Chelsea sits Costa amid rift, Chinese interest

Diego Costa’s Chelsea career could be coming to an abrupt end, a setback to the English Premier League leaders’ pursuit of the title.

The league’s top scorer has not traveled with Chelsea to Leicester after a dispute with the coaching staff and reportedly won’t be playing in Saturday’s game against last season’s champions.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Costa is aware of a Chinese club willing to pay him more than $30 million a year, but Chelsea is determined to hold onto its most influential player. The Spain international, who joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid in 2014, has 14 goals in the league this season and is under contract until 2019.

The Earthquakes selected UCLA All-Pac-12 midfielder Jackson Yueill as the sixth pick in the MLS SuperDraft.

Yueill set an NCAA record with three assists in 32 seconds on Sept. 5 against Akron.

The Quakes also picked University of South Florida midfielder Lindo Mfeka with the No. 28 overall selection.

Expansion franchises were granted the first two picks, with Minnesota United choosing UCLA forward Abu Danladi with the first pick and Atlanta United selecting Syracuse defender Miles Robinson with the second and adding Providence midfielder Julian Gressel with the eighth pick.

Jurgen Klinsmann is proud of his half-decade in charge of the U.S. national team, and he believes he left successor Bruce Arena in a position to make the Americans even better.

Klinsmann made his first public remarks since his firing when he spoke at a convention of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in Los Angeles.

“We achieved a lot within the system of U.S. Soccer,” Klinsmann said, including the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup title and a spot in the second round of the 2014 World Cup. Klinsmann was fired by the U.S. Soccer Federation on Nov. 21 after 5½ years. This week, Arena opened the first training camp of his second stint in charge. College football: Western Michigan is turning to another coach in his 30s, hiring Tim Lester as the replacement for P.J. Fleck, who went to Minnesota. The 39-year-old Lester is a former WMU player and was Purdue’s quarterbacks coach this past season. Tennis: Fourth-seeded American Jack Sock made amends for the disappointment of a year ago when he beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in Saturday’s final to win the ASB Tennis Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.