The Dragons name Giggs as manager
WALES have appointed former Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs as their manager on a four-year contract, the Football Association of Wales announced yesterday.
The 44-year-old takes over from Chris Coleman, who led Wales to the Euro 2016 semi-finals but quit the job in November to take charge of Championship side Sunderland.
Giggs won 64 caps between 1991 and 2007 but was unpopular with some Wales fans for missing many internationals, especially friendlies.
He ended his playing career in 2014 and was Louis van Gaal’s assistant at Old Trafford for the following two seasons before leaving United in 2016 after Jose Mourinho was appointed as manager.
Stoke City have appointed Paul Lambert as manager on a twoand-a-half-year contract, the Premier League club said yesterday.
The 48-year-old former Aston Villa and Norwich City coach replaced Mark Hughes, who was sacked this month with Stoke lying in the relegation zone and knocked out of the FA Cup by fourth tier Coventry City.
“Paul greatly impressed us with his knowledge of our squad and had a clear plan of how he would improve our results,” chairman Peter Coates said on the club’s website (www.stokecityfc.com).
English soccer mourned former West Bromwich Albion, Coventry and England striker Cyrille Regis yesterday as a role model and pioneer for the country’s black footballers after his death at 59.
Local media said he died of a heart attack on Sunday.
Born in French Guiana but moving to London as a boy, Regis joined West Brom in 1977 and scored 112 goals in 297 appearances for the club before going to Coventry in 1984, where he won the FA Cup three years later. He went on to play for Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wycombe Wanderers and Chester City before hanging up his boots in 1996.
Apart from being a powerful and talented striker, Regis inspired a generation of black players at a time when they were a rarity in the top echelons of English soccer and were regularly subjected to racial abuse from crowds. – Reuters