International Football
VIEWS FROM THE FAR EAST: SADIO MANE SHOULD BE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD
BY DILENJIT SINGH
He was Lionel Messi’s pick as the world’s premier player at the Best FIFA awards, Cesc Fabregas believes he has been one of the three best footballers for “a while now” and Jamie Carragher opined that his Liverpool side would have won the English Premier League in 2009 if they had him in the team.
After surreptitiously sliding away from the spotlight for most of his career, the soft-spoken Sadio Mane seems to finally be getting the plaudits his performances warrant.
But his Senegal coach Aliou Cisse believes last season’s EPL joint-Golden Boot winner deserves to be feted even further.
At a press conference at Swissotel The Stamford ahead of his team’s clash with Brazil at the National Stadium tonight, the former Paris Saint-Germain and Birmingham City midfielder said Mane deserves to be recognised as the best player in the world.
The 27-year-old Liverpool wide forward finished fifth at last month’s Best Fifa Men’s Player award, behind Messi, Virgil van Dijk, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah.
When The New Paper asked Cisse if he agreed with Messi, Fabregas and Carragher’s assessments of his star player, he said: “With all those testimonies from those brilliant players, we should really grant Sadio the Best Player award, because they are good players and they recognise the quality of Mane.”
Mane was more coy about whether he was approaching the stratosphere of Messi and Ronaldo, saying: “What a compliment… I will try to do everything to get this kind of award.”
With the likes of Mane and captain Kalidou Koulibaly, who is considered among the world’s best centre-backs, in his side, Cisse believes Senegal could cement their place as Africa’s best-ever team at the 2022 World Cup.
GREATER HEIGHTS
Cisse, 43, insists that his charges can go beyond the quarter-finals on football’s grandest stage, something only his team of 2002, Cameroon’s class of 1990 and most recently Ghana in 2010 have achieved.
Said Cisse: “I believe we have a good team who can go even beyond that. It is from that perspective that we have accepted the (offer) to play against Brazil.
“Our ambition is not just here. We are looking to go very far. We believe we can reach further than the quarter-finals.”
Looking ahead to the clash with five-time World Cup winners Brazil, Cisse warns that, even if his side don’t dominate the match, they can still hurt the Selecao.
He said: “It is not the case that if you control the ball, you will win… Even if we don’t control the ball, we can use other strategies to score… (Senegal’s) strengths are attacking and defending together, so what is important is to have that cohesion in the team.”
Mane, meanwhile, said that should his side cause just the fourth defeat of Tite’s 44-match tenure, his Liverpool teammate Roberto Firmino will not hear the end of it.
“We know each other very well. He knows I will talk a lot if I score or we get a win against Brazil,” said Mane, who has 19 international goals in 66 games.
“He will do everything possible to stop me scoring or to stop us winning.” –
–The New Paper
Well-travelled Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte has been named as Guinea’s new coach, less than a month before their next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Duarte, 56, has twice previously coached Burkina Faso and taken charge of Gabon and Togo, while also coaching at clubs in Portugal, France, Tunisia, Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Guinea’s football federation gave no contract details when they made the announcement on Monday, but said they would be looking for Duarte to “restructure their national team”.
Guinea trail leaders Algeria by eight points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining, leaving them with only a slim chance of qualification.
They play Somalia away on September 5 and then Algeria at home on September 8 in their next two qualifiers although a stadium ban means Guinea have moved their home game to Casablanca, Morocco.
-Reuters
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Veteran coach Louis van Gaal says he has been cured of cancer and is keen for a return to the higher levels of the game.
The 73-year-old announced three years ago that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but told a Dutch television talk show, “I’m no longer bothered by cancer.”
When he announced his illness, Van Gaal was the coach of the Dutch national team, but he has not worked since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Two years ago, I had a few operations. It was all bad then. But it all worked out in the end. I have check-ups every few months, and that’s going well. I’m getting fitter and fitter,” he said.
Van Gaal, whose career has included stints at Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, reiterated a lack of interest in returning to club management but said becoming the national coach of a top-tier country could tempt him back.
He now serves as a special advisor to Ajax.
-Reuters
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In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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