Bayer munich: Guardiola new move as coach

Save on Delicious

Bayern Munich's announcement on Wednesday that Pep Guardiola is set to become their new manager took many by surprise, not just in England but the rest of Europe too.

Chelsea and Manchester City were just two of the clubs seen as possible destinations for the most wanted manager on the planet  when he ends his season-long sabbatical this coming summer, speculation which heightened this week when Guardiola said he wanted the "challenge" of managing in the Premier League.
Instead the 41-year-old is Bundesliga-bound, and hoping to follow his trophy-laden spell as Barcelona coach by building a similarly spectacular era at German giants Bayern.

Guardiola's old Barcelona team-mate and current coaching confidant, Ajax manager Frank de Boer, was shocked when he heard the news, telling BBC Sport: "I thought he wanted to come to the Premier League."

So, why exactly is Guardiola going to Germany and, other than the fact that he is joining a team that are four-time European champions, how did the Allianz Arena appeal?
"I think it will be down to the structure of the club," De Boer told BBC Sport.
"I speak to former Bayern coach Louis van Gaal and he always says it is a very professional club, a well-run club, with the same kind of philosophy as Barcelona. So they will understand what Pep will be trying to do.
"As far as the Bundesliga goes, it is a very interesting league and definitely on the up. Maybe it is passing La Liga, and it passed Serie A a long time ago.
"I think maybe with the crowds they get, it is up with the Premier League. The atmosphere in the stadiums is best in England, but in Germany it is similar."
If Bayern does prove to be like Barca, then Guardiola will be right at home.
The Catalan spent the first 18 years of his playing career at the Nou Camp, joining at the age of 13, learning his trade under former Dutch international and Barca legend Johan Cruyff and taking more inspiration from Van Gaal, whose pressing and passing Ajax team of the mid-90s provided Pep with much of his coaching model.
But Guardiola picked up more from those Dutch masters than a propensity for possession football and enough pretty passing to take your breath away.
De Boer, who began discussing coaching with Guardiola when they were team-mates at Barca from 1998 to 2001, refers to his friend's approach as 'the hand of Guardiola', by which he means a focus on discipline as well as individual skill.
Another key element of Guardiola's make-up is his vision for his club, perpetuated by his belief in Barcelona's La Masia academy, which provided seven of the starting XI in the team which beat Manchester United in the 2009 Champions League.

Can he replicate that at Bayern? The Bavarians already have had some success at bringing stars like Thomas Mueller and Philipp Lam through the ranks but De Boer, who has spoken to Guardiola regularly since he began his own coaching career in 2007, thinks there is room for improvement.
"There is a youth programme there, which is OK, but I think Bayern can still build on it," De Boer, who takes a particularly hands-on approach to working with young players at Ajax, explained.
"If you look at the kind of players who have come from their youth teams and who are playing in their first team then I think they can do more with their programme.
"But we don't know yet what their plans are for the academy or what plans they have got for Pep. He might be overseeing that as well or he might be only concerned with the first team. We will have to wait and see."
One thing De Boer is sure will be the same in Germany that it was in Spain is the way Guardiola's team will play - full of flair going forward, and full of industry tracking back.
"He might adapt it but it will not change much," De Boer said. "I know him well and he is a smart guy so he will always look at what kind of players he has, and from there he will get the best concept to play."
Comparisons with Barca will undoubtedly be drawn, but mainly in terms of trophies won rather than playing style or youth development. Guardiola collected 14 of them in his four seasons at Barca, including three La Liga titles and a double Champions League success.
That lorry-load of silverware still left some claiming that Barca's brilliance is down to Lionel Messi. Certainly, they have not missed Guardiola too much since he left last May - under his successor Tito Vilanova they have built an 11-point lead at the top of La Liga.
But De Boer says those who doubt Guardiola's influence are wrong,
"Of course he had good players at Barcelona but he showed us the 'hand of Guardiola," said De Boer. "I am 100% convinced of it.
"I think he will do the same at Bayern. You can never know for sure if he will succeed and I don't know if he will win as much as he did with Barcelona, but you can already see that there will be a Guardiola team playing to win the Champions League next season."

