David Beckham was in tears as he said goodbye to the Parc des Princes after a vintage display for Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti handed Beckham the captain's armband and the 38-year-old, who will retire at the end of the season, produced a memorable performance, which included an assist for Blaise Matuidi in the 3-1 win over Brest.
...Rafael Benitez won the sixth major trophy of his managerial career on Wednesday night when he led Chelsea to the Europa League.
The Spaniard can be a prickly character at times, and is despised by a significant section of the Chelsea support after his fall-out with Jose Mourinho when in charge of Liverpool, but his record vindicates his methods.
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Manchester City and Wigan play out the FA Cup final on Saturday, with the respective sides at contrasting ends of the Premier League table.
Roberto Mancini's men will look to win the game to salvage some silverware from an otherwise disappointing campaign, while the Latics are right in the relegation mire and could well be playing Championship football next term.
...Bayern Munich are favorites to sign Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski, although Manchester United and Chelsea lurk in the background.
Bayern have an agreement with the Polish star, but have yet to agree a price with Dortmund, who are holding firm for the moment, having only two weeks ago agreed to sell young prodigy Mario Gotze to the Bavarians.
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Real Madrid take on Borussia Dortmund at the Santiago Bernabéu in Spain on Tuesday 30th April in the crucial second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final - and we've got a fantastic free bet offer to add to the excitement.
Get a 100% Euro Soccer Bonus on the continent's biggest matches with bet365They were unable to mount a sustained title challenge but Napoli all but wrapped up second place in Serie A with a 3-0 win over bottom club Pescara on Saturday.
Goals from Gokhan Inler, Goran Pandev and Blerim Dzemaili put Walter Mazzarri's men 10 points clear of third-placed Milan. The Rossoneri still have five games to play, but the gap is surely insurmountable and Napoli will achieve their highest finish in Serie A since Diego Maradona inspired them to the title in 1990.
...Two of the most exciting semifinals are set to be played this week and an array of world-class talent will be on display. We will not just see the household names play but will also get a glimpse of the future of these clubs as they have some of the best youth academies across Europe. Let's take a look at what the semifinals have to offer us:
...The clock had barely struck 9pm on Sunday evening when Luis Suarez issued an apology for his bite on Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic just a few hours earlier.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was reluctant to criticize his star man in the immediate aftermath of the 2-2 draw, but it did not take long for Suarez, managing director Ian Ayre and Rodgers all to issue unreserved apologies after viewing the footage. You cannot defend the indefensable.
...With the Champions League semi-finals almost upon us, Zinio is giving away 10 free subscriptions to its range of thousands of magazine titles.
If you fancy winning a subscription to Champions Matchday, World Soccer, Four Four Two or any other title of your choice, all you have to do is retweet this article on Twitter. Ten of you will be selected at random, and I will message you directly if you have been successful. I have taken out a subscription myself, but there are 10 more left to win!
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The painstaking hours that must have gone into this fabulous flipbook capturing Ronaldinho in his pomp.
Youtube user etoilec1 should take a bow for producing this artful montage of Ronaldinho at his best in a Barcelona shirt and scoring one of those trademark free-kicks for AC Milan.
...Francesco Totti equalled the record of nine goals in the Rome derby in Sunday's 1-1 draw with Lazio.
The Roma idol is continuing to score goals at an impressive rate for a 36-year-old. He has 12 in Serie A this season (and 10 assists), and is now second in the all-time Serie A scoring charts with 227.
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The new second division is already on its second name as it came to be felt that using the old K League name was confusing. K League Challenge won out against K League Basic, and rightly so.
The World Cup in Brazil is sneaking up rapidly – only 17 months until the country goes bananas for the Selecao, and 18 until they riot when someone else wins it all. Today, they released the official poster and logo, which is a design spaced such that it creates a white Brazil in the center.
Sadly, no photo of Neymar, as personally requested by Pele.
The inevitable has happened: Raymond Domenech’s written a book. It’s called All Alone (Tout Seul) and it appears to have a heavy focus, if it’s not entirely centered upon, the French World Cup 2010 fiasco. And in typical Domenech fashion, it’s been done with drama, controversy and throwing absolutely everyone in the vicinity underneath the bus. Which might not make for a great football coach, but it damn sure aids in selling books. A few excerpts of name-calling, yelling and weeping from Ray’s autobiography(ish) reveals his true feelings, and that he thinks Franck Ribery is a bit of an ass. Though who doesn’t.
