Manchester United sent Radamel Falcao back to AS Monaco on Sunday after a disappointing season-long loan in which the Colombia international failed to show the predatory instincts that once made him one of the world’s top strikers.
United announced the club would not be exercising the option to sign the 29-year-old Falcao on a permanent deal, which would have cost £43.2 million (US$67 million) for a player who scored just four goals in 29 matches this season.
“Falcao is a top professional and a good human being,” United manager Louis van Gaal said. “On behalf of myself and everyone at the club, I would like to wish him well for the future.”
United paid about £6 million to Monaco on deadline day in Europe’s summer transfer window last year to take Falcao on loan for the season, with an option to buy.
OUT OF FORM
However, Falcao has not managed to reproduce the kind of form that made him stand out during prolific spells with Porto and Atletico Madrid.
He does not appear to have recovered fully from the serious knee injury that ruled him out of last year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and robbed him of his explosive pace and movement.
Colombia’s all-time top scorer scored for United in his fourth game — a 2-1 win over Everton — but only netted three more times since October last year and not in his past 13 matches.
INJURY
Falcao was left out of Manchester United’s squad for the final game of the season, at Hull City on Sunday, through injury, Van Gaal said.
His last match was the 1-1 draw against Arsenal at Old Trafford the previous weekend.
The departure of Falcao leaves United short of options up front, especially with doubts surrounding the future of striker Robin van Persie.
Falcao joined Monaco from Atletico in 2013 in a deal worth 60 million euros (then US$78 million).
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