GERMANY
Schweinsteiger ‘never fit’
Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola has cast doubt on Manchester United’s new midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger by saying his former player was never fully fit during the past three seasons. Guardiola said the 31-year-old Schweinsteiger can only be a success at the Premier League club if he can shake off his injury problems. “When he does not have injury problems, I am completely convinced he will do very well at Manchester United,” Guardiola was quoted as saying by the British media. “He is a top, top player. Unfortunately, during the last three years he was never in good condition. He is going to play really good there [at United]. I really hope that is going to happen.” German World Cup winner Schweinsteiger, who has been plagued by ankle and knee injuries throughout his career, spent 17 years at Bayern before joining United in the summer.
ENGLAND
City re-sign Barker
Manchester City have given 18-year-old winger Brandon Barker a new five-year contract to keep the promising English teenager at the club until 2020. Barker was one of City’s best academy players last season and has been at the club since the age of nine. His new deal is a four-year extension on the remaining year he had left on his current contract. “The talks have continued over the summer and this was the perfect time for me to sign the new contract,” Barker, who was included in the first team squad for City’s pre-season tour of Australia and Vietnam, told the club’s Web site (www.mcfc.com). “The manager has told all the young players that if we impress him, we will be given an opportunity. I need to impress in training and, just like the other lads coming through at the club, I need to take the chance when it comes along.”
ITALY
Khedira out with injury
Juventus’ new signing Sami Khedira will miss the first two months of the season with a thigh injury, the Serie A champions said on Monday. Khedira was injured during a pre-season friendly against Olympique Marseille on Saturday, the German’s first appearance for Juventus since his move from Real Madrid in June. The injury is the latest blow to Khedira, who barely featured for Real in the second half of last season. Real cited a series of nagging injuries, but Khedira said the club had decided he was no longer wanted. Khedira helped Germany reach the World Cup final last year, only to miss the game against Argentina after he was injured in the pre-match warm-up.
ENGLAND
Adidas withdraws United kit
Manchester United kit maker Adidas has been forced to defend its controversial new shirt designed specifically for female fans of the Premier League club. Adidas unveiled the first United kit of its £750 million (US$1.3 billion) deal with the Old Trafford team last week. However, the German sportswear giant was criticized for the design of the women’s shirt, which had a much lower neckline than the men’s version. One United fan, @MUnitedGirl, posted on Twitter: “Seriously Adidas? Why is the V-neck so low compared with the men’s one? Some of us don’t like to show cleavage. I call that discrimination. Nike never did that.” Responding to the criticism, Adidas said it took the thoughts of fans into account before producing the kit. Nike did not produce a women’s version of the United shirt last season and Adidas also said it has made women’s kits for the likes of Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich without complaints.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier