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Fifa Ballon d’Or: Ronaldo set to top Lionel Messi as world’s best player

January 13, 2014
Ronaldo_WinMadrid, Jan 13: Cristiano Ronaldo is heavily favoured to end Lionel Messi’s four-year reign as the world’s best player at the Fifa Ballon d’Or gala on Monday.
Ronaldo’s prolific tally of 69 goals for Real Madrid and Portugal seems likely to earn his second Fifa award after finishing runner-up three times in Messi’s dominating era.
Franck Ribery is the third candidate, but the Bayern Munich and France winger needs to score a major upset to add the Fifa accolade to Uefa’s Best Player in Europe award, which he collected in August.
A Ronaldo victory is expected because of Fifa’s announcement after the World Cup playoffs in November to extend the voting deadline by two weeks.
That brought his inspiring performance and hat-trick for Portugal in Stockholm, completing a 4-2 aggregate win to eliminate Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sweden, into the calculations.
“I did my job as I have been doing all season,” Ronaldo said following the match. “Every year I show what I’m about. I’ve scored 40 or 50 goals a season and that’s not enough for everyone.”
Messi, who got 45 goals for Barcelona and Argentina, was unable to further his case after already being ruled out of action for by a third injury in 2013.
Fifa also allowed the voting college — national team captains and coaches, plus one journalist, from each of world football’s 209 member countries — to change preferences and submit new ballot papers. Voters were invited to select their top three choices from a 23-man shortlist provided by Fifa and France Football magazine.

The adjustment prompted speculation Fifa was seeking to counter speculation in Spain and Portugal that the governing body and its president Sepp Blatter was biased toward Messi and Barcelona.
That long-held conspiracy theory was further fuelled in October when Blatter was filmed telling a student audience in Oxford, England, that he did indeed prefer Messi’s more modest personality and that Ronaldo was too concerned about his hairstyle.
Blatter’s subsequent mimicry of Ronaldo having a “commander on the field” stature only seemed to stoke the player’s anger and raise the level of his game even higher in the following weeks.
Last week, Ronaldo confirmed he would attend the ceremony in Zurich, ending speculation he would snub Fifa and Blatter in retaliation.
Ronaldo’s all-round excellence, variety and quality of goals have made him a worthy front-runner to add to his 2008 award, which was a reward for helping Manchester United win the Champions League.
His former boss at Old Trafford, Alex Ferguson, is also nominated for the coaching award after going into retirement with another Premier League title.
Jupp Heynckes, who also retired last May, is favoured to win after leading Bayern to a treble of Champions League, Bundesliga and German cup titles. Jurgen Klopp, whose Borussia Dortmund side was beaten by Bayern in the Champions League final, completes the shortlist.
The finalists for the women’s world player award are last year’s winner Abby Wambach of the United States, five-time winner Marta of Brazil and Germany goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, the current European player of the year.
Two more Germans who won European titles are competing to be named best coach in women’s football: Silvia Neid is the national team coach and Ralf Kellermann guided Wolfsburg to the Champions League title. Sweden coach Pia Sundhage, who won last year for her Olympic success with the United States, is the third candidate.
Ibrahimovic could get some compensation with the Puskas Award for most beautiful goal in the 12-month qualifying period, for his long-range bicycle kick for Sweden against England in a friendly in November 2012.
Neymar’s goal for Brazil against Japan in the Confederations Cup and Nemanja Matic’s strike for Benfica vs Porto in the Portuguese league complete the shortlist. Fans can vote online until Monday evening.
A World XI team has been selected by players in a poll organized by the FIFPro group of unions worldwide.
Fifa will also make a presidential award decided by Blatter and a prize rewarding fair play.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Islamabad, Aug 7: Former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, known for his blistering deliveries on the cricket field, recently baffled many with a deadly off-field bouncer by claiming he is willing to eat grass if it enabled an increase in budget for his country's Army!

"If Allah ever gives me the authority, I will eat grass myself but I will increase the budget of the army," said Akhtar in an interview with ARY News.

The 'Rawalpindi Express', considered the fastest bowler in history said he does not understand why the civilian sector cannot work in collaboration with the Armed forces.

"I will ask my army chief to sit with me and make decisions. If the budget is 20 per cent, I will make it 60 per cent. If we insult each other, the loss is ours only," the once feared fast-bowler said.

