■ITALY
Kaka tips Ronaldo for award
Brazilian superstar Kaka believes Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo will succeed him as the world’s best player. The AC Milan midfielder cleaned up last year, winning both the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the European Golden Ball, following a year in which he guided the San Siro side to the Champions League, scoring 10 goals on the way to victory. Now he feels the Portuguese winger’s exploits in helping the English side to succeed Milan as European champions warrants him lifting the various trophies. “I believe that the No. 1 candidate is still Cristiano Ronaldo, above all for what he did and won in the Champions League with Manchester United,” Kaka told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Sportweek magazine.
■FRANCE
Tragedy overshadows game
Zinedine Zidane pulled on the blue shirt of France one more time on Saturday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the country’s 1998 World Cup triumph. But the occasion at the Stade de France was overshadowed by the death of a young fan who was killed in a road accident on his way to the ground. Zidane, who scored twice in the 3-0 win over Brazil in the World Cup final 10 years ago, scored the first goal of the night for the French side on the hour mark against a Rest of the World team. Emilio Butragueno had given the international select the lead in the 25th minute before Zidane’s leveller. Pedro Pauleta made it 2-1 to the world team before Ludovic Giuly equalized for France. Croatia’s Davor Suker and Bernard Diomede both scored in the last minute to ensure a 3-3 draw in front of a 75,000 crowd. Aime Jacquet, who coached the 1998 World Cup winners, admitted that the evening had been overshadowed by the death of the 10-year-old fan. A minute’s silence was held in the youngster’s honor.
■BRAZIL
Star set to defy Barca: report
Ronaldinho will reportedly break his contract with FC Barcelona if need be to go to the Beijing Olympics. Newspaper O Globo reported on Saturday that the two-time FIFA player of the year will next week tell the Spanish club of his plans to help Brazil win its first Olympic gold medal. “On Tuesday, Ronaldinho will announce that nothing will keep him away from the Beijing Olympics,” the newspaper said. “And if Barcelona insists on not allowing him to play, he will break his contract with the Spanish club. The first demonstration of his determination will take place on Monday when he will not report to [Barcelona coach] Josep Guardiola for training.” Earlier this week, Barcelona said Ronaldinho “will have to report for training on Monday, the first session of the 2008-2009 season. The Olympics do not form part of the official FIFA calendar, and no official decision has ever been made in that respect, so the club is under no obligation to allow its player to travel,” the club said in a statement.
■ITALY
Ball in Lampard’s court
Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti said on Saturday the decision whether Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard joins the San Siro outfit is ultimately down to the player. Moratti said that the time has arrived for the 30-year-old to make his intentions clear. “We’ve made our offer to Chelsea and now it depends on the player. He is someone we like, but we can’t do any more than this,” the Inter chief told Corriere dello Sport. Lampard has been a summer-long transfer target for the Italian champions.
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