Sports
Mancini Rules Out Tavez Loan Deal
Carlos Tevez captained Manchester City to FA Cup success last season but has rarely played since then.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has ruled out the possibility of Carlos Tevez departing on loan, hours after AC Milan announced plans to discuss a possible move for the Argentina striker.
Milan want an initial loan deal with a view to a post-season transfer, but Mancini warned the Italian champions ahead of Thursday’s planned meeting that the 27-year-old will only leave the English Premier League leaders if a permanent deal can be agreed.
“I hope we can find a good solution for us and Carlos,” Mancini, who guided Milan’s archrivals Inter to three successive Serie A titles, told reporters on Tuesday. “We want Carlos to come back and play football, and the best solution for us is to sell him.
“Milan know we can’t put him on loan but if they want to buy Carlos, for us it is OK.”
Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani said a deal is unlikely to be wrapped up before the seven-time European champions leave for a mid-season training camp in Dubai on December 29.
“Thursday we have a meeting with Manchester City about Tevez, but will probably not be the decisive one to conclude the negotiations,” Galliani told Milan’s official website.
“It will be almost impossible to take him to Dubai with the rest of the team. With Manchester City we have a long way to go, at the moment.”
Mancini said City could not continue allowing to let highly-paid players go out on loan, which has happened with strikers such as Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and, until he joined Liverpool on a free transfer in August, Craig Bellamy.
“When Manchester City buy a player, they have to pay a lot of money. But when we want to sell them, they have to go on loan. It is not good for the club and it is not correct for the other players,” he said.
“Manchester City paid Carlos a lot of money three years ago. It is correct that if one club, it could be Milan, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, they pay Carlos for his value. This is correct.”
Silva strike leaves Manchester City clear at the top
Tevez was fined by City for refusing to warm up when he was an unused substitute in a European Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich in September.
The former Manchester United forward has been consistently linked with a move away from the Etihad Stadium after handing in a transfer request in December 2010.
Tevez looked to be heading back to former club Corinthians, where he spent two years between 2004 and 2006, but the Brazilian club pulled out of the deal in July.
The Buenos Aires native has not played for City since September’s domestic cup victory over second division Birmingham City and has made just three league appearances for the team he captained last season.
Meanwhile, former France striker David Trezeguet is on the verge of sealing a switch to Argentine team River Plate.
River’s official website confirmed the 34-year-old has passed a medical and will officially join the Buenos Aires club on January 4.
The former Juventus and Monaco forward has been playing for Baniyas in the United Arab Emirates since leaving Spanish club Hercules in August.
Trezeguet has enjoyed a glittering career, winning the World Cup with France in 1998 before scoring the winning goal for his country in the final of Euro 2000 against Italy.
The 33-time national champions have endured a torrid time in recent seasons, culminating in their relegation from Argentina’s top flight in June.
Hon Dike who spoke with sports journalists shortly after the flag off the 2024 edition of Chairman’s Football Unity Tournament at Botem Tai in Tai LGA, said the tournament is an annual event to promote peace and unity in Tai as well identify budding talents in the area for global competition.
The opening ceremony of the tournament was more like a carnival was witnessed by huge crowd including prominent indigenes of Ogoni Kingdom, sports lovers and people from all works of life.
The LGA boss revealed that special sports committee will be setup in the area to work out modalities to strengthen sports development in Tai.
He advised the participants in the tournament from various wards in the LGA to play the game by the rules and conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and use the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Hon Dike further disclosed that his administration will also give priority attention to skills development among the youth to enhance their human capacity and promote enterprise development in the area.
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Tai LGA Football Council, Elder Wisdom Gorgor said the annual football competition has been a unifying factor in Tai LGA that need to be sustained to forge more unity and development in the area.
He urged the participants to see the competition as an opportunity to embrace football as a full career and earn sustainable livelihood.
Elder Gorgor who commended the Chairman of Tai LGA, Hon Dike for his visionary leadership and tremendous development achievements recorded in the LGA under his administration, appealled to the Chairman to build a Mini Sports Stadium in the area to promote sporting activities.
The training was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium Indoor Basketball Court in Kano last Saturday.
According to the Vice President and Head of NBA Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, the event was part of the league’s commitment to growing broader basketball ecosystem in Nigeria and making the game more accessible across the country.
“Our first Jr. NBA clinic in Kano speaks to our commitment to growing the game in Nigeria and creating more opportunities for boys and girls to learn and play the game,” Abudu said.
“Nigeria has a rich basketball history and abundance of talent, which is evident every time you watch an NBA game. We look forward to continuing to engage with basketball stakeholders, business leaders and members of the community to further the game’s reach and impact on young people around the country,” she added.
The 2024 basketball initiative clinics of NBA Nigeria also included the league’s inaugural Jr. NBA elite camp for 150 boys and age-16 girls held at the American International School in Lagos in July.
Others include the NBA’s building of 1,000 courts in Africa over the next decade, Nigeria’s Festival Coins and Salubata named the top two winning businesses at NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator’s inaugural Demo Day in New York City held last September, and the third edition of “NBA Meets Art,” a curated installation celebrating basketball through the lens of Nigerian art and culture as part of West Africa’s premier art fair Art X Lagos, held in November.
Central to this vision is the federation’s investment in capacity building, evident in the just-concluded one-week Level 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Coaching Course, which marked a significant milestone for Nigerian badminton.
Held in Abuja, the course brought together 13 young coaches from across Nigeria. The last time such a course was held in the country was in 2017, making this a historic and transformative step.
The training was facilitated by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) in partnership with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and conducted by Dr. Ahmed Radah, the BCA Development Manager.
Radah, impressed by the talent he witnessed, praised Nigeria’s potential.
“Nigeria is blessed with immense talent and a strong badminton tradition. I believe this country has what it takes to dominate on the global stage,” he remarked.
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