After a painfully protracted league phase, the knockout stage of the Champions League finally got underway this month and predictably produced the kind of drama for which the tournament is renowned. Bodo/Glimt were obviously the stars of the play-offs, with the unseeded Norwegians eliminating last season's runners-up, Inter. Galatasaray also upset another Italian team, Juventus, but only just, after almost completely capitulating against 10 men in Turin. It wasn't all doom and gloom for Serie A, though, as Atalanta came from behind to beat Borussia Dortmund.

With the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo duopoly presumably disappearing into the rearview mirror, the battle for the Ballon d'Or hasn't felt so open for the best part of 20 years, with countless players now beginning each campaign believing they have a chance of claiming the most prestigious individual prize football has to offer. Ousmane Dembele emerged from a career plagued with inconsistencies to win the Golden Ball in 2025, and he was among a crowded field of contenders as the 2026 race got going.

At the very start of the year, it looked like Endrick's dream of making Brazil's World Cup squad was dead in the water. The Real Madrid youngster only played 99 minutes for the club in the first half of the season, with then-Blancos boss Xabi Alonso favouring homegrown forward Gonzalo Garcia ahead of him, and a move away became inevitable in the winter transfer window.

Arsenal couldn't really afford to lose or draw Sunday's north London derby with Tottenham. Their collapse at Wolves four days prior meant that the Premier League title race was now split evenly between themselves and Manchester City - if either side won all of their remaining fixtures, including their crunch meeting at the Etihad Stadium in April, they would be crowned champions.

If Xavier Vilajoana is elected Barcelona president in mid-March, he will go all out for a major signing in the summer transfer window. "We've already made some contact, and I think he's a player who would be a great fit, pending his contractual situation: it's Harry Kane," Vilajoana said in an interview with ESPN this week.

As soon as Jess Park received the ball on the edge of the Atletico Madrid box, Marc Skinner knew. She took one touch, then another to get it out of her feet and set herself up for a perfect strike with her right foot, which would send the ball over the heads of every Atleti defender, out of the reach of goalkeeper Lola Gollardo and into the top corner, giving Skinner's Manchester United an unassailable 5-0 lead on aggregate, one that secured their place in the Women's Champions League quarter-finals for the first time.

They say you should never meet your heroes, but Brazilian teenage prodigy Dell probably wouldn't agree. The Bahia and Brazil Under-17s striker has idolised Erling Haaland since he was a child, so imagine the excitement he got when, one day in training, he received a video message from the Manchester City hitman.

GOAL takes a look at the biggest transfer news and rumours from around the world.