Nelson Mandela met South Africa’s national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, on Thursday, wearing the captain’s No. 4 shirt, to help inspire the team in this month’s World Cup which the country is hosting.
The former South African president, who turns 92 next month, is increasingly frail and rarely makes public appearances.
His stature, however, is widely seen to have helped sway the 2004 vote to award the Cup to the country, and FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Wednesday his presence at the opening match on Friday would be a highlight of the tournament.
The Mandela Foundation said in a statement he was introduced to the team and coaching staff at their Johannesburg offices.
His office, however, would not confirm media reports that the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who led South Africa out of Apartheid in 1994, would attend the World Cup opening ceremony.
“The Nelson Mandela Foundation does not disclose Mr Mandela’s schedule in public for security reasons,” said Sello Hatang, spokesman for the foundation.
South African Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile was quoted in the Star newspaper as saying Mandela wanted to attend the World Cup and that his office had asked for tickets.
The ruling African National Congress also said Mandela would be there.
“The information that we have from his office is that he will be attending the opening and will also be attending the closing ceremony,” the party’s spokesman Jackson Mthembu said. “We are happy that Madiba [Mandela’s clan name] will come and the Madiba magic will also add to this excitement.”
Mandela helped inspire the Springbok rugby team to World Cup glory at home in 1995, famously wearing captain Francois Pienaar’s jersey, but Mandela’s office has stressed in the past that the decision about attending events this year was solely up to him and would not be made public.
Some observers have suggested poor health may keep him away from Africa’s first hosting of the world’s most watched sports event.
South Africa play Mexico in the opening game in a tough Group A that also includes previous winners France and Uruguay.
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