Author: David F.

Martin Odegaard only made his debut for Real Madrid Castilla at the weekend but the most talked about teenager in football was back training with Cristiano Ronaldo and Co this week. . The 16-year-old Norway international entered the fray as a second-half substitute against Athletic Bilbao B during the Segunda Division Group II clash at the Alfredo di Stefano Stadium to make his official bow in the famous white strip. . But Odegaard was back in the big time midweek when he was pictured training with Carlo Ancelotti’s first-team squad as they prepare for Saturday’s La Liga match against Deportivo…

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Premier League clubs are determined to ensure the new £5.1bn domestic TV deal does not go straight into the players’ pockets, according to Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. . Ex-Spurs owner Lord Sugar compared the new deal with prune juice, saying it will “go in one end and out the other”. . But Woodward has indicated a desire among clubs to avoid that scenario. . “The general mood in the Premier League is that clubs are determined not to be continually loss-making,” he said. . United’s staff costs, which include player wages, were £48.7m in the six months to…

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Ivory Coast’s football team has been rewarded with millions of dollars in prizes by the country’s government for winning the Africa Cup of Nations. . Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara is giving each member of the 23-man squad a house worth $52,000 (£34,000) and the same amount in cash, the government says. The team beat Ghana’s Black Stars 9-8 on penalties in the tournament’s final in Equatorial Guinea. There were also six-figure rewards for the Ivorian Football Federation and the team’s technical staff – in total the government has shelled out more than $3m (£2m) in celebration of the victory. .…

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Both Chelsea and Everton have been charged by the Football Association after players from both teams were involved in an on-pitch incident. . The clubs are charged with failing to ensure their players conducted themselves properly during the game. . Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic will not face any further action over an incident involving Everton’s James McCarthy in the 86th minute

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Ivory Coast have leapt up the latest Fifa world rankings after winning the Africa Cup of Nations. . Equatorial Guinea, hosts of the Nations Cup which ended on Sunday, soared into the top 50 for the first time. . The National Lighting leapt 69 places and are joint 49th with Congo after reaching the semi-finals, albeit in controversial style. . The Ivorians moved up eight places to 20th although Algeria remain Africa’s best-placed team in 18th. . The Elephants are ranked second in Africa behind the Desert Foxes, the team they beat in the quarter-finals. . Nations Cup runners-up Ghana…

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Nigeria international striker Brown Ideye clearly is a man reborn. . On January 31, he seemed doomed to exit the Hawthorns in disgrace after West Bromwich Albion announced they had reached an agreement with Qatari club Al Gharafa to ship the striker out of the club. . A deal to bring West Ham striker Carlton Cole to WBA – ostensibly as Ideye’s replacement – however collapsed at the last minute and the Nigerian got an unexpected lifeline. . He did take to Twitter shortly after the closure of the January transfer window to dismiss speculations linking him with a move…

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Udo Lattek, the most successful Bundesliga coach of all time and one of a select few managers to win all three major European club competitions, has died at the age of 80. . Lattek, who helped catapult Bayern Munich to the top of European football in the 1970s and coached Borussia Moenchengladbach and Barcelona among others, passed away in a nursing home. . He had suffered a series of strokes had been treated for Parkinson’s disease. . “Udo Lattek was not only the most successful coach in Bundesliga history,” German Football Association President Wolfgang Niersbach said in a statement on…

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Jurgen Klopp admits relegation-threatened Borussia Dortmund deserve to be criticised after their own fans jeered their 11th defeat of the season to stay bottom of the Bundesliga. . Dortmund slumped again in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at home to fourth-placed Augsburg, who played the last 20 minutes with ten men. . Borussia are desperately low on confidence and have just three league games before their Champions League last 16, first-leg clash at Italian league leaders Juventus. . The 2011 and 2012 German champions are facing their first relegation since 1972, but have another chance to claim some badly needed points at…

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Tranquillo Barnetta scored the only goal as Schalke beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 1-0 on Friday to move into the top three in the Bundesliga for the first time this season. . Schalke shrugged off the absence of suspended Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to add to their 1-0 win over Hanover and 1-1 draw with champions Bayern Munich since the resumption following the winter break. . They have 34 points and are four points behind second-placed Wolfsburg although Roberto di Matteo’s Schalke have played a game more. . Schalke opened the scoring in the 11th minute when a perfectly-timed cross from Kevin-Prince Boateng found…

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Pep Guardiola has demanded leaders Bayern Munich improve despite picking up their first win of 2015 to stay eight points clear in the Bundesliga with a 2-0 win at Stuttgart. . Huub Stevens’ Stuttgart dropped to the bottom of the league following their home defeat while Guardiola’s defending champions stayed on course for a third straight title. . Arjen Robben scored his second goal in as many games when he fired home from 13 metres out just before the halftime break. . Left-back David Alaba, who has only just returned from the knee injury he suffered in November, then drilled…

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Borussia Dortmund took a step in the right direction by climbing off the bottom of the Bundesliga following Saturday’s 3-0 win at Freiburg, coach Jurgen Klopp believes. . Gabon winger Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang scored two second-half goals to seal the win as Dortmund moved up to 16th, with Freiburg dropping to 17th, leaving both in the relegation places. . German star Marco Reus gave Dortmund an early lead before Aubemayang sealed Borussia’s first win since the start of December. . Dortmund now face mid-table Mainz and strugglers Stuttgart in the league before Italian league leaders Juventus away in the last 16…

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Werder Bremen’s meteoric rise up the Bundesliga table continued as Sunday’s 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen took them up to eighth, four games after languishing in 18th. . Leverkusen, who face last year’s beaten finalists Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League, found themselves 2-0 down with half an hour gone as hosts Bremen produced some dazzling first-half football. . A superb lofted cross from attacking midfielder Fin Bartels allowed 20-year-old striker Davie Selke to put Bremen ahead with 17 minutes gone. . Bremen’s Austrian midfielder Zlatko Junuzovic then drilled home a stunning free kick just inside…

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As Bayern Munich steam towards an inevitable 25th German league title, Pep Guardiola wants a return to “tiki-taka” football in the Bavarian giants’ assault on the much-coveted Champions League title. . “We’re not perfect, I know that. We have to improve,” said Bayern’s perfectionist Spanish coach after Saturday’s routine 2-0 league win at bottom side VfB Stuttgart. . Under Guardiola, Barcelona dominated Spanish football by winning 14 titles from 2008 until 2012, with their fast-paced passing, dubbed “tiki-taka”, to keep the ball away from the opposition. . Bayern are used to enjoying around 70 percent possession under Guardiola, are eight…

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Tunde Abdurahman, the newly appointed head coach of Kwara United, has said discipline and hard work will be the watchword throughout his reign. . The former Wikki Tourists coach met with the players for the first time on Thursday at their training ground in llorin. . Abdulrahman said any player who will not work on the path of discipline and hard work may as well seek greener pastures elsewhere as laziness will not be tolerated. . “You will enjoy working with me but you need to be disciplined and hard working. . “I am a goal-getter and my ambition here…

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Enyimba midfielder Kinglsey Sokari is confident his team can overcome Buffles du Borgou of Benin Republic on Sunday at the Enyimba Stadium in a first leg 2015 Caf Champions League preliminary round match. . Sokari, who scored a beautiful free kick in the Peoples Elephant’s last warm-up match against Abia Warriors in preparation for the game, is optimistic the 2003 and 2004 winners will come good on Sunday. . “We are fully prepared for the game. I believe we will win convincingly come Sunday,” he told supersport.com. . “Last season’s experience in the Champions League will help us to do…

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Barcelona have appointed former AC Milan sporting director Ariedo Braida to a new technical committee to help oversee planning for the first team, the La Liga club said on Thursday. . Braida, who worked at Milan between 1986 and 2013, will join Carles Rexach, a former Barca player and coach, vice president Jordi Mestre and director Javier Bordas on the committee, the Catalan giants said on their website (www.fcbarcelona.es). . The club are creating the new body, which will work closely with coach Luis Enrique, following the sacking last month of Andoni Zubizarreta from his post as director of football.…

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English club Arsenal Ladies have confirmed the signing of striker Chioma Ubogagu, who has Nigerian roots. . Ubogagu, born in London and raised in Texas from the age of three, joins the North London club from Stanford University in the USA. . “Arsenal Ladies have completed the signing of forward Chioma Ubogagu from Stanford University in the United States,” Arsenal announced on Thursday. . The striker is heading to London with a reputation that has seen her score 27 goals in 89 appearances for Stanford University. She also weighed in with 37 assists in her four-year spell for the university.…

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QPR caretaker boss Chris Ramsey has been given the manager’s job at the Premier League club until the end of the season. . Ramsey, 52, had been in temporary charge at Loftus Road with director of football Les Ferdinand after Harry Redknapp quit to have knee surgery. . On Tuesday QPR chairman Tony Fernandes said he had got his “dream manager”. . It is not clear if he was referring to Ramsey, or a potential permanent successor to Redknapp for next season.

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The days of footballers earning £1m a week are “not far off”, according to former Arsenal striker John Hartson. . The Premier League announced a record £5.1bn TV rights sale on Tuesday, meaning clubs will be richer than ever before when the money from the deal filters down. . Hartson, who began his career before the Premier League existed, earned £29.50 a week when he started playing professionally at Luton in 1991. . But in 1995, at the age of 19, he was bought by Arsenal for £2.5m – making him the most expensive British teenager at the time. .…

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