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Kaka, the Brazilian football legend, has spoken out about his divorce in 2015, responding to a strange claim made by his ex-wife.
Kaka married his childhood sweetheart Caroline Celico, while playing for AC Milan in 2005 and they had a son and daughter together, before splitting a decade later.
Last week, it was reported that Celico claimed she left the marriage, because “he was too perfect for me”.
But Kaka, now 41, speaking on a podcast, as reported by Spanish outlet Sport, insists he did everything he could to avoid the split.
He said: “In 2015 I was married, and my wife at the time decided she didn’t want to be married anymore.
“She said, ‘I’m not happy and I attribute my unhappiness to marriage’.
“I was living in the United States, and she asked to go back to Brazil.
“Her words were, ‘I want to go back to Brazil, I want to live there and I don’t want to be married anymore’.”
Manchester United have spoken to Alejandro Garnacho after the winger liked social media posts criticising manager Erik ten Hag over his handling of the player.
The Argentina international, taken off at half-time in their 2-2 draw at Bournemouth on Saturday, liked two messages on X, by United fan and YouTuber Mark Goldbridge.
One post accused Ten Hag of “throwing (Garnacho) under the bus” because of comments the United boss made about the 19-year-old’s performance.
The other said Garnacho “had a poor first half but taking him off at half-time and holding him up as the problem is a joke”.
Garnacho swiftly “unliked” both messages, an action the club believes shows contrition, and a United source told the PA news agency the matter had been dealt with internally.
The teenager has become a key player for United this season, scoring nine goals and providing four assists in 42 games.
The incident follows one in September when Jadon Sancho said on X that he had been made a “scapegoat” after being left out of the squad for the Arsenal match, with Ten Hag saying he had trained poorly.
Sancho said he would “not allow people saying things that (are) completely untrue”, interpreted as accusing Ten Hag of misrepresenting reasons why he was not in the side.
The 24-year-old was banished from the first team before being loaned to Borussia Dortmund in January.
Ten Hag’s position has come under renewed pressure after the draw against Bournemouth, which left United seventh in the Premier League table, 13 points off the top four.
The FA Cup is the only silverware that United can win this season — they take on second-tier side Coventry in the semi-final at Wembley on Sunday.
[Vanguard]
Former Nigeria midfielder, Sunday Oliseh, has said Victor Boniface will lead the country to triumph at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Oliseh stated this in a tweet on Sunday after Boniface led Bayer Leverkusen to their first ever Bundesliga title.
The 23-year-old missed this year’s AFCON due to injury, but was a key member of Xabi Alonso’s squad as they dethroned Bayern Munich.
Oliseh wrote: “Victor Boniface was once again extraordinary as Leverkusen grabbed its first ever Bundesliga title with 5 games left to play.
“Boniface is strong, skillful, intelligent, mobile, calm under pressure and I am convinced he will lead Nigeria to AFCON glory & more soon. Congrats.”
Super Eagles of Nigeria forward, Victor Boniface has stressed that he and his club, Bayer Leverkusen are determined to win three titles this season.
On Sunday, April 14, Victor Boniface scored from the penalty spot in Bayer Leverkusen‘s 5-0 win over Werder Bremen at the BayArena. The win sealed the club’s first German Bundesliga triumph in the history of the club.
With the German Bundesliga title sealed ahead of the perennial winners of the title, the sight of the only undefeated team in the top five leagues in Europe are set on winning two more titles.
They are currently one draw away from reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League after beating West Ham 2-0 in the first leg of the tournament’s quarter-finals.
Victor Boniface and his teammates have also booked themselves a place in the final of the DFB Pokal where they will take on lowly-rated Kaiserslautern on May 25.
After helping Bayer Leverkusen to win their first Bundesliga title, the 23-year-old Boniface told Soccernet that he and his teammates are aiming for the treble.
“Of course, we have two [more] important trophies we are aiming at. We are in the DFB-Pokal Cup final, and we are also in the [UEFA] Europa League quarter-finals,” Boniface said.
“So it doesn’t stop here. So we have to push hard. We know we won the league, it’s a big achievement for us.
“But we also have two things [trophies] we are aiming at. So if we can have the perfect three, of course, we will celebrate more.”
Bayer Leverkusen lifted the Bundesliga title for the first time in their 120-year history on Sunday, with a 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen.
The title win breaks Bayern Munich’s 11-year stranglehold on the German top flight.
Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen knew victory would secure the title with five games to spare, but there were no signs of nerves in a dominant performance.
A hat-trick from Florian Wirtz and goals from Victor Boniface and Granit Xhaka extended their unbeaten run to a stunning 43 games in all competitions.
Alonso looked ahead to Thursday’s Europa League trip to London to face West Ham, making seven changes to his starting XI and benching stars Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Alex Grimaldo, the latter for the first time in the league this season.
Piero Hincapie, Grimaldo’s replacement, had an early effort at goal saved but it would be the fit-again Boniface, making his first start since mid-December, who put the home side in front.
With 22 minutes gone, Jonas Hofmann was felled in the box by Bremen’s Julian Malatini, with the referee pointing to the spot after VAR urged him to view the contact again on the monitor.
