Former England captain David Beckham believes he can add experience to England at next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport yesterday, the former England captain explained that his sights are set firmly on the global soccer showpiece in Africa as well as AC Milan’s quest to return to next season’s Champions League.
Milan spent a year in purgatory in the UEFA Cup this season after finishing fifth in Serie A last time out and failing to qualify for Europe’s premier competition.
But most important for him is the World Cup and Beckham believes he still has a lot to offer.
“My experience for one, because it’s a young team,” he said. “For me it would be enough just to be useful to the team and to keep working with [Fabio] Capello, who has changed our mentality. We needed that.”
At club level, Beckham would love to see out his career next season with a Champions League final against his former club Manchester United, although he admitted he would find it difficult playing against the team he supported as a boy.
“It would be a problem, but if next season there was a Milan-Manchester final, I would want to win, even if I support United,” he said. “This season I would like to see Manchester play Barcelona. My former colleagues would win, because right now United are too good for everyone. Even if Liverpool with [Steven] Gerrard, one of the best in the world, are dangerous.”
Beckham will stay at Milan until the end of the season before returning to the Los Angeles Galaxy for the rest of this year’s Major League Soccer season.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB