Count me out of race to succeed Zidane: Loew
Germany’s World Cup-winning coach Joachim Loew on Friday ruled himself out of the running to take over at Real Madrid after reports he has been approached to replace Zinedine Zidane.
“Of course I can completely rule that out now,” Loew told reporters at Germany’s World Cup training camp at Eppan, north Italy, after Spanish daily Marca claimed Real had already approached the 58-year-old German.
“Real Madrid will surely find a very, very good substitute for Zinedine Zidane.
“His resignation surprised me a little, but he is the best judge of whether the team has reached it’s peak (under him).
“If he feels now is the right time, then you have to respect that.” Loew has only recently signed a contract extension with the German football federation (DFB), until the 2022 World Cup, and says he is fully focused on successfully defending the world title at Russia 2018.
Loew last coached at club level in 2004, when he was at Austrian Vienna, and under his stewardship Germany has reached at least the semi-finals of every international tournament since the 2006 World Cup.
Loew’s crowning moment was in holding aloft the 2014 World Cup trophy in Rio de Janeiro.However, he underlined his status in Germany as a superstar coach by winning the Confederations Cup last year with an inexperienced squad after leaving all of his stars at home.
Germany play Austria in Klagenfurt on Saturday and Saudi Arabia next Friday in their final friendlies before kicking off their campaign against Mexico in Moscow on June 17, having also drawn South Korea and Sweden in Group F. GM Kravtsiv Martyn (ELO 2662) of Ukraine will lead a strong field of more than 200 chess champions from 22 countries in the international open section of the Rs 35 lakh prize money 11th Mumbai Mayor’s International Chess Tournament, which will be hosted by Mount Litera International School, Bandra Kurla Complex from June 3 to 10 June, 2018. Among these will be 20 Grandmasters and 4 International Masters along with 50 title holders.
Organized by Venus Chess Academy under the aegis of Mumbai Suburban District Chess Association, Maharashtra Chess Association & All India Chess Federation, the tournament, with a record prize pool of Rs.35 lakhs, has attracted more than 1200 + entries till date.
GM Kravtsiv Martyn (ELO 2662) of Ukraine who was the winner of the 8th Mayors Chess Cup is the top seed of the tournament, he is currently placed 80th in the world ranking among all the players.
GM Amonatov Farrukh (ELO 2605) of Tajikistan is the 2nd seed while IM Nguyen Van Huy (ELO 2462) of Vietnam will be looking to defend his title this year.
Leading the Indian challenge will be Grandmasters Sandipan Chanda (2573), Diptayan Ghosh (2536) and FM Erigaisi Arjun (2488) who will be looking to secure his IM norm in this tournament. The female challenge will be led by WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (22(94) & WIM Pratyusha Bodda (2269) who are looking to make a mark in this tournament.
The players in the open international section would be vying for the first prize of Rs 3 Lakhs while the runners up will get 2.3 and 1.25 Lakhs respectively from a pool of Rs.13 Lakhs in this 10-round tournament with a classical time-control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds per player. In addition, the players also have a chance to earn the GM/IM norm.