London (AFP) – Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney's place in the starting line-up is not a cast iron certainty, said club manager Jose Mourinho on Friday. The 31-year-old England skipper — who on Thursday had said he didn't pay any attention to outside criticism of his form — has failed to sparkle and was anonymous […]

Paris (AFP) – Ivory Coast defender Serge Aurier was sent off against his old club as Paris Saint-Germain slumped to a 2-0 defeat away at Toulouse in Ligue 1 on Friday. Aurier was shown a second yellow card for conceding a penalty that Yann Bodiger converted early in the second half to put Toulouse in […]

Berlin (AFP) – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored for the fifth time in five Bundesliga games this season as Borussia Dortmund beat Freiburg 3-1 on Friday to move level on points with league leaders Bayern Munich. Aubameyang tapped in after fine work by livewire Ousmane Dembele to give Thomas Tuchel's side the lead on the stroke of […]

Doha (AFP) – Ambitious World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar have sacked coach Jose Daniel Carreno just a fortnight ahead of a crucial 2018 qualifier in South Korea and after successive defeats. He was dismissed following recent back-to-back defeats against Iran and Uzbekistan which left Qatar's hopes of making the World Cup in Russia in two […]

London (AFP) – Jose Mourinho has vowed to silence the critics when Manchester United face champions Leicester, while his old rival Arsene Wenger hopes to celebrate a memorable milestone with a rare success against Chelsea on Saturday. Mourinho finds himself under fire less than two months into his United reign after three successive defeats and […]

London (AFP) – Four-time African Player of the Year Yaya Toure's chances of ever playing for Manchester City again diminished further Friday after his fiery agent launched another withering attack on club manager Pep Guardiola. Guardiola had said earlier this week Toure would not play for the club until his agent Dimitri Seluk apologised for […]

London (AFP) – Burnley striker Andre Gray will serve a four match suspension after being found guilty of misconduct for homophobic comments he posted on Twitter in 2012, England's Football Association announced on Friday. The 25-year-old published the tweets when he was a non-league player in 2012, but they resurfaced on social media after he […]

Barcelona (AFP) – Barcelona coach Luis Enrique insists his star-studded squad can cope without Lionel Messi for the next three weeks, but claimed the Argentine's absence is "terrible" for football. Messi will miss Barca's trips to Sporting Gijon, Borussia Moenchengladbach in the Champions League and Celta Vigo in the next week due to a groin […]

Dublin (AFP) – Martin O'Neill ended months of speculation on Friday revealing he and assistant Roy Keane had signed extensions to their contracts with the Republic of Ireland. The 64-year-old Northern Irishman — who has been at the helm since 2013 — had agreed to the deal back in June but it had remained unsigned […]

Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho insisted Friday he was unhurt by attacks on his players from football "Einsteins", adding it was a very different matter when he publicly criticised his team. Mourinho's approach was called into question by various sections of the media during a run of three successive defeats […]

Madrid (AFP) – Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane insists it is obvious rivals Barcelona will miss the injured Lionel Messi during a three-week layoff, but has injury concerns of his own ahead of Saturday's trip to Las Palmas. The five-time World Player of the Year is set to be sidelined for Barca's trips to Sporting […]

Cobham (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has warned Arsenal it would be a huge mistake to part ways with Arsene Wenger if he doesn't deliver a major trophy this season. Wenger has marked the 20th anniversary of his arrival at Arsenal this week ahead of Saturday's clash with Chelsea, but the Gunners […]

London (AFP) – Arsene Wenger said Friday that he preferred to avoid a "destructive mode" as he played down claims that adversary Jose Mourinho had once wanted to "break his face". The Arsenal manager said he was concentrating solely on the Gunners' Premier League clash with Chelsea on Saturday and did not want to linger […]

Madrid (AFP) – Five-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi insists he will bounceback "even stronger" from a groin injury that is set to keep him sidelined for three weeks. Messi limped off after an hour of Barca's 1-1 draw against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and is expected to miss Barca's next three games […]

Shanghai (AFP) – The Chinese consortium that agreed to buy AC Milan in a multi-million dollar deal this summer has been hit with new forgery claims, local media said Friday. In August, Silvio Berlusconi agreed to sell more than 99 percent of AC Milan to a little-known Chinese consortium named Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing. […]