MANCHESTER: Manchester United announced on Friday they have reached a deal to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Juventus, 12 years after he left Old Trafford for Real Madrid.
“Manchester United is delighted to confirm that the club has reached agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, subject to agreement of personal terms, visa and medical,” United said in a statement.
“Everyone at the club looks forward to welcoming Cristiano back to Manchester.”
United’s swoop capped a tumultuous 24 hours during which Ronaldo initially seemed poised to join rivals Manchester City.
Premier League champions City had been widely linked with a move for the Portuguese forward after missing out on England captain Harry Kane.
However, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hinted a deal was in the offing during his pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Wolves.
“Cristiano is a legend of this club, he’s the greatest player of all time, if you ask me,” said Solskjaer, who played alongside Ronaldo.
“We’ve always had a good communication. I know Bruno (Fernandes) has been talking to him as well. He knows what we feel about him. If he was ever going to move from Juventus, he knows that we’re here.”
Sky Sport Italia reported that United have offered Juve 28 million euros ($33 million), agreeing a two-year deal with the superstar attacker worth 25 million euros per season.
Ronaldo won the first of his five Champions League titles and was first crowned the world’s best player during six years at United between 2003 and 2009.
In total he scored 118 goals in 292 games, also winning three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two League Cups.
Earlier in the day, Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri confirmed the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s desire to leave the Italian giants.
“Yesterday, speaking with Cristiano, he told me that he has no intention of staying at Juventus, for this reason he will not be picked tomorrow. This morning he didn’t train,” said Allegri.
“He was here three years, he made his contribution, he made himself available to Juventus and now he’s leaving. Life goes on.”
Ronaldo won two Serie A titles with Juventus, but his time in Turin has not lived up to expectations.
He joined 2018 after scoring a remarkable 450 goals in 438 matches in a glittering nine-year spell in Madrid that also included four Champions League triumphs.
Juventus’ hopes he would be the final piece required to end their 25-year wait to become champions of Europe have been thwarted.
They have failed to get beyond the quarter-finals in the past three seasons.
Last season, they were deposed as Italian champions by fierce rivals Inter Milan and had to wait until the final day of the campaign to secure qualification for Europe’s top club competition.
However, Ronaldo still topped the Serie A goal charts, edging out Romelu Lukaku, who joined Chelsea this month for £97 million.
And he also rolled back the years at Euro 2020 to win the Golden Boot despite playing just four games as Portugal bowed out at the last 16.
United have already significantly strengthened their squad with the signings of Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane during the transfer window as they aim to win the Premier League for the first time since 2013.
Ronaldo joins already loaded group of attacking options for Solskjaer featuring Fernandes, Sancho, Edinson Cavani, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood and Paul Pogba.
Manchester United agree deal with Juventus for return of Cristiano Ronaldo
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Manchester United agree deal with Juventus for return of Cristiano Ronaldo
- Club Statement: Manchester United has reached an agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, subject to personal terms, visa and medical
- United’s swoop capped a tumultuous 24 hours during which Ronaldo initially seemed poised to join rivals Manchester City
All-round Stoinis helps Lucknow beat Mumbai in IPL
- Stoinis top-scored in Lucknow’s modest chase of 145 against Mumbai Indians as the home team achieved their target with four wickets and four balls to spare
- Mumbai managed 144-7 courtesy Nehal Wadhera’s 46 and an unbeaten 18-ball 35 by Tim David after being invited to bat first
LUCKNOW: All-rounder Marcus Stoinis smashed 62 after he took a wicket on Tuesday to guide Lucknow Super Giants to an IPL win on the eve of Australia’s T20 World Cup team announcement.
Stoinis top-scored in Lucknow’s modest chase of 145 against Mumbai Indians as the home team achieved their target with four wickets and four balls to spare.
Lucknow moved to third spot in the 10-team table led by Rajasthan Royals. Five-time winners Mumbai remained ninth above wooden spooners Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Lucknow skipper KL Rahul fell for 28, hours after being snubbed by India’s selectors, who on Tuesday afternoon named the team for the T20 World Cup in June.
Mumbai skipper Hardik Pandya was named deputy to India captain Rohit Sharma for the World Cup in the West Indies and the US, but the star all-rounder fell for a duck and his team to their seventh loss in 10 matches.
“Sometimes you will be down, sometimes you will be up, just that you got to give it your all,” Pandya said. “Looks difficult but a lot of things that you can learn from this game.”
Birthday boy Rohit, who turned 37, Japsrit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav are three of the four players from Mumbai to make the Indian team for the World Cup starting June 2.
Mumbai managed 144-7 courtesy Nehal Wadhera’s 46 and an unbeaten 18-ball 35 by Tim David after being invited to bat first.
