Shortlist of nominees for the Ballon d’Or award 2010 has been announced by Fifa. Spanish players dominate, which isn’t a big surprise. There are no English players and only 3 Premier League players make the list. They are Didier Drogba, Asamoah Gyan and Cesc Fabregas.
Reigning Ballon d’Or winner and Fifa World Player of the Year Lionel Messi is also nominated. We will know the results on Jan 10, 2011.
Aston Villa are going to be without their captain Stiliyan Petrov for at least 2 months according to Houllier. He said:
We have lost Petrov for maybe at least two months. We will know whether he needs an operation by the middle of the week. It’s a shame because he was getting back to a good level.
The Bulgarian picked up the injury against Sunderland on Saturday.
After the match on Sunday against Man City, Cesc Fabregas was interviewed on Sky Sports where he made this comment:
Even if they were 15 and we were 11, we would still go and win.
Now anybody watching that interview can clearly see what he meant by those words and they were in no way meant as a diss to Man City, but the media got a little carried away and now Fabregas has come out and clarified exactly what he meant:
I never said we would beat City with 15 men, I said that even if they were 15 players, we’d have to still try to go for the victory as usual.
Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo has written off his Ferrari in a crash near Manchester Airport.
The 23-year-old winger was driving the sports car through a tunnel beneath the runways when he smashed into a barrier.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said his team-mate Edwin van der Sar was following in his Bentley, but the Dutch keeper was not involved in the crash.
Ronaldo was not injured in the accident, which happened on the A538 Altrincham Road at about 1020 GMT.
One lane of the road has been closed while the debris is removed.
More from the BBC
Tottenham have signed Defoe from Portsmouth on a 5 year contract. Defoe returns to his old club in which he left less than a year ago and will cost them £15m.
“Portsmouth can confirm a fee has been agreed with Tottenham for Jermain Defoe,” read a statement from Pompey.
Defoe scored 17 goals in 36 games for Portsmouth, comprising eight in his first seven matches and nine more this season.
The Spurs board continue to amaze me, they sold Defoe whilst he didn’t want to go and now they buy him back for double the price…nice bit of business there guys!
Carlos Tevez has reacted angrily to Alex Ferguson’s comments regarding his contract situation.
He said:
I didn’t like him saying I didn’t like the offer I was made because neither my agent nor me were given one,
I don’t know anything on my future. United know what they must pay if they want me to stay.
I want everybody to know no offer has been made. I don’t like that they are playing with our fans, who show their love to me in each match.
I will sign my last contract and then I figure that I’ll go back to Boca Juniors. That could be in four or five years.
I say well done to Tevez for standing up to Ferguson because it seems like Fegie is trying to get rid of him and trying to do it in a sly way.
After much speculation Chelsea have confirmed that Scolari will be their new manager. A club statement read:
Chelsea Football Club is delighted to confirm that Luiz Felipe Scolari will be the club’s new manager from July 1, 2008.
Lets hope “Big Phil” can give abramovich what he wants and get Chelsea playing attractive football.
Following the news that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to Join Real Madrid, a user on Youtube has put together a video of his “top 3 penalties” with the soundtrack “You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys” …classic.
Here is the video:
(more…)
Apparantly, Cristiano Ronaldo wants to join Real Madrid saying:
I’d like to play for Real Madrid but only if it’s true they are ready to pay what Manchester United ask of them.
However, it does not depend on me.
I’ll only talk about this again after the European Championships. Don’t ask me any questions because I won’t answer.
How are Man Utd reacting? well Rio Ferdinand wants him to stay and Alex Ferguson is on his way to Switzerland to try and persuade him to stay.
The Daily Mail is reporting that:
Bookmakers have stopped taking bets on Match of the Day’s goal-of-the-season competition after a huge plunge on Emmanuel Adebayor.
The Arsenal striker’s stunning goal at Spurs in September was 9-2 third favourite to top the poll.
But those odds plummeted to 1-5 after 400 bets were staked on the Gunners ace in little over four hours yesterday afternoon.
Leading bookmaker Blue Square suspended betting amid fears of a BBC insider tipping off punters.
Here is a link to the goals