By: Jackson Burke and Alex Smyth
It has been a very eventful week in sports. Messi retired from international soccer, Aaron Donald returned to the Rams, the Angels owner sold the team, and there is a fake NFL player on the 49ers? This is your sports recap from this week.
Messi Retires From International Soccer
On October 9th, 2005, an 18-year-old kid from Rosario, Argentina, named Lionel Messi made his international debut. The following year, on June 16th, 2006, he made his first World Cup appearance. 20 years, 2 months, and 15 days later, that kid retired from Argentina soccer as a 2-time Copa America champion and a 1-time world champion. Through 207 appearances, he has had 125 goals, 68 assists, and broken numerous records. Here is how…
In his first World Cup, in 2006, he had his first World Cup goal and assist in a 6-0 win against Serbia. Argentina would go on to make it all the way to the quarterfinals, where they lost on penalties to Germany. By 2010, Messi had made a name for himself, earning himself a starting role in the World Cup. Again, Argentina made it to the quarterfinals, where, again, they would face Germany, and, again, they would go on to lose.
In 2014, Messi came back with a vengeance. By this point, he was Argentina’s captain and star player. He scored 4 and assisted one, leading his team to the World Cup final, where for the 3rd time in a row, Argentina’s World Cup run would end on a loss to Germany. Even though he won best player of the tournament, Messi was devastated. Up to this point, he had lost 3 Copa Americas and a World Cup final; he felt he was disappointing the Argentina fans. This disappointment carried over into 2016, when he lost yet another Copa America; he was so frustrated, he even said he would retire from international soccer. Thankfully, he didn’t give up yet, but in the 2018 World Cup, they were knocked out by the eventual champs, France, in the Round of 16. This was the lowest Messi had been in his career. Little did he know, soon enough, he would reach his final peak.
The 2022 World Cup was one to remember. Messi wanted to prove to all the haters that he could play well on the international stage. He had finally won his first Copa America in 2021, which gave him the confidence to perform in 2022. He scored 5 goals in 6 games, all leading up to the World Cup Final, where his Argentina team would face off against the reigning champs, France. Messi scored a penalty early in the game, and Argentina scored another to go up 2-0. This wasn’t enough though because late in regular time Mbappe scored 2 for France, equalizing the game and sending it to extra time. In the 108th minute, Messi scored, giving Argentina the lead again. Would this be the game winner to solidify Messi as the GOAT? The clock ticked on, but 2 minutes until the end of extra time, Mbappe scored again, earning a hat trick and sending the game to penalties. In penalties, Argentina’s goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez, denied 2, which was enough to finally crown Argentina as world champions. Messi had waited his whole career for the most important trophy in the world, now in his grasp. He was on top of the world, finally completing the game of soccer.
Image via ESPN
With another Copa America win in 2023 and another amazing World Cup Final run in 2026, Messi finally capped off his amazing Argentina career, announcing his retirement on August 31st, 2026.
Now Messi leaves the international pitch, cementing his legacy, making that number 10 jersey on the white and blue historic. He went from being a wonderkid to being the best in the world. Although Messi retired from his international team, meaning we will never see him play in another World Cup, he will still play with his club team, Inter Miami FC, still pushing to solidify his legacy as the GOAT of soccer.
Angels Owner Arte Moreno Finally Sells The Team to Stan Kroenke
For months on end, Angels fans have been begging and pleading for owner Arte Moreno to sell the Angels to anyone else. Arte took ownership of the Angels in 2003, buying it for $184 million, just a year after the Angels won the World Series. In the early years of him owning the team following their World Series title, they were a pretty successful team, making the playoffs 6 times in 10 years. In 2014 the Angels had the best record in baseball but lost in the first round. Ever since that year, the Angels have not made it back to the postseason. That’s a league-leading 12-year playoff drought.
Through this time period, Moreno and the Angels have paid for some of the worst contracts of all time, including Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, and most notoriously, Anthony Rendon. Moreno stated in an interview once that “winning is not even a top 5 priority for the fans,” basically saying that he didn’t really care to make the team better. Because of all these hardships the Angels have faced directly caused by the owner, Angels fans revolted. Fan pages on Instagram encouraged fans to show that they were unhappy with the ownership and front office. This led to things like “the right field revolution” and the “tarps off” protest. If you went to an Angel game, you would see large groups of fans crowd up in the nosebleeds, take off their shirts, wave them around, and chant things like “Sell the team!” or “Arte sucks!” to protest and try to get Arte to see himself out of the Angels organization.
Image via Instagram
After months of protest, Arte Moreno finally sold the team. On September 1st, 2026, Stan Kroenke bought the Los Angeles Angels for a record-breaking $4 billion. Also making him the richest owner in the MLB. Kroenke already owns many sports teams, including the LA Rams in the NFL, the Denver Nuggets in the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL, the Colorado Rapids in the MLS, the Colorado Mammoth in the NLL, and Arsenal in the EPL. Angel fans hope and believe Kroenke will be a much better owner than Arte, as all the teams he owns have won a championship under his ownership. Kroenke plans to replace the old Angels stadium, building a new $2.5 billion stadium. Get ready, Angel fans; a new era is here for the Angels.
Rumors of Aaron Donald Are True!
The Rams finished 12-5 last season and made it to the NFC championship game, losing to the Seahawks. They were led by MVP Matthew Stafford and the top 3 receivers in the league, Puka Nacua. Although they had success, many fans call it a disappointing season since they didn’t make it to the Super Bowl with that good of a roster.
Head coach Sean McVay and his team wanted to make a splash in this year’s offseason, and they did. They went out trading for arguably the best defensive end in the game, Myles Garrett. They ended up having to trade away their young star Jared Verse. Myles Garrett is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, so now they are the second team ever in NFL history to have the MVP and DPOY on the same team. The Rams signed Garret ti a 5 year $208.2 million dollar contract. The Rams weren’t done there as they got two cornerbacks from the Kansas City Chiefs. They traded many draft picks for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie and signed Jaylen Watson in free agency. NFL fans and commentators have commented that the Rams fixed their weak spots in their defense and now have what is known as the first actual Super Team in the NFL.
After all these signing fronts he rams videos all over the internet opened up for Aaron Donald working out harder than he had ever had. Aaron Donald is a former Defensive Player of the Year for the Rams who retired 2 seasons ago. He is also a one-time Super Bowl champion. Throughout the weeks of Donald posting these videos, he put little captions teasing that he would come out of retirement to help the Rams win another Super Bowl. Most NFL fans didn’t believe it mostly because they didn’t want it to happen, but the Rams fans believed it, and so did head coach Sean McVay. Aaron Donald supposedly reached out to Sean McVay to start talking about coming out of retirement. McVay agreed to give him as much time to think about his decision, ensuring that he was making the right one. Following this information going out on the internet, it was very real and possible that Aaron Donald could play in the 2026-2027 NFL season.
Donald eventually started having private workouts at the Rams facility; videos of this also went viral.
Image via Rams Instagram
Many people on social media posted fake postings of the Rams signing Aaron Donald, so when the real news came out, no one believed it until Aaron Donald signed a one year $20 million dollar contract.
Every NFL fan thinks it’s over for their teams and that the Rams are going to win the Super Bowl but can this so-called super team actually perform the way they are expected to?
Fake NFL Player Goes Viral for Scamming Women Out of Millions of Dollars
Recently a man named Daejon Love has been going viral for posing as a professional NFL player. He has made a video of himself practicing with a real helmet, claiming that he plays for the San Francisco 49ers. In addition, he brings his helmet everywhere he goes, but normal NFL players don’t do that, so many people on the internet immediately got suspicious.
Image via LA Times
Love had a sidekick to his scheme as he hired 18-year-old Taylor Chan to help create fake accounts on dating apps. On the app he would say that he was rich and full of money and that he would help the women he matched with to make money through investments with him. Many women believed that he was a real NFL player, and he eventually got 26 women to agree with him. This allowed him to scam them out of roughly $1.3 million. According to federal prosecutors, the ongoing investigation states there are most likely more women involved in the scam, meaning more money was taken by Love.
Both Daejon Love and Chan were arrested on August 24, 2026, and are facing federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy for wire fraud. The NFL and the 49ers’ representatives have come out and said that they are not associated with Daejon Love.
