Yaya Toure s agent Dimitri Seluk believes African fans will no longer support Manchester City following Pep Guardiola s decision to leave the experienced midfielder out of his Champions League squad and will instead start backing arch-rivals United instead.
The 33-year-old, sold to City from Barcelona in 2010 when Guardiola was in charge at Camp Nou, featured for the full 90 minutes in the second leg of City s Champions League play-off win over Steaua Bucharest, but has yet to make a Premier League appearance this season.
Toure seemingly faces an uphill battle to win over Guardiola and Seluk feels the Spaniard s treatment of his client will cost City numerous fans in Africa.
Manchester City will lose millions of supporters from Africa because of this decision …
Carson Yeung s conviction on five counts of money laundering has no impact on the day-to-day running of Birmingham City, say the club.
The club s owner, 54, had denied the five charges against him, which related to the laundering of around HK$721million (£55m) between 2001 and 2007.
But judge Douglas Yau returned a guilty verdict at a Hong Kong District Court on Monday.
Reacting to the news, Birmingham s acting chairman Peter Pannu said in a statement on the club s official website: I d like to reassure all supporters and staff that today s verdict will have no impact on the day-to-day operations at the football club.
Birmingham International Holdings Limited, the holding company, shall continue to support the football club under the leadership of the group s ne…
Robert Lewandowski limped off injured as Poland finalised their Euro 2024 preparations with a 2-1 win over Turkiye on Monday.
Lewandowski – who has made more appearances (150) and scored more goals (82) for Poland than any other player – was withdrawn after 32 minutes and was later seen receiving treatment on his right thigh.
Fellow striker Karol Swiderski had already gone off after appearing to hurt his right ankle while celebrating scoring a 12th-minute opener.
Poland have already lost another forward, Juventus Arkadiusz Milik, for the tournament after he injured the meniscus in his left knee during a 3-1 win over Ukraine on Friday.
Turkiye equalised through Baris Alper Yilmaz with 14 minutes to play, but Roma s Nicola Zalewski danced through their…
Karamoko Dembele making history both for Scotland and Celtic / Image via dailymail.co.uk
World football is buzzing with excitement over Celtic’s child prodigy Karamoko Dembele who went from just another young boy to arguably the hottest football sensation in a month’s time.
The buzz for the youngsters who has been announced as the next big thing perhaps a tad too early is real and well-justified though, but who exactly is Karamoko Dembele, the much talked about lad who’s got the football community eating out of the palm of his hand?
Years Behind – Streets Ahead
Coming off the bench in Celtic’s win over Hearts early in October, Karamoko Dembele went on to win many hearts as the 13-year-old played final nine minutes for the Under 20 development team.
Paris Saint-Germain will win a second straight Ligue 1 title if they beat relegation-threatened Rennes at Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
Laurent Blanc s men missed the chance to secure the French top-flight crown when they were held to a 1-1 draw at Sochaux last week.
The capital club lead second-placed Monaco by eight points ahead of the visit of Philippe Montanier s side, and will be able to celebrate another championship with three points against a team that suffered disappointment in the Coupe de France final last Saturday.
Rennes were beaten 2-0 by Brittany rivals Guingamp in the Stade de France showpiece, losing to their neighbours in the final for the second time in five years after succumbing to a 2-1 loss in 2009.
And Montanier s men will need to quickly…
Commercial revenue in the Premier League topped £2.5billion for the first time in the 2012-13 season, according to finance firm Deloitte.
England s top-flight clubs once again generated the highest revenue of any league in Europe, followed by the Bundesliga (£1.7bn), La Liga (£1.6bn), Serie A (£1.4bn) and Ligue 1 (£1.1bn).
And a further increase has been forecast for Premier League teams, on the back of new broadcast deals and commercial growth.
However, Deloitte s Annual Review of Football Finance also revealed that 75 per cent of the increased revenue was spent on wages.
Salaries increased by £125million to £1.8bn, resulting in a record high wages-to-revenue ratio of 71 per cent in the Premier League.
As a result, aggregate profit of teams in the top f…
Frank Lampard is remaining patient amid Timo Werner s Premier League goal drought despite the striker missing a glorious chance late on in Chelsea s 1-0 win over Fulham.
Although Germany international Werner scored in the recent FA Cup win over Morecambe, he went into Saturday s match without a goal in his previous nine league games.
That was already his longest run without a goal since going 11 matches without netting in 2016.
He had a fine chance to finally end that difficult spell in the latter stages when he was put through on goal by Christian Pulisic, but he missed the target when one-on-one with Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
Luckily for Chelsea and Lampard, the excellent Mason Mount had already netted what proved to be the winner.
Lamp…
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic felt fatigue was a key factor as England s late comeback condemned his team to Nations League relegation.
Andrej Kramaric s opener in Sunday s decisive meeting at Wembley looked set to give the World Cup finalists another victory over the Three Lions.
But Harry Kane s effort ran for Jesse Lingard to equalise before the hosts captain converted a Ben Chilwell cross in the 85th minute to instead book England s place in the Finals.
Croatia were without key midfielder Ivan Rakitic due to injury and had to replace right-back Sime Vrsaljko, who made a brilliant tackle to deny Marcus Rashford, in the first half.
Ante Rebic was also withdrawn at the break, while England could introduce Lingard, Dele Alli and Jadon Sancho, and Dali…
After all the flashpoints and controversies, the trophies won and red cards, the impassioned defences and public rows, Roberto Mancini wore a weary and rueful expression.
Speaking to BBC Match of the Day following Manchester City s frustrating 0-0 draw at Queens Park Rangers in January 2013 – a result that pushed a hard-earned Premier League title further back in the direction of Manchester United – the Italian confirmed his compatriot Mario Balotelli would join AC Milan on an initial loan.
I think that this is a good chance for Mario to come back in Italy. I am very sorry because we love him as a guy and a player, Mancini said.
We are so sad in this moment. I think he will miss me… not only me, but all the journalists. For you he was very important.
…
As an Everton fan, I watch England number one Jordan Pickford week-in and week-out. In my humble opinion, the former Sunderland ‘keeper should no longer be England’s first-choice goalkeeper, especially with Euro 2020 on the horizon. This may seem to be a harsh judgement on Pickford, but it comes out of frustration.
Always prone to make a mistake
Sometimes stats can be misleading. However, in Pickford’s case, the stats sum up his situation. Only Fraser Forster and Joe Hart have made more errors leading to goals since the summer of 2017. The fact that Forster and Hart are no longer first-choice Premier League goalkeepers tells its own story.
Some may say that the Everton ‘keeper has played the most of any goalkeeper in the top-flight in recent seasons may sway th…