Didier Drogba hit his second career MLS hat-trick to lift the Montreal Impact to a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Union at Stade Saputo.
Ignacio Piatti made two of Drogba’s goals and added one himself as the Impact pulled to within a point of the Union in the Eastern Conference standings.
Sebastian Giovinco also scored a hat-trick to lead Toronto FC to a 4-1 win over DC United and Je-Vaughn Watson got the only goal in the New England Revolution’s 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire.
Messi cuts holiday short to rejoin squad
Lionel Messi will be part of the Barcelona squad that returns to St George’s Park for a training camp this week after the reigning FIFA world player of the year cut short his summer break.
Messi was due to be absent until the start of August following his exertions at the Copa America this summer, where he helped Argentina reach the final before losing on penalties to Chile.
However, the 29-year-old has decided to return early and has been named in Luis Enrique’s 25-man travelling squad.
As well as Messi, Barca confirmed the likes of Luis Suarez, Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal will be among 13 senior players at the National Football Centre.
Burnley apologise over racist incident
Burnley have apologised to Bradford after one of their supporters was ejected from Saturday’s pre-season friendly at Valley Parade following an alleged racist incident.
The Premier League club have confirmed a visiting fan was ejected after a Bradford player reported the individual to the match officials, claiming he had been repeatedly racially abused.
The supporter has denied the allegations but other witnesses have backed up the complaints of the player involved.
On the pitch, Premier League new-boys Burnley recorded a convincing 4-1 victory, with Andre Gray grabbing an early brace.
Leicester edge Celtic in penalty shoot-out
Leicester City emerged triumphant after a 6-5 penalty shoot-out win over Celtic in their International Champions Cup clash at Parkhead on Saturday.
Algerian midfielder Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring at the start of the second half for the visitors with a wonderful curled shot before 20-year-old Irish defender Eoghan O’Connell levelled things up just before the hour mark.
For Celtic, Nadir Ciftci, Stefan Johansen, Scott Allan, O’Connell and Ryan Christie scored before James Forrest had his effort saved by Kasper Schmeichel.
Christian Fuchs, Marcin Wasilewski, Danny Drinkwater, Ben Chilwell and Shinji Okazaki had all scored for the Foxes before Daniel Amartey’s success with the sixth secured the win.
Inter target Gomez amid Icardi exit talk
Inter are being linked with a move for Fiorentina striker Mario Gomez amid growing reports that Napoli want Mauro Icardi.
Icardi’s wife and agent, Wanda Nara, yesterday confirmed via Twitter that there was a meeting with “an intermediary” to discuss the Napoli proposal.
Rai Sport reported that the Nerazzurri have set their sights on Gomez as their no.1 target to replace Icardi if the latter moves on.
The Germany international, who has just turned 31, had a successful loan spell at Besiktas last season but has ruled out joining the Turkish club on a permanent basis because of the unstable political situation in the country.
Toure seals switch to Scottish champions
Celtic have signed defender Kolo Toure on a one-year contract, the Scottish champions said yesterday, reuniting him with Brendan Rodgers, his former manager at Liverpool.
The experienced Toure, older brother of Manchester City’s Yaya, won 118 caps for the Ivory Coast and played more than 350 league games for Arsenal, City and Liverpool, who released him at the end of last season.
He won the Premier League with both Arsenal and City and the FA Cup three times.
“I’m really excited and looking forward to a new challenge,” Toure told Sky Sports.
Phelan wants to succeed Bruce
Hull caretaker boss Mike Phelan wants to replace Steve Bruce at the Tigers. The former Manchester United assistant manager is keen to take over from Bruce, who left the club on Friday just three weeks before the start of the Premier League season.
Phelan watched as Hull beat Scunthorpe 2-0 in a pre-season friendly at Glanford Park on Saturday and admitted he wants the vacant job at the KCOM Stadium.
“I want to be a manager. I don’t really see why I shouldn’t want to be a manager. Time will tell. That decision doesn’t sometimes come down to you,” he told the Hull Daily Mail.
“I’ve had a small chat and I was asked if I would carry on being in charge for now. We have games, we have preparations, we’ve still got three weeks to go.”