No chance of that. Last year European private-equity funds raised $114 billion, more than double the 2004 figure. This year the number will likely rise to $130 billion. While the biggest deals are still done in the United States experts say Europe is quickly becoming one of private equity’s favorite stomping grounds. Deals are cheaper, and the upside can be much higher. Not only does corporate Europe have more fat to strip, European integration has opened up the possibility for major cross-border mergers and takeovers....

Barca continued their dominance of the domestic cup competition last season with a third successive triumph, the 29th in their history. Barca 6/10 favs to win La Liga A 3-1 win in the final against Alaves was Barca’s second trophy of their final campaign under Luis Enrique, the Catalan giants also lifting the Supercopa de Espana. Third division Murcia will provide the first test of this season’s competition, with Ernesto Valverde’s side travelling to Nueva Condomina on October 25....

Segura initially worked as a youth team coach for Barca in 1997 and went on to serve as head of high performance and scouting until 2005. Having later rejoined the club, he has been the technical secretary of youth football since 2015. Lacazette completes Arsenal move First team technical secretary Robert Fernandez’s role will remain unchanged, but Barca are set to announce their new administrative structure in the near future, headed up by Segura....

dabbleBet: Back Madrid to win the Champions League Below, Goal picks out three clubs, coaches, players or agents who will already be happy with their lot, and another three who will be desperate for an upturn in their fortunes before midnight on August 31. WINNERS: AC MILAN AC Milan’s fans certainly hoped that their new Chinese owners would splash the cash this summer, after finally completing a frustratingly protracted takeover of the San Siro side, but they definitely didn’t expect the kind of summer spending spree that the Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux has embarked upon....

There was enthusiasm, there was spirit, but ultimately there was Kylian Mbappe and a brutal reality check for Barcelona. Ronald Koeman’s side suffered a crushing 4-1 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night in the Champions League last 16, and they will need another ‘remontada’ to get out of this one. It doesn’t look likely. Their whole season is almost over, in terms of potential trophies, but this campaign never seemed promising on that front after last summer’s 8-2 annihilation by Bayern Munich and Lionel Messi’s foiled attempt to flee....

Messi made to look human by Juve In beating Real Madrid in the Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu last month and completing a miraculous comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League second round, Barca showed that on their day they can still be the best around. But while those two matches represent the highlights of an inconsistent season, Los Blancos could end the campaign with a Liga and Champions League double....

The traditional blue and red vertical stripes have been altered to change size across the kit whilst maintaining a symmetrical pattern. With fans so used to seeing the iconic design, it may take time to become accustomed to the change of ways. Kaka: Why Neymar’s my favourite player A change in sponsorship also comes in the form of Rakuten, a Japanese electronic commerce company that’s currently valued at USD $17 billion, replacing Barca’s previous deal with Qatar Airways....

Barca beaten by Deportivo at Riazor Barcelona continued with their 3-4-3 formation at Riazor, but this time Jordi Alba was used as left centre-back as Samuel Umtiti was rested. Such has been the impact of the French defender that the Catalans have won all of their league games when he has played. In his absence, Barca conceded a scrappy first goal which Umtiti would surely have prevented, while the Deportivo winner saw Alex Bergantinos jump above Alba to head home from a corner....

The pair clashed after the forward was upset by his coach’s decision to disallow a goal in training and didn’t show up for the next session, citing gastroenteritis as his excuse. Luis Enrique was furious and wanted to sanction the playmaker but was talked out of it by club captain Xavi. ‘Messi is the best in history’ In a meeting with the club hierarchy, it was made clear to Luis Enrique that Messi would be supported in any dispute....

It had been a trying 24 hours for the Blaugrana, as on Tuesday the club announced they were suing Neymar after alleging the Brazilian failed to fulfill his agreement with the team. Barcelona 11/2 to win the Champions League And things only got worse later as the club’s official Twitter account sent out a tweet saying, “Welcome Angel Di Maria to FC Barcelona!” Over the course of the next hour, the tweets would disappear and reappear on Barcelona’s timeline, as a back-and-forth battle between the hackers and the club ensued....

