Arsene Wenger confirmed that Louis van Gaal is genuinely interested in signing Thomas Vermaelen from Arsenal but the French manager revealed that he is only considering offloading the Belgium defender to a foreign club.

Considering that Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra have made their way out of Old Trafford, it comes as no surprise that Louis van Gaal is searching around in the transfer market for players that can reinforce the defensive division of Manchester United and Thomas Vermaelen is one of his targets but it seems highly unlikely that a transfer involving both clubs will happen.

Wenger told reporters: “Manchester United is part of the group of bidders. He could leave. We have offers from abroad and ideally I would rather sell him to a club abroad. We’re in a position where it’s difficult to stand in his way.”

Barcelona is another club interested in signing the veteran defender with an offer of £10 million already being launched by the Spanish side as they are hoping to secure the services of Vermaelen before the transfer window concludes.

Vermaelen sustained a hamstring injury which has left him unable to train with his teammates at the Emirates Stadium but his days at the Premier League are reaching its end after only being able to make 14 league appearances in the previous season, he has fallen behind the pecking order of Arsenal as he has had to stay on the sidelines of the club for the majority of the past season. Wenger’s preferred options at the heart of the defence is Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny which leaves Vermaelen having to settle with a substitute role.

Lionel Messi will once more be at the cover of the FIFA title. The Argentine sensation graced the box back in the 2013 and 2014 edition of the game and now it has been announced that he will  at it for the 3^rd consecutive time. The star of Barcelona was also named as the best player of the 2014 World Cup even though he failed to win the prestigious trophy as well as failing to score the maximum amount of goals during the tournament; he was still elected to be the player to win the Golden Ball for the worldwide event.

All of these distinguished accomplishments have raised the question concerning the next FIFA Ballon d’Or which will be awarded to the best player during the past campaign and even though Lionel Messi did not manage on pushing Argentina through the finals and defeat Germany, the media is still recognizing him.

Compared to his rival C.Ronaldo, the Portuguese star did not go through such an impressive campaign after being knocked out of the 2014 World Cup in the early stages of the tournament but his real accomplishments were made with his club Real Madrid as he was one of the main players behind the success of the Spanish club (according to the PlainSailing.com website) that managed to lift the Copa del Rey and the Champions League title.

The 2014 FIFA Ballon d’Or is more than 4 months away but fans and even managers are already taking an inclination towards who they think is going to win it this time around. The list of nominees has already been released and it includes the likes of: Gareth Bale, Edinson Cavani, Falcao, Eden Hazard, Thiago Silva and a number of other high profile players from around the world but the real competition that has been being played for the past years is Messi and C.Ronaldo.

C.Ronaldo will have a hard task defending the trophy as Lionel Messi will be returning to Barcelona thirsty for glory and with the arrival of Luis Suarez; the Argentinean is going to have another world class player that can help him achieve even more glory and success.