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
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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