Higuain becomes latest victim of Milan No 9 shirt
MILAN: Forced out of Juventus to make way for Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer, Gonzalo Higuain has now become the latest victim of AC Milan’s infamous number nine shirt. The Argentine has failed to score in his last seven games in all competitions, a spell stretching back to the match against Sampdoria on October 28.
Deprived of the sort of service he enjoyed at Juventus, the 31-year-old argues with referees and argues with his younger team mates, flapping his arms in anger, when the ball is not passed to him in the way he wants.
Milan too have fallen into a rut, drawing 0-0 in their last two Serie A games and suffering an embarrassing group stage exit in the Europa League after losing 3-1 at Olympiakos in between.
They host Fiorentina at San Siro on Saturday and, although they are fourth with 27 points they are closer to Udinese in 17th than to leaders Juventus (45).
Milan paid Juventus 18 million euros ($20.63 million) in August to loan Higuain for a season and while they have an option to buy him for 36 million euros, there is already much speculation in the Italian media that they may let him go. Higuain, who scored 55 goals in 105 appearances during two seasons at Juventus, left the Turin club shortly after they signed Ronaldo in July but made it clear in a recent interview that he did not want to go.
Higuain, who has scored seven goals for Milan, is not the first player to struggle with the club’s number nine shirt. Portugal forward Andre Silva, who wore it last season, scored only two goals in 24 appearances after a 40 million euros move from FC Porto.
Three seasons ago, the shirt belonged to Luiz Adriano, who managed four goals in 26 outings, while two players wore it in 2014/15 without success — Fernando Torres scoring once in 10 games and Mattia Destro three times in 15.
‘WORLD CUP WINNERS FRANCE UNEXCITING’
BARCELONA: Former Spain and Barcelona midfielder Xavi has said France’s World Cup triumph this year left him feeling “unenthusiastic” due to their style of play. “Allfrancesaytomeisthat they are the champions,” Xavi said in an interview with Spanish newspaper Marca published on Friday. “They are an organised team, not very exciting.” he said.
WC FINAL DREW GLOBAL AUDIENCE OF 1.12 BN
ZURICH: A combined global audience of 1.12 billion watched the World Cup final between France and Croatia in July, FIFA, the governing body of world football, said on Friday. In total, FIFA said, a “combined 3.572 billion viewers tuned in to world football’s ultimate competition” for at least a minute, over the course of the World Cup’s from June 14 to July 15. FIFA calculated that the average live audience for each of the 64 matches was 191 million.