Croatian FA chairman Vlatko Markovic is furious over Luka Modric's
injury last Saturday in a Birmingham v Tottenham game. So furious
that he is even contemplating foul play may have been involved in
injuring his star player so that he would be unavailable for the
match between England and Croatia at Wembley on 9th of September.
First medical reports claim that a fractured fibula will put Modric
out of action for about 10 to 12 weeks so Slaven Bilic will have
to make do without the inspiring midfielder in Croatia's three remaining
World Cup qualifying matches.
Talking to Novi list daily, Markovic expressed suspicions
that Lee Bowyer's tackle may not have been an accident.
"What is happening is terrible. I don't know if someone has
it in for us. Last year Eduardo
was injured and now Luka Modric. I can only wonder if this was just
a coincidence or not. I wonder whether someone did it on purpose
before the England game," said Markovic, comparing the midfielder's
significance to Croatia to that of Andrés Iniesta at Barcelona.
Curiously, Arsenal's Eduardo also was injured by a Birmingham player,
Martin Taylor, and the Gunner missed the European Championships
due to the fractured ankle.
Andriy Shevchenko back with Dinamo Kiev
Ukrainian star striker Andriy Shevchenko has returned to the team
where he made a name for himself during the nineties. After an anonymous
season back at AC Milan, Sheva has signed a two-year contract with
Dinamo Kiev, where he started his magnificent career in 1994.
Five years and five Ukrainian titles later the lethal goal poacher
transferred to Milan, where he achieved his greatest triumph, winning
the Champions League in 2003 against Juventus, scoring the decisive
penalty in the shootout.
From a purely sporting point of view, he probably regretted having
joined Chelsea in 2006, because his career there hit the slumps,
virtually erasing him from the world soccer map. His famed shirt
number seven is awaiting him in Kiev together with hopes of a footballing
renaissance.
Barcelona's five in a row
By beating Shahtar in Monaco last Friday Barcelona have matched
Liverpool's 2001 feat of winning five trophies in one calendar year,
overtaking the Reds in the specific value of the trophies won.
Between last May until the 1-0 win over Shahtar, the Catalonians
shelved the Spanish League championship, the King's Cup, the Champions
League, the domestic league and now the European Supercup.
"I believe we are now one of the greatest generations in Barcelona's
history," said the skipper Carles Puyol upon arriving home
with yet another piece of silverware.
This is Barcelona's third Supercup, the first having been won in
1993 against Werder, followed by another in 1998 against Borussia
Dortmund.
Incidentally, Liverpool's string of trophies in 2001 included the
League Cup, the FA Cup, the UEFA Cup, the Community Shield and the
European Supercup, all in Gerard Houllier's heyday at Anfield.
Wesley Sneijder the final gem in Inter's crown
Real Madrid have offloaded their Dutch international midfielder
Wesley Sneijder to Inter Milan for a reported 15 million euros,
after the player finally realized he was not in new coach's Manuel
Pellegrini's plans.
However, Inter were delighted to have a true creative midfielder
on their staff, a type of player they have not had for a while.
Sneijder made his debut in Saturday's derby against Milan and played
well as Inter demolished their city rivals 4-0.
"My departure from Real is not a defeat, because I come to
one of the greatest teams in the world, a club that has won four
consecutive Italian titles," said Sneijder after putting his
signature to a five-year contract guaranteeing him four million
euros per season.
Sneijder, 25, joined Real two years ago from Ajax, winning the title
in 2008 and finishing second last spring.
Soccer justice blind to one eye
A act of diving has cost Eduardo two matches...one less than Martin
Taylor received for breaking Eduardo's leg.
A year and a half ago, Birmingham's Martin Taylor was banned for
three matches for a savage tackle that broke Eduardo da Silva's
ankle sidelining him for ten months. Even though the Brazilian-born
Croat recovered in late 2008, he never made an appearance in the
2008/09 season.
Last week, Eduardo simulated a penalty in the Champions League against
Celtic and converted the kick for Arsenal's 1-0 lead. For his dive,
that hardly mattered at the end of the day (the Gunners won 5-1
on aggregate), UEFA sanctioned the player with a two game suspension.
True, the two mentioned sanctions were passed by two different institutions,
the English FA and UEFA, but the disproportion seems shocking. Eduardo
and his team, Premiership leaders at the time of the injury, lost
so much more because of Taylor's tackle than Celtic in that return
match of the Champions League preliminary round. Yet, only one game
of suspension separates the two bans.
Both Arsene Wenger and the Croat FA chairman Vlatko Markovic were
bitterly disappointed at UEFA's ruling, not convinced that Eduardo
had in fact dived and in any case shocked that UEFA should have
picked on a player who suffered so much in order to make a point
against soccer's divers.
A kung-fu kick that shamed Cantona
The Bolivian defender Sergio Jauregui, of Blooming, has been banned
for a year for kicking a rival player in the throat.
The infringing player jumped and levelled a kick at the throat of
Leonardo Medina, of Oriente Petrolero, who had to be hospitalized
for the treatment of his injuries.
The images from Bolivian TV show that Medina first elbowed Jauregui,
who reacted with a move which largely overshadowed Eric Cantona's
infamous kung-fu kick on a spectator at Crystal Palace back in 1995.
The perpetrator later visited his injured rival in hospital, begging
him for forgiveness.
