1. Keylor Navas vows to fight for a spot in Real Madrid team
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has an embarrassment of riches in the goalkeeping department with the signing of Costa Rica’s star of the just concluded Brazil World Cup, Keylor Navas. Apart from Navas, Real Madrid have the legendary Iker Casillas and Diego Lopez, who was the number one goalkeeper for the previous two seasons. The battle between Nava, Lopez and Casillas for the Real Madrid number one position is likely to be one of the stories of the season.
Casillas may be 32, and many believe him to be at the flag end of his career, especially after his disastrous World Cup performance, but he is still young in goalkeeping traditions. While Navas said it was a dream move for him to move to Real Madrid, he insisted that it wasn’t luck that got him here and that he would do his best to be the top goalkeeper at his new club.
“I feel capable of taking on these challenges,” said the 27-year-old, adding, “My work is my foundation and when you work hard you feel ready to take on any kind of challenge. I am very calm. What I have to do is train hard and be available to the technical staff and when I get my chance be ready for it.”
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2. Xavi announces retirement from international football
The legendary Barcelona and Spain midfielder, Xavi, who was the symbol of the famed tiki-taka which won Spain two successive European Championships and a World Cