Lionel Messi weighs in on why Leicester City's win is so important for football

May 3, 2016

May 3: Lionel Messi spoke for the great and the good of world soccer, not to mention millions of grassroots fans, when he acclaimed Leicester City's extraordinary Premier League triumph by tweeting: "The reason why we all love football. Congratulations"

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FIFA president Gianni Infantino echoed the most common and apt description of the "beautiful story" as a "fairytale" after the 5,000-1 outsiders, who performed a miraculous escape from relegation last season, were crowned champions on Monday. Leicester's first top-flight title was secured after their only remaining challengers Tottenham Hotspur were held to a 2-2 draw at Chelsea when needing to win to keep the race alive.

Real Madrid's former Spurs player Gareth Bale, whose side are battling with Messi's Barcelona and Atletico Madrid for the Spanish title, took a similar view.

"Gutted for @SpursOfficial but congrats to @LCFC, amazing season!! Love Football," the Welshman tweeted. Ex-Leicester and England striker Gary Lineker said: "Leicester City have won the Premier League. The biggest sporting shock of my lifetime, and it's only my team." TV presenter Lineker had promised to front BBC's Match of the Day in his underpants if his old club won it but few people thought he would ever have to go through with it, even when they opened a seven-point lead with two months remaining.

"All season long people kept saying they'll lose the next one, lose the next one but they kept winning and churning out results," said Chelsea skipper John Terry after the outgoing champions' fightback from 2-0 down ended Spurs' hopes.

"To do what they've done this year has been unbelievable and given hope to the smaller teams."

Chelsea fans, who have a soft spot for Ranieri despite him being sacked 12 years ago after owner Roman Abramovich arrived, chanted his name as the clock ticked down on his first top-flight title in nearly 30 years of coaching around Europe. "It's an amazing feeling and I'm so happy for everyone," said 64-year-old Ranieri, who was appointed before the start of the season to succeed Nigel Pearson. "I never expected this when I arrived. I'm a pragmatic man, I just wanted to win match after match and help my players to improve week after week. Never did I think too much about where it would take us.

"The players have been fantastic. Their focus, their determination, their spirit has made this possible. Every game they fight for each other and I love to see this in my players. They deserve to be champions."

His squad gathered to watch the game at the home of striker Jamie Vardy, named Footballer of the Year earlier on Monday, and video phone footage posted by defender Christian Fuchs showed them exploding with joy at the final whistle.

Captain Wes Morgan, the personification of their astonishing 12-month transformation, said it was their indomitable team spirit that saw them through. "Everyone's worked so hard for this, nobody believed we could do it, but here we are, Premier League champions and deservedly so," Morgan told the club website (www.lcfc.com).

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Morgan, who spent 10 years in the lower divisions with Nottingham Forest and tasted the Premier League for the first time aged 30 last season, added: "I've never known a spirit like the one between these boys. We're like brothers. People saw it last season when everyone expected us to be relegated, but we fought back to prove people wrong.

"We've built on the momentum, but I don't think anyone believed it would come to this.

"Saturday can't come quickly enough. I can't wait to get my hands on the trophy," added the centre back, who will hoist it in front of the club's fans in the home game against Everton. Vardy, who has been transformed from a shot-shy striker last season into an England international, said: "It's the biggest achievement in the history of a great club and we all feel privileged to be part of it.

"It's even more special to have done it with these lads. Every minute of hard work we've put in on the training pitch has been worth it for this moment." Midfielder Andy King added: "I thought I'd seen everything with this club, but I never thought I'd see this.

"The story of where this team has come from to get to this point has been all over the world recently and I think the lads deserve great credit for the way they've taken it in their stride, stayed focused and kept delivering results -- especially with a great side like Spurs chasing us so hard."

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, who must have thought the race would go into the final two games when his side led 2-0 at halftime on Monday, said: "First of all I congratulate Leicester and Claudio Ranieri and his players and supporters. It was a massive season for them -- we just need to be stronger next season."

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany said: "Congratulations to the new Champions of England, Leicester City. Respect."

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News Network
July 16,2020

Kolkata, Jul 16: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday went into home quarantine after his elder brother and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) joint secretary Snehasish Ganguly tested positive for Covid-19.

Snehasish, a former Bengal first-class player, has been admitted to the Belle Vue hospital in Kolkata after his COVID report came positive.

"He was suffering from fever for the last few days and his test report came positive today. He's been admitted to Belle Vue Hospital," a CAB official said.

"The reports arrived late in the evening. As per health protocols, even Sourav will have to be in home quarantine for a stipulated period," a source close to the BCCI President added.

Snehasish had shifted to their ancestral house, where Sourav is based, in Behala after his wife and in-laws at his Mominpur residence tested positive for the dreaded virus.

The former India captain was, however, unavailable for a comment on the development.

Recently, during an interview to India Today, Sourav had spoken about how life around him has changed, making people more vulnerable.