Boniface stepped up and nervelessly slotted the penalty past a helpless Michael Zetterer to send the home fans into raptures.
Hofmann was almost the provider again shortly before half-time, his pass finding Amine Adli who fired against the crossbar.
Bremen started the second half strongly but their hopes of spoiling the party were snuffed out on the 60-minute mark, Boniface finding Xhaka who unleashed a long-range rocket before slapping his badge in front of the ecstatic home fans.
Wirtz, who came on at half-time for Adli, replicated Xhaka’s effort eight minutes later from almost the same spot on the pitch.
He added another with seven minutes remaining before sealing his hat-trick in the 90th minute as Leverkusen rid themselves of their nearly men tag in style.
Napoli’s slim chances of Champions League football were dealt another blow on Sunday after a 2-2 home draw in their Serie A match with struggling Frosinone.
Walid Cheddira’s first brace in Italy’s top flight earned a point for Frosinone in Naples.
It left ailing Italian champions Napoli in eighth, six points behind fifth-placed Roma, who can extend their advantage when they face Udinese later on Sunday.
Italian clubs’ strong performances in European football mean a top-five finish in Serie A is almost certain to gain a spot in the Champions League.
Napoli are increasingly unlikely to be among that group, and were booed off the pitch at a sparsely-populated Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Francesco Calzona’s side looked set for sixth place when Victor Osimhen diverted home Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s mishit shot in the 63rd minute.
Instead Cheddira, who had previously levelled Matteo Politano’s stunning early opener after the away side were gifted possession by Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret, headed home his second 10 minutes after Osimhen’s strike.
Frosinone stay just inside the bottom three and level on 27 points with 17th-placed Verona, who are outside the relegation zone on goal difference and face Atalanta on Monday.
Eusebio Di Francesco’s team deserved the draw from an eventful game in which Meret initially looked to be the hero after he saved Matias Soule’s penalty on the half-hour mark.
Frosinone have only won one league match since late November but successive draws with Genoa, fourth-placed Bologna and now Napoli have boosted their hopes of staying up.
Later Inter Milan host Cagliari at the San Siro, where a win will guarantee an opportunity to seal their 20th league title in the Milan derby on Monday week.
Inter are a whopping 14 points ahead of closest challengers AC Milan, who are at Sassuolo on Sunday.
Beating Cagliari will ensure the derby will be a chance for Inter to claim the Scudetto regardless of how Milan do in their match.
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Former England women’s player, Eniola Aluko, has become the first black woman to own a club in Italy.
Aluko has acquired a major stake in FC Como’s female team.
The 37-year-old confirmed this in a post on her X page, where revealed she is a part of a $100 million ownership group, known as Mercury 13, which acquired a majority stake.
Como Women was only established in 2020, and they use a 3,700-capacity stadium.
They currently play in the top flight of the Italian Serie A.
Eniola, who is the sister of former Super Eagles player Sone Aluko, was born in Lagos to Nigerian parents in 1987.
But she eventually naturalized to England and played for the Three Lionesses.
Former Manchester United defender, Rio Ferdinand, has identified the two fixtures that will cost Arsenal the Premier League title.
With seven matches left, the Gunners can go back to the top of the table with a win over Aston Villa on Sunday.
But Ferdinand believes that Mikel Arteta’s men will suffer two more defeats before the season’s end, which will eventually cost them the title in the process.
While predicting the run-in for TNT Sport, Ferdinand tipped Arsenal to lose 2-1 away at North London rivals Tottenham, before falling to another defeat against United at Old Trafford in the penultimate game of the campaign.
According to him, Erik ten Hag’s side will run out 3-2 winners against Arteta’s men.
Brazil and AC Milan legend KaKa’s ex-wife, Caroline Celico, has revealed that she divorced him because he was “too perfect” for her.
Kaka, 41, married his childhood sweetheart Celico in 2005 before they divorced in 2015, spending ten years in their marriage together.
The divorced couple had two children together, but Celico was not happy and has now revealed she felt something was missing.
“Kaka never betrayed me, he treated me well, he gave me a wonderful family, but I was not happy, something was missing,” she was quoted on The Sun.
“The problem was, he was too perfect for me,” Celico declared.
Celico, a Brazilian socialite, joined Kaka’s church after they married and later became an Evangelical pastor but quit in 2010.
The 36-year-old later married Eduardo Scarpa Julião in 2021 and the couple are now expecting their first child.
Kaka also found love again with partner Carolina Dias whom he started dating in 2017.
He had a decorated career which saw him win nine major trophies, including the World Cup with Brazil in Korea/Japan 2002 and the FiFA Confederations Cup in 2005 and 2009.
He also won Serie A and the Champions League with AC Milan, as well as La Liga with Real Madrid.
Kaka was also named FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or both in 2007.
Tim Simpson, the manager of Nigerian-born Australian UFC fighter, Israel Adesanya, said his client is disappointed not to be a part of the star-studded UFC 300 event.
Israel Adesanya returned from his almost six-month break from the UFC recently and declared his attention to feature in the UFC 300. Then, his target was to challenge middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis for the title.
