“I feel Flick’s trust and I want to stay in Barça’s first team,” said Xavi Espart yesterday, a versatile right-back of 19 years who can also play as a defensive midfielder, a position with which, for example, he won the U-19 European Championship with Spain. “Being here is a great opportunity to earn a place in the first team,” agreed Álvaro Cortés, a 21-year-old center-back, beside him.
He was one of the first to be born: on January 1, 2008. In the last winter transfer window, he became the first Egyptian footballer in the history of FC Barcelona. And now Hamza Abdelkarim continues to write a career as early as it is promising. Without having yet passed through the reserve team and after debuting with the Egyptian senior national team in the World Cup, where he replaced none other than Mohamed Salah, he became the youngest Egyptian international in history and also the youngest Arab footballer to play in a World Cup.
Gianni Infantino (Switzerland, 1970) appeared in the newspapers a few days after he was born. And his parents were by no means famous. Originally from Calabria (Italy), they emigrated to the Swiss country for a better future. He worked on a railway line and she had a newsstand. And Gianni was born on March 23 with a health problem that required an urgent blood transfusion. His blood type was uncommon (RH null), so only a few dozen people in the world could help him. The hospital obtained the willingness of an Englishman and a Yugoslav, Milica Mucalica, whom Infantino, 46 years later, located to thank her for the vital gesture. That extraordinary chapter combines two of the qualities that have led him to preside over FIFA: coincidences and his cosmopolitan nature. The others are boldness and his obsession with growing the business.
After a day with two hits on the bars in the men’s technical duo and solo technical routine, Spain won its first two medals at the European Championships in Paris. Iris Tió, in a busy day, was present in both, first alongside Dennis González in the mixed free duo and then with Lilou Lluís in the free duo. The first tastes like glory and even brought tears to Andrea Fuentes due to the physical problems of the swimmer from Rubí in his toughest year; the last was in the ear, which prevented them from training the choreography for more than two weeks. The second holds more sadness: Spain had been world gold in Singapore and arrived first to the final… but lost the title by just five tenths.
Jesse Bisiwu is already in England after signing his contract with Barcelona for five seasons. The club presented him with all honors as a new first team player, although he will have a reserve team registration. A future bet for which the Blaugrana entity has paid 8.5 million euros to Club Brugge. This Saturday he completed his first training session under the orders of Hansi Flick. “I will do everything he wants me to do. When he needs me, I will work hard and be ready,” he said.
Scarves in the air. It was a special edition with the colors of Barça and Birmingham City to celebrate the visit of the blaugrana team. The Beatles’ Hey Jude playing over the loudspeakers and the nearly 30,000 fans present singing the anthem a cappella. In the box, Jude Bellingham smiled. He is still a hero there. The sold-out sign with 30,000 spectators filling the stands – they paid 40 euros per ticket – capped off the atmosphere at the charming St. Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park, a stadium with a lot of history that will cease to be the home of Birmingham City in about four years. The English club plans to move to the new Birmingham City Powerhouse, a venue with a capacity for 62,000 spectators whose inauguration is scheduled for the 2030-2031 season. By then, that is at least the club’s goal, they hope to have regained their place in the Premier League.
The company Elite Exped confirmed this noon the death of one of its owners, Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja, trapped on Thursday morning by an avalanche with nine other people on Broad Peak, 8,051 meters, in Pakistan. Purja, a Nepalese also with British nationality, had gained fame for being the first person to complete, in 2019, the 14 eight-thousanders in a record time, in just six months and six days, with the help of artificial oxygen. Colleagues from his agency have moved to the area to continue the search and recovery tasks of the missing bodies. “Today, with deep sadness and a broken heart, we confirm that Nirmal Purja tragically lost his life. We have also received confirmation that other members of the expedition sadly did not survive,” states Elite Exped in a statement.
The war between FIFA and UEFA over the privatization of the World Cup breathes like a feud between mob bosses. Something similar to the historical moment when the mafias debated whether they should open up to the drug and arms business or limit themselves to what they had been doing…
Gianni Infantino pensó que podía emular con el deporte rey lo que Trump hace con la política de su país. Tras convertirse en el títere del mandatario americano en los últimos meses, su último desatino puede convertirse en su tumba (con una reelección en el horizonte). Su…
The step back by FIFA, and its president Gianni Infantino, with the plan that sought to privatize part of its competitions, including the World Cup, has been celebrated by UEFA, the main opponent of the global organization on this matter. However, the European confederation denounces that football cannot “continue like this,” “with secret plans that are carried out in a rush, devised by anonymous individuals and of dubious benefit to the sport.”
