In an interview with Spanish media on Thursday, Nasraoui revealed that he knew his son was “blessed by God” and would become a star from the moment he was born. A viral photo of a young Lionel Messi helping bathe a six-month-old Lamine has fueled jokes among football fans, suggesting the Barca icon himself blessed the future star.

Kenyan marathon runner Lawrence Cherono has been handed a seven-year ban for breaching doping rules, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced Wednesday. The 35-year-old runner, who won the Boston and Chicago marathons in 2019, provided an out-of-competition urine sample in May 2022 which revealed the presence of the prohibited substance trimetazidine.

The Paris Olympics already has one gold medal in the bag before it begins with 8.6 million tickets sold — a record for any Games. “It’s a record held by the 1996 Atlanta Games of 8.3 million tickets, and we’ve already passed that total now some time ago,” the 2024 Games organiser Tony Estanguet told AFP on Thursday.