Soccer team looking for interesting players
Eric Wynalda and Las Vegas Lights FC are running a job search unlike any other on the Strip.
Not that you would expect anything less from the United Soccer League team that partnered with a marijuana dispensary, dropped $5,000 from a helicopter as part of a halftime promotion and embraced gambling like no American sports franchise ever before.
Las Vegas has dubbed its upcoming open tryout as its search for the “most interesting player in the world.”
The 49-year-old Wynalda, who was hired as the Lights’ coach and technical director in October, is bringing in some of his old friends from his high-profile playing career and promising a chance to make the Division II program regardless of experience level.
“There’s a lot of talented people in Vegas,” said Wynalda, a longtime star with the U.S. men’s national team. “If you really think about some of the people that came there were going to be a part of Cirque du Soleil, who knows, and they end up dealing cards or something.
“I just think it would be really cool story if we found a literal diamond in the rough here, so we’re going to roll with this.”
Golf
Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion, led the South African Open by a shot after a 9-under 62 in the first round. Oosthuizen, made a brilliant start at Randburg Golf Club in Johannesburg with nine birdies, including six in an eight-hole surge on the back nine, and no bogeys. Oosthuizen was one stroke ahead of Kurt Kitayama of the U.S., who won the Mauritius Open last weekend.
Football
The Canadian Football League has added a salary cap for non-player football operations. The league said Thursday the cap is set at just under $2.59 million for 2019 and 2020, and will be reviewed after that. Coaches and other football operations staff, including general managers, scouts and equipment and video personnel, fall under the cap. Teams are capped at 11 coaches and 14 other football operations staff.
Tennis
Amelie Mauresmo won’t captain France’s Davis Cup team after all because the two-time major winner is going back to coaching French player Lucas Pouille. The French Tennis Federation announced it was searching for a new captain, who will also look after the national team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Skiing
Olympic skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Canada has been released from the hospital after undergoing surgery after breaking his leg during training at the season-opening World Cup men’s downhill at Lake Louise in Calgary, Alberta.
Football
Ricky Williams is among 50 former NFL players planning yet another professional football league, the Freedom Football League. Williams said a 10-team league that also includes Hall of Fame receiver Terrell Owens and approximately 100 stakeholders will be launched as a spring league. He did not specify what year the FFL would begin play.