The Word on the Street

06 Jul 2006

Toddler steals the show for Azzurri

A toddler stole the show as around 2,000 Italian fans flocked to the Azzurri's Meiderich training ground here on Thursday to give their idols a rousing send-off before the World Cup final against France.

The supporters came to see their heroes in blue, but they saved the biggest cheer for a little boy who interrupted the session by climbing over a fence and running onto the pitch.

The players stopped in their tracks as the cheeky tot, dressed in an Italian shirt, ran to the nearest ball and went on a mazy dribble upfield towards the squad.

A security guard quickly intervened and carried the boy off the field and handed him over to his parents.

Many of the fans wore Italian shirts while others waved green, white and red flags in the last training session open to the public before the squad fly to Berlin for Sunday's showpiece.

Djorkaeff gets rude awakening in Germany

French World Cup winning midfielder Youri Djorkaeff had a rude awakening last Saturday when he was arrested by German police over an outstanding fine for a traffic accident dating back five years.

The 38-year-old former France international - a member of the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 winning sides - had returned to Germany from the United States for France's World Cup quarter-final with defending champions Brazil - which his former team-mates won 1-0.

However, Djorkaeff, who had a spell with German outfit Kaiserslautern, was taken into custody by the German police and subsequently released on bail as he still owes a 77,000 euro fine for having damaged a car with his in September 2001 and fleeing the scene.

Six Germans arrested in Berlin's Fan Mile

German police on Thursday said they arrested six men in Berlin's Fan Mile for World Cup supporters because they suggested Italians should be deported to Auschwitz after Italy beat Germany in the semi-finals.

The men chanted: "We will build an underground from Italy to Auschwitz", recalling the Nazi era deportations to the notorious concentration camp in what is today part of Poland.

The police said they were investigating charges of incitement against the men, who all come from Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.

Germany's winning streak in the World Cup ended on Tuesday night when Italy defeated the host nation 2-0 by scoring twice in the final minutes of extra time.

There were fears before the championship that it could be marred by an increase in right-wing violence, but these have so far proven unfounded.

Ronaldo to have knee operation

Real Madrid and Brazil striker Ronaldo is to have a knee operation over the close-season in order to get fit for the new campaign, Brazil team doctor Jose Luis Runco said on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old has suffered bouts of pain in his knee over the past eight months owing to calcification of the tibia and surgical scarring on his left knee.

Runco said that the striker, who scored three times at the World Cup to become the all-time tournament leading scorer despite Brazil's exit to France in the quarter-finals, had complained of pain at times during the event.

"He said now the event was over he would use the break to have surgery as he's had to put up with it for eight months," Runco said.

"If it is what I think it is, it will involve swift surgery and he will be ready for the new season," said Runco, who added Ronaldo would also consult Real's medical staff.

Fifa revamp rankings system

The new version of the much criticised football world rankings were revealed by the governing body FIFA on Thursday.

Chief among the changes is that results from the past four years and not eight as was previously the case will only be taken into account.

Two other former factors have been taken out of the equation, number of goals scored and whether the matches were played at home.

Points will be allocated thus in major championships with three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat.

Germany in particular had complained that them being 19th in the rankings while Mexico are fourth and the United States fifth is unfair and that they have been penalised for playing friendlies for the past two years.

As hosts, Germany did not have to qualify for the World Cup.

The United States crashed out in the first round and were highlighted as a particular disappointment by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, second ranked The Czech Republic also went in the first cull and Mexico in the second round.

The next world rankings - first created in 1993 - will be published on July 12.

Capello takes over at Real Madrid

Fabio Capello was confirmed as the new manager of Spanish club Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Capello resigned from Italian side Juventus on Tuesday after losing patience with the match-fixing scandals currently engulfing the Serie A champions.

The Italian will be unveiled at the Bernabeu on Thursday with new president Ramon Calderon stating Capello will sign a three-year deal.

A statement on the club's website confirmed: "Fabio Capello will be the next coach of Madrid. He will arrive in the Spanish capital in the next few hours and look over the facilities at the club.

"It is expected he will be presented to the media at 12pm (local time) on Thursday."

Calderon believes former Roma boss Capello, who managed Real for one season in 1996-97, is the man to end the club's recent trophy drought and he told Sky Sports News: "He will be here for three years. He is a winner and this is very important at this club after three years without a title."

Italy will play the World Cup final on Sunday against either France or Portugal.

French team glorified in French press

France's reaching the World Cup final, where they will attempt to regain the trophy they won in 1998, was heralded in the country's press mirroring the euphoria of a whole nation.

"The goal of their life," was the headline in sports daily L'Equipe who said the Blues "had once more surprised by surpassing themselves.

"This reaching of a second World Cup final, eight years after 1998, proves the excellence of a generation of players as well as the whole French football set-up.

"The entire planet now knows that France can excel at a World Cup on foreign soil. Now they only have the final left, the last match in Zinedine Zidane's career which has to be won, of course, because a lost final is hugely disappointing.

Gallego's wish to coach Argentina

Argentina's Americo Gallego, who coaches Mexican football club Toluca, said he would like to become the boss of the Argentina national team, following the resignation of Jose Pekerman.

As a player, "Tolo" Gallego won the 1978 World Cup in Argentina and participated in the 1982 competition in Spain. During the 1998 finals, he was an assistant to the-then coach Daniel Passarella.

"Every Argentine coach would want to run the national team," 51-year-old Gallego said. "And now would be the right time at an ideal age."