Sahin back to Dortmund: Germany

Save on Delicious

German-born Sahin, who left Dortmund for Real in 2011 after helping them win the Bundesliga title, failed to earn a starting spot in Spain before joining Liverpool in August 2012 on loan. Sahin, whose contract at Real runs to 2017, holds the records for the youngest player to appear in a Bundesliga game and the youngest to score a goal in Germany's top division. It is unclear whether Dortmund have an option to buy him after 2014 although sports director Michael Zorc said the club was in a strong position. "We have taken precautions and have the steering wheel in our own hands," Zorc said.
The hugely gifted Turkey midfielder played for more than a decade at Dortmund, going through the youth ranks, before leaving in 2011. He had played 135 Bundesliga games for the club, scoring 13 goals.
"We had said during the title celebrations in 2011 that Nuri Sahin will always remain a special player for us and that the door would always be open if he had a deep wish to play for the BVB again," said beaming Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
"He expressed this wish to us a few days ago and we responded."
There was more good news for Dortmund on Friday with Germany defender Marcel Schmelzer signing a three-year contract extension that will keep him at the Ruhr valley club until 2017. Team-mates Sven Bender and Neven Subotic extended their deals earlier this week. Dortmund stand third in the Bundesliga, 12 points behind leaders Bayern Munich, and are through to the Champions League last 16 where they face Shakhtar Donetsk with Sahin eligible to play. They also take on Bayern in the German Cup next month.

Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant has Suspended thier Divorce

Save on Delicious

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, say they are calling off their divorce.

And they announced it on social media.

On Friday, Vanessa Bryant's Instagram page had a message reading: "We are pleased to announce that we have reconciled. Our divorce action will be dismissed. We are looking forward to our future together."

Kobe Bryant posted a message on his Facebook page the same day.

"I am happy to say that Vanessa and I are moving on with our lives together as a family," he posted. "When the show ends and the music stops, the journey is made beautiful by having that someone to share it with. Thank you all for your support and prayers."

Vanessa Bryant filed for divorce in December, citing irreconcilable differences.

The divorce filing came nearly 10 years after she famously stuck by him after he admitted to having sex with a woman at a Colorado hotel.

Their marriage was thrust into the spotlight when the desk clerk at a Vail-area resort hotel told police that Kobe Bryant had sexually assaulted her in 2003.

The Eagle County District Attorney filed charges against Bryant shortly after the accusation. At the time, Vanessa Bryant sat by her husband's side as he publicly apologized to her while admitting that he'd had consensual sex with the 19-year-old.

Turning to his wife, Bryant said, "You're a piece of my heart. You're the air I breathe. And you're the strongest person I know. And I'm so sorry for having to put you through this, for having to put our family through this."

Criminal charges against Bryant were later dismissed. He settled a federal lawsuit with his accuser in 2005.

The couple have two daughters together.

Leo Messi Report Card

Save on Delicious

• Most goals in a calendar year: 91
• Most goals in a season: 68
• Most goals in a European Cup season: 14 (jointly with Jose Altafini)
• Most goals in a La Liga season: 50
• Most La Liga hat-tricks in a season: 8
• Most European Cup top scorer awards: 4 (with Gerd Mueller)
• Most goals in a single European Cup game: 5
• Most goals scored in Spanish Super Cup: 10
• Most consecutive La Liga matches scored in: 10
• Most goals in Club World Cup: 4 (held jointly with Denilson)
• Barcelona's top goalscorer in all official competitions: 286
• Barcelona's record goalscorer in Champions League: 56
• Most La Liga hat-tricks: 15

Lionel Messi’s legendary status fourth Ballon d’Or

Save on Delicious

Lionel Messi's status as the planet's finest footballer was further cemented as he won Fifa's Ballon d'Or for an unprecedented fourth successive time.

It is to the eternal misfortune of his closest competitor, Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, that he plays in the time of the great Argentine otherwise he would surely have claimed the coveted crown more than once.
Ronaldo and Messi's Barcelona team-mate Andres Iniesta - a Euro 2012 winner with Spain - were the other contenders and would be fitting and worthy winners in any era. This, however, is not any era - it is the Lionel Messi era.
Messi's brilliance is backed up by a blizzard of compelling statistics, not least his recent feat of breaking German striker Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old record by ending the calendar year with 91 goals for club and country.
The manner in which Messi has individually dominated the game's recent years is only emphasised by the fact that he has effectively made its highest individual honour his personal property.
And at the relatively tender age of 25, and with a recently agreed deal to keep him at the Nou Camp until 2018, he has power and talent to add to his unique collection of Ballon d'Or honours.
The latest coronation will also give fresh impetus to a debate that now rages with more intensity around Messi. Namely - is he the greatest to have played the game?
He can justifiably take his place alongside other legends such as France's Michel Platini, who won three times in succession from 1983. Johann Cruyff won three times between 1971 and 1974 but his sequence was interrupted when Franz Beckenbauer won in 1972.
Brazil's Pele and Messi's fellow countryman Diego Maradona are inevitably the other names always factored into the equation when working out who is the greatest - but this is a question that is almost impossible to answer definitively.
The argument is shaped by, and in, different generations. The game and players change, which makes the debate even more of an inexact science.
And of course, who is to say Pele or Maradona would not have emulated Messi's feat had they been eligible to win the Ballon d'Or? The award was created by France Football magazine in 1956 to honour the finest European player of the previous calendar year - non-Europeans were only eligible from 1997, a time way beyond that of Pele and Maradona.
Those who support the cases of Pele and Maradona instantly evoke their impact on the highest stage of all, the World Cup, a place where Messi has yet to deliver the brilliance he does on a weekly basis for Barcelona.
Pele's name burst into football's psyche as a 17-year-old when Brazil won the World Cup in Sweden in 1958. Injury curtailed his involvement when Brazil won again four years later and he was effectively kicked out of the tournament as an ageing team faded in England in 1966.
And yet it was a sign of his enduring brilliance that he won another World Cup with Brazil in Mexico in 1970 as the outstanding figure in a team still widely regarded as the greatest there has ever been. He headed a goal in Brazil's 4-1 win against Italy in the final in Mexico City, the crowning glory of his career.
Many may prefer to recall Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" that helped to beat England in the quarter-final, once more in Mexico, but this must never overshadow how he bestrode that tournament and dragged the Argentina team in his slipstream to victory.
He suffered mixed fortunes around that triumph as he was sent off against Brazil in 1982 and sent home for failing a drugs test in the United States in 1994.  These are events which have scarred his reputation but nothing can be stripped away from just how glorious, exciting and untamed his talent was.
There is still time for Messi to make one of those showpieces his own but his backers can press his claims by listing his consistent achievements in the Champions League, regarded by many as an even more challenging environment than the World Cup.
Manchester United have felt the pain as Messi scored as Barcelona beat Sir Alex Ferguson's side in two finals. The range of his game was exemplified by a towering header in the 2-0 win in Rome in 2009 then a flashing shot beyond Edwin van der Sar at Wembley two years later.
What is beyond dispute is that these are three names who have stamped their mark indelibly on football.
And for now, in this age, Messi's fourth Ballon d'Or is proof that he reigns supreme.

