French
Inter Milan confirm Christian Eriksen on transfer list
Christian Eriksen could have played his last match for Inter Milan, with club CEO Giuseppe Marotta confirming Wednesday the Danish midfielder was on the transfer list. The former Tottenham midfielder missed Inter’s final game before Christmas at Verona on Wednesday, with Italian media reporting he had returned to Denmark to be with his wife who is due to give birth to their second child. “Eriksen is among the transfers,” Marotta told Sky Sport before the game. “It’s not a punishment but he has struggled to settle into the squad… so it is right to give him the opportunity to find more space elsewhere.” The Danish international arrived from Spurs on four-and-a-half-year deal in January for a reported fee of 27.5 million euros including bonuses. But the 28-year-old has scored just four goals ...
Laurent Blanc named new Al-Rayyan manager
Laurent Blanc returns to management 4 years later. He hadn’t managed since he left PSG, and now, he will try his luck at Al-Rayyan in Qatar. 4 years after leaving PSG, Laurent Blanc will return to management with Al-Rayyan, the Qatari club announced. The French manager, 55, signed for a year and a half, and his mission will be to improve their position in the Qatari league, as they are 6th and 12 points from top, Xavi Hernández’s Al-Sadd. Blanc was champion of the world in France 98 and of Europe in Belgium/Netherlands 2000 as a player, also managed Bordeaux for three seasons, spent 2 years at France and 3 at PSG. Curiously, his appointment as Al-Rayyan manager comes not long after he assured that he wouldn’t manage professionally anymore: “I no longer like football, I would only manage ch...
Neymar: No place for racism
Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir played their Champions League match to a conclusion on Wednesday, 24 hours after it had been suspended, with Neymar scoring a hat-trick before saying both teams had felt compelled to make a stand against racism in what was an unprecedented protest over an alleged comment by an official. PSG won the game 5-1 after it restarted where it had stopped the previous day, in the 14th minute, following a touchline argument over accusations the Romanian fourth official, Sebastian Coltescu, had described Basaksehir’s Cameroonian assistant coach Pierre Webo as “black”, or “negru” in Romanian. “Sometimes in extreme circumstances these things need to be done to see if the world can change a little,” said Neymar, who together with other players and the new team...
Pep Guardiola: Kun Aguero not ready to start Manchester derby
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says Sergio Aguero won’t start Saturday’s derby against United at Old Trafford. The Argentine, who has been troubled by knee injury and hamstring issues this season came off the bench to score Manchester City’s 3-0 win against French club Olympic Marseille on Wednesday night. Aguero has featured in five games across all competitions for the Citizens this season. Guardiola has said he will not take risks with the 32-year-old and will not be tempted to throw him in from the beginning at Old Trafford. Asked if Aguero could start the derby, Guardiola simply said: “No.” On his general performance, he added: “His instinct to score will always be there. He’s had three or four training sessions and the reaction was good. “He had 25 minutes and scored a goal. S...
Napoli boss rues Victor Osimhen’s absence
Napoli manager Gennaro Gattuso says the absence of Victor Osimhen is being felt within the team despite Sunday’s 4-0 win over Roma in a Series A tie. Osimhen suffered a shoulder injury while on duty for the Super Eagles during the international break, which has seen him miss a couple of games for the San Paolo Stadium outfit. And Manager, Gattuso while reacting to Napoli’s big win over Roma praised his team’s mentality but rues the absence of the Nigeria international. “We have missed Osimhen in recent weeks, remember, he is an important player,” Gattuso said of the Forward, who is gradually returning to fitness having commenced light training and gym work. Osimhen linked up with the Partenopei from French club Lille in a record deal in the summer. He has played a total of six matches for ...
On-loan Liverpool winger Sheyi Ojo stars in Cardiff rout
On-loan Liverpool winger Sheyi Ojo scored and weighed in with an assist as Cardiff City thumped Luton Town 4-0 in the Championship on Saturday. The Bluebirds were already 3-0 up when the wideman found the net in the 82nd minute following goals from Sean Morrison, Mark Harris and Kieffer Moore during thoroughly one-sided affair in which the hosts took a two-goal lead after nine minutes. Ojo had also contributed the assist for Harris’s ninth-minute goal—the forward’s first for the club—when he sent a fine cross from the left flank for the Wales U-21 international to dispatch with aplomb. The Anglo-Nigerian wideman then added the fourth late on, when he slammed home into the far corner after Marlon Pack’s corner was cleared into his path. Ojo impressed on the left flank—with Harry Wilson also...
Europe to pay less than US for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
The European Union has struck a deal to initially pay less for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate than the United States, an EU official told Reuters News Agency as the bloc announced on Wednesday it had secured an agreement for up to 300 million doses. The experimental drug, developed in conjunction with Germany’s BioNTech, is the frontrunner in a global race to produce a vaccine, with interim data released on Monday showing it was more than 90 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19 in a large-scale clinical trial. Under the EU deal, 27 European countries could buy 200 million doses, and have an option to buy another 100 million. The bloc will pay less than $19.50 per jab, a senior EU official involved in talks with vaccine makers told Reuters, adding that partly reflected ...
French president says he ‘understands’ Muslims shock over Prophet Muhammad cartoons
French President Emmanuel Macron said he can understand why Muslims were shocked by caricatures depicting the prophet Muhammad. But in an interview with Al Jazeera broadcast on Saturday, he said he could never accept the issue being used to justify violence. “I understand and respect that we can be shocked by these caricatures,” Macron said. “I will never accept that we can justify physical violence for these caricatures and I will always defend in my country the freedom to say, to write, to think, to draw.” Tensions flared with some Muslim majority countries who have held anti-Macron protests and called for a boycott of French products after he publically promised France would not “renounce the caricatures”. Macron made the comments following the October 16 murder of French school teacher...
Kylian Mbappe on target as PSG win without injured Neymar
Kylian Mbappe scored from the penalty spot as Paris Saint-Germain eased to their seventh straight Ligue 1 win on Saturday, beating Nantes 3-0 away to move provisionally three points clear at the top of the table. All the goals came in the second half at the Stade de la Beaujoire, with Ander Herrera opening the scoring two minutes after the restart and Mbappe converting a 65th-minute spot-kick before Pablo Sarabia secured the points late on. PSG have now taken maximum points since starting the season with back-to-back defeats and the reigning champions are three clear of Lille and Rennes at the summit. Lille, who are unbeaten, can rejoin the club from the capital at the top if they beat Lyon on Sunday. Rennes beat Brest 2-1 on Saturday. “I am very happy. We made lots of changes because we f...
Oil prices slide in lockdown-driven rout
Oil prices dived Thursday on demand fears as more nations go into lockdown to staunch the spread of the coronavirus, while stock prices attempted a modest rebound. Both main oil contracts fell five percent for part of the day before clawing back some of their losses, extending this week’s meltdown to plumb four-month lows on virus-driven demand fears. “The new lockdowns have since yesterday caused a carnage in the oil market,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy. “Oil demand will lose ground as a result of the new lockdowns… Prices now naturally decline on this grim prospect,” he added. The drop in oil prices will increase the pain on oil companies. Exxon Mobil announced Thursday it was eliminating 1,900 US jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive necessitated in part ...
Saudi wounds guard at French consulate in knife attack
A Saudi citizen has wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in Jeddah on Thursday, state media and the French embassy said. “The assailant was apprehended by Saudi security forces immediately after the attack. The guard was taken to hospital and his life is not in danger,” the embassy said in a statement. Police in Mecca province, where Jeddah is situated, said the attacker was a Saudi, but it did not give the nationality of the guard, who they said had sustained minor injuries. The French embassy in Riyadh strongly condemned the attack and urged its nationals in Saudi Arabia to exercise “extreme vigilance”. Neither the Saudi authorities nor the French embassy gave any indication of the motivation for the attack. The assault came after a suspect in France, also armed with...
U.S. warns Pacific islands about Chinese bid for undersea cable project
The United States has warned Pacific island nations about security threats posed by a Chinese company’s cut-price bid to build an undersea internet cable, two sources told Reuters, part of an international development project in the region. Huawei Marine, which was recently divested from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and is now majority-owned by another Chinese firm, submitted bids along with French-headquartered Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Finland’s Nokia, and Japan’s NEC, for the $72.6 million project backed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the sources with direct knowledge of the project details said. The project is designed to improve communications to the island nations of Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati. Washington sent a diploma...