring problem forced him to watch on from the sidelines as Bayern Munich hammered Barca 3-0 in the second-league of their Champions League semi-final to seal a record 7-0 aggregate defeat for the Catalans.

And a recurrence of the injury against Atletico Madrid early in May forced him to miss Barca's last four league games of the campaign.

He returned just in time to take part in Argentina's two World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Ecuador in the past week, but again his lack of fitness reduced his role to merely that of a substitute for the last half-hour of both matches as La Albiceleste could only manage two draws.

As a result, they are still a few points short of mathematically sealing their place at next year's World Cup in Brazil.

And on the very day on which he was due to start his holidays after an exhausting 10-month long season, the Argentine star now must face up to the first serious scandal to affect his career.

Messi's polished image faces first scandal

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The sporting world was shocked on Wednesday by the news that four-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi is being pursued by the Spanish tax authorities for an alleged fraud worth over four million euros ($5 million).

Messi is rightfully the world's most lauded and admired footballer as, on the pitch, he has achieved feats barely plausible in the modern game, such as his 91-goal haul in the calendar year of 2012 that overhauled German Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old European record.

However, in contrast to many of his contemporaries, it is his camera-shy, humble attitude away from the pitch that has allowed many to warm to him.

And that image is precisely why Wednesday's news came as such a surprise.

Messi, who is accused along with his father Jorge Horacio, strongly denied the allegations via his Facebook page, saying that he had not even been informed by the tax authorities of the complaint.

"We have just known through the media about the claim filed by the Spanish tax authorities. We are surprised about those news, because we have never committed any infringement," he said.

Ironically, given his squeaky clean image, it appears to be how he has handled money earned from image rights that the authorities are challenging.

They claim that the player and his father used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying tax on image rights from a number of the player's huge endorsement deals.

The pair are accused of defrauding the state of taxes related to that income in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, the year the Argentine won the first of his four Ballons d'Or.

Since that time Messi's exceptional performances on the field have seen his value as a marketable commodity soar.

He scored in both the Champions League finals of 2009 and 2011 as Barca overcame Manchester United to claim their third and fourth European crowns respectively.

Meanwhile, his individual goalscoring feats have become legendary. His 91 goals in 2012 helped him smash Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo's previous record of 40 goals in a La Liga season, as Messi registered 50 in the league and equalled the record number of goals in a single Champions League campaign with 14.

Those feats allied to the winning of his fourth Ballon d'Or in January saw him move up one place in this year's Forbes list of highest-paid athletes to 10th with an annual income of $21 million from endorsements alone.

Off the field, things appeared to be going very smoothly for Messi too as his long-term girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo gave birth to their first child, Thiago, in early November.

And the 25-year-old's relatable image was evidenced once more when he carried his seven-month old son around the Camp Nou field as Barca celebrated winning their fourth Spanish title in five years last month.

However, this latest news rounds off a frustrating few weeks for the world's best player as his brilliance on the field has also been tempered by injury.

A hamstring problem forced him to watch on from the sidelines as Bayern Munich hammered Barca 3-0 in the second-league of their Champions League semi-final to seal a record 7-0 aggregate defeat for the Catalans.

And a recurrence of the injury against Atletico Madrid early in May forced him to miss Barca's last four league games of the campaign.

He returned just in time to take part in Argentina's two World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Ecuador in the past week, but again his lack of fitness reduced his role to merely that of a substitute for the last half-hour of both matches as La Albiceleste could only manage two draws.

As a result, they are still a few points short of mathematically sealing their place at next year's World Cup in Brazil.

And on the very day on which he was due to start his holidays after an exhausting 10-month long season, the Argentine star now must face up to the first serious scandal to affect his career.

Messi's polished image faces first scandal

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The sporting world was shocked on Wednesday by the news that four-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi is being pursued by the Spanish tax authorities for an alleged fraud worth over four million euros ($5 million).

Messi is rightfully the world's most lauded and admired footballer as, on the pitch, he has achieved feats barely plausible in the modern game, such as his 91-goal haul in the calendar year of 2012 that overhauled German Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old European record.

However, in contrast to many of his contemporaries, it is his camera-shy, humble attitude away from the pitch that has allowed many to warm to him.

And that image is precisely why Wednesday's news came as such a surprise.

Messi, who is accused along with his father Jorge Horacio, strongly denied the allegations via his Facebook page, saying that he had not even been informed by the tax authorities of the complaint.

"We have just known through the media about the claim filed by the Spanish tax authorities. We are surprised about those news, because we have never committed any infringement," he said.

Ironically, given his squeaky clean image, it appears to be how he has handled money earned from image rights that the authorities are challenging.

They claim that the player and his father used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying tax on image rights from a number of the player's huge endorsement deals.