On the abyss:
On the day of the strike hundreds of locals from the town of Knysna gave the French players a rousing reception when they stepped off the team bus. After quickly shaking hands and signing autographs, they all returned to their bus. “The France team had just crucified itself, in public, live on television,” Domenech said. “Maybe the players realised it, maybe they didn’t. Anyway, it was too late. The infernal machine had started up and was dragging all of Les Bleus to the abyss.”
Pretty versus not so pretty:
“Ribéry doesn’t like Gourcuff, that’s for sure. Before the Uruguay match I told Gourcuff: ‘You have the keys to the match, it’s down to you,’” Domenech says. “The worst thing was Ribéry’s look. Maybe I’m exaggerating but in his eyes I saw hatred, contempt or jealousy.
“He’s the same as Anelka and Henry, everything revolves around their belly buttons. When things go wrong, they’re the first to jump ship. A senior player warned me about Ribéry in 2008; and me, I gave him the keys [to the team]. What a moron I am.”
And of course, Ray’s deepest emotions:
“I’m out of here. I couldn’t give a damn about this bunch of imbeciles,” he says in his book, written largely in diary form. “I have no energy left. I don’t like them any more. I’ve had enough of their tantrums,” Domenech wrote before the 2-0 defeat by Mexico. “This team is completely incapable of transcending itself and I’m certainly to blame for something. I got it all wrong. I feel humiliated to have got it so wrong.”
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Carlo Ancelotti announced his long awaited resignation from Milan soon after the Fiorentina match was over. He ended his Milan association a year before his contract was to expire.
He should be confirmed as Chelsea manager shortly.
OK. We already have Franck Ribery joining up Real. Before that it was Cristiano Ronaldo. If it Tuesday it must be Kaka. Now, it is Alonso.
If you keep shooting BB shots, a duck will fall.
One thing is certain. A number of tabloids and blogs are kept afloat by the Real rumour mill. Yours truly included. It is a gift that keeps giving.
Btw, I take back that duck reference. It would mean that Alexandre Pato is on his way to Real too. Which he might. Which he might. Stay tuned.
Sivuyile Nqawe of the Lingelethu Football Association in Khayelitsha said it was to "ease matters for those who cannot afford expensive brands of football kit on their mission to sharpen their skills to become future soccer stars".Another example of necessity being the mother of invention.
"It is just a creative method and it works to alleviate the situation. You just break a condom packet, grab and stretch it. Then you put it on your leg," Nqawe said.
"You will find that in most instances players bring a box of condoms to a match and share them among teammates for the same purpose."
Is Juan Toja about to play his final match as a MLS player? The platform (for entering MLS) was already set...The Impact organization has a lot going for it (stadium, rich owners, good fan base) and adding solid play against top-tier teams will only help them in their quest to land in MLS.
I think, obviously, this helps. This just shows we're capable of competing ... From what I understand, we're aiming for the start of the 2011 season to be in the MLS.
Donovan was recently quoted by the English media giant as saying, "The older I get and the more I play, the more I'm yearning for that highest level I can play at."Sounds pretty exciting and it has caused a bit of a buzz on the internet, however, the quote is actually almost a year old.
"I think the Premiership would be the best place the play."
Peter Nowak has released his 18 man roster for Beijing and there are not a lot of surprises. As expected, Nowak went with Bad Guzan in goal and McBride up top. Both will give the team much needed depth in their positions with McBride providing a little bit more then Guzan. "A player that can turn down an offer from the league, go overseas on their own volition and then we as a league have to buy them back," Schmid said. "That's bad business and MLS doesn't want to be in the habit of doing bad business. That's completely understandable."Schmid is playing the good sport here because really the only thing bad about this whole situation is that New England tried to hardball him in the first place (they would not trade him, thus he had to take their deal or get out of the country).
It looks like the Dynamo might be about to solve some of their offensive problems as Nate Jaqua has been offered a contract to return to Houston.
The good news that has surround the Wizards over the past week (late win against, and by, Real; comeback win in US Open Cup; re-signing of Josh Wolff) looks to be at an end as the team's management has been accused of “pervasive and regular” sexual harassment.•Cotton and Thomson would review the Facebook and MySpace sites of prospective female employees to determine whether they were “hot enough” to be hired.It is far to early to figure out if these charges are true or not, but it is worth watching, especially as the Wizards move forward on their stadium development.
•Cotton allegedly said of one employee, “She is the dumbest person I have ever met, but she is worth keeping around for the scenery.”
•Male employees held “drafts” of young female employees with whom they would want to have sex.
•During a team-sponsored trip to Las Vegas, Thomson told Carver she was “hot,” complimented her physical attributes and said he wanted to have sex with her, she alleged.
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Updated on May 19, 2013 10:05 PM UTC. Entries are normalised to UTC time.
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