Ferguson Accuses Surez

Save on Delicious

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says Luis Suarez is "laden with controversy" ahead of Sunday's meeting with Liverpool.

Suarez heads to Old Trafford having been criticised for using his hand before scoring the Reds' second goal in their 2-1 FA Cup win at Mansfield.
"I don't know whether he enjoys [being controversial], but it is something we hope we don't suffer from ourselves," Ferguson said of Suarez, who was banned for eight games in 2011 for racially abusing United defender Patrice Evra.

That incident, for which he was also fined £40,000, occurred during the fierce rivals' 1-1 draw at Anfield.

Suarez subsequently refused to shake hands with Evra before United's 2-1 victory at Old Trafford in February 2012.
In the wake of last weekend's controversy at Field Mill, the Uruguayan was accused of "stealing" the FA Cup tie by Mansfield's chief executive Carolyn Radford.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has consistently spoken of his belief in Suarez, though, and criticised his treatment by officials and opposing fans.
"I never saw the game last Sunday, so it is difficult to say whether it was a deliberate handball," said Ferguson.
"You will always support your own player, I don't think that is surprising from Brendan.
"I have done it myself. It is just part of your loyalty to the player and protection for them too.
"I hope we don't suffer from some of the decisions that have gone his way in terms of that. We want it to be a good game on Sunday.
"Over the years, the Liverpool-Manchester United games have been relatively free of controversy - nothing really sensational in terms of decisions that marred the game, and that is good."
However, former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler, who scored 183 goals in 369 games for Liverpool, disagreed with Ferguson's comments about Suarez.

Fowler predicts Suarez winner

"He didn't really need to say too much in my eyes," 
"Suarez is a condemned man before he even steps on the pitch. As much as he is getting stick from everyone else, I think it's driving him on and making him a better player. He wants to prove a lot to people wrong and show how good he is."
Fowler added: "Every player will have mishaps in a game. Robin van Persie was accused of elbowing someone earlier in the season. Gareth Bale has been accused of being a diver at times. Luis Suarez does have some misdemeanours in his past but I want to go on the positives. I love him as a player."
Liverpool go into the game having lost seven of their past eight visits to Old Trafford - a memorable 4-1 victory in March 2009 the only positive result.
But Ferguson insists it will never be easy. "Derby games are very tricky affairs, as they always have been," he added.
"The previous year we outplayed them in the cup and lost 2-1. You are sitting at the end of the game saying, 'How did that happen?' Derby games are like that. Hopefully we will play well and win."
Ferguson also served a reminder to Liverpool fans that it may be some time before they return to the top of the English game.

"The club at the moment is a hell of a challenge because they haven't won the league for 20 years. It is a long time," he added.

"It is difficult to measure any Liverpool side at the moment with any Liverpool side of the past.
"I think it is terrific if the Liverpool fans are prepared to be patient because it is going to require patience. It is a long road back to what they used to be."
Van Persie is likely to be a key player again on Sunday and Ferguson admitted that the Dutchman's decision to join the club had been vital, even in the face of strong interest from other clubs, including Manchester City.
"I wasn't aware of the City thing until he told me himself that he had turned them down," Ferguson added.