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Sport
Thursday, August 15, 2013
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
Willian on Liverpool radar
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Ribery eyes UEFA prize
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ayern Munich winger, Franck Ribery, believes he has a good chance of winning UEFA’s Best Player in Europe award, despite facing competition from Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid. Ribery, 30, enjoyed an outstanding 2012-13 season as he helped Bayern claim a historic Treble. The France international could now crown his year when UEFA’s Best Player in Europe is named in Prague on August 29. “Clearly, for me, far too little Bayern players are left on the list. Take Thomas Muller, who would have deserved it. Thomas has also played a great season, it is a great
Suarez
pity for him,” Ribery said yesterday. Ribery, however, believes the exclusion of his Bayern team-mates could increase his chances of winning the award. “For me personally that is good, even if I feel bad for my colleagues. Messi and Ronaldo have certainly scored more goals than me. But I have won the Treble and titles are always important with such awards.” “Messi and Ronald are great players, but I think that this season I have a great opportunity. The past season I was on the highest level, have been fit all the time and won everything there is to win. Those are good arguments.”
Suarez makes Reds’ U-turn
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eleaguered Liverpool striker, Luis Suarez, has suggested he may be willing to stay at the club and end his dispute with the Reds’ outfit. Suarez had claimed that he had an agreement that he would be allowed to leave Liverpool if the Anfield side failed to qualify for the Champions League. But his desire to leave now appears to have changed. “For now, owing to all the affection of the people, I would be staying,” he declared yesterday while on international duty with
Uruguay, representing a remarkable u-turn from the talented forward. He had last week threatened to take Liverpool to Premier League arbitration to secure his release, saying: “I have the club’s word and we have the written contract and we are happy to take this to the Premier League for them to decide the case but I do not want it to come to that. We have the backing of the PFA.” But his latest comments would be a huge boost for the club ahead of the new season.
iverpool is ready to turn to Brazil playmaker Willian in the Reds’ attempts to make a marquee summer signing. Tottenham Hotspur is a rival in the race for the £35million-rated Anzhi Makhachkala star but Liverpool, having missed out on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Diego Costa, is anxious to bring in a top name. Willian only moved to Anzhi in January but the former big spenders are being forced to sell all their biggest assets as the club’s owner Suleiman Kerimov has lost patience with the stars. The Russian billionaire has put the entire squad up for sale with a view to focusing on a new side filled with more local, younger talent. Liverpool Manager, Brendan Rodgers, is also on the verge of bolstering his squad with Granada left back Guilherme Siquiera after the club’s Managing Director Ian Ayre flew to Spain to negotiate a fee in the region of £6m.
Gerrard serves quit notice
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ngland captain, Steven Gerr has hinted that the 2014 W Cup could mark his farewel the Three Lions. The Liverpool midfielder said at he did not expect to grace another jor international tournament, say he would bow out after 14 years on international stage and with over caps to his name. “I’ve got to assume it’s my last y I can’t assume I’m going to be her two or three years’ time,” Gerrard s before he led England against Scotl at Wembley yesterday. “I’ve got to make the most of ev single game. For all I know, I migh out of the picture in a year’s tim want to make the most of it.”
De Gea gets Spain assurance
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pain Coach, Vicente Del Bosque, says David De Gea’s time will come in the national team, but has suggested the Manchester United goalkeeper will have to wait for the moment. Vicente had included five of Spain’s recently crowned European Under-21 Champions in his panel for yesterday’s friendly in Ecuador, excluding De Gea. “I have been watching the Under-21s and De Gea is a goalkeeper who will mark an era,” Del Bosque said. “At the present I do not find a reason to change the goalkeepers. If Casillas, Valdes
and Reina are here it is not because they are funny guys, but because they are good keepers. “At the Confederations Cup, the attention was focused on the goals because of Casillas’ situation and all worked well. They get on very well together, are good team-mates and I wanted to maintain the situation.” “There are good reinforcements coming from behind, who we are going to add in bit by bit. But for sure the block from Euro 2012 still have some distance left to go. We have a stable team with few players over 30. This team has a future.”
Sibaya quits Moroka Swallows
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De Gea
ormer South Africa international, Macbeth Sibaya, has parted ways from PSL side Moroka Swallows. The midfielder said he would remain in the sport, however, but declined disclosing his next move. Sibaya, 35, who returned to South Africa in 2011 to play for The Birds after his career ended in Russia, came within a whisker of helping Swallows win the Absa Premiership campaign in 2011, only to be beaten by Orlando Pirates. Last season Sibaya appeared
four times in the League Swallows, although he wa part of the squad that lifted 2012 MTN8 Cup. “Macbeth has left Swallow think it came to a point wh enough was enough. Ev player has a time frame,” Sw lows Coach, Zeca Marques, c firmed. “He will stay in the ga though because he is too v able to lose,” Marques added Sibaya won 50 caps for So Africa and was a key membe the country’s 2002 and 2012 F World Cup squads.