Outgoing Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola will take over from Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City on a three-year deal from the end of the season, the English club announced Monday.

"Manchester City can confirm that in recent weeks it has commenced and finalized contractual negotiations with Pep Guardiola to become MCFC head coach for the 2016/17 EPL season onwards," the club said in a statement.

Kicking a bright yellow football on a gravel-covered Kabul hilltop, an Afghan boy whose pictures in a plastic Lionel Messi jersey went viral evinced excitement Monday at the prospect of meeting the Barcelona star.

Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi shot to global fame after his brother posted pictures of him dressed in the blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt with Messi's name scrawled in marker pen on Facebook in mid-January.

In the mountains of northwestern Iran, Farnaz Esmaeilzadeh clings to a sheer rock face, ignoring the dizzying height and icy wind as she searches for the next handhold.

The 27-year-old, who has been rock climbing since she was 13, has distinguished herself in international competitions despite the barriers she faces as a female athlete in conservative Iran.

Novak Djokovic has a new goal for the year. He calls it the Djoker Slam.

The No. 1-ranked player has one thing missing from his fast-growing collection of 11 Grand Slam trophies.

Europe's finest strikers were on target on Sunday as Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Napoli secured wins.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as leader Paris Saint-Germain equaled the longest unbeaten run in the French league with a 2-0 win at Saint-Etienne. Cristiano Ronaldo did even better with a hat trick that helped Real Madrid crush Espanyol 6-0 and stay in touch with Barcelona at the top in Spain.

Chelsea captain John Terry will leave the Premier League champions at the end of the season after the club he has served since the age of 14 told him it would not be renewing his contract.

The 35-year-old central defender, the most successful captain in Chelsea's history, was informed about the decision before last week's 1-0 league win over Arsenal.

When Italian Premier Matteo Renzi flew to New York to witness the all-Italian U.S. Open final between Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci in September, it was a source of controversy at home.

Critics decried the use of a government plane for a personal trip, while supporters trumpeted his celebration of two Italian athletes on a world stage.

Second-division football players in Greece held a sit-in protest at the start of a game over the spiraling death toll among migrants trying to reach the European country by sea.

Players from rivals AEL Larissa and Acharnaikos sat on the field and observed two minutes of silence after kickoff Friday in a game in the central city of Larissa.

A tearful Angelique Kerber stunned an errant Serena Williams to win the Australian Open on Saturday and thwart the American top seed's bid to equal Steffi Graf's Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam titles.

In a huge upset, the seventh seed toppled the 34-year-old 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to win her maiden major title and become the first German Grand Slam champion since Graf at the 1999 French Open.

A five-year-old Afghan boy has become an Internet star after pictures went viral of him wearing an Argentina football shirt made out of a plastic bag, complete with his hero Lionel Messi's name.

Murtaza Ahmadi has never met his idol and lives in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan but footage and photos of him wearing the improvised shirt, with Messi's named scrawled in marker pen, went round the world.