■ENGLAND
Wolves snap up duo
Premier League newboys Wolverhampton Wanderers signed Ecuador midfielder Segundo Castillo on a season’s loan from Red Star Belgrade on Monday. Castillo spent last season on loan at Everton, making eight league appearances, but the Toffees opted not to sign him on a permanent basis. Wolves have an option to sign Castillo permanently when the loan expires and Jez Moxey, the club’s chief operating officer, said: “He is a player who arrives with extensive experience at international level as well as one of the leading Premier League clubs in Everton.” Wolves have also clinched the signing of Austria striker Stefan Maierhofer from Rapid Vienna on a three-year deal. Maierhofer, who scored 23 goals in 37 games for Rapid last season, has joined for an undisclosed fee and the deal includes an option for the club to extend the contract with the tall frontman for a further season.
■ENGLAND
Gold shrugs off suggestions
Birmingham co-owner David Gold has shrugged off suggestions by the head of Croatia’s soccer federation that the Premier League club deliberately injured players to help England qualify for the World Cup. Midfielder Luka Modric broke his leg playing for Tottenham against Birmingham on Saturday and will miss next week’s World Cup qualifying match against England. With Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva having spent a year on the sidelines after breaking his leg against the same opponents in February last year, Croatian soccer federation president Vlatko Markovic has suggested there may a conspiracy against his country. “It’s so ridiculous, it beggars belief,” Gold told the BBC yesterday. “To suggest for one moment that this is a conspiracy, particularly by Birmingham City Football Club, to go about injuring Croatian players is absolutely ridiculous. I can’t see an ounce of reality about it at all. I find it nonsensical.”
■DENMARK
Player loses leg
The family of FC Nordsjaelland defender Jonathan Richter says the player has had the lower part of his left leg amputated, six weeks after he was struck by lightning during a reserve game. Richter’s condition is improving and he will “very soon” be moved from the intensive care unit at a Copenhagen hospital, his family said in a statement posted yesterday on the Superliga club’s Web page. It said he “was making great progress.” Richter, 24, was struck during a brief thunder storm on July 20 while playing against second-tier team Hvidovre. He was placed in an induced coma for 10 days.
■ITALY
Spalletti quits after bad start
AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti has quit the club after their poor start to the season, he told reporters yesterday. “I have given my resignation and the club have accepted it,” he said. Media said Roma, who lost their opening two league games, were in talks with Claudio Ranieri about taking the job. Reports said the former Juventus coach, born in Rome, had been seen meeting president Rosella Sensi. Former Udinese coach Spalletti was appointed in 2005 and helped a stylish Roma finish second in Serie A in 2007 and last year. They also won the Italian Cup in both those years but started last season badly and ended up sixth in the league. A 3-2 defeat at Genoa in this term’s league opener and Sunday’s 3-1 loss at home to Juventus sealed his decision to leave.
Major League Baseball (MLB) star Shohei Ohtani wants his former interpreter to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of baseball cards he says were fraudulently bought using his money. The Los Angeles Dodgers star is also requesting Ippei Mizuhara, who previously pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly US$17 million from the unsuspecting athlete, return signed collectible baseball cards depicting Ohtani that were in Mizuhara’s “unauthorized and wrongful possession,” court documents filed on Tuesday said. The legal filing alleges Mizuhara accessed Ohtani’s bank account beginning in about November 2021, changing his security protocols so that he
US skier Mikaela Shiffrin said she sustained an abrasion on her left hip and that something “stabbed” her when she crashed during her second run of an Audi FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom race on Saturday, doing a flip and sliding into the protective fencing. Shiffrin stayed down on the edge of the course for quite some time as the ski patrol attended to her. She was taken off the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd before going to a clinic for evaluation. “Not really too much cause for concern at this point, I just
CLASH OF MANAGERS: Brighton’s Fabian Hurzeler and Russell Martin of Southampton accused each other of disrespect, while both were booked Southampton on Friday were denied a priceless victory by a controversial decision as they drew with hosts Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 in the Premier League. Kaoru Mitoma spectacularly headed Brighton into a first-half lead and Flynn Downes hammered home an equalizer an hour in. Minutes later teammate Cameron Archer converted a cross from Saints substitute Ryan Fraser. A video assistant referee check of more than four minutes eventually decided that Archer was onside, but then penalized Adam Armstrong, who was offside, but did not touch the ball, for interfering with goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. “I find it hard to accept,” Southampton manager Russell Martin
Mary McGee, a female racing pioneer and subject profiled in an Oscar-contending documentary, Motorcycle Mary, has died, her family said. She was 87. “McGee’s unparalleled achievements in off-road racing and motorcycle racing have inspired generations of athletes that followed in her footsteps,” her family said in a statement. The family said McGee died of complications from a stroke at her home in Gardnerville, Nevada, on Wednesday, the day before the release of the short documentary Motorcycle Mary, on ESPN’s YouTube channel. Seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton was an executive producer on the film, which became available globally on Thursday. Its premiere
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