The pair are accused of defrauding the state of taxes related to that income in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, the year the Argentine won the first of his four Ballons d'Or.

Since that time Messi's exceptional performances on the field have seen his value as a marketable commodity soar.

He scored in both the Champions League finals of 2009 and 2011 as Barca overcame Manchester United to claim their third and fourth European crowns respectively.

Meanwhile, his individual goalscoring feats have become legendary. His 91 goals in 2012 helped him smash Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo's previous record of 40 goals in a La Liga season, as Messi registered 50 in the league and equalled the record number of goals in a single Champions League campaign with 14.

Those feats allied to the winning of his fourth Ballon d'Or in January saw him move up one place in this year's Forbes list of highest-paid athletes to 10th with an annual income of $21 million from endorsements alone.

Off the field, things appeared to be going very smoothly for Messi too as his long-term girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo gave birth to their first child, Thiago, in early November.

And the 25-year-old's relatable image was evidenced once more when he carried his seven-month old son around the Camp Nou field as Barca celebrated winning their fourth Spanish title in five years last month.

However, this latest news rounds off a frustrating few weeks for the world's best player as his brilliance on the field has also been tempered by injury.

A hamstring problem forced him to watch on from the sidelines as Bayern Munich hammered Barca 3-0 in the second-league of their Champions League semi-final to seal a record 7-0 aggregate defeat for the Catalans.

And a recurrence of the injury against Atletico Madrid early in May forced him to miss Barca's last four league games of the campaign.

He returned just in time to take part in Argentina's two World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Ecuador in the past week, but again his lack of fitness reduced his role to merely that of a substitute for the last half-hour of both matches as La Albiceleste could only manage two draws.

As a result, they are still a few points short of mathematically sealing their place at next year's World Cup in Brazil.

And on the very day on which he was due to start his holidays after an exhausting 10-month long season, the Argentine star now must face up to the first serious scandal to affect his career.

Messi's polished image faces first scandal

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The sporting world was shocked on Wednesday by the news that four-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi is being pursued by the Spanish tax authorities for an alleged fraud worth over four million euros ($5 million).

Messi is rightfully the world's most lauded and admired footballer as, on the pitch, he has achieved feats barely plausible in the modern game, such as his 91-goal haul in the calendar year of 2012 that overhauled German Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old European record.

However, in contrast to many of his contemporaries, it is his camera-shy, humble attitude away from the pitch that has allowed many to warm to him.

And that image is precisely why Wednesday's news came as such a surprise.

Messi, who is accused along with his father Jorge Horacio, strongly denied the allegations via his Facebook page, saying that he had not even been informed by the tax authorities of the complaint.

"We have just known through the media about the claim filed by the Spanish tax authorities. We are surprised about those news, because we have never committed any infringement," he said.

Ironically, given his squeaky clean image, it appears to be how he has handled money earned from image rights that the authorities are challenging.

They claim that the player and his father used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying tax on image rights from a number of the player's huge endorsement deals.

The pair are accused of defrauding the state of taxes related to that income in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, the year the Argentine won the first of his four Ballons d'Or.

Since that time Messi's exceptional performances on the field have seen his value as a marketable commodity soar.

He scored in both the Champions League finals of 2009 and 2011 as Barca overcame Manchester United to claim their third and fourth European crowns respectively.

Meanwhile, his individual goalscoring feats have become legendary. His 91 goals in 2012 helped him smash Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo's previous record of 40 goals in a La Liga season, as Messi registered 50 in the league and equalled the record number of goals in a single Champions League campaign with 14.

Those feats allied to the winning of his fourth Ballon d'Or in January saw him move up one place in this year's Forbes list of highest-paid athletes to 10th with an annual income of $21 million from endorsements alone.

Off the field, things appeared to be going very smoothly for Messi too as his long-term girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo gave birth to their first child, Thiago, in early November.

And the 25-year-old's relatable image was evidenced once more when he carried his seven-month old son around the Camp Nou field as Barca celebrated winning their fourth Spanish title in five years last month.

However, this latest news rounds off a frustrating few weeks for the world's best player as his brilliance on the field has also been tempered by injury.

A hamstring problem forced him to watch on from the sidelines as Bayern Munich hammered Barca 3-0 in the second-league of their Champions League semi-final to seal a record 7-0 aggregate defeat for the Catalans.

And a recurrence of the injury against Atletico Madrid early in May forced him to miss Barca's last four league games of the campaign.

He returned just in time to take part in Argentina's two World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Ecuador in the past week, but again his lack of fitness reduced his role to merely that of a substitute for the last half-hour of both matches as La Albiceleste could only manage two draws.

As a result, they are still a few points short of mathematically sealing their place at next year's World Cup in Brazil.

And on the very day on which he was due to start his holidays after an exhausting 10-month long season, the Argentine star now must face up to the first serious scandal to affect his career.

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