Thierry Henry confirms retirement from football, signs £25m Sky deal

Former Arsenal captain Thierry Henry, has announced his retirement from playing football and has signed a contract worth around £25million with Sky television.

The deal however, will allow him work on his coaching badges, which could eventually see him return to the Emirates.

Henry, 37, decided to hang up his boots after his contract with MLS side New York Red Bulls expired.

Continue after the cut...........

Howard Webb ends 25-year refereeing career

 

Howard Webb has ended his 25-year refereeing career after being appointed technical director of the official referees’ association.

Webb has officiated 500 Premier League and Football League matches and the 2010 World Cup final.

The 43-year-old began his career in 1989, progressing through the Northern Counties and Football League to become a Select Group referee in 2003.

“I am very excited to start this new chapter in my career,” said Webb.

Webb was involved in nine major international tournaments, took charge of the Champions League final and also officiated in every major domestic final.

During this year’s World Cup in Brazil, he refereed the Group C match between Colombia and Ivory Coast, and the first knockout match between Brazil and Chile.

In 2011 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to football.

“Refereeing has given me so much and I think it’s important that match officials who have had the rewards remain in the game to pass on their knowledge,” he said.

As technical director of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), Webb will be responsible for overseeing the technical direction and standards that govern match officials.

“The current Select Group are the best referees this country has ever produced and I am thrilled that I not only get the chance to continue working with them but also the opportunity to help develop the next generation,” he added.

“It’s an incredibly positive working environment and we all have a common goal of improving refereeing.”

Pics: Balotelli, fans make fun of Suarez biting scandal with his poster

Lol. This is so not nice. A lot of people, including Italian footballer Mario Balotelli, are having fun at the expense of Uruguayan footballer Luis Suarez, who was sent home from the World Cup for biting Italian defender Chiellini during a match.

A poster of Suarez with his mouth open was placed at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro and you can't imagine what people were doing. See the photos after the cut...

...and Luiz Suarez bites another football player (photos)

In August 2013, Liverpool player and Uruguay Forward, Luiz Suarez bit Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic during a match in Anfield, an action that got him benched for 10 matches afterwhich he apologized.

Fast forward 10 months later and he's done it again. During the Italy-Uruguay match that took place this evening June 24th, Suarez appeared to bite Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder (pictures above). Continue...

Did You Notice This Last Night, Guys?

  yesterday, during the World Cup opening ceremony, I bet a lot of us didn't notice this but it actually happened. The organizers of the event made a notorious mistake when they confused Nigeria  flag with Niger's.

During the opening ceremony, a giant globe in the middle of the field presented the 32 flags of the nations participating in the World Cup. And when time came for them to announce Nigeria, instead
of our flag, they projected an image of Niger's flag onto the globe! Niger isn't even participating in the competition.

This isn't the first time the wrong flag has been displayed during a major sporting event. In the 2012 London Olympics, a women's soccer match between North Korea and Colombia was delayed because the organizers showed the South Korean flag while introducing the North Korean team, and the players refused to take the field.

Photos from the opening ceremony of the 2014 World cup in Brazil

The 2014 World cup began this evening June 12th with a colorful opening ceremony at the Arena de Sao Paulo in Brazil that reportedly cost around $4.5million to put together. International music stars, Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull were joined on stage by Brazilian pop-star Claudia Leitte to perform the official World Cup song 'We Are One (Ola Ola)'.

The ceremony was followed by the opening match of the tournament - hosts Brazil vs Croatia. The match ended 3-1 in favour of Brazil. And what a match it was!

I wasn't going to post this before but some of you were complaining that I didn't post anything about the world cup opening ceremony/match...(Like y'all didn't watch it live...*hiss*). Lol. Anyway, that's why it's coming late...:-).. See plenty more photos after the cut...

MBGN Anna Banner also shows support for the Super Eagles

In a bid to show her support for the Super Eagles during the World Cup in Brazil, MBGN 2013 Anna Ebiere Banner decided to do a shoot in their honour.  See more photos after the cut...

5 years ago today manutd sold Cristiano Ronaldo to RealMadrid for an £80million record fee.

Mario Balotelli gets engaged to girlfriend Fanny Neguesha

AC Milan and Italian Forward Mario Balotteli, yesterday evening Monday June 9th proposed to his on/off girlfriend, Fanny Neguesha. An elated Balotteli took to his instagram page to announce the news, posting an image of his new fiancee's hand adorned with the sparkling engagement ring.

"She said yes.. The most important yes in my life. That was the place of my question! I Love you and happy birthday too! Je t'aime my WIFE" he wrote on his page

His elated wife-to-be Fanny, whose birthday it was yesterday, also took to her instagram to celebrate their engagement. Continue...

