Real make history by ending wait for women’s team
LONDON: Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer described striker Mason Greenwood as a “special talent” who needs to be nurtured, after the teenager scored and provided an assist in Tuesday’s 3-0 Premier League win at Brighton & Hove Albion.
Greenwood fired United ahead from a jinking solo run capped by a crisp low shot inside the near post, before delivering an inch-perfect cross for Bruno Fernandes to volley home in the second half.
It was the 18-year-old Greenwood’s sixth league goal in his breakthrough season — the most by a player aged 18 or under in a single Premier League campaign since Wayne Rooney netted nine goals for Everton in 2003-04, according to Opta stats.
“He’s a special talent, a special kid we’re going to look after and try to develop into a top player,” Solskjaer told a news conference.
“He’s doing well now but he’s still young and has things to learn. He knows that, but we have a special talent there we have to nurture. He’s getting better. You can see clearly that he’s maturing and improving, he’s 18 so we will see more from him.” Greenwood’s overall tally for the season stands at 13, six behind the club’s joint top-scorers Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial as Solskjaer reaps the rewards of showing faith in young players following the departure of Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan.
Solskjaer said that he was also impressed by Greenwood’s contributions off the ball.
“He played fantastically... we know when he gets his face up and looks forward that he’s dangerous, but his hold-up play, general play and link-up play was great,” Solskjaer told United’s website.
“He’s developing into a fine player... one of the better ones I’ve seen, to be fair.” Solskjaer’s men are also into the semi-finals of the FA Cup and will restart their Europa League campaign in August with a 5-0 lead from the first leg of their last-16 tie against Austrians LASK.
United fans have had to watch on in anguish as rivals Liverpool and Manchester City have gone head-to-head for the Premier League title in recent seasons.
They are still an enormous 34 points adrift of
Liverpool, but the newly crowned champions’ revival under Jurgen Klopp shows the transformational impact a few key signings can make.
The signing of Virgil van Dijk in January 2018 turned Klopp’s Liverpool from entertainers into serial winners.
United were hoping for the same impact when they broke the world transfer record for a defender by signing Harry Maguire for £80 million in August -- five million more than Van Dijk.
The England international has struggled to match those lofty expectations and was fiercely criticised as recently as United’s first game of the Premier League’s restart as his lack of pace was exposed by Tottenham’s Steven Bergwijn for the opening goal in a 1-1 draw.
However, there are signs he is tightening up a United defence that has now kept 11 clean sheets in the 15-game unbeaten run, including two shutouts in victories over Manchester City and a 2-0 win at Chelsea in February.
Another expensive summer recruit, Aaron Wan-bissaka, is also justifying by his £ 50 million fee at right-back as for the first time in many years, United’s transfer spending is bearing fruit.
MADRID: Real Madrid launched a professional women’s team on Wednesday by absorbing CD Tacon and launching a fresh Galactico project at the club.
Madrid, the best team of the 20th century according to FIFA, have so far been one of the only elite clubs to resist the creation of a female outfit in their 118 year history.
By taking over Tacon, the women’s club based in Madrid and created in 2014, ‘Real Madrid Femenino’ will become a reality.
“Our women’s football section will be made up of the senior and under-16s to under-19s teams. A youth structure that will allow us to remain faithful to our philosophy of identifying, training and developing young talent,” a club statement said.
“Real Madrid are looking forward to this new challenge with a commitment to promoting women’s football and contributing to its development and growth in our society,” they added.
Approved at a meeting of shareholders in September last year, the buyout of Tacon for 300,000 euros ($337,000) has been made official, with another recruitment drive set to begin.
According to the Spanish press, Madrid have set their sights on the game’s finest talents and some of the first signings could arrive this week.
Tacon have already been expanding in preparation. They signed Swedish internationals Kosovare Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson, who was nominated for the 2019 Women’s Ballon d’or and who joined last year after finishing third in the Women’s World Cup.
But there will be more changes, after the announced departures of Ana Valles, Esther, Marina Martin Massanet, Patri Carballo, Ainoa Campo and Osinachi Ohale, in May.
The goal will be to turn Madrid into contenders both in Spain and Europe, where they will hope to challenge the supremacy of Barcelona’s women’s team, finalists in the 2018-2019 Women’s Champions League and who thrashed Tacon twice this season, 6-0 and 9-1.
The change has been done gradually over several months. Since the start of the current season, Tacon, coached by David Aznar, have trained and played their home games at Valdebebas, a few metres from the men’s team.
This will continue to be the case this season and the club have not ruled out using the Santiago Bernabeu for showcase matches.
The launch will be an historical moment for the club but for women’s football too.
“It’s a huge positive,” Ada Hegerberg, the first winner of the Women’s Ballon d’or in 2018, told AFP.
“I’m hoping they will stabilise the investment over a long period and that they have a long-term perspective because it can’t happen overnight.”