SOCCER
Giroud to end France career
France striker Olivier Giroud said he plans to end his international career after the UEFA European Championship next month. The 37-year-old forward has scored 57 goals in 131 matches for France and was part of the France squad who won the 2018 FIFA World Cup. “To be honest, this will be my last competition with Les Bleus. Obviously, I’m going to miss it a lot,” Giroud told L’Equipe in an interview published on Thursday.
SOCCER
Stefano Pioli leaves Milan
Stefano Pioli has left AC Milan, the Serie A club said yesterday, after a season of disappointing results. The 19-time Italian champions were second this season, miles behind champions Inter, and had a lackluster run in the UEFA Champions League and the domestic cups. “AC Milan extends heartfelt thanks to Stefano Pioli and his entire staff for leading the first team over the past five years, securing an unforgettable league title and re-establishing AC Milan’s consistent presence in the top European competition,” the club said.
SOCCER
Lucas Paqueta charged
West Ham United midfielder Lucas Paqueta on Thursday was charged by English soccer authorities after it was alleged that the Brazil international deliberately received cards during Premier League matches to influence betting markets. “I deny the charges in their entirety and will fight with every breath to clear my name,” Paqueta wrote on Instagram. The case centers around four matches from November 2022 to August last year. Paqueta received a yellow card in each of them. The Football Association said Paqueta has been charged with misconduct for breaching two of its rules. “It’s alleged that he directly sought to influence the progress, conduct, or any other aspect of, or occurrence in these matches by intentionally seeking to receive a card from the referee for the improper purpose of affecting the betting market in order for one or more persons to profit from betting,” it said. He was also charged with “alleged failures to comply,” it said.
SOCCER
Trophy sale opposed
Diego Maradona’s heirs have taken legal action in France to block the sale of the Argentine legend’s Golden Ball trophy from the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. The trophy given to the tournament’s best player had been missing for decades before being found by an antique dealer in the French capital. It is due to be sold by Aguttes auction house in Neuilly-sur-Seine on June 6. Lawyers for the family of Maradona, who died in 2020 aged 60, said that the item, which is expected to fetch millions, rightly belongs to his five heirs.
BASKETBALL
Toronto to get WNBA team
Toronto is to be the home of a WNBA expansion franchise, the first outside of the US, starting in 2026, officials said on Thursday. “Toronto, welcome to the W,” league commissioner Cathy Engelbert told a news conference. “It’s such a pivotal moment for our league,” she said. Toronto’s as-yet-unnamed WNBA team is to be the league’s newest club, with the 13th team coming next year, the Golden State Valkyries, playing out of San Francisco.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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