“My daughter will never play professional football' - Jay Jay Okocha

Nigerian football icon, Jay Jay Okocha during a recent chat with Femi and The Gang on Nigeria Info FM, Lagos fielded questions from social media fans revealing why his children aren’t playing professional football and his involvement with Star Football.

"My son is focusing on his education for now and will play football at the right time. Meanwhile, my daughter will never play professional football because they aren’t paid well enough.”

How Belgium pressed me to dump Eagles —Imoh

Ezekiel Imoh

Newly capped Super Eagles and Standard Liege of Belgium striker, Ezekiel Imoh, has revealed how his father influenced him to play for Nigeria despite the pressure he got from Belgians to dump the country and play for them.

Imoh who spoke to the Super Eagles Media Officer, Ben Alaiya, in Atlanta, United States during the international friendly match against Mexico, said he was actually approached to fast-track his Belgian citizenship papers. And he actually wanted to go along with their suggestion.

He said, “Ordinarily, it takes three years of stay in Belgium to apply for citizenship but after two years I was called up to get the papers and I was really excited by the offer. But when I called my dad back home in Nigeria, he told me not to because they were only luring me with it so that I could play for Belgium. It took a long argument between both of us on the matter but at the end of the day I had to reason with my father.”

The striker, who made his international debut in a goalless draw against Mexico on Wednesday, said the Belgian football authorities wanted him in their junior team immediately to prepare him for the future, but pressure from Nigeria was also huge and that forced him to settle for the Eagles.

“I was encouraged then to join them because more than half of the Belgium national team players are not original indigenes of the country and I thought I could be one for the future but that has changed now that I have played for Nigeria.”

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Balotelli linked to Chelsea

AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli is reportedly not happy in Italy and is now being linked with a move back to the English Premiership.

Reports doing the rounds last week were linking him with a possible move to Tottenham Hotspur but Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has now been linked to the striker, whom he coached at Inter Milan.

"In football you never know the future," Mourinho told Yahoo.

"Balotelli is with a big club at the moment but you never know the future.

"They want to keep the best players and want to keep the best Italian players. But Mario has already been in English football before.

"I'm not going to be manager of Milan or the Italy national team, but he's a good kid and somebody I'd like to work with again."

Balotelli has made no secret of wanting to play for his former coach Mourinho again.

"Of course I would like to play under Jose again," Balotelli said.

"In my first days at Inter we had some problems, but then it turned into a mutual respect, and now we have a real friendship.

"It is never boring playing under Jose. When you are in Mourinho's team it is a family and he coaches on the principle that if all is well with the family it doesn't matter what is going on outside the team," he added.

Čech named Czech player of the year again

Petr Čech said it is still not done after being named Czech footballer of the year for a seventh time, polling ahead of midfielders Tomáš Rosický and Vladimír Darida. 

Chelsea FC goalkeeper Petr Čech has been voted Czech footballer of the year for a seventh time.

 

The 31-year-old finished ahead of Arsenal FC's Tomáš Rosický and SC Freiburg midfielder Vladimír Darida in the annual poll, and he says this means as much to him as the first in 2005. "It never gets boring regardless that it is for the first or seventh time," he said. "It is always appreciation of my work and further motivation especially as it comes from the people who follow football very closely.

"Apart of a few exceptions I kept my performances at the same high level. There were matches when I made mistakes, but not many," added Čech, also a recipient of the accolade in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. "I would like to warn those of you who might be bored and tempted to switch TV channels at the sight of me standing here again: I am going to try hard to win it again next season."

His tally of seven awards is already two more than the next most decorated player, another goalkeeper, Ivo Viktor. Čech collected the UEFA Europa League in 2013 and became only the second Czech player to reach a century of senior international caps. He has since moved on to 105, 13 adrift of record holder Karel Poborský.

West Bromwich Albion FC forward Matěj Vydra was named best young player while new Czech Republic boss Pavel Vrba, preparing for Wednesday's friendly against Norway, was named coach of the year for his continued success at FC Viktoria Plzeň.

Drogba life story told in cartoon form

Didier Drogba walked at six months, left home at five and fell in love with the woman who was to become his wife at the tender age of 17.

Those are some of the landmark events covered in an account of the Ivorian footballer’s extraordinary life about to be published in cartoon form in France.

Editions are also planned for Britain, where Drogba is still idolised by supporters of his former club Chelsea; Brazil, where he is due to play in the World Cup later this year, and Turkey, where he currently stars for Galatasaray.

                                     Didier Drogba attends a press conference.

Entitled “From Tito to Drogba”, the album traces the 35-year-old’s journey from modest roots in Abidjan to the summit of world football. The Tito in the title refers to his childhood nickname.

It was first published in 2012 in Ivory Coast, where Drogba is revered both as a lynchpin of the national team, the Elephants, and a symbol of national unity — thanks to his detour into peacemaking diplomacy when the country was teetering on the brink of civil war in 2006.

Born on March 11, 1978, Drogba first moved to France at the age of five to live with his uncle, Michel Goba, a professional footballer, his parents calculating that it would give him a better chance in life.

He has often spoken of how difficult he found his childhood years, the long spells spent apart from his parents and the upheaval of moving around as his uncle regularly changed clubs.

His parents finally joined him in France when he was 13 and the family settled in the Paris suburbs, where Drogba began what was to be an illustrious career at Levallois SC.

- ‘Too perfect? He’s like that’ -

“The book goes into a lot of detail,” Drogba recently told sports daily L’Equipe. “It is a fun way to learn lots of things about me and to show young people that, if they do what I did, they can achieve their objectives.”

“The most important thing is to show you can exceed your dreams. For me football has become my job, my way of making a living, and that in turn has allowed me to meet many famous people, to be a UNICEF ambassador.”

The man responsible for the album is Gabin Bao, a 36-year-old Ivorian who has spent years on the project, finally convincing the player’s advisors it was a good idea.

“I met him several times after we did the deal and he really liked the idea of sending a message to young Africans,” Bao told AFP.

Bao’s script for the book flirts with caricature at times in its emphasis on the role of hard work in Drogba’s ascent.

“Some people say I’ve made him too perfect. But he is like that,” Bao said. “He is very careful about his image because he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.”

Part of the proceeds from the book sales will go to the Didier Drogba Foundation, which finances health and education projects in Africa.

Source: Vanguard

Batman? Zorro? Lone Ranger? No, That Masked Man Is LeBron

 

Broken noses are part of the game for NBA players. Elbows fly. Bodies collide. Balls ricochet.
Beaks get bonked.

Many nights you'll see at least one player from across the 30-team league protecting his still sensitive schnoz with a clear plastic mask.

But not the current best player in the game.

A week ago, LeBron James of the Miami Heat broke his nose. Thursday night against the New York Knicks, King James chose a rather menacing look for his return from the injury: An all-black, carbon-fiber mask.

"Heat reserve guard called the James mask 'swag' and Chris Bosh said James 'played like Batman," " .
"I like the look of it. It looked kind of menacing," 

James said he thought the black mask would look better with the team's black uniforms. He says it also weighs a bit less than other masks he's tried.

he could have gone even more radical: "The best player on the planet could have been blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back and he still would have dominated the Knicks."

. James led his team with 31 points.
The mask, meanwhile, has .

By the way, James has worn a mask (the clear type) before. , there's some analysis of his performance during the 2004-2005 season, when James wore one for 16 games.

"Once he put the mask on," that post says, "James played more minutes, scored more points, grabbed more boards and dished out more assists than he did prior to the injury. His overall shooting percentage went up by two percent, although his 3-point and free throw percentages dipped."
So, perhaps the Heat's rivals really should fear the mask.

Masked James leads Heat past Knicks

New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) and Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) talk during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Miami, The Heat won 108-82. AP

Miami’s LeBron James, clad in a face-covering black mask to protect a broken nose, scored 31 points to lead the Heat to a 108-82 blowout win over New York on Thursday.

The Heat maintained a yawning 12-1/2 game lead in the Southeast Division ahead of Washington, which had a triple-overtime road win against Atlantic Division leader Toronto.

James was clearly unencumbered by the mask, hitting 13 of 19 shots and topping 30 points for the fifth consecutive game.

Dwyane Wade added 23, shooting 10 of 13 from the field, for the Heat, which outscored New York 23-3 over the final 7:02 of the third and won its sixth straight game. Miami shot 61 percent, while the Knicks shot 37 percent.

Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points for New York, but none in the final 21:38. The Knicks won only two games in February.

Washington’s Trevor Ariza scored the go-ahead basket on a fast-break layup with 1:20 left in the third overtime to secure a 134-129 win at Toronto.

Marcin Gortat fouled out with 31 points and 12 rebounds for the Wizards, who have won five straight.
DeMar DeRozan scored 34 points in 58 minutes for Toronto.

In the day’s other games, league-leading Indiana beat Milwaukee 101-96, with Roy Hibbert scoring 24 points and adding 12 rebounds, while Brooklyn won 112-89 over Denver, to record their first win in Colorado for seven years.

Nigeria Football Federation unveils World Cup jersey for Brazil 2014

The Nigerian Football Federation today February 27th unveiled a brand new jersey our national team would use during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The jersey, which is lemon green, will be officially launched on March 5th when the Super Eagles meet Mexico in a pre-world cup friendly which will take place in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to the Head Marketing of the NFF, Adama Idris, the jersey was designed to suit the weather condition in Brazil. See more photos after the cut...

Chelsea vs Gala: An opportunity missed- Mourinho

 

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho acknowledged that Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw against Galatasaray in Istanbul in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie had to go down as “an opportunity missed”.

