MODRIC IS SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR
ON» Luka Modric broke a deLON D cade of award dominance by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi after being crowned world footballer of the year by FIFA on Monday.
Marta won the women’s award for a sixth time.
Modric was voted FIFA’s best player in the 201718 season after winning the Champions League for a fourth time in five seasons with Real Madrid and leading Croatia to its first World Cup final where it lost to France.
Messi and Ronaldo were the only winners of world soccer’s main individual award from FIFA in various guises since 2008, both winning five titles each.
Messi didn’t make the threeman shortlist and skipped the trip to London. And as a new dawn in FIFA’s awards history broke inside London’s Royal Festival Hall, Ronaldo also didn’t turn up at the ceremony to be dethroned in person by his former Real Madrid teammate despite being in the final three alongside Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah.
Ronaldo, who left Madrid in the offseason to join Italian champion Juventus, was knocked out of the WorldCupintheroundof16with European champion Portugal.
Salah scored a record 32 goals in a 38game English Premier League and helped Liverpool reach its first Champions League final in 11 years.
Legendary McDonald dies at 84.
ADELPHIA» Tommy McDonald,
PH I L the small, speedy and surehanded receiver who teamed with quarterback Norm Van Brocklin to help the Philadelphia Eagles win the 1960 NFL championship, has died. He was 84.
His death was announced by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Details were not disclosed.
McDonald was a twotime AllAmerican from Oklahoma who played 12 NFL seasons for five teams and was a sixtime Pro Bowl selection. When he retired in 1968, he ranked second in league history in touchdown catches, fourth in yards receiving and sixth in receptions.
But the 5foot7, 175pound McDonald had to wait 30 years before becoming the smallest player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Women’s Final Four sites announced.
The Women’s Final Four will have a familiar feel to it for the next few years.
The NCAA chose San Antonio, Minneapolis, Dallas and Cleveland to host the event from 2021 through 2024. All four cities have hosted before.
The next two sites were determined a few years ago, with Tampa Bay hosting in 2019 and New Orleans in 2020. San Antonio will hold it in 2021, followed by Minneapolis, Dallas and Cleveland.
This will be the third time that San Antonio has hosted the Women’s Final Four. The alltime attendance record was set there in 2002.
Seattle hockey arena plan approved.
S EATTL E
» The Seattle City Council unanimously approved plans for a privately funded $700 million renovation of KeyArena, clearing one of the last major hurdles in the city’s bid to land an expansion NHL franchise.
The 80 vote was the last step needed to strengthen Seattle’s expansion application and it means a team could be playing in the new building during the 202021 season.
The next phase in the arena/franchise process comes next week when Seattle Hockey Partners, the ownership group attempting to land the expansion team, presents before the NHL Board of Governors’ Executive Committee.
Northwestern RB forced to retire.
Northwestern leading rusher Jeremy Larkin is retiring from football after being diagnosed with cervical stenosis, a condition that causes narrowing of the spinal canal in the neck and upper back.
Northwestern said that Larkin’s condition is not life threatening, but prevents him from playing.