Pandya said Wadhera will “play a lot of IPL and (represent) India eventually.”
Lucknow left-arm quick Mohsin Khan took two wickets after he struck first with the wicket of Rohit, who was caught out for four by Stoinis at extra cover.
Stoinis got the key wicket of Yadav for 10 and Mumbai were soon 27-4 when Naveen-ul-Haq got Pandya for a first-ball duck.
But Pandya returned to take two wickets with his pace bowling.
Stoinis turned up with the bat to raise his second fifty — he has also hit a century — of the season with hours left for the Australian selectors to announce the T20 team on Wednesday.
He fell to Afghanistan spinner Mohammad Nabi after his 42-ball knock laced with seven fours and two sixes.
Lucknow lost two more wickets to raise Mumbai’s hopes of a turnaround, but Nicholas Pooran steered the team home in the final over.
Jeddah hosts Saudi Smash 2024 table tennis championship from May 1-11
- The prestigious championship will see the world’s top table tennis players in action, including rising star Wang Chuqin
- The championship is set to further solidify the Kingdom’s position as a preferred destination for global sporting events
RIAYDH: Jeddah is gearing up for the commencement of the Saudi Smash 2024 table tennis championship scheduled to take place May 1-11.
The event marks the second run in the series of the Grand Smash tournaments on this year’s World Table Tennis Organization calendar.
Saudi Arabia hosts the 10-day tournament which is being organized by the Saudi Table Tennis Federation under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports and in collaboration with WTT.
The prestigious championship will see the world’s top table tennis players in action, including rising star Wang Chuqin, the Grand Smash Singapore 2024 winner Fan Zhendong, and French talent Felix Lebrun among others.
In the women’s singles category, elite players like Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Chen Meng, Hina Hayata, Shin Yu-bin, Bernadette Szocs, and Adriana Diaz Gonzalez will showcase their skills on the international stage.
Saudi fans are eagerly anticipating the debut of local table tennis players such as Ali Al-Khudrawi in the men’s singles event, alongside Abdulaziz Boushlbi, Khaled Al-Sherif, Hadi Abu Al-Raha, Turki Al-Mutairi, Salem Al-Swailem, and Mohamed Al-Qasab.
This championship offers a unique opportunity for Saudi players to shine globally and compete against the world’s best table tennis players.
The championship is set to further solidify the Kingdom’s position as a preferred destination for global sporting events, fostering the development of sports at the grassroots level and supporting the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 to promote sports as an integral part of society.
Those interested in witnessing the excitement of the tournament can secure their tickets through the official website: SaudiSmash.com/Visitor
India recalls Rishabh Pant for T20 World Cup after near-fatal car crash
- Pant was India’s first-choice wicketkeeper across all three formats until December 2022 when he crashed and dislocated his right knee
- Pant feared amputation. He returned to competitive cricket last month for the ongoing Indian Premier League and has proved himself
NEW DELHI: Rishabh Pant was restored to the India squad for the T20 World Cup on Tuesday, 16 months after a near-fatal car crash.
Allrounder Shivam Dube, recalled by India last August after more than two years out, also made the cut, and star batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were confirmed for the tournament in June in the Caribbean and the United States.
Pant was India’s first-choice wicketkeeper across all three formats until December 2022 when he crashed and dislocated his right knee. He was pulled out by passersby before the car caught fire. Pant feared amputation. He returned to competitive cricket last month for the ongoing Indian Premier League and has proved himself.
Pant has 398 runs in 11 innings — good for fourth overall — at a strike rate of 158.56.
Dube has also lit up the IPL with 350 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 172.41.
Wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, the only bowler to take 200 wickets in IPL history, was a surprise inclusion because he wasn’t used at the Cricket World Cup that India hosted late last year. Chahal has 13 wickets in nine IPL games at an economy of 9.
India has picked three other spinners; left-arm unorthodox wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, and left-arm spin allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
Sharma and Kohli were informally announced as selections in February by Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
“In the 2023 (final) at Ahmedabad, even though we did not win the World Cup after 10 straight wins, we won hearts,” Shah said then. “I want to promise you that in 2024, under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, we will hoist the Indian flag in Barbados (in the final on June 29).”
Sharma and Kohli are in good form in the IPL. Kohli leads the run-scorers’ charts with 500 in 10 innings, including one hundred and four half-centuries. Sharma has 311 in nine games at a strike rate of 160.30.
Despite Kohli opening the innings in the IPL, he should bat at number three while left-handed youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal opens with Sharma.
The world No. 1-ranked T20 batter, Suryakumar Yadav, will be at number four.
Nine of the 15-man squad were at the 2022 T20 World Cup, where India lost in the semifinals to eventual champion England.
India begins the World Cup on June 5 against Ireland. It will also play Pakistan and tournament host the US; all three games will be at the purpose-built Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Long Island. India will meet Canada in Florida.
Jofra Archer picked by England for T20 World Cup after cruel run of injuries
- Jofra Archer, 29, is considered one of cricket’s most exciting fast bowlers
- England will hope Archer stays fit for four-match T20 series against Pakistan
Jofra Archer was selected in England’s provisional squad for the T20 World Cup on Tuesday, setting up a much-awaited international return for one of cricket’s most exciting bowlers whose career has been derailed by injuries.
The 29-year-old Archer has barely featured for England in any format since 2021, mainly because of ongoing issues with his right elbow for which he has undergone two operations. A back injury ruled him out of most of 2022.
The Barbados-born pacer was a breath of fresh air after switching nationality to be eligible for England ahead of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, which he helped his adopted country win on home soil. Then he played a starring role in the Ashes that year.
England will hope he stays fit to play in a four-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan and then the World Cup, which is being held in the Caribbean and the United States.
England’s opening match is against Scotland on June 4 at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Also in the 15-man squad were Jonny Bairstow and Will Jacks, who have hit big knocks in the Indian Premier League in recent weeks. Left-arm spinning allrounder Tom Hartley is the sole uncapped player in the group.
England will be captained by Jos Buttler, with the team seeking a second T20 World Cup title.
England: Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, Mark Wood.
‘The trip of a lifetime’: Chinese supporters travel 30 hours to watch Al-Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo play
- 5 superfans take dedication to the next level to see their heroes in person
RIYADH: Not many people would travel for 30 hours to watch a couple of football matches but this does not apply to YunXiang Ding and his wife Xutong Guo who are superfans of Saudi Arabia giants Al-Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The couple are from Changchun, the capital of northeast China’s Jilin province, which is just a few hours from the border with North Korea.
On April 1 — and no, this is definitely not an April Fool’s joke — the couple flew three hours from Changchun to Shanghai, waited eight hours at the airport there, and then boarded a nine-and-a-half-hour flight to Dubai.
At this point, they met up with Xutong’s sister Angie, who travelled from Hong Kong, and met Angie’s husband Simon, who lives in Abu Dhabi, to fly three hours from the UAE to beautiful Abha in southwest Saudi Arabia. Friend Triston Zhao, who travelled from Shanghai, also accompanied the group.
And it was there, at the end of an exhausting but hugely exhilarating and worthwhile trip, that they watched Al-Nassr play Damac in the Roshn Saudi League at the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Stadium.
Xutong said: “The seats we had in the stadium were very near the touchline and we were close to Ronaldo warming up and when he moved out to the wing. It was the experience of a lifetime. We made a big, handmade poster banner for Ronaldo, and he saw it as he was clapping us walking off the pitch. It was amazing. We were so close to him.”
An injury-time Al-Nassr winner from Aymeric Laporte meant the group truly got to celebrate their trip to Saudi Arabia — but as well as the football, they were also able to appreciate the beauty of Abha. The capital city of Asir province is known for its stunning mountains, greenery, birds and dense juniper forests.
Xutong said: “Abha is so beautiful. The clouds, the scenery — it was more beautiful than the pictures we saw online could ever show. Seeing Al-Nassr play in such a beautiful place was truly special and the Saudi people were so warm and friendly. At the stadium people were asking us for pictures with us, but they said it’s not uncommon for Chinese fans to travel to watch Al-Nassr. Al-Nassr are huge in China.”
Utilizing Chinese public holidays that allowed a 10-day break, the group then flew from Abha back to the UAE, where they watched Al-Nassr play in the Saudi Super Cup in Abu Dhabi. A 2-1 defeat to Al-Hilal, in a match where Ronaldo was shown a red card, failed to dampen spirits about the trip or their love for their adopted team.
Simon said: “We are all big Cristiano fans and started supporting Al-Nassr when he joined — but our love for the club goes beyond him. YunXiang and Xutong in particular are big fans — they watch all the matches at home, and these are often shown very late at night or early in the morning. They have to stay up or get up at various times to watch. People in this part of the world maybe don’t understand how dedicated they are and the lengths they go to watch Al-Nassr. And there are many fans like this in China, Al-Nassr are hugely popular.”
The cost of the trip — inclusive of flights, accommodation and spending money — was “around $5,000 per person,” Tristan said. But each agreed it was worth every penny.
Xutong added: “Cristiano Ronaldo inspires a generation of young people to not give up easily when they face setbacks. He inspires people to be just like him — and even if their efforts sometimes do not lead to a complete perfect ending, the spirit still remains. He is a world-famous superstar and a role model for Al-Nassr and Saudi Arabian football. People may think our trip to see him and Al-Nassr play in person took a long time for travel, but I feel so privileged to have been able to do so. It really was the trip of a lifetime.”
