■ BULGARIA
Mittal set to offload CSKA
Indian businessman Pramod Mittal is on the verge of selling top Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia, the club announced on its Web site on Wednesday. Mittal, the brother of steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, is reported to have agreed terms of the sale with Bulgarian company Titan. No financial details of the deal, which is set to be finalized in the next two months, were made available. Pramod Mittal bought the club two years ago but his spell as club owner was marked principally by a series of financial problems. CSKA, 31-time and current Bulgarian champions, were forced to sell several players last year in a bid to cushion debts.
■ ITALY
Ronaldinho’s villa burgled
Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho’s Italian home was burgled this week with thieves making off with jewelry estimated at tens of thousands of euros, police and media reported on Wednesday. Two burglars broke into the 28-year-old AC Milan player’s villa in Galliate Lombardo on Monday night, police in Varese, north of Milan, said. Caretakers disturbed the robbers and fired into the air but the duo escaped, according to a report in the Corriere della Sera. Ronaldinho, twice footballer of the year, was not at home, having left for his Christmas break in Brazil. Corriere della Sera valued the haul of jewelry and watches at several thousand euros but they overlooked his trophy medals which were left untouched in a cabinet. Riccardo Sogliano, a former player who used to live in the house, was himself the victim of a robbery there in 2002, the paper noted.
■ BRAZIL
Ronaldo becomes dad again
Ronaldo’s fiancee, Maria Beatriz Antony, on Wednesday gave birth to the striker’s second child, a hospital spokeswoman said. Antony gave birth to Maria Sofia in Rio de Janeiro’s Clinica Perinatal, hospital spokeswoman Ana Maria Funky said by telephone, adding the baby was born weighing 2.98kg. She said Ronaldo was present when his daughter was born and cut the umbilical cord. Funky said both mother and daughter were in perfect health and should leave the hospital no later than today. Ronaldo, who is recovering from knee surgery and recently signed with Brazilian club Corinthians, already has an eight-year-old boy, Ronald, from a previous relationship. The three-time FIFA player of the year hasn’t played since injuring his knee in February while playing for AC Milan. Ronaldo led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title in South Korea and Japan, scoring twice in the final against Germany.
■ ENGLAND
Hammers reject Bellamy bid
Tottenham have reportedly had a £6 million (US$8.8 million) bid for striker Craig Bellamy turned down by West Ham. The Hammers are rumored to be open to offers for all their players because of the financial problems facing their Icelandic owner, but Sky Sports News said on Wednesday that they had dismissed Spurs’ offer for Bellamy. Sky also reported that Manchester City had made an inquiry about Bellamy. Tottenham need another striker to compete with Darren Bent, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell. Pavlyuchenko cannot play for the club in the UEFA Cup and Campbell is only on loan from Manchester United. Tottenham would be Bellamy’s eighth club in eight years following spells with Liverpool, Blackburn, Celtic, Newcastle, Coventry and Norwich. The Wales international has scored four goals in 22 Premier League matches for West Ham.
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
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
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