Mano Menezes appears to be under a lot of pressure these days – surely it isn’t because he’s only the national coach of Brazil, a country with 194 million other talking heads? Earlier this week, Menezes met up with the U-17 ‘selecao feminina’ (you can call them Brasil’s futbolitas!) at their training ground in Granja Comary, where they are currently preparing for the South American games which kicks off on 9 March.
Of course, a name synonymous with O Jogo is none other than Marta (pictured here with Homare Sawa at last month’s Ballon d’Or awards). She recently expressed her desire to win the Olympic gold for women’s football with Brazil in August and spoke about her role as “adviser” to other girls in the national team.
“My role is the same as that of the other player’s. While I’ve been with the team a long time now, I’m not as experienced as, say, Formiga, who is one of the players whose example I try to follow. That said, I try to chat with the younger girls to fire them up and take some of the pressure off them. I’ll also discuss past performances with them, identifying things we were lacking or things we need to do in the future” – Marta
Model Dad of the Year, Robin van Persie (seen above with his two incredibly fofo kids, Dina and Shaqeel) has been linked to Real Madrid! Just when you thought all the transfer talk was over, the Madrid-based press are now scrambling to find new evidence that links the Arsenal striker to a move to the Bernabeu when his contract expires in June 2013. In today’s Marca, Van Persie has apparently declared : “I want to play in Madrid.”
Examining past case studies, Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema all sang similar phrases but in Robin’s case, it seems all fluff and zero substance. Strategically speaking, he could also say : “I want to play in Barcelona” out of politeness and because who the hell doesn’t want to play for Barca?!
It seemed that the European football world press was camped out outside Fabio Capello’s house in Belgravia (central London) last night! It was also a day where Great Britain’s Olympic coach Stuart Pearce was announced as the interim coach of England. Well at least Capello can book his summer escapade to Dubai in peace now… but wait, that’s where all the injured English footballers go to escape!
“We had a frank exchange of views. After these discussions, I went into his office and told me he wanted to resign. We prefer an Englishman or a Briton, but we have an open mind” – President of the FA, David Bernstein.
(Photos via Reuters, Bouchra van Persie, R.Ribeiro)
Well, they finally did it – and boy, do Chelsea deserve it! Saturday night’s Champions League final was a fitting representation of the football patterns we’ve come to witness in the last decade. The notion of “Finders, keepers” coupled by ...
After his penalty miss on Saturday night, Bastian Schweinsteiger hasn’t been in the best of moods. Naturally, the German tabloids decided to stalk the defender on Sunday morning as he walked his dog wearing the worst outfit ever assembled. Well, ...
Welcome to your Champions League Final Bumper Post, brought to you by the squinting Fernando Torres and his post-flight mop. He brought just enough clothes for the post-match dinner in Munich, so it looks like that epic house rave and beer ...