REPORTS WE COULDN’T MAKE UP
League top goaLscorer misses pLay-offs to do charity work
Jason Oswell, the Welsh Premier League’s top scorer with 22 goals, missed his side Newtown’s end-ofseason Europa League play-off against Bangor because he was undertaking voluntary work in Uganda.
The 24-year-old striker, who went to spend four weeks helping children with neurological conditions and going into schools to raise awareness of basic things such as hygiene, said: “It will be a life changing opportunity, working with people who have very limited resources in a poor area.”
Babe in arms
More than 20 years after USA 94, one of football’s most famous babies is now a star in his own right. Sporting Lisbon have signed Mattheus Oliveira, the inspiration behind his father Bebeto’s famous goal celebration at the 1994 World Cup.
Bebeto celebrated against Holland in the quarter-finals with a “baby-rocking” gesture – a tribute to his son, who was born a few days earlier.
The 22-year-old midfielder has spent the last two seasons at Estoril after making his professional debut for Brazilian club Flamengo.
Lombaerts the great
In a bizarre send-off, Nicolas Lombaerts dressed up as Tsar Peter the Great during a farewell ceremony outside the Winter Palace in St Petersburg’s Palace Square to mark his departure from Zenit.
The defender posed outside the palace and was also accompanied at one point, by a woman dressed up as Catherine I of Russia.
Lombaerts left Zenit after 10 years and has signed for Oostende in his native Belgium.
tatts No good
Guillermo Varela has hit out at Eintracht Frankfurt for suspending him after an infected tattoo ruled the Manchester United loanee out of the German Cup Final.
“I’m not the only Eintracht player to get a tattoo before the Final,” Varela complained. “But only I was nailed to the cross for going against the manager. Before the 2016 FA Cup Final we went out with several players and got a tattoo, and then we won. I wanted to repeat that because it brought us so much luck.”