So Manchester United and Real Madrid hatched the Ronaldo snatch a year ago, if ex-President Ramon Calderon is to be believed. "Last season, Manchester United decided not to do it because they thought it was too early," Calderon told BBC Radio. "Everyone involved in the operation agreed to do it this season. That is what I can say." Real boss Juande Ramos corroborated this amazing claim: "We already knew that Real Madrid had a pre -contract agreement with Cristiano Ronaldo and that it was only a matter of time," he confirmed. So the transfer was done and dusted a year ago and it was only its timing which had to be mutually decided, it appears. There was no mention of the £80 million fee, which presumably was pencilled in by the two clubs after Euro 2008.

for week of 5/3 Bayern oust Klinsmann, install Heynckess In an extremely rare move for the otherwise orderly club, Bayern Munich have sacked coach Jürgen Klinsmann with just five League games to go in an attempt of salvaging the season and securing at least a place in the Champions League. After crashing in both the German Cup and the Champions League, Bayern lost to Schalke 04 and dropped to third, behind Wolfsburg and Hertha and level on points with ambitious Stuttgart. Beckenbauer and Rummenigge thought that was the last straw and replaced Klinsmann with the far more trustworthy Jupp Heynckes.

World Soccer News For the week of 12/19 Ferguson labels Real Madrid as "the mob" It's more than rivalry. It's enmity. It's been simmering some time now and it has escalated this week over Cristiano Ronaldo. After learning of reports in the Spanish press that Manchester United had agreed to sell Cristian Ronaldo next summer, Sir Alex Ferguson slammed Real Madrid, saying he would never do another deal with "that mob". Spanish daily El Mundo reported that United and Madrid had reached a gentleman's agreement for Ronaldo's transfer to Santiago Bernabeu next summer. The agreement was supposed to be kept secret, but at least three Real's directors could not resist chatting about that with their acquaintances. Now Ferguson says there is no chance he will sell Europe's top player to the Spanish club because of Real's ungentlemanly conduct. "Do you think I would get into a contract with that mob. Jesus Christ, no chance. I wouldn't sell them a virus," he said in a press conference in Japan where his team reached FIFA's Club World Cup finals against Liga de Quito. "There is absolutely no agreement at all between the clubs." Still, could Manchester United's hierarchy have made a deal with Real's Ramón Calderón behind Sir Alex's back? Why not, since Ronaldo is eager to join one of the few clubs more glamorous than United themselves and the closer his contract due to run until 2012 nears the end the lower his price-tag will be. As early as next July, the Portuguese will be able to buy off his own contract at the price of his remaining salary of 120,000 pounds per week which must be less than what Real are ready to pay for a regular transfer fee. Beckenbauer calls Rensing an amateur for Stuttgart blunder Bayern Munich club president Franz Beckenbauer fiercely criticised keeper Michael Rensing for an error that led to the two point loss last Saturday against Stuttgart. Bayern were 2-1 ahead until the last minute but then conceded a goal because Rensing, according to Beckenbauer, failed to intervene in time and seize the ball. "When a keeper runs out from the goal, he has to catch the ball. The way in which he attempted to fist the ball away was amateurish," said the "Kaiser" after the match. "His criticism is a heap of nonsense. At least three or four players were straight ahead of me. I could not simply push them away. Furthermore, I was fouled and Jens Lehmann (Stuttgart's goalie) confirmed that with me that afterwards," replied Rensing, who succeeded the legendary Oliver Kahn at the start of this season. "Earlier I was a bit irritated by being criticised, but not any more. Everybody is trying to be clever after the game. In fact my goal is to be Germany's first choice keeper one day," admitted Rensing, brave for standing up to the authoritative Beckenbauer. Another Eto'os sweet revenge on Real Madrid The biggest club match in the world, the Spanish el clásico, allowed Barcelona to open a 12-point gap over Real Madrid and cost Bernd Schuster his job at the Bernabeu. Scoring the opener in the 2-0 win for the Catalan side, Samuel Eto'o showed he had not forgotten Real Madrid's debt for having disowned him on three occasions. In 1999, Madrid loaned him to Espanyol, in 2000 to Mallorca and then in 2004 refused to pay 11 million euros to the same club to buy out the other half of the player's contract. Barcelona paid the full transfer and carried the big prize, as Eto'o went on to score 94 goals in only 122 Primera división appearances and the equalizer in the 2006 Champions League final against Arsenal. Since arriving from Mallorca, Eto'o has scored four goals against Real, the first in 2004 at Nou Camp in a 3-0 win, the second the next year at the Bernabeu in a 4-2 loss and the third in late 2005 as Barcelona smashed Real by 3-0 in Madrid. Three years have passed since that night and Eto'o failed time and time again to add the fourth against his archrivals. It seemed that the drought would continue when the Cameroonian missed a penalty with 20 minutes remaining, but in the 83rd minute he made up for the miss beating Íker Casillas with a marvellously predatory strike. Ironically, new coach Josep Guardiola last summer thought of getting rid of the sometimes overly temperamental Eto'o, but changed his mind just in time when noticing the striker's commitment in the pre-season. And the African has repaid him with 15 goals so far in the Spanish league alone. And it's not even Christmas. Mourinho and Mihajlovic, forever friends Inter's coach José Mourinho has found an equally sharp-tongued rival in Sinisa Mihajlovic, new boss at Bologna. Their conflict flared up over Inter's player Adriano Leite, of whom Mihajlovic said he should not be allowed to practice with the first team on account of his frequent disciplinary breaches. Mourinho promptly replied to Mihajlovic, former assistant coach at Inter during Roberto Mancini's reign. "Everybody deserves a second chance. If Inter once allowed their player to practice with the first team even though he had spat at an opponent in the face, why shouldn't Adriano get a new chance?" The man alluded at by Mourinho was none other than Mihajlovic, who on one occasion spat on Adrian Mutu. The Serb coach responded vehemently to the Portuguese. "I cannot discuss soccer with Mourinho because he never played and he does not understand certain things. I did all sorts of stuff in my career which could not be justified and for which I got punished," said Mihajlovic. "By the way, his remark had nothing to do with what I said of Adriano." Now it was Mourinho's turn to make fun of Mihajlovic for not working at Inter anymore. "My assistant today is (Giuseppe) Baresi but Mihajlovic is speaking of Inter as if he was still working here." Mihajlovic left San Siro last summer alongside his friend, head coach Mancini, to make room for - Mourinho. Brazilian President happy: Ronaldo, welcome to my Corinthians Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, is thrilled that Ronaldo Nazario Lima has signed for Corinthians, the club that Lula has supported since childhood. "I was greatly pleased by the news. First, because he is a good chap and second, because he has done Brazil great service," said Lula to tv channel Bandeirantes. "It is true that he has reached the veteran stage (32), so he is likely to score fewer goals than before, but he can still be useful at the club level. I appeal to the fans to be patient with him if he does not start playing great right away." Somewhat less thrilled are Flamengo fans, who expected Ronaldo to join their team instead of their Sao Paulo "enemies". Some of the Rio team's ultras have even hired a witchdoctor whose job it is to conjure some black magic and prevent Ronaldo from triumphing at Corinthians. Some fans have even expressed desire to see the "traitor" break his leg so he could not make his debut for his new club! Riquelme on target for inciting violence Although an idol for millions of Argentinians, Juan Román Riquelme has been summoned to court to answer charges over inciting violence. Riquelme appeared this week at a misdemeanor court in Buenos Aires under charges of inciting disorder during a league game last November. The cause for the trial seems trivial indeed. During the Boca vs Rácing game (2-1), a spectator had shouted abuse and made rude gestures towards Boca's players. After volleying the winning goal, Riquelme ran 50 meters towards the stand where the abusive fan was sitting and showed him the finger. The public prosecutor claims Boca's midfielder "violated two rules, one concerning inciting disorder and other related to the progress of the match." If sentenced, Riquelme could be fined up to 300 euros or jailed for ten days. "The fan persistently insulted me and other players. One has no right to grab one's testicles and shout abuse to everybody coming close to the touchline," said Riquelme. His solicitor believes his client will be acquitted and next to appear in court will be the disorderly fan, a certain Agustín Pozzetti. Copyright Ozren Podnar&Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} We are quickly approaching that wholesale time of the year again when everyone is out for a bargain following the Christmas rush, the same going for the top clubs around Europe . Whilst many people will be looking for a cheap television every manager across Western Europe will be on the hunt for that missing element in their side.

