With the iconic No. 10 jersey unassigned, Argentina will face its first test of the post- Lionel Messi era when it hosts Bolivia in a friendly on Wednesday.

As the 39-year-old legend gets set for his farewell match with Argentina next week, coach Lionel Scaloni is already looking toward the future.

European football's search for a candidate to challenge Gianni Infantino in the FIFA presidential election will not land on clubs' leader Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the Paris Saint-Germain boss insisted Tuesday.

Al-Khelaïfi also is chairman of the influential European Football Clubs group and so sits on the executive committee of UEFA, which is leading efforts to oust Infantino after his failed plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits to private investors.

Lamine Yamal led World Cup winner Spain on Tuesday as it defeated Croatia in the Nations League to add to its record unbeaten streak in its homecoming game, while England rebounded from its opening loss to the world champions with a victory over 10-man Czechia.

Yamal scored twice and set up another goal as Spain beat Croatia 4-1 at home to reach 40 matches unbeaten. It was Spain's first home game since it won its second world title in July.

France midfielder Manu Koné had to pinch himself when new coach Zinedine Zidane laced up his boots to take part in training.

Arguably the world's best playmaker during his heyday, the 54-year-old Zidane was in his element spraying passes around and whipping in crosses to his awe-struck players.

Five African heads of state led a ground breaking ceremony Wednesday on a $16-billion oil refinery project in East Africa, following calls for the continent to boost its self-sufficiency in processing raw materials into finished products.

Kenya's President William Ruto hosted his counterparts from Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo, Benin as well as Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo, shoveling soil at the site to symbolically show construction of the refinery has started.

Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad group have agreed to form an unlikely electoral coalition with a former top Fatah official who has close ties to the United Arab Emirates, Israel's closest ally in the Middle East, Palestinian officials told The Associated Press.

The alliance could be well positioned to threaten the dominance of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party over the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority — but only if the first national elections in 20 years actually happen, which is very much in doubt.

Clutching an oversized knife onstage during a recent campaign stop, Brazilian presidential candidate Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro vowed to inflict chemical castration on "rapists and child abusers," drawing thunderous applause.

The tough-on-crime message comes as Bolsonaro seeks to appeal to women, who account for 53% of the electorate and played a decisive role in handing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a narrow 2022 victory over Bolsonaro's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Russia pressed on with its weekslong missile and drone barrage of Kyiv and areas around the Ukrainian capital, killing four people including a child while targeting the power grid and a key internet exchange point, officials said Wednesday.

Moscow's steep escalation of its aerial campaign since the end of August heaps pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heating and running water.

South Korea's spy agency said Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's recent revelation of a supposedly secret transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to the South was likely meant to generate public support in this Asian democracy for greater assistance to Ukraine.

Zelensky's disclosure during his U.N. speech last week of the transfer of the captured soldiers has stunned South Korea and drawn strong protests. Seoul called on Kyiv to apologize and explain the violation of what it said was a nondisclosure agreement about the transfer. Ukraine denied agreeing to any such deal.

The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that it has completed the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group.

The last U.S. troops left the last air base where they had been present in northern Iraq under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington.