CELEBRITY
FERGUSON SLAMS FAILED SUPER LEAGUE AS DREAM KILLER
Sir Alex Ferguson has criticised the failed European Super League project, saying that ‘every team should have their dream’ to succeed at the highest level.
According to Daily Mail of UK, the unsuccessful plans would have created a closed shop at the top of European football, with only five ‘outsiders’ able to qualify for the breakaway competition alongside 15 permanent members.
Ferguson’s former club Manchester United were among the leading players backing the proposals, but he told BBC Sport: ‘As a player I played in European football for Rangers and Dunfermline. And then as a manager I took a provincial club, Aberdeen, and beat Real Madrid in the (1983 Cup Winners’ Cup) final in Gothenburg
‘That is a provincial club fulfilling their dream. Every club should have that dream to achieve what Aberdeen did.
‘You cannot ever forget that the real reason for football was that the smallest guy can climb to the top of Everest, and that’s the best way I can put that. We can’t do without that, really.’
The Scot, 79, will premiere a film about his life this month, three years on from a brain haemorrhage that left him in intensive care.
Ferguson revealed he was ‘terrified’ after losing his memory for 10 days following the incident.
‘I always depended on my memory,’ he said. ‘And then my two grandsons were in with me, and all of a sudden I stopped talking — I just couldn’t get a word out.
‘At that moment I was a bit terrified. I’m starting to think, “What are we going to do now? You can’t talk, has my memory gone?”
‘Then the speech therapist started, she was fantastic, got me to write all the names of my family, all the names of my players — and then about 10 days later it came back.’
Asked how it has changed him, he said: ‘Probably not taking things too seriously in terms of knowing that you’re vulnerable – if I go tomorrow I’ll be grateful for the three extra years I had.’
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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