International Football
AFTER ADMITTING PATERNITY TO CHILDREN FROM FOUR WOMEN, A FIFTH LADY SURFACES FOR ETO’O
Former Premier League and Cameroon footballer Samuel Eto’o is facing a new court paternity lawsuit over an alleged lovechild. He has already admitted paternity to children from four different women in the past.
Now another lady has surfaced. Adileusa do Rosario Neves, 39, from Cape Verde, is fighting to have Eto’o recognised as the father of her 19-year-old daughter, Erika.
Her lawyer, Fernando Osuna confirmed on Tuesday that the hearing would take place at a Madrid court on April 24.
The lawsuit presented by Cape Verde-born Adileusa says she fell pregnant after meeting Eto’o – now playing for Qatar SC – in a nightclub in the Spanish capital in 1997 when he was at Leganes on loan from Real Madrid.
She claims Eto’o, 37, who has six recognised children with four different woman including his wife Georgette, told her he would ‘act responsibly’ soon after she broke the news but then cut off all contact with her.
Erika was born in November 1999 in a hospital in the Spanish capital.
It was not immediately clear on Tuesday if the Cameroon-born footballer has agreed to a voluntary DNA test.
Adileusa’s lawyer Fernando Osuna, who has been fighting to get veteran crooner Julio Iglesias to admit he is the father of a 40-year-old Spaniard, said when he launched his court fight against Eto’o that he would ask for a DNA sample.
Osuna said the court would decide after the hearing whether it agreed to Erika’s request for a maintenance allowance as an interim measure while it continues to study the paternity claim.
He said: ‘Samuel Eto’o has been summoned to the hearing and it will be open to the press and public.
‘It’s not yet clear if he will attend as he is abroad. He has been asked to attend by a legal representative he had when he was living in Majorca.
‘The judge has allowed official communications to be sent to that person because it would have been impossible otherwise for the court to notify him.
‘He has not so far agreed to a voluntary DNA test and I doubt at this stage that he will.
‘At the moment our case is based on things like photographs and affidavits from witnesses but a refusal by Eto’o to agree to a voluntary DNA test would go in our favour.
‘This process is a long one and it’s going to go on after April’s hearing, but the decision on a maintenance allowance is a key part of this process and the judge’s decision cannot be appealed.
‘The paternity claim would continue after the hearing next month.’
Several photographs of Adileusa with the player, who spent nearly two seasons in the English Premier League before agreeing a three-year deal with Russian club Anzhi that made him the world’s highest paid player, are understood to have been submitted as part of the paternity lawsuit.
Several witnesses are also believed to have signed affidavits confirming the pair were dating at the time.
Adileusa, known to friends as Dee Dee, attacked Eto’o in an interview late last year after she announced she was taking legal action.
Recalling the footballer’s response when she revealed to him she was pregnant, she said: ‘He told me I was like all the whores who go looking for footballers, that I was a bitch and if I didn’t have an abortion I was going to have problems.
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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