Adesanya almost got the deal but Plessis pulled out from the fight which ought to take place at the UFC 300 which is scheduled for today, April 13.
The South African fighter said he pulled out from the fight because he hasn’t fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in a successful bout with Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in January.
Afterward, Israel Adesanya couldn’t find an alternative fighter to battle with leaving him out of the UFC 300 roster.
Adesanya’s manager said the Nigerian-born fighter is not happy over the development but noted that his client is open to fighting du Plessis on the upcoming UFC 305 card on August 17 in Perth, Australia.
“Israel was very upset that he didn’t do it (at UFC 300),” Simpson said on The MMA Hour.
“I believe Dricus was not ready. I think he had some sort of procedure after the last fight. Again, this is what’s been put publicly by Israel and (coach) Eugene (Bareman). But yeah, he really, really wanted it. He was upset, he wanted to be here and do it, he really, really wanted to do it. He loves big moments, the title fight coming back. I was texting (UFC executive) Hunter (Campbell) and couldn’t get it done on Dricus’ side, but Izzy was ready to go.”
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Wembley Stadium looks set to host the all-British heavyweight clash between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
The long-awaited bout looks set to go ahead if Fury wins against Oleksandr Usyk on May 18 in Riyadh.
And Fury’s co-promoter Bob Arum is confident that London rather than Saudi Arabia will play host to the super fight.
He said: “The Saudis also, with having all this money, who can dictate the place, are very intelligent and they would, I think, like nothing more than to do that fight in Wembley with 95,000 people where they were the promoters.
“I think that would do more for their image than doing that fight – Fury and Joshua – in Saudi. But that’s up to them. That’s what I feel in talking to them briefly about the future.”
Joshua still might have a wait to finally fight Fury with the latter potentially facing a double header against his Ukrainian opponent.
“Looking at Tyson Fury, if he beats Usyk and fights Usyk again and beats him and then does a massive fight hopefully in the UK at Wembley Stadium,” he told Sky Sports, “that would really put an exclamation point to his great career.
“But let’s not put the cart before the horse. May 18 is an awfully competitive, really competitive heavyweight championship fight for all the marbles. He will give Tyson Fury everything Tyson can handle.
“I really believe from the reports I get that Tyson has really buckled down and is training very, very hard for this.”
Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has admitted his team cannot afford to drop more points in the Premier League title race.
The champions are looking to win the trophy for an unprecedented fourth consecutive season.
However, they are currently in third place, behind rivals Arsenal and Liverpool on the table.
City will play Luton Town first, before Liverpool host Crystal Palace and Aston Villa travel to Arsenal on Sunday.
“The Premier League is so important. I expect a game similar to the Premier League when we won 2-1 at the end of the FA Cup. We have to be ready.
“We’re fighting for the title, we cannot drop points,” Guardiola told reporters today.
[DailyPost]
A former boss of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick believes ex-Super Eagles star George Finidi has all it takes to coach the senior male national team.
Finidi was in charge of the Super Eagles in their last two games following the departure of Jose Peseiro as the team gaffer after leading Nigeria to a second-place finish at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cote d’Ivoire.
The NFF is in search of Peseiro’s replacement, Pinnick who is the immediate past president of the football body is backing Finidi for the top job.
“I’m not an authority on this because I don’t know. But what I know is that some coaches were shortlisted, some applied and, somebody asked me a question, if I were to subscribe to a local coach and I corrected him right away that I don’t believe in the word local. They are indigenous coaches and if I were to subscribe to anyone at the moment, because of the smooth transition from Peseiro, I should say Finidi George, and I don’t have any regrets about it,” he said in an interview with Channels Television
“If it was Amuneke that was there during this transition, I would have said Amuneke because they had the same gifts, they played the same level, they won the same tournament, you know. But the difference between Amuneke and Finidi is a Finidi as a coach, came down to Nigeria and coached a local club, one of our indigenous clubs and he also won the league with this in the club. I brought him on as one of the assistant coaches.
“And when he was interviewed, you could see his humility and modesty in him. And if you see controversy among some of his colleagues, you will never hear anything about Finidi being a player’s agent, Finidi collecting money from this.
“No, he’s somebody that is primed and really and truly wants to work.”
Super Eagles forward; Ademola Lookman has said that his game style has been patterned after Senegalese forward, Sadio Mane.
Lookman played for Charlton Athletic, Everton, RB Leipzig, Fulham and Leicester City before moving to Serie A side Atalanta.
The Nigeria international joined Atalanta for a fee in the region of nine million euros paid to Leipzig at the start of the 2022-2023 season.
The winger has scored 24 goals and made 12 assists from 65 all-competition appearances.
The former England youth teamer has now revealed that his game is shaped on former Liverpool star Sadio Mane.
“The guy who I always looked at the most would have to be Sadio Mane,” Lookman told The Athletic.
“Looking at his threat in the box, his threat in those little tight spaces, his movement — I have watched a lot of his game in particular.
“I watch my clips back, and it’s nice to be able to see your performance from a different perspective.
“It gives you more belief in knowing that you’re getting better and developing in certain areas.”