Gurpreet makes Indian football history, plays in Europa League

July 1, 2016

New Delhi, Jul 1: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu's ground-breaking journey through uncharted territory reached the most important milestone as he became the first Indian footballer to play for the first team in the top-flight Europa League.

Gurpreet

Standing at a towering 6 feet and four inches, the Indian national team goalkeeper started for Norwegian Tippeligaen club Stabaek FC in an Europa League qualifier against Welsh side Connah's Quay Nomads FC in an away match in Rhyl, Wales yesterday evening.

The Europa League is a rung below the UEFA Champions League.

His night was, however, cut short by a hand injury that prompted a change after 28 minutes of play and brought into action Sayouba Mande, the team's first choice custodian till this match. "I am proud but also disappointed that it had to end due to an injury. But then again they are part and parcel of the game and we can't do anything about them," the 24-year-old Gurpreet told PTI before leaving for Norway.

The Indian, who has already started his recovery session in the gymnasium, is all but ruled out of the second leg.

He added: "I will have an x-ray taken in some time and we will see. But I am more or less ruled out of the second leg game. I am still looking forward to the future matches and there will be few play-offs."

While he has slowly walked his way into the starting XI at the expense of the more experienced custodian from Ivory Coast, Sandhu has been the number one goalkeeper in the Indian team since Stephen Constantine took over in 2015, with the English coach preferring him over veteran Subrata Paul.

Sandhu, who signed for Stabaek in 2014, made headlines in May when he became the first Indian to start in the first team in a top-division league of Europe. In that match against IK Start in the Norwegian Tippeligaen, he kept a clean sheet in a 5-0 away victory.

Gurpreet is now the only Indian to play for the first team in a top-division league of Europe. Mohammed Salim, former captain Bhaichung Bhutia and current national skipper Sunil Chhetri have all played abroad, but they were never able to break into the first team.

Bengal footballer Salim played for Scottish top-tier side Celtic FC in 1936, but he did not feature in the premier division.

Bhutia played for English third division side Bury FC in 1999-2000 and current national skipper Chhetri played for the 'B' team of Sporting Lisbon in 2012. Sandhu, who is from Mohali in Punjab, has gone one step ahead.

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News Network
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Manchester United's Paul Pogba on Monday paid tribute to George Floyd, stressing that violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated and they have to stop.

Pogba took to Instagram to write: "During the past few days I have thought a lot about how to express my feelings about what happened in Minneapolis. I felt anger, pity, hatred, indignation, pain, sadness."

"Sadness for George and for all black people who suffer from racism Every day! Whether in football, at work, at school, Anywhere! This has to stop, once and for all! Not tomorrow or the next day, it has to end today! Violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated," he added.

Protests erupted in Minneapolis and other US cities on Tuesday after Floyd, an African-American man, died following his arrest by the four officers.

A viral video showed a police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinning 46-year-old Floyd to the ground with his knee on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Floyd died at a local hospital shortly thereafter.

The four police officers were fired. Chauvin was also charged with murder and manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

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zaki ahmed
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Jun 2020

This photograph in the above mentioned article is of Floyd Mayweather Jr , the world welterweight & super heavy weight champion & wrongly menitoned as Pogba .

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News Network
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday extended wishes to the "most prolific batsman of all time" Sachin Tendulkar on his 47th birthday.

ICC took to Twitter and wrote: "Happy birthday to Sachin Tendulkar, the most prolific batsman of all time! To celebrate, we will give you the opportunity to vote for his top ODI innings in a bracket challenge! Stay tuned to join the celebrations."

The Maharashtra-born player had an illustrious career in the game, creating several records.
Tendulkar made his debut in Test cricket on November 15, 1989. In the same year on December 18, he played his first ODI match.

The legendary cricketer has the most number of runs in the longest format of the game, amassing 15,921 runs. Along the way, Tendulkar scored 51 Test centuries, most by any player.

Things are no different in ODI cricket as Tendulkar atop the list of most runs in this format as well. He has accumulated 18,426 runs in ODI which includes 49 tons.

Tendulkar represented the country in six World Cups during his career that lasted for 24 years. He was the part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad.

This year, Master Blaster decided not to celebrate his birthday due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the country.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Jeddah, Jan 9: Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde criticised the new Supercopa format and said that "football has become a business and as a business it looks for income".

"The bottom line is football has become a business and as a business it looks for income. That's the reason we are all here," Goal.com quoted Valverde as saying ahead of Barca's semi-final against Atletico.

"It's a completely different format to what we're used to. It was always the first title and the opener of the season and to me, that seemed fine," he added.

The Supercopa was traditionally a two-legged affair played between the winners of La Liga and the Copa del Rey at the beginning of the season, but following last term's one-off meeting between Barca and Sevilla in Tangier, Morocco, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) went ahead with a full revamp.

Instead of just two teams being involved, the Supercopa has been expanded to also include the runners-up from La Liga and the Copa - meaning Barca and Valencia are joined by Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. It is also set to be hosted in Saudi Arabia for the next three editions.

"It's been changed and let's see, it will be judged once it has happened. It's interesting, with four good teams, but from a sporting point of view, I'm not sure," Valverde said.

"We must bear in mind that the football we are involved in is an industry, sources of income are sought and in the same way that there are special connotations in this country, there are also in Morocco, where we played last year," he added.

Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid in the semifinal of the Supercopa at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on January 10.

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