■ENGLAND
Adebayor signs for City
Manchester City on Saturday said they had clinched the £25 million (US$41 million) signing of Togolese forward Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal on a five-year contract. Adebayor completed his medical at Eastlands to become the latest big-money new face at City, after the recent captures of Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz. Hundreds of City fans greeted Adebayor, who said: “It made me feel really welcome and special and I can’t wait to play for City’s fans and show them what I can do. I was born to play football and that is what I want to do. I have come here to make history for this club and those supporters.”
■ENGLAND
Clubs chase Beckham
Under orders from England boss Fabio Capello to stay in tip-top shape if he wants to feature at the World Cup, David Beckham may yet return to the English Premiership with Chelsea or Tottenham Hotspur, the Mail on Sunday reported yesterday. After spending an impressive second half of last season with AC Milan, Beckham returned to US Major League Soccer outfit LA Galaxy in Thursday’s 3-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls, his first match since the end of the Serie A campaign. The Mail on Sunday report said Chelsea and Spurs were ready to bring him home, although Beckham said in midweek he was relishing an eventual return to Italy.
■MALAYSIA
Owen scores the winner
Michael Owen’s predatory instincts are still intact. That’s the message he sent after scoring the winning goal on his Manchester United debut. The 29-year-old striker came on as a second-half substitute in United’s opening game of their Asia tour and pounced on a loose ball with five minutes left after Ryan Giggs had been tackled in the penalty area. His decisive finish handed the team a 3-2 victory over a tough Malaysian XI after Wayne Rooney and Nani had put them two goals in front. “You train for weeks in preparation for that all-important first game and to score on your debut feels great,” said Owen, who joined the club this month on a two-year deal after his contract at relegated Newcastle United expired. “It’s always nice to get off the mark, not just when you join a new club, but any time,” he told the club’s Web site.
■UNITED STATES
Sturridge scores on debut
Teenager Daniel Sturridge wasted no time in making his presence felt for Chelsea, scoring one goal and helping create another in the Blues’ 2-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders in a friendly match on Saturday. Sturridge, 19, was making his debut after moving from Manchester City to Stamford Bridge and he helped make a winner out of new manager Carlo Ancelotti following his switch from AC Milan. Sturridge’s 12th-minute goal silenced the 65,289 fans — most in Seattle green — who turned out to see the first of two friendlies against overseas clubs.
■RUSSIA
CSKA rally to down Kazan
Three-time champions CSKA Moscow battled back from a goal down to clinch a 2-1 away win over reigning title holders Kazan on Saturday to inch closer to the league leaders. Kazan stay top despite the loss with 27 points after 14 matches, four points ahead of Spartak Moscow and CSKA, who both have a game in hand. “It was a very interesting match and we’re happy to win it,” CSKA’s Brazilian manager Zico said. “I’m glad that my guys continued battling after the hosts scored the opening goal. Today we persevered and won deservedly.”
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
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