Akthar had also claimed to ARY News interview that he was willing to take a bullet for his country and had turned down a county stint just because he wanted to fight the 1999 Kargil War.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been strained in the recent months over several issues, the latest being Pakistan's attempt to broach in the UNSC the issue of Kashmir on the first anniversary of the India's move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories .

Pakistan also has not been in a good financial position and under prime minister Imran Khan, himself an all rounder cricketer, has added nearly USD 22 billion, that is 35 per cent to the nation's international debt pile in the last two years, according to an Asia Times report in July.

While Pakistan recently received USD 1.39 billion from the IMF to cushion the economic shocks caused due to COVID-19 outbreak, Akthar had a few months ago proposed that a joint cricket match be played between India and Pakistan to raise funds to fight the coronavirus. The suggestion that was put down by cricketers in India.

Meanwhile the 'Pindi boy' whose deadly pace and bounce was once dreaded by batsmen had recently taken to Twitter to deny former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's claim of sledging him.

Sehwag along with other Indian crickerters such as Harbhajan Singh and even Rahul Dravid had been at the receiving end of Akthar's sledging and antics during their playing days.

"Yes, totally self made story by him. Mujhe yeh bol k bach k jana kidhar tha us nay," Akthar tweeted to a report in which Sehwag claimed that he had sledged the 'Rawalpindi Express' by telling him that Sachin Tendulkar was his father.

During an awards ceremony Sehwag had recounted that fed up with Akthar's sledging and retaliated by telling him to say the same things to Tendulkar, who smashed the 'Pindi boy' for a six. Sehwag quipped that he told Akthar then that "Baap baap hota hai".

In the recent ARY interview, asked about the allegation made against him by former India cricketer Virendra Sehwag that he makes pro-India comments for greater following on social media channels, Akhtar said, "I cannot talk on the basis of hate." 

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News Network
May 26,2020

Mumbai, May 26: Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar said that if he was playing currently he and Virat Kohli would have been the best of friends off the field, but real enemies whenever they stepped on the field.

Akhtar also said that he would have liked to challenge Kohli to drive the ball.

"Virat Kohli and I would have been the best of friends as both of us are Punjabi, but on the field, we would have been the best of the enemies. I would have loved to get inside the head of Kohli. I would have told him that you cannot play a cut or pull shot against me," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I would have gone wide of the crease and bowled a ball that would go away from him, I would have forced him to drive the ball as it is his favourite shot. So I would keep forcing him to play the drive shot at my pace," he added.

Akhtar also said that he wishes that Kohli could have played against some of the top bowlers in the game.

The Rawalpindi Express said that Kohli would have enjoyed the challenge of facing bowlers like Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, and Waqar Younis.

"I would also keep talking to him, because if I get him to lose his focus then that would have been great. The great thing about Kohli is that he gets more focused when he is challenged. But I believe Virat Kohli would have still scored the same amount of runs if I was playing," Akhtar said.

"I really wish that he had played against Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shane Warne, and then Virat would have also enjoyed the challenge," he added.

Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.

Over the years, comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli has 70 centuries across all formats.

Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in second place in the Tests rankings.

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News Network
July 23,2020

New Delhi, Jul 23: With one year to go for the Olympic Games to begin in Tokyo on July 23, 2021, Indian women's hockey team skipper Rani Rampal on Thursday said the side has performed well against top teams in recent times and can do the same at the Olympics.

The Indian team has competed well against top teams in the recent past and has registered memorable victories at the FIH Series Finals and the FIH Olympic Qualifiers last year.

"We have competed against top teams in the recent past and we have shown that our team has the capability of winning a medal and making our country proud at the Olympics. We have a good group of experienced players, who are guiding the junior players very well. Our team has been getting better with each tournament we have played and we will definitely improve our game even further in the next one year," said the 25-year-old said in a statement.

Speaking about her participation at the Olympics, Rani said that the experience will help her make better decisions at the Tokyo Olympics.

"It was great to be a part of the Olympics in Rio. We made history by qualifying for the tournament after 36 years. It was a great feeling to be playing at the biggest of stages. Even though we didn't register the best of results, I have certainly learned a lot by playing the Olympic Games matches in 2016. I am sure all the players, who played in the 2016 Olympics, will make much better decisions on the pitch at the Tokyo Olympics, based on their experience in Rio," she said.

The Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, while the Paralympics will take place from August 24 to September 5, 2021.  

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