Fifa nominates Ronaldo, Messi, Griezmann for best of 2016
PARIS: Fifa on Friday said it had nominated Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann to battle it out for the accolade of world player of the year.
Real Madrid star Ronaldo is favourite for the crown after winning the Champions League and also Euro 2016 with Portugal, albeit he exited the final win over France with an early injury.
Perennial rival Messi of Barcelona and Argentina, the reigning player of the year, had a less stellar year by his exacting standards.
Griezmann meanwhile suffered double heartache with France and Atletico Madrid at Euro 2016 and in the Champions League.
German Olympic champion Melanie Behringer will go up against Brazilian veteran Marta and US star Carli Lloyd for the women’s accolade.
Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane will vie with Leicester miracle worker MILAN: Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri (pictured) would like Serie A to be cut from 20 teams to 18, echoing recent comments made by Italian football chief Carlo Tavecchio.
“This season, the championship is good and well-balanced,” Allegri told reporters on Friday.
“There are only a few points between the top seven teams, it’s competitive and if it was with just 18 teams it would be even better,” he said.
Juventus have dominated Serie A 2011, winning five titles in a row.
Although they are leading again this season, they have found the going tougher and have lost three times already.
Those losses included Sunday’s embarrassing 3-1 defeat at Genoa which cut their lead over AC Milan and AS Roma to four points. Serie A was increased from 18 to 20 teams in 2004, but some smaller clubs have struggled to compete.
Frosinone and Carpi went straight back down to Serie B last season and promoted Crotone and Pescara are currently in the bottom three.
Tavecchio, the head of the Italian federation (FIGC), said in September that he wanted fewer teams in the top flight.
“Reducing the number of teams in Serie A from 20 to 18 would raise the league’s technical level, generate new interest and more fans, because when there’s a good show, the people come,” he said.
Meanwhile, Allegri rejected suggestions that Juventus were losing their edge as they attempt a sixth successive title. since Claudio Ranieri Fernando Santos coach.
Despite being a relative coaching novice, Zidane led Real to the Champions League after replacing Rafael Benitez mid-season at the Bernabeu.
Ranieri shocked the football world when he led Leicester to a first ever league crown in England while Santos ensured Portugal finally broke their major title duck.
“I am getting better day by day and continue to learn. But maybe it is too early for me to be up there among the three nominees,” Zidane reflected modestly.
The title of best women’s coach will go either to US handler Jill Ellis, Germany’s Silvia Neid or Sweden’s Pia Sundhage.
Fifa will bestow its “Best” awards on the winners at a Zurich gala evening on January 9. and Portugal boss for the title of top MILAN: Marek Hamsik hit his 104th goal for Napoli to tie Uruguayan Edinson Cavani’s tally for the Italians in a defiant 3-0 win over Inter Milan at the San Paolo on Friday.
Inter travelled to Naples looking to continue their strong start under new coach Stefano Pioli, who started his spell in charge with a 2-2 derby draw at AC Milan and secured a 4-2 win over Fiorentina last weekend.
But Napoli were desperate to make up for dropping points in a 1-1 draw with Sassuolo, a result that left Maurizio Sarri’s men eight points behind leaders Juventus, and were soon on their way to a morale-boosting win after hitting two quick-fire goals in the opening six minutes.
A great attacking move saw Jose Callejon knock down Hamsik’s pass for Piotr Zielinski, who fired a low volley from 12 yards past Samir Handanovic and into the far bottom corner after just two minutes.
The Napoli fans were gifted another gem four minutes later when Hamsik beat the offside trap on his way to a through ball and fired an unstoppable angled drive under Handanovic.
The Slovak’s 104th goal for Napoli pulled him level with Cavani, who is now at Paris Saint-Germain, and means he is well on his way to beating Diego Maradona’s Napoli record of 115.
Napoli could have added more, Handanovic parrying Manolo Gabbiadini’s strike before a header from the big forward glanced wide.
Inter spurned a chance to reduce the arrears after Pepe Reina came rushing off his line to block from Mauro Icardi with his legs.
Icardi wasted another chance when he rolled the ball across for Ivan Perisic rather than go for goal, and moments later the Argentine was denied by Reina at the near post.
But Handanovic was soon back in action, parrying a Gabbiadini snap shot and a vicious drive from Hamsik.
Inter emerged in determined fashion after the interval, but all hopes of launching a fightback were kept in check when Lorenzo Insigne volleyed a loose ball from a corner past Handanovic on 51 minutes.
Handanovic saved Inter’s blushes with a point-blank save from Hamsik after Insigne’s pass, while Reina denied Antonio Candreva a consolation goal with a great, one-handed save down low.
Napoli move up to sixth place at five points behind Juventus, who host Atalanta on Saturday.
Roma, in second at four points adrift, are away to Lazio in the capital derby on Sunday when AC Milan, third also at four points
behind, host Crotone. KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian footballer has beaten the likes of Neymar and Messi to score a place in Fifa’s shortlist for top three goals of the year.
Midfielder Mohamad Faiz Subri’s cracker of a free kick for Penang state in the Malaysian Super League in February was reminiscent of the swerving thunderbolt by Brazil legend Roberto Carlos against France in 1997.
Footage of the 29-year-old scoring a viciously swerving goal from 35 metres (115 feet) out has gone viral, making him a sensation in footballcrazy Malaysia.
“This is something I will never forget and it motivates me to improve my game further,” Faiz said on Thursday.
“Football brings people together and football supporters here are of many races, Chinese, Indians and Malays, and they voted for my goal,” he added.
Ten Fifa Puskas Award 2016 finalists, chosen from thousands of goals scored around the world between September 2015 and September 2016, were revealed last month.
Fifa announced that Brazil’s Marlone and Venezuela’s woman footballer Stephanie Roche were joining Faiz on the shortlist.
The winner will be announced on January 9 in Zurich. For now, Malaysia’s football hero is playing it cool.
“It’s not time for partying yet,” Faiz said. “Let’s wait till January 9.”