■ CZECH REPUBLIC
Slavia want Patrik Berger
Czech league leaders Slavia Prague want veteran midfielder Patrik Berger to return to the club, director Petr Dolezal said on Thursday. "His contract runs out at the end of this season. We are sounding him out," Dolezal told Nova TV. Berger played for Slavia from 1991-1995 before moving to Borussia Dortmund, where he picked up a Bundesliga title in 1996. He joined Liverpool in the same year following the Czech national team's impressive run to the Euro-96 finals, moved to Portsmouth in 2003 and more recently Aston Villa where his extended contract runs out in May.
■ ITALY
Inter near signing Brazilian
Inter Milan are on the verge of signing Brazilian Daniel Carvalho from CSKA Moscow, the club's general manager, Ernesto Paolillo said on Thursday. The attacking midfielder came to Italy to have a medical and will join the club once the winter transfer window opens next month. "Our coaching staff have been following Carvalho for some time and the time has come to make a decision," Paolillo said. "I think when you look at the signings we've made over the last two years and the results the players have achieved, you can see that whoever is scouting players has done not a good job but a great job."
■ ARGENTINA
Maradona wants Chavez
Soccer great Diego Maradona wants to add an image of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to his well-known collection of tattoos of leftist leaders. "I'd like to get some sort of Chavez tattoo, really," Maradona told reporters on Wednesday ahead of a celebrity indoor soccer match. Maradona has a tattoo of Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara on his right shoulder and another of Cuban leader Fidel Castro on his left leg. Maradona, considered by many the best soccer player of all time, lived several years in Cuba while recovering from drug addiction. There he made friends with Castro, who is a close ally of Chavez.
■ GERMANY
Lehmann looks like staying
VfL Wolfsburg's coach Felix Magath insisted on Thursday there is little chance German national team goalkeeper Jens Lehmann will leave English giants Arsenal to join the Bundesliga side. Wolfsburg's owners -- car giants Volkswagen -- said earlier this week they were interested in signing Arsenal's disgruntled goalkeeper while Magath also said he wanted to sign the Gunners' shot-stopper. Lehmann, 38, has been out of favor at the English Premier League side since being replaced by Spaniard Manuel Almunia in September and has said he would like to return to Germany in the future. "My information is that Lehmann will stay in London," Magath told yesterday's edition of Ruhr Nachrichten.
■ ENGLAND
Grant contract extended
Chelsea have crushed suggestions that Avram Grant was only a stop-gap appointment by handing the former Israel boss a new four-year contract as the west London club's manager/first-team coach. The unexpected news was announced by the club on Thursday, three days before Grant takes Chelsea to Arsenal for a crunch clash with the Premier League leaders. The new deal for Grant, 52, is a reward for the strong form Chelsea have shown since the former Israel manager took over from Jose Mourinho in September. Although Chelsea lost his first match in charge to Manchester United, they are since unbeaten in 16 games.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but