Football

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean teen on Wednesday (Jun 2) admitted to harassing English Premier League footballer Neal Maupay by threatening to kill the Brighton & Hove Albion forward and his family in online messages sent last year. Derek Ng De Ren, 19, was in Singapore when he sent the threats to Maupay via Instagram direct message, according to court documents. The court heard that Ng was a junior college student and watched the game between Arsenal and Brighton on television around 10pm on Jun

What is soccer? It is a team game played by two teams of eleven players with a round ball. Well, the main purpose of a soccer game is scoring goals against opponents. Any player on the field, including a striker, defender, midfielder, and even a goalkeeper, can score goals. However, is scoring soccer goals easy? Well, if you don’t know a proper technique, then scoring goals can be one of the most difficult tasks. So whether you are a casual or professional soccer

BARCELONA: Barcelona on Tuesday (Jun 1) confirmed that Manchester City defender Eric Garcia would join them on Jul 1 when his contract with the Premier League champions expires. Garcia will return to his boyhood club on a deal until the end of the 2025-26 campaign after three years at City and follows striker Sergio Aguero in making the switch from Manchester to the Camp Nou. Barca said they had included a €400 million (US$489.52 million) buyout clause in the 20-year-old Garcia's contract. The

BRUSSELS: Thierry Henry is rejoining Belgium’s coaching staff for the European Championship where he will serve again as one of coach Roberto Martinez’s assistants, the Belgian football association said on Sunday (May 30). Henry, 43, worked on Martinez’s staff from mid-2016 until just after the World Cup in Russia, where Belgium finished third. The former World cup winner then went to Monaco as coach and later to Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer before returning to working as a television pundit in Britain.

Chelsea won the Champions League for the second time as a Kai Havertz goal secured a tense 1-0 victory over Manchester City in Saturday's final in Porto, shattering Pep Guardiola's dream of lifting the trophy for the third time. Havertz rounded Ederson to score three minutes before half-time at the Estadio do Dragao and the Chelsea players ran to celebrate with the German. Coach Thomas Tuchel, full of energy on the touchline just like his opposite number, punched the air in celebration, and later jumped

Brentford were promoted to the Premier League for the first time in 74 years on Saturday as they beat Swansea 2-0 in a Championship play-off final worth around 180 million pounds ($255 million) to the winners. Thomas Frank's side completed their fairytale rise thanks to first-half goals from Ivan Toney and Emiliano Marcondes at Wembley. Swansea's Jay Fulton was sent off midway through the second half to put the result beyond doubt in what is widely regarded as football's single most lucrative game. After decades

LOS ANGELES: Nike said on Thursday (May 27) it parted ways with Neymar last year after the superstar Brazil attacker "refused to cooperate in a good faith investigation" as the company probed an employee's claim that he sexually assaulted her. The apparel giant said in a statement that its investigation into the alleged 2016 incident - which was reported to the company in 2018 - was inconclusive. "No single set of facts emerged that would enable us to speak substantively on the matter,"

HONG KONG: FIFA have voided North Korea's results in the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2022 World Cup after they pulled out of the preliminaries earlier this month. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed North Korea's withdrawal on May 15, which followed the country's decision not to participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic. North Korea had been competing in Group H of Asia's preliminaries alongside South Korea, Lebanon, Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka. With North Korea's

LAUSANNE: Up to 16,500 spectators will be allowed to attend the Champions League final in Porto on Saturday, UEFA announced on Tuesday (May 25) with the opening of ticket sales. The figure permitted by the Portuguese authorities is one-third of the capacity of the Estadio do Dragao which took over hosting the final in mid-May after Istanbul was ruled out by COVID-19 problems. UEFA had already allocated 6,000 tickets each to finalists Chelsea and Manchester City. To this will be added the traditional

MADRID: Veteran midfielder Luka Modric has signed a contract extension which will keep him at Real Madrid until the end of next season, the La Liga giants announced on Tuesday (May 25). The 35-year-old Croatian international, who won the Ballon d'Or in 2018, has played 391 times for Madrid since joining from Tottenham in 2012. "The Croatian midfielder will remain at our club until 30 June, 2022," Real said in a short statement. Modric has remained a key player for Zinedine Zidane's men

UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus over their attempts to launch a breakaway Super League, European soccer's governing body said on Tuesday. The clubs are the only three of the original 12 to have not distanced themselves from the project following an outpouring of criticism. "Following an investigation conducted by UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspectors in connection with the so-called 'Super League' project, disciplinary proceedings have been opened against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus FC for a potential

LONDON: Sergio Aguero is close to agreeing a move to Barcelona that would unite him with fellow Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, according to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. City's record goalscorer, who has spent a decade at the Etihad, scored a quickfire double in the champions' 5-0 win over Everton in his final Premier League appearance for the club on Sunday. The goals took his Premier League tally to 184 - the most by any player for a single club. The 32-year-old forward

LONDON: Mateo Kovacic has three Champions League winners' medals tucked away but the Croatian has never played a minute of a final. The versatile midfielder hopes that changes on Saturday when Chelsea take on Manchester City in Porto. "I've played my part in three (Champions League winning teams) at Real Madrid, not the biggest, maybe not like here," Kovacic, who was injured for the 2016 final in Milan and was an unused substitute in Cardiff in 2017 and Kiev in 2018. Obviously, I

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes says he is "honoured to be compared" with club legend Eric Cantona and is embracing that "good pressure" before Wednesday's Europa League final. Cantona's arrival from Leeds in 1992 is regarded as the catalyst for United to end their 26-year wait for a league title and embark on their era of dominance under Sir Alex Ferguson. Fernandes' efforts have helped United secure a top-three place in successive seasons for the first time since Ferguson retired in 2013. They

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been voted the League Managers Association's manager of the year. The Spaniard led City to their third Premier League title in four years. The club also won this season's Carabao Cup and face Chelsea in the Champions League final on Saturday. The five other managers in contention were Leeds' Marcelo Bielsa, Norwich City's Daniel Farke, Chelsea Women's Emma Hayes, David Moyes of West Ham and Leicester's Brendan Rodgers. "I am delighted to win the LMA manager of

The CAF Super Cup 2020 Local Organising Committee (LOC) has announced that fans will be permitted to attend the 29th edition of the match will be played in Doha, Qatar. The tournament match will be played by the TOTAL CAF Champions League champions Al Ahly SC, of Egypt, and Moroccan team RS Berkane, who won the TOTAL CAF Confederations Cup. The match will be held at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Qatar on Friday, as the game is scheduled to commence at 7pm.

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo finished the 2020-21 campaign as Serie A's top scorer to become the only player to achieve the feat in the Premier League, La Liga and Italy's top flight. The 36-year-old scored 29 goals as the Bianconeri finished the season in fourth place. Inter Milan won the Serie A title, ending Juve's nine-year dominance. In Ronaldo's third season in Italy, he has won the Capocannoniere race for the first time after having scored 21 in 2018-19, which was five behind

MANCHESTER: Sergio Aguero signed off for Manchester City in style on Sunday, scoring twice in a 5-0 romp for the Premier League champions against Everton before lifting the trophy for the fifth time in his Etihad career. City's record goalscorer, who is leaving the club after next week's Champions League final, hit a quickfire double after coming off the bench with 25 minutes remaining. His efforts added to earlier strikes from Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden as City showed no

BIRMINGHAM: Liverpool and Chelsea grabbed the final two Champions League places but Leicester City fell short of a top-four finish for the second successive season on a nerve-jangling final day of the Premier League season on Sunday. Liverpool avoided any drama as they beat Crystal Palace 2-0 to finish in third spot - a silver lining to a difficult season in which their attempted defence of the title crumbled. Chelsea lost 2-1 at Aston Villa - a result that could have been curtains

Robert Lewandowski on Saturday broke Gerd Mueller's 49-year-old record when he bagged a 41st Bundesliga goal of the campaign seconds before the final whistle on the last weekend of the season. Mueller, 75, is suffering from severe dementia, but 'The Bomber' remains an iconic figure in German football as the Bundesliga's all-time top scorer with 365 goals, well ahead of Lewandowski's tally of 277. Many thought Mueller's record of 40 goals for Bayern Munich in 1971/72 would never be matched until Lewandowski rounded the goalkeeper to