World Soccer News for week of November 14th Drogba investigated over coin throwing Chelsea's great run this season has come to a halt in the fourth round of the Carling Cup against Burnley. While the fans are likely to dismiss the penalty loss as a minor setback, Didier Drogba may find himself out of action should the FA find him guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct. Drogba is investigated for an incident when he threw a coin back at the crowd. The Ivory Coast forward was pelted with coins from the visiting fans' stand after scoring the (ultimately futile) opening goal. He must have thought the Burnley followers had spent too much money and he threw one coin back to the crowd, garnering it with an obscene gesture. Drogba received a yellow card and immediately apologized, saying "it was an incident in the heat of the moment (...) a mistake and nothing more". The apology should be enough for if indeed he is punished for the incident one has to wonder how much the players are expected to take from the hooligans who threaten them with injury by aiming solid objects at them. Ruud van Nistelrooy says adiós to the season Real Madrid's Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy will not be playing any more until next summer because of the surgery on his right knee proved to be more complex than expected. Operated in the United States, Van Nistelrooy suffered a partially torn meniscus in a recent game against Juventus in the Champions' League. Last year Spanish top scorer will be sorely missed by Real Madrid, who are now relying on the young gun Gonzalo Higuaín and captain Raúl to provide most of the goals. The Dutchman had already hurt that same knee in 2000 when he performed a clumsy move during a practice with PSV Eindhoven. He sustained an extensive ligament damage which ruled him out for ten months, but he returned in style and went on to enjoy a prosperous career with Manchester United. Antonio Cassano in a scoring spree At 26, Antonio Cassano is a true champion on the field, but under the sheets even more so. The controversial Italian international spoke openly of his eventful life to journalist Pierluigi Pardo, who penned Cassano's biography called "Dico tutto" (I Say It All). The book is bound to be a best-seller, since the Bari-born forward spoke of his turbulent childhood in the crime-ridden southern city and of his wonderful scoring streak since he became a professional footballer. Scoring with women, that is. Cassano admitted to having conquered between 600 and 700 girls, and we can forgive him for this approximation since it is must be hard to keep an accurate count after a while. The fans only wish he had been nearly as prolific in front of goal and the confession will hardly amuse his current girlfriend, the 17-year-old waterpolo player Carolina Marcialis. Antonio is also quoted as saying, "Sex and food – these are my two great passions, a perfect marriage." At least the second part of this statement clearly shows on the size of his butt. England to play in Spain next February The friendly fixture between Spain and England is on after all, in spite of last month's rumours emitted from the FA that the game would be cancelled due to Spain's worrying racism record. According to Marca daily, this week the Spanish FA (RFEF) received a conciliatory message from their English counterparts, confirming that a friendly would go on as planned on February 11th. In October the FA alleged the February date was not suitable for them, making the Spaniards suspect England wanted to ditch the game altogether because of a number of racially coloured incidents that took place in their country. Four years ago RFEF were fined by FIFA because of the infamous racist taunts against Ashley Cole, Wright-Phillips, Ferdinand, Jenas and Defoe. In the meantime, the former national team coach Luis Aragonés alluded at Thierry Henry as a "black shit" and the Lewis Hamilton's trips to Spain were also marred by insults. Still, the FA now said there was a simple misunderstanding regarding the date, and that the fixture was never in question. One of the major proponents of the friendly is Fabio Capello himself, who apparently lobbied with the FA leaders to go ahead with the game. The venue of the match is likely to be Valencia or Sevilla. Corinthians back to the top flight at first attempt Brazilian president's favourite team, Corinthians of Sao Paulo, made sure of their return to the Brazileirao after one year in the second division. With four matches remaining, Corinthians built a 13 points advantage over the second-placed Avai by beating Criciuma 2-0. The Paulistas went down last year amidst the chaos that erupted over discoveries of corruption, match-fixing and money laundering. Supported by a reported 13,2% of the Brazilian soccer fans, Corinthians won their last championship in 2005 thanks to Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano, whose signings were financed by the multinational investment fund MSI. The Brazilian Justice Department became interested in the MSI operations and issued an arrest warrant for the company's chairman Kia Joorabchian, but last August the arrest warrant was suspended. Real Madrid embarrassed in the Spanish Cup Real Unión from the third division upset their somewhat more famous namesakes from Madrid by kicking them out in the fourth round of the King's Cup. The Basque team from the city of Irún went through on away goals rule by winning 3-2 at home and losing 3-4 in the return leg at Santiago Bernabeu. The Spanish press has called the result the biggest disgrace in Real Madrid's history, but the nine-times European champions had already been involved in a couple of resounding slip-ups in the domestic cup competition. After winning their last Cup in 1993, Real lost to second and third division clubs on various occasions. In 1998, they were eliminated by Alavés, then in the Segunda División, also due to the away goals rule. Three years later, the surprise package was called Toledo, from the third division, who defeated Real by 1-0 in a single-leg tie of the the King's Cup's first round. The following lower-league club to stun Madrid in the Cup were Valladolid in 2004/05, again thanks to having scored more away goals (0-0 at home and 1-1 at Bernabeu). Valladolid is incidentally Real's next league rival and the word around Madrid is that coach Bernd Schuster may be sacked in case his team don't win at the Zorrilla stadium next Saturday. Copyright Ozren Podnar & Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

World soccer news for week of March 5 Five games for Cassano for the latest "cassanata" Cassanata. This is the newly-coined Italian word that signifies "a type of bad, infantile behaviour typical of Antonio Cassano". He is a supremely talented 25-year old forward currently playing for Sampdoria on loan from Real Madrid. And he performed a new cassanata on Sunday against Torino. First he scored a wonderful goal saving a point for Sampdoria, earning himself a yellow card for antics like shirt stripping. Then, with two minutes to go, he committed a minor foul against Natali, for which the referee Pierpaoli unjustly sent him off. Not one to take an injustice lightly, Cassano burst into insults and threats, taking off his shirt (again) and throwing it against Pierpaoli. The disciplinary committee sanctioned him with a five-match ban and a 15,000 euro fine. More importantly, this could be the end of Cassano's hopes to be called up for the European Championship, because of the fears he would be too much of a liability. A gun-wielding Romanian fan threatens a player A 30-year old soccer fan from Buzau, Romania, entered Politechnica Iasi dressing room after the game against the local Gloria team had ended in a 1-1 draw. "A guy in a leather jacket came in brandishing a gun and threatened our player Cristea," said the visitors' coach Ionut Popa. It was even worse outside, on the pitch. "I had never witnessed anything like it. All players joined in fighting, even the reserves. Our masseur was attacked and I had stones, lighters and bottles thrown at me. I think I might quit soccer," added Popa. The armed fan, a Gloria fan, was identified thanks to the video cameras and was swiftly fined and banned for life from approaching the stadium in Buzau, said the local police spokesman Ciprian Ene. Next week Gloria will be in for some more controversy because they play away at leaders Cluj. Steaua chairman Gigi Becali has promised each Gloria player 5000 euros if they can snatch a point or three off Cluj, who are eight points ahead of the Bucharest team. Uche's goal "silliest" in Spain, Neville's own goal tops world competition Getafe's goal which condemned Real Madrid to a 0-1 defeat last week was voted the silliest in Spanish soccer history in a poll organized by Marca daily. The readers gave 40% of the vote to the goal by Uche, who took advantage of Real players' celebration of a goal which had been disallowed. While the home players were hugging near the touchline, unaware that the linesman's flag had gone up, Getafe staged a fast break culminated by the Nigerian. Incidentally, the second most-voted goal was also conceded by Real Madrid. Back in 2001, Valladolid's Colombian Harold Lozano whistled and froze Real's defense, who must have believed that the whistle had come from the referee. Then Lozano passed the ball to Fernando, who easily scored past the petrified keeper. In international competition, the most votes went to Gary Neville who scored an own goal in the Croatia vs England game (2-0), beating the goalkeeper Paul Robinson with the help of a divot, which changed the trajectory of the ball. Arrest warrant issued for Serb FA president Serb police have issued an arrest warrant for FA president Zvezdan Terzic, over suspicion of embezzling 1.1 million Deutchmarks from the transfer of Vanja Grubac to Hamburger SV of Germany. The suspected crime took place in 1998 while Terzic was OFK Beograd's director. "It has been determined that Terzic misappropriated 1.1 million DEM relative to the transfer of a soccer player," announced the police spokesman, according to Tanjug agency. Terzic, who is allegedly in the United States, immediately reacted in an interview to Belgrade Sport daily, denying any wrongdoing. Even the player in question stepped up in Terzic's defence claiming that, as far as he knew, the official did not take any money in the deal. This year Serb soccer came under an offensive from the legal authorities, who detained several high-profile officials, including the current FA director Dragan Dzajic, one of the biggest soccer legends in the whole of the Balkan peninsula. The accusations are always the same: misappropriation of funds from soccer transfers and tax evasion. Boca's people decided: Riquelme more important than Maradona Midfielder Juan Román Riquelme has been voted the biggest idol in the history of Boca Juniors in a survey conducted on the club's web page. Out of 65,200 voting supporters, 33.7% gave their vote to Riquelme, while the former crowd favourite Maradona collected 26.42%. Third place went to Guillermo Barros Schelotto of Columbus Crew with 21.36%, while Manchester United's Carlos Tévez won just 4.5% votes, behind Martín Palermo in fifth place. The popular choice should not be too surprising since Riquelme did much more for Boca than Maradona in his two relatively brief spells. "I'm happy Boca's people loves me, but this club is over 100 years old and there are far more idols than those mentioned in the poll. Some of them are not among us any more. The fans must have remembered more easily those who are still here," said Riquelme with commendable modesty. The international midfielder helped Boca win three Argentinian championships, three Libertadores Cups and an Intercontinental Cup. Symbolically, he was the player who substituted Maradona during his farewell game in 1997 and in 2002 he transferred from Boca to Barcelona, just like El Diego 21 years earlier. In Europe, he was best remembered for missing a penalty in the 2006 Champions League semifinals for Villarreal against Arsenal. Fraud uncovered: Franco's propaganda doctored famous Marcelino's goal The Spanish national team won the European Championship in 1964 beating the Soviet Union 2-1 with goals from Pereda and Marcelino. Up until now, the average Spaniard believed that it was Real Madrid's Amaro Amancio who provided the cross for the decisive Marcelino goal. That was, in fact, what the tv footage showed. However, Spanish national tv has now revealed the swindle: dictator Franco's news and propaganda agency had edited the footage to hide the real maker of the cross: Barcelona's Jesús Pereda! It seemed to the generalísimo's assistants that it would be inappropriate for no Real Madrid players to have participated in the decisive plays so they decided that it was Amancio rather than Pereda who passed the ball to Marcelino. At least they did not change the scorers themselves. 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World soccer news - for the week of February 14th Cursed Ronaldo on the sidelines again A well known scene: a tearful Ronaldo is being stretchered off with yet another injury. The partial tendon rupture of the right knee sustained in the league game against Livorno is threatening the Brazilian with another lengthy break. The Italian web site Datasport inquires openly: "Is this the end for Ronie?" Milan's ace suffered the injury just two minutes after he came on as a substitute. The unlucky 31-year-old striker was transported to an orthopaedic clinic in Milan where he was subjected to magnetic resonance and other examinations. After the surgery urgently scheduled in Paris he is in for another frustrating rehabilitation. Hopefully not as long as the one between autumn of 1999 and summer of 2001, during which time he played just one game, indeed only a few minutes of it. English soccer going non-English, fumes Platini UEFA's president Michel Platini is not amused by the Premier League's plans to play several games per season overseas to boost income from foreign fans. One of the all-time soccer giants, Platini called the idea "strange and comical." "It will never be approved by FIFA, the fans and the national FAs. It's ironic. You already have no English coaches and English players. Soon the English clubs will have no English owners and perhaps your clubs will be playing outside of England. It's a joke." It may look funny to Platini, but the increasingly non-English team owners look set to make some perfectly serious money by delving deeper into the pockets of the legions of their overseas fans as of 2011. At least a couple of Englishmen are bound to profit from the idea, notably its creator, the English Premier League (EPL) Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore. Although the home-based fans and the media have been less than friendly towards Scudamore's scheme, the man claims to have garnered support from the current 20 clubs in the Premier League. "We're confident that we had the support of the 20 clubs and we still have the support of the 20 clubs," says Scudamore. What isn't entirely clear is whether the support will be there after the clubs have listened to what the fans have to say on the matter. Explosion of attendances in Bundesliga Soccer is nowhere as popular as in Germany. The Premier League may be the strongest playerwise, but the average attendance in the Bundesliga has grown yet again from last season's 38,191 to 38,529 in the first half of the current season. The 306 games of the first part were attended by 5,894,000 spectators, which is a 3.75% increase on the previous season. The 2nd Bundesliga is growing at an even higher rate: each game is watched by 17,693 fans, 10.83% more than last season. The reasons may include new and comfortable stadia, an exciting and uncertain competition and the