SOCCER
Giroud to end France career
France striker Olivier Giroud said he plans to end his international career after the UEFA European Championship next month. The 37-year-old forward has scored 57 goals in 131 matches for France and was part of the France squad who won the 2018 FIFA World Cup. “To be honest, this will be my last competition with Les Bleus. Obviously, I’m going to miss it a lot,” Giroud told L’Equipe in an interview published on Thursday.
SOCCER
Stefano Pioli leaves Milan
Stefano Pioli has left AC Milan, the Serie A club said yesterday, after a season of disappointing results. The 19-time Italian champions were second this season, miles behind champions Inter, and had a lackluster run in the UEFA Champions League and the domestic cups. “AC Milan extends heartfelt thanks to Stefano Pioli and his entire staff for leading the first team over the past five years, securing an unforgettable league title and re-establishing AC Milan’s consistent presence in the top European competition,” the club said.
SOCCER
Lucas Paqueta charged
West Ham United midfielder Lucas Paqueta on Thursday was charged by English soccer authorities after it was alleged that the Brazil international deliberately received cards during Premier League matches to influence betting markets. “I deny the charges in their entirety and will fight with every breath to clear my name,” Paqueta wrote on Instagram. The case centers around four matches from November 2022 to August last year. Paqueta received a yellow card in each of them. The Football Association said Paqueta has been charged with misconduct for breaching two of its rules. “It’s alleged that he directly sought to influence the progress, conduct, or any other aspect of, or occurrence in these matches by intentionally seeking to receive a card from the referee for the improper purpose of affecting the betting market in order for one or more persons to profit from betting,” it said. He was also charged with “alleged failures to comply,” it said.
SOCCER
Trophy sale opposed
Diego Maradona’s heirs have taken legal action in France to block the sale of the Argentine legend’s Golden Ball trophy from the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. The trophy given to the tournament’s best player had been missing for decades before being found by an antique dealer in the French capital. It is due to be sold by Aguttes auction house in Neuilly-sur-Seine on June 6. Lawyers for the family of Maradona, who died in 2020 aged 60, said that the item, which is expected to fetch millions, rightly belongs to his five heirs.
BASKETBALL
Toronto to get WNBA team
Toronto is to be the home of a WNBA expansion franchise, the first outside of the US, starting in 2026, officials said on Thursday. “Toronto, welcome to the W,” league commissioner Cathy Engelbert told a news conference. “It’s such a pivotal moment for our league,” she said. Toronto’s as-yet-unnamed WNBA team is to be the league’s newest club, with the 13th team coming next year, the Golden State Valkyries, playing out of San Francisco.
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
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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