Pekerman had resigned in the wake of Argentina's quarter-final World Cup defeat to Germany on June 30.

Record numbers expected for Berlin final

Lufthansa says that a record number of passengers are set to swarm into Berlin for Sunday's World Cup final before heading out on Monday.

With 11,000 Monday departures expected "that is double the norm," according to Berlin-based Lufthansa director Stephan Weinmann.

"Since 1990, when Lufthansa regained the right (following German unification) to land in Berlin again we have only experienced one such stream of passengers - for the wrapping of the Reichstag by (artists) Christo and Jeanne-Claude in summer 1994," he said.

Match-fixing case tempers Italy joy

The Italian football world was in a bitter-sweet state on Wednesday with the joy of reaching the World Cup final mixed with the possibility of several top clubs being relegated for match fixing.

Italy's 2-0 win over Germany to reach the July 9 final in Berlin against either France or Portugal contrasted sharply with the court proceedings in Rome where Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio are all in the dock.

On Wednesday it was the turn of the defendants to plead their cases in the trial at the Olympic stadium in Rome which has 25 individuals and four clubs under the spotlight for sporting fraud -- influencing the choice of referees for Italian league matches in the 2004/05 season.

On Tuesday, Italian football federation prosecutor Stefano Palazzi requested Juventus be dropped to below the second division and that AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina be relegated to the second division.

Palazzi also asked that the last two Italian leagues titles won by Juventus be stripped from the club.

A final, binding decision however is not expected till the end of the week.

Ferdinand ashamed after England exit

England centre-back Rio Ferdinand said he was embarrassed to go out in public following his country's quarter-final exit in a penalty shootout against Portugal.

"I'm gutted. I genuinely went into this tournament believing that we would get to the semi-finals at least - and I would have been disappointed with that," the 27-year-old Manchester United defender told Wednesday's Sun tabloid.

"It's embarrassing if I'm being honest. I was a bit embarrassed to set foot outside the door when I went shopping with my girlfriend Rebecca."

England's players and coach Sven-Goran Eriksson had claimed before the tournament they were genuine contenders to win the World Cup for the first time since 1966.

Ferdinand admitted: "If I was a fan I would be desperately disappointed. I would have expected more than what we gave them.

Germany licks wounds after nail-biter defeat

Germany on Wednesday wept bitter tears over the 0-2 loss to Italy by Jurgen Klinsmann's young national side at the football World Cup but took heart in the host nation's surprisingly long run.

"It's a pity. It was a great game," said Chancellor Angela Merkel, who sat next to Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in the Dortmund stands.

"Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough. But this team can still accomplish a lot."

The top-selling Bild newspaper also tried for a glass-half-full view with the banner headline "We are crying with you! You are still heroes" around a giant photo of Klinsmann, head in hands.

President Horst Koehler told the newspaper that Germans must try to sustain the new-found patriotism they discovered during the tournament, when for the first time since the war waving German flags and singing the national anthem were accepted as natural gestures of healthy national pride.

"We are on the right track toward standing up for ourselves and taking pride in what we have achieved since 1945," he said.

France fans accused of killing Brazil supporter

Kenyan police said Wednesday they were searching for two men suspected of beating to death a fan of Brazil's World Cup team after the reigning football champion's weekend loss to France.

The 21-year-old Brazil fan died after being savagely attacked by the France-supporting suspects who allegedly chided and ridiculed the victim when the Brazilian side lost to the French on Saturday, police said.

The three had been watching the match at a popular video shop in a remote village in western Kenya when they began to fight over Brazil's 1-0 loss to France and the altercation spread into the street, they said.

The victim, Austin Ochieng Okello, was beaten unconcious and left on a footpath but then managed to stagger to a nearby home in Siaya village where he was found dead on Sunday, police said, citing witness accounts.

Siaya district deputy police chief Charles Gathiari said the assailants, who fled the scene but are known to villagers, would be captured and charged with murder.

Three revellers dead in French celebrations

Two French revellers died and a third was feared drowned after more than half a million football fans took to the streets early Thursday to celebrate their side's qualification for the World Cup final.

Across France the night's celebrations were mostly peaceful -- if noisy -- with firecrackers and fireworks competing with drums and car horns to fete France's 1-0 victory over Portugal, courtesy of a Zinedine Zidane penalty.

Several people were seriously injured in brawls and traffic accidents as well as the two confirmed dead.

In central Paris, an 18-year-old man was crushed to death as he tried to jump between the roofs of two metro trains at Opera station, police said.

A young man was also missing feared drowned in the southeastern city of Lyon after jumping off a bridge into the River Saone with a group of friends.

And in the northern town of Lens, a 20-year-old woman was killed in a car accident minutes after the French win, police said. She had been leaning out of the car window to celebrate, and was crushed when the driver veered off the road to avoid a pedestrian.

Germany waits on Klinsmann

German football fans, down in the dumps after their country's World Cup semi-final loss to Italy, were Wednesday waiting with bated breath to see if the man who has transformed the team's previously stolid mentality would stay at the helm.

Jurgen Klinsmann, World Cup winner as a player in 1990, fell short in his aim of emulating Franz Beckenbauer, who lifted the trophy both as player and coach with 'Die Mannschaft' - and his future is now in doubt as he and his family live in California.

"He needs time to discuss matters with his family. I know how important that is to him. I hope he come out with a positive decision," said outgoing German Football Federation (DFB) chairman Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder.

"He has brought the team the benefits of his positive aura and optimism," said Mayer-Vorfelder, who insisted that "I hope he can carry on transmititng that to the team."