The London club took an early lead through Fernando Torres at the Turk Telecom Arena, but they failed to capitalise on their good start and Galatasaray came back to equalise midway through the second half courtesy of Aurelien Chedjou.

That means the tie remains open ahead of next month’s return at Stamford Bridge, when it could have been over after half an hour in Istanbul.

“The first half was an opportunity missed. The second half was a fair result,” Mourinho said.

“In the first half we were the better team. We had three or four chances, but then they put more pressure on us and we were more defensive.

“We were comfortable defensively but conceded a goal at a corner, which I don’t like (but) I think it was a fair result.”

Chelsea may be top of the Premier League and closing in on the Champions League quarter-finals, but they have suffered at times from the lack of a clinical striker this season and the performance of Torres came as a tonic for Mourinho, although the tiring Spaniard was withdrawn with a quarter of the game remaining.

“I think now he’s having a very acceptable season,” Mourinho said of Torres, who has scored six times in five Champions League starts, but Chelsea still missed too many chances for their coach’s liking.

“That’s our team. Some other teams would score three goals, we have five chances and take one.

“We create but we arrive in the last third of the pitch and the last decision – the correct pass, the right movement – is not correct.

“We are paying for that, but I cannot be critical. I just praise the fact that we had a very acceptable result in a stadium where it is not easy to play.”

Chelsea now turn their attentions back to the Premier League and two London derbies, away to Fulham and at home to Tottenham Hotspur.

And they do so as the only English side to avoid defeat, or even score a goal, in the Champions League in the last two weeks in the wake of poor results for Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.

- Mancini plays the percentages -

Galatasaray coach Roberto Mancini, the former City boss, dismissed doubts over the state of English football as he admitted his team remain very much the outsiders in the tie.

“The Premier League is the best championship in the world and Chelsea are one of the best teams,” said the Italian, whose own side are on a run of just one defeat in 20 matches.

His displeasure with Galatasaray’s start to the game was evident as he changed things tactically half an hour in, replacing winger Izet Hajrovic and introducing an extra central midfielder in Yekta Kurtulus, and that helped them eventually come back into the contest.

“We can’t show Chelsea the level of respect we showed them in the first half. They wanted to be able to counterattack us and we conceded too many of these.

“We made three or four mistakes and played with fear.

“The game in London will be difficult but after this game we have a 40 percent chance to go through,” added Mancini, who had previously measured their prospects at just 20 percent.

Nevertheless, Mourinho refused to be drawn on Mancini’s comments, and also had a swipe at the man he replaced as Inter Milan coach in 2008 by crediting their performance on former coach Fatih Terim.

“They were good last year and they are good this year. Basically it’s the team that Fatih built. The team that was champions last year and got to the quarter-finals. So I think Fatih did a great work (sic),” said Mourinho.

Madrid reflect on 'another good performance'

Pepe enthused about a "great performance from the whole team", while Sergio Ramos insisted Real Madrid CF are not looking beyond the return leg despite their 6-1 defeat of FC Schalke 04. 

After Real Madrid CF became the first club to score six goals away from home in the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League, defenders Sergio Ramos, Pepe and Marcelo were full of praise for the Merengues' first-leg display against round-of-16 opponents FC Schalke 04.

Though Ramos would rather have come away with a clean sheet, Pepe reflected on a "great performance" from front to back, while Marcelo insisted there would be no celebrating until Madrid's place in the last eight is set in stone.

Sergio Ramos, Madrid defender

We're very happy with this result because we always want to score as many as we can. We've given ourselves a major advantage for the second leg, but we still have that game to play.

Schalke will want to present themselves in a different light at our place. They had a bad day at the office and are going to force us into another good performance in the return. They could have scored one or two at the start, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Myself and Iker [Casillas] would have preferred to keep a clean sheet, but they scored, so at least there was something for the home fans to cheer. In terms of what we can achieve this season, we're just taking it one game at a time, but of course we set ourselves big targets.

Pepe, Madrid defender

To be honest, I didn't think a game like that was possible at this stage of the competition, but we put in a strong performance from the very start and all the goals were well worked. The lads up front did really well, but it wasn't just them – it was a great performance from the whole team. We're all physically fit, mentally strong and have the composure to win games like these. That's what makes the difference at this level.

Marcelo, Madrid left-back

We're delighted with the result. Of course, it looks like we'll be going through, but we have a lot of respect for Schalke and won't be celebrating anything until after the second leg. We'll go into that game with the same passion and determination we showed tonight.

We went into tonight's game with the aim of scoring as many goals as possible to set ourselves up for the second leg. We played really well, but Schalke are still a very good and dangerous team with a lot of quality. We're going to have to give it everything in the second leg. Even after tonight's result, we're far from satisfied.