"My brother visits our factories everyday and he is more at risk," the former batting star had said

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January 10,2020

New Delhi, Jan 10: Injured Assam archer Shivangini Gohain underwent a critical surgery at the AIIMS. Dr. Deepak Gupta, professor of Pediatric neurosurgery at AIIMS, revealed about the delicate nature of the procedure and said there was no room for error.

"It was touching vertebral artery which supplies blood to the brain stem. The arrow was 0.5 cm in front of the spinal cord and the child could have become quadriplegic if someone tried to pull it out," Gupta said.

According to doctors, the arrow accidentally went inside the body damaging the shoulder bone, part of the neck, spinal cord and left lung.

Dr Gupta said, "Now the patient is fine. We had planned the surgery in a very unique way. Last whole night, our team was doing the planning and plotting to conduct this complex surgery. About 15 cm part of the arrow was inside the body which has entered through shoulder bone and affected neck, spinal cord and left lung".

"We started the surgery in the morning at 6 am which lasted for three and a half hours. We have successfully removed the arrow. The patient is stable now and shifted to ICU for observation," he added

Shivangini Gohain, the 12-year-old Assam archer who was impaled by an arrow shot accidentally at the SAI centre in Dibrugarh, was training unsupervised and the mishap was a result of negligence by the local coach and officials, the state's archery association has said.

The child was training at the Dakha Devi Rasiwasia College at Chabua, which serves as an extension centre under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Regional Centre in Guwahati when the incident took place on Wednesday.

She was airlifted to Delhi on Thursday night and admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre. Pulin Das, a joint secretary of Assam Archery Association and executive member of the state Olympic association said the injury to the school girl from the Deodhai village, which is 3km from Chabua, happened as the trainees were practising without any coach and other officials.

“There is a SAI contractual coach Marcy and he has left for the Khelo India Games in Guwahati. He didn't instruct the trainees to stop the camp for some time nor did the college principal, who acted as administrator of the extension centre, looked after the practice,” Das said on Friday.

The extension centre has 11 trainees, six boys and five girls, and they were training under SAI contractual coach A C Marcy from Nagaland, who is in Guwahati for the Khelo India Youth Games.

“The training ground itself is in very bad shape, it was not even a dedicated ground for archery training, some play football, cricket and other sports on that ground. But the worst part is that the SAI coach did not give instructions to stop the camp for a while and the archers were training without any supervision,” he added Das said Gohain was struck by an arrow shot by boys doing practice for compound event. The arrow remained stuck for more more than a day before she was airlifted to New Delhi on Thursday night.

“There was nobody to look after the archers, they were training on their own though their parents were outside the ground. An arrow shot by a boy trainee who was doing compound event practice hit her on the shoulder,” the official said.

Gohain's father Brinchi Gohain was outside the practice area and with no official of the college and SAI coming for help, she was taken to Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh, 33km from Chabua.

“She could reach the AMC in Dribugarh only on Thursday morning. There, the doctors told her parents to take her to a more reputed hospital like AIIMS in Delhi. With help from people close to the local Member of Parliament and Assam CM himself, she was taken by air ambulance to Delhi.

“I was told that she had a very tough time as the arrow remained stuck for more than a day. She is a strong-willed girl and she fought. Her father must be a daily wage labourer and he was distraught also.”

The SAI said that it will bear all the expenses of her treatment. The Assam Archery Association has contributed Rs 20,000 towards her treatment.

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News Network
June 9,2020

Jun 9: Former West Indies skipper Darren Sammy has released a video, alleging racism within the SunRisers Hyderabad camp. Last week, Sammy had lost his cool after learning the meaning of the word "Kalu", which he alleged was directed at him during his Indian Premier League (IPL) stint with the SunRisers Hyderabad. The T20 World Cup-winning Windies skipper had said that he along with Sri Lanka player Thisara Perera were sometimes called that word when they played for SunRisers Hyderabad. However, Sammy did not specify as to who directed these slurs at him, but now the player has released a video, saying he will message all those who called him that word.

"I have played all over the world and I have been loved by many people, I have embraced all dressing rooms where I have played, so I was listening to Hasan Minhaj as to how some of the people in his culture describe black people," Sammy said in a video posted on his Instagram account.

"This does not apply to all people, so after I found out a meaning of a certain word, I had said I was angry on finding out the meaning and it was degrading, instantly I remembered when I played for SunRisers Hyderabad, I was being called exactly the same word which is degrading to us black people," he added.

Sammy said that at the time when he was being called with the word, he didn''t know the meaning, and his team-mates used to laugh every time after calling him by that name.

"I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called as that word I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, I did not know what it meant, every time I was called with that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought teammates are laughing so it must be something funny," Sammy said.

"Now, I realise it was degrading, I will be texting you guys and I will ask you as to when you called me with that name, did you all mean it in any bad way or form? I have had great memories in all my dressing rooms, so all those who used to you call me with that word, think about it, let's have a conversation, if it was in a bad way then I would be really disappointed," he added.

The former Windies skipper has been a vocal supporter of the protests that are currently going on in the United States over the death of an African-American man named George Floyd.

Sammy had also made an appeal to the ICC and other cricket boards to support the fight against social injustice and racism.

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