SERIE A
CRISTIANO RONALDO’S FATHER-IN-LAW DIES IN ARGENTINA PRISON
This is another heartache too much for the world’s renowned footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo who has recently been going through off-field issues of rape allegation and tax evasion.
Now the convicted drug trafficker father of his girlfriend has
reportedly died in his native Argentina after a long battle against illness.
According to UK’s Daily Mail, the football star’s partner Georgina Rodriguez posted a birthday photo on her Instagram earlier this week from Buenos Aires and wrote: ‘Coincidences of life. I land in the country I was born in at the same time and the day of my birth 25 years ago.’
She gave no hint of the reason for her trip, thought to be her first to Argentina since her dad was kicked out of Spain in 2013 and banned from returning after doing ten years jail for two drugs trafficking offences.
Celeb Spanish magazine Hola reported on its website on Friday that the pretty brunette had flown to Buenos Aires following the death of Jorge Eduardo Rodriguez Gorjon at the age of 70.
He is said to have suffered from complications related to a stroke he had two-and-a-half years ago.
No-one from Cristiano Ronaldo’s agency Gestifute, which rarely comments on the footballer’s private life, was available early Friday.
Fans of the footballer and his partner, who gave birth to their one-year-old daughter Alana Martina in November 2016, have taken to social media to offer their condolences.
One, writing on
the Instagram page of Georgina’s sister Ivana, said: ‘My sincere condolences.
‘I hope you find comfort in God. I am very sad for you. Be strong. We are all with you.’
Another messaged Georgina to say: ‘I am very sorry for your loss. We are thinking of you.’
Buenos Aires-born former footballer Jorge was jailed in 2003 and released in 2013 after receiving sentences of 11 years and two years, although he was on licence for part of that time and not behind bars 24/7.
He is thought to have been kicked out of the country and banned from returning to Spain after completing his sentence in August 2013.
It was known he was seriously ill and being cared for by a relative, believed to get by with money former shop worker Georgina and her older sister Ivana sent them.
Jorge, who met Georgina’s mum after moving to Spain in the eighties, was found guilty of trafficking with cocaine and cannabis resin in separate trials at Madrid’s top criminal court the Audiencia Nacional.
Judges there deal with the extraditions of British criminals and have also tried some of Spain’s most dangerous terrorists including the men responsible for the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 193 people and injured around 2,000.
His cocaine trafficking conviction, set out in an 18-page document dated July 28 2003, shows how he masterminded a failed attempt to smuggle more than £100,000 of cocaine from Spain to France using a bolthole where he was in hiding from outstanding arrest warrants.
Two accomplices were stopped by police near Madrid on January 26, 1999 as they drove towards the French city of Nice to deliver the drugs to an Italian nicknamed ‘Espaguetti’ – ‘Spaghetti’ in English.
The passenger tried to avoid arrest by throwing the drugs – just over three kilos of 83 per cent pure cocaine – out of the window of their Fiat Tipo.
Georgina’s dad failed to get incriminating phone taps rejected as evidence at his trial which linked him to a Colombian that paid for the drugs.
Prosecutors wanted him jailed for 13-and-a-half years but the three trial judges decided on an 11-year sentence and £106,500 fine, ruling he had carried out ‘coordination tasks.’
He received his second sentence on November 22, 2010.
A different Audiencia Nacional judge handed him a two-year jail term for smuggling cannabis resin from Morocco to Spain with six accomplices.
Martinez was convicted of organising a boat drugs drop in the Costa Tropical holiday resort of Roquetas de Mar in December 2008 during a brief early release on licence.
Police discovered nearly a tonne of cannabis resin valued at more than £1m during a raid on a nearby warehouse the drugs were taken to after being smuggled into Spain.
Two guns and six bullets, described as being ‘in perfect working order’ and provided by two gang members who were also convicted of weapons possession, were found in the same warehouse.
Prosecutors demanded a four-year, six-month jail sentence for Rodriguez but he was let off with a lighter punishment because he confessed.
Juventus striker Cristiano, who will turn 34 next Tuesday, forged his relationship with Georgina during lock-ins at the upmarket clothes store where she used to work.
The former Real Madrid striker, facing a new US police investigation over Kathryn Mayorga’s claims he raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009 which he has denied, met Georgina at a Gucci store in central Madrid in June 2016 when he was shopping for summer clothes.
She soon became his first serious girlfriend since he broke up with Russian beauty Irina Shayk at the start of 2015.
He moved her into his luxury home on a gated estate on the outskirts of the Spanish capital before setting up home with her in Turin.
Last year the footballer’s mum said of Georgina during a magazine interview about her son’s love life, children and his alcoholic dad Dinis who drank himself into an early grave in September 2005: ‘She is the mother of my grand-daughter. She is a future daughter-in-law. She’s not my daughter-in-law yet. She’s a future daughter-in-law. She’s a very calm person.’
Pope Leo XIV welcomed Italy’s newly crowned Serie A champions Napoli to the Vatican on Tuesday, joking about his own soccer allegiances.
Napoli won their fourth “Scudetto” on Friday with a 2-0 home victory over Cagliari, edging out Inter Milan by one point in a nail-biting end to the season.
The team, captained by Italian international Giovanni Di Lorenzo, arrived for their papal audience a day after a triumphant open-top bus parade through central Naples.
“The press says I am an AS Roma fan, but you are welcome! This is what the press says. Not everything you read in the press is true,” the pope said, according to a transcript.
Leo, the first pope to come from the U.S., follows and practices sports, including tennis. People who know him have described him to the media as an AS Roma supporter.
Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis gave him a blue Napoli jersey signed by players, bearing the number 10 and his name in Italian, “Papa Leone XIV”.
“You are a number 10, so you are a great striker”, De Laurentiis said. Leo replied with a chuckle and a simple “thank you”.
Coach Antonio Conte, whom De Laurentiis introduced as “deeply Catholic”, knelt down and kissed the pope’s hand, before Leo told him he had seen him many times on TV.
In a short speech, the pontiff stressed the importance of team spirit and collaboration, and sport’s educational value, especially for young people.
Winning comes “at the end of a long journey, where what matters the most is not a one-time exploit or the extraordinary performance of one champion”, he said.
“The championship is won by the team, and when I say ‘team’ I mean the players, the coach with the whole squad, and the club,” he added.
Leo ended his remarks giving his blessings to players and club officials, and offering congratulations, also on behalf of his personal cook.
“She is from Naples and she says: best wishes! She would like to be here too, Mrs Rosa, (she is) a big fan”, the pope said.
-Reuters
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A second-half goal by substitute Ibrahim Sulemana earned Atalanta a 2-1 home win over AS Roma in Serie A on Monday, securing Champions League qualification for Gian Piero Gasperini’s side.
Sulemana sealed the three points for Atalanta in the 76th minute, scoring with a low strike from just outside the area, after Roma midfielder Bryan Cristante cancelled out an early opener by Ademola Lookman.
Atalanta, who fell behind in the title race, sit third in the standings on 71 points and have a seven-point cushion over fourth-placed Juventus and Lazio in fifth with two games left to play.
Roma, who failed to capitalise on Lazio and Juventus dropping points in a 1-1 stalemate on Saturday, are sixth with 63 points.
Atalanta snapped the visitors’ impressive unbeaten league run of 19 games, with Claudio Ranieri’s side previously having been defeated mid-December at Como.
Things started off brightly for Atalanta as Lookman stroked in past Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar to put them in front after nine minutes.
Charles De Ketelaere dribbled past the Roma defence to set the Nigerian up with a precise low cross inside the box and the striker controlled the ball to score inside the right post.
It was Atalanta’s 100th goal this season across all competitions.
De Ketelaere had two good chances to double the advantage but Roma midfielder Cristante levelled for the visitors instead, netting with a flicked header after the half-hour mark.
Things slowed down significantly after a lively first half until Roma were awarded a penalty after an hour of play, following a clash between Atalanta’s Mario Pasalic and Manu Kone.
The referee, however, overturned his decision after consulting VAR.
Sulemana eventually restored the lead for Atalanta in the 76th minute, scoring with a low strike from just outside the area — a goal that stood after a VAR check for a potential offside.
Roma host AC Milan next weekend before visiting mid-table Torino in their bid to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.
Atalanta travel to Genoa on Sunday before welcoming lowly Parma in their final fixture.
-Reuters
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Paul Pogba can return to competition with the end of his 18-month doping ban on Tuesday, with the 2018 world champion hoping to leave behind three cataclysmic years also marked by injuries and a kidnapping case of which he was the victim.
The long penance of the French international (91 caps), one of the biggest stars in the world of football, is coming to an end and the midfielder will be able to draw a line under what seems like a slow descent into hell.
Suspended for four years after testing positive for non-endogenous testosterone metabolites (DHEA) at the end of the Juventus-Udinese match on August 20, 2023, Pogba saw his sanction reduced to 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the CAS considering that the “ingestion” of the substance “was not intentional and resulted from taking a food supplement prescribed by a doctor in Florida.”
Based in Miami, the native of Lagny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, is now ready to bounce back, his Instagram account still very popular (62.7 million followers) multiplies photos of intensive training, with a few fashion shots, another of his passions. Sign of his return, at least in the media, while waiting to be able to resume the thread of his prestigious career.
His ultimate dream remains the 2026 World Cup, but he would first have to find a club. La Pioche (32 years old on March 15), whose contract with Juventus Turin that ran until 2026 was terminated last November, “is training 1000%, he is in good spirits, he has received many offers”, assures a member of his entourage. He is also in regular contact with the coach of the Blues Didier Deschamps, “one of his advisors for sporting decisions”, according to one of his close friends.
But who could be interested in a player whose last match was on September 3, 2023 with Juve?
During one of his rare public appearances, on AmineMaTue’s Twitch channel in January, he explained that he had received ” proposals, not very interesting stuff”, such as “going to play in Russia, but that’s not the goal “.
A contract, he admitted, ” doesn’t depend on me, but on many other things.”
– Strength of character –
David Beckham’s Inter Miami could be a solution. Pogba lives in the Florida metropolis where he bought a house, he was in the stands for the Roses’ first MLS match of the season, against New York City (2-2), on February 23, and he is fine-tuning his fitness with the fitness coach of Lionel Messi, the team’s star.
Olympique de Marseille also sounded him out, and football director Medhi Benatia played with him at Juventus. But OM did not want to take the risk of signing a player whose fitness is surrounded by too many questions.
In any case, morale seems to be at its highest, with Pogba having always maintained his legendary strength of character even in the worst of storms.
“I ‘ve had a difficult year, so I have this rage, this desire to play football and enjoy it until the end of my career,” he said on Al Jazeera channel, just before his positive test.
Also badly affected by the kidnapping case of which he was the victim in 2022, he can now also try to forget this sordid episode with the end of the trial of his attackers at the end of 2024, his brother Mathias and five of his childhood friends having been sentenced to terms of up to eight years in prison.
“I can finally turn the page on this extremely difficult period. This conclusion is an opportunity for everyone to focus on the future. Now that the judgment has been delivered, I can fully concentrate on my return to professional football ,” he wrote to AFP after the verdict.
” That he can rediscover the pleasure of playing on the pitch, that’s all I wish for him because humanly he’s really a good person ,” said Didier Deschamps in 2024.
–Le360/AFP
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