SOCCER
Ronaldo plays 1,200th game
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his 1,200th professional match on Friday with a goal and an assist as he helped his Saudi Pro League side al-Nassr to get a 4-1 win over al-Riyadh. “Cristiano Ronaldo has now played in 1,200 professional matches,” the league wrote on X, as the former Real Madrid player moved closer to Peter Shilton, who leads the list of male players with most official appearances. Thirty-eight-year-old Ronaldo opened the scoring shortly after the half-hour mark when he tapped in a cross from Sadio Mane. “Thankful to all my team mates who helped me reach my 1,200th match. What a ride but we’re not done yet!” Ronaldo wrote on social media. Former England goalkeeper Shilton is acknowledged as the record holder for the most competitive men’s professional games, although the total is disputed. Some statistics Web sites say the tally is 1,390, but Shilton himself, on his X feed, says it is 1,387.
FORMULA ONE
Hamilton slams Wolff probe
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton on Friday criticized Formula One’s governing body for the “unacceptable” way it investigated Toto and Susie Wolff on allegations of conflict of interest. Hamilton spoke at a news conference before the International Automobile Federation’s (FIA) season-ending gala in Baku. The Mercedes driver said something “has to change” within the FIA leadership after a tumultuous week in which the governing body revealed it was looking into allegations then dropped the probe 48 hours later. Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, said earlier on Friday there was an “active legal exchange” happening with the FIA a day after the governing body ended its inquiry. “It has been a challenging week, I think, a disappointing week really to see that the governing body of our sport has [sought] to question the integrity of one of the most incredible female leaders we’ve ever had in our sport with Susie Wolff without questioning [her], without any evidence and then just saying ‘sorry’ at the end, and that’s just unacceptable,” Hamilton said. “There is a constant fight to really improve diversity and inclusion within the industry, but it seems that there are certain individuals in the leadership within the FIA that every time we try and make a step forward they’re trying to pull us back, and that has to change.”
OLYMPICS
Russians can compete
Olympic chiefs on Friday approved the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at next year’s Paris Games as neutrals, outside of team events and as long as they do not actively support the war in Ukraine. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) added that there were currently only eight athletes from Russia and three from Belarus who had qualified as neutral athletes. The athletes must meet strict eligibility conditions. That includes the exclusion of “teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport.” Also missing out would be “athletes who actively support the war,” as well as “athletes who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies.” Additionally, “no flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications whatsoever of Russia or Belarus will be displayed at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in any official venue or any official function.”
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
A debate over the soul of soccer is raging in FIFA World Cup holders Argentina, pitting defenders of the social role of the beautiful game against the government of libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei, who wants to turn clubs into for-profit companies. Argentina, which gave the world Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, is home to some of the world’s most devoted soccer fans — a fact attributed by supporters like Gabriel Nicosia to the clubs’ community outreach. Nicosia is a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo, a more than 100-year-old first division club based in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boedo where
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