high population figures: Germany has over 80 million inhabitants. By the way, the average ticket price is an acceptable 21 euros, 35% of what a ticket costs in the Premier League! Italy has also registered a growth. After last season's dismal average of 19,181, the return of Juventus, Napoli and Genoa has prompted the attendance to rise to an average of 22,504. Top five leagues Country Average 1. Germany 38,529 2. England 34,400 3. Spain 28,700 4. Italy 22,504 5. France 21,800 Pelé suggests free kicks without the wall The greatest player of all time, the Brazilian Pelé, plans to revolutionize the game of soccer by suggesting to FIFA an essential rule change: no wall for the free kicks! Pelé conveyed the idea to FIFA on the occasion of the last Executive Committee meeting in Zurich. There are two versions of the modification: removal of the wall for all free kicks or only if the foul was committed by the last defender outside of the penalty area. "The new rule would enable a harsher punishment for the offender. If there is a wall in place, the attacking side practically loses the advantage. Should FIFA accept my proposal, the number of fouls will drop and the most talented players will find it easier to score," says The King. Perhaps the real thing would be to enable the shooter to choose whether the rivals should place the wall or not, since some players are specialized for hitting the ball just right so that it bypasses or crosses the wall on the way to the net. Real Madrid's lucky 13th Although Real Madrid's eight point advantage over Barcelona gained last weekend is what really matters, Real's fans celebrated the spectacular 7-0 win over Valladolid. That was the 13th 7-0 win for the Madrid team in the Spanish championship, exactly six years after a similar win over Las Palmas when Fernando Morientes scored five goals. But, that season the title went to Valencia, not Madrid. Valladolid conceded seven goals to Real Madrid in the autumn of 2003, with three goals by Raúl, who is particularly inspired against Madrid's Castillian neighbours. With his two goals last Sunday, Raúl's tally against this team has risen to 14. Incidentally, the scoreline equalled Valladolid's worst defeat ever, suffered 50 years ago against Atlético. Johan Cruyff advises Barca against Mourinho A faction within Barcelona's board advocates hiring José Mourinho as early as next July. The current coach Frank Rijkaard is not immediately threatened by dismissal since his team is still present on all three fronts, but he is aware that the vice-chairman Ferrán Soriano is lobbying in favour of Mourinho. Soriano appreciates his coaching methods, leadership and familiarity with Barcelona from the time when he worked as Bobby Robson's and Louis van Gaal's assistant. However, Barca's former player and coach Johan Cruyff is said to be putting the brakes on Mourinho's arrival. According to the Spanish press, the influential Dutchman has advised the chairman Joan Laporta not to sign Mourinho on grounds that his coaching style is not compatible with Barca's cheerful and offensive play. Another reason could be the desire to protect fellow countryman Rijkaard. Mourinho (44) has been a free agent since he parted ways with Chelsea last September. Copyright Soccerphile and Ozren Podnar Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football Barcelona Ronaldo Betting

"There are not many candidates because it looks a bit like a crocodile that opens the mouth and says: 'Jump into that.' Once he's in there, he's eaten. And once you have eaten four, five says: 'No, maybe I don't jump in there.'" So went the words of Arsene Wenger, the best coach working in England at present. In the old days, before the savaging of Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor by the tabloids and the realization that the real money and chances of success were to be found in the Premier League and not the international game, the nation’s best coach would have leapt at the chance of managing England.

World Soccer News for week of November 6th Casillas considers Golden Ball “manipulated”Real Madrid's keeper Iker Casillas does not believe that the European Golden Ball, awarded by France Football magazine, is a real reflection of a player's qualities. “I have teammates who deserved to win it, but have never received it. For instance, Raul. On the other hand, it was awarded to some who don't deserve it. All of this seem to me a bit manipulated,” said Casillas. “Such awards are not objective and there are too many details which suggest that the players are not treated fairly. Personally, it would not mean much to me”, said the international goalkeeper.

World Soccers News for the week of October 24 Lehmann "humiliated" by Wenger Arsenal's goalkeeper Jens Lehmann said he felt humiliated by being left out of the team in the past weeks and warned the coach Arsene Wenger that his patience had limits. The veteran goalkeeper has not played after committing a blunder against Blackburn on August 19th. "I have taken all of this as a humiliation," said Lehmann to pay tv Premiere. "But I believe no player should be humiliated for a long time". The beneficiary of Lehmann's situation has been the Spaniard Manuel Almunia, the first choice keeper ever since, with Lukasz Fabianski of Poland on the bench.