■ BRAZIL
Ronaldo just needs club
Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo, who has been out of action since February with a knee injury, hopes to play again in January — if he can find a club, his doctor said. The 32-year-old’s physiotherapist Bruno Mazzioti told Radio Brasil that the player hopes to train next week with Flamengo. “He’ll train with Flamengo. Then his idea is to return to action in January 2009 although it remains to see which club he will play for,” Mazzioti said. Ronaldo, who suffered a serious left knee injury in February, has been without a club since the end of last season when his contract with AC Milan came to an end. He has been linked with a move to fellow Serie A side Siena, who offered him a deal in which he would be paid 98,000 euros (US$126,200) for every goal scored. The former world player of the year recently took part in a charity match, but only lasted 22 minutes before being substituted, blaming it on the exhaustive regime he was following to return to action.
■ ENGLAND
Torres injured again
Liverpool’s Premier League title push suffered a setback on Thursday when their Spanish international striker Fernando Torres was ruled out for up to three weeks with a hamstring strain. Torres, who had only just returned to the side after five weeks out with a similar problem, picked up the injury in the 1-0 Champions League win over Marseille at Anfield on Wednesday. Defender Fabio Aurelio will be out for a fortnight after picking up a calf problem in the same game. A club spokesman told www.
liverpoolfc.tv: “Fernando has a strain in his right hamstring and will be out of action for between two and three weeks. Fabio has a calf strain in his left leg and will be out for two weeks.”
■ SPAIN
Real sees record revenues
Real Madrid on Thursday posted a pre-tax net profit for the 2007-2008 season of 51.4 million euros (US$66.7 million) and predicted its revenues will total more than 400 million euros next season for the first time in its history. The club’s pre-tax net profit in the 12 months to June 30 was 7.4 million euros higher than that posted during the same time last year. Revenues in 2007/2008 totaled 366 million euros and are expected to climb to 400.2 million euros in the 12-month period to June 30 next year, vice-president Jose Ignacio Rivero told reporters. Real Madrid were the world’s largest revenue-generating club for the third successive season in the 2006-2007 season, according to an annual ranking compiled by business advisory firm Deloitte. The reigning Spanish champions overtook Manchester United as the biggest soccer club by revenue in the 2004-2005 season after a policy of signing big names like David Beckham, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane led to a surge in sales of replica shirts and other items.
■ UEFA CUP
Police spray fighting fans
Belgian police used water cannon to break up running brawls between fans of Bruges and French side St Etienne before kick-off in the UEFA Cup tie between the two sides in Bruges, Belgium, on Thursday. A police spokesman said numerous fights had broken out outside the stadium. “These scuffles were so serious that there were some injuries suffered by supporters. Two policemen were also hurt and were taken to hospital,” he said. Another police source said around two dozen fans had been arrested.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop
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