Barca were the defending champions and resounding favourites at the Allianz Stadium after a perfect La Liga season of 30 wins from 30 matches, but Lyon took them apart with a frenetic first-half performance. Amandine Henry curled home a brilliant 25-yard finish in the sixth minute before Ada Hegerberg took centre-stage to torment Barca once more. In the 2019 final, the Norwegian superstar fired a first-half hat-trick to down the Catalans and, on the other side of a two-year injury nightmare, she was back to her vintage best....

Barkley has 22 caps for England but he hasn’t been called up for his country since April 2016. He missed out on Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2016 squad, despite making the 2014 World Cup panel, with Lampard as a team-mate. And the Blues legend, who watched on as a BT Sport pundit as his former club were held scoreless by Norwich in the FA Cup at the weekend, says that Barkley can use his switch to Stamford Bridge to help establish himself as a regular in Gareth Southgate’s England squad....

STICKY ISSUE OF THE WEEK Anti-semitism. We know the polls claim that Joe Lieberman’s Jewish faith is irrelevant to the vast majority of voters, but that isn’t how it played out in chat rooms and talk radio this week. As if the lewd and crude bigotry weren’t bad enough, the spelling was atrocious too. And we always thought you needed to be literate to go online. GAFFE OF THE WEEK It’s not just who you invite to your parties, but where you have them that matters as well....

According to an arrest affidavit signed by a judge in Chaffee County on Thursday, Barry Morphew told investigators he mailed the ballot with a vote for Donald Trump on his wife’s behalf because “all these other guys are cheating” and he thought his wife would have voted for Trump anyway. Morphew was arrested on May 5 and faces charges of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and attempting to influence a public servant....

Taylor Russey was bought the ticket by a regular customer at Bleacher’s Bar in O’Fallon, Missouri, on October 19, according to a news release. When Russey came into work the next day, she found out the bar had sold a winning ticket after the bar’s lottery terminal issued an alert. Russey said she hadn’t realized that she was in possession of the winning ticket at the time. “I was like, ‘Guys, who won all this money and didn’t tell anybody?...

The greatest sports moment of 2016 — no, the greatest moment period — happened Saturday night, when Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon hit his first career home run at Petco Park off Padres starter James Shields. The 42-year-old Colon, all 285 pounds of him, rounded the bases with an enormous grin as the Mets bench went absolutely bonkers. MORE: Bartolo Colon’s perfect swing, as examined by hitting experts SNY play-by-play man Gary Cohen summarized the moment perfectly, exclaiming, “The impossible has happened!...

Basal cell carcinoma is very treatable when found early, so knowing the warning signs is important. A common sign of BCC is a small sore that never seems to heal. It can often be dismissed as a benign pimple or sore. Other symptoms include a pinkish growth or a patch of scaly skin. BCC is most likely to be found on the head or neck. Frequent Symptoms BCC is a slow-growing skin cancer, and the symptoms can sometimes be mistaken for harmless skin conditions like a minor injury or acne scar....

Which of those storylines are the most interesting? Let’s take a different approach and dive into five of them — by the numbers: 62 Rightly or wrongly, there are plenty of fans who consider Roger Maris’ 61 the magic number for home runs in a season. And for the first time in a long time, there’s a player with a chance to pass that number — and he just happens to be wearing pinstripes, too....

Ribal al-Assad, a son of Bashar al-Assad’s uncle Rifaat al-Assad, who fled Syria in the 1980s after a failed coup, continues his pro-democracy campaigning nonetheless. But his many trips abroad, appearances at various parliaments, and events have found little desire for engagement. “I didn’t see any genuine support for the genuine democrats in Syria,” Ribal al-Assad, who lives in London, England, told Newsweek. “The whole world has recognized that [Bashar al-Assad] won,” he continued, noting the failure of the international community to buoy any true democratic movement in Syria as the war waged on over the past decade....

The cola wars ain’t overtil they’re over. And last week both Pepsi and Coca-Cola were firing new salvos in the never-ending battle of the brown stuff. At a time when sales in the $46 billion domestic soft-drink category are expanding at less than 3 percent annually, both cola makers are scrambling to broaden their niches with distinctly different marketing approaches. Aiming at foreign as well as domestic markets, Coke kicked off the battle two days before the big game with a 24-hour worldwide broadcast of five new Olympic spots and an ad called “Hellos....