The spread of novel coronavirus has led to the suspension of sporting events across the world. European football’s governing body UEFA was the first to announce the suspension of Champions league and Europa League matches. The Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga and the English Premier League have also postponed matches while until April due to COVID-19.
UEFA also announced on Tuesday that EURO 2020 which was supposed to hold this summer has been postponed till June 2021. The Confederations of Africa Football (CAF) has also postponed all matches indefinitely due to coronavirus.
Other sporting competitions like the National Basketball Association, the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne that was due to take place this weekend, have been postponed or cancelled across the world over recent days, from most major North American leagues such as
The hiatus in football is already making sports stars bored (their social media activities have shown) and they have started engaging themselves in other activities
Here is what some football stars have been doing:
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Juventus’ Ronaldo didn’t waste time before moving his family out of Italy the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak in Europe. His friend shared Instagram photos of the football star in Portugal spending time with his family and friends
2. Lionel Messi
The Barcelona and Argentina star, like Ronaldo, is also using the period of hiatus in global sports to spend time with his family.
3. Oxlade Chamberlain
The Liverpool midfielder sent social media abuzz at the weekend when his girlfriend Perrie Edwards shared an Instagram video of the duo displaying their dance skills while in self-isolation. “Precautionary self isolation can be fun,” she captioned.
4. James Milner
Milner who claims he does not have the skill to compete with his Liverpool teammate Oxlade and his girlfriend reacted to their viral video by sharing a short clip of himself rationing tea bags.The 34-year-old tweeted:
Hey @Alex_OxChambo Barrels of laughs here in the Milner household as well – rationing the tea bags for the week👍👍#crazydays#somuchtogetonwith#notgotthemovestocompete pic.twitter.com/WLDAJjyHOc
— James Milner (@JamesMilner) March 15, 2020
5. Cesc Fabregas
The former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder kept his Twitter followers busy by sharing a hilarious story of how he lost a bet to his Chelsea teammate after failing to convert a penalty at training.He explained that he was always confident in his ability to convert penalty and would often place a bet with goalkeepers after training to ‘put a bit of spice into the challenge’.
He said he told Chelsea’s goalkeeper Willy Cabellero that if he could save his penalty he would buy him a Range Rover, he lost the best and had to fulfill his promise.
He shared this video of the hilarious moment he gifted Cabellero a Range Rover he found at a scrapyard.
be used at all for £950 so I said, you know what? I’ll get that. The next day they they brought to the training ground and well… I’ll show you the rest on a video. The lesson of the story is: Don’t bet at all at any cost. pic.twitter.com/NURhfzmYF6
— Cesc Fàbregas Soler (@cesc4official) March 15, 2020
6. Gini Wijnaldum
Gini is another Liverpool star who is keeping himself busy as he also self-isolates. The Dutch footballer has taken pleasure tennis to kill boredom. He shares photos on Twitter:
Gotta stay busy 🏓 pic.twitter.com/aXilMuY6EN
— Gini Wijnaldum (@GWijnaldum) March 15, 2020
7. Shkodran Mustafi
The Arsenal defender shared a video of himself juggling football with his kids as he takes the #StayAtHomeChallenge. “We all need to spread the awareness how important it is to stay at home,” he wrote.
8. Fede Valverde
The 21-year-old Real Madrid midfielder who just welcomed his first child last month also took to IG to share a video of how he is spending his self-isolation playing a game of kick and chase with his dog.
9. Matthijs de Ligt
The Juventus star’s model girlfriend Annekee Molenaar also posted an Instagram story of her playing table tennis against her boyfriend, who was wearing his club’s jersey.
10. Paulo Dybala
Juventus’s Dybala who was previously rumoured to have tested positive for coronavirus before debunking the report, shared video of his kitchen session making ‘Argentinian empanadas’.He captioned: “Argentinian customs in quarantine”.
11. Ciro Immobile
Lazio and Italy striker, Immobile, took a different path entirely different from what other sports stars have been doing – he took to hairdressing. His wife Jessica Melena posted a series of IG stories of the striker giving her relative a haircut.
12. Neymar
The Brazillian and Paris Saint Germain (PSG) forward is keeping himself busy with Netflix. He shared a photo of himself at home observing his self-isolation with Spanish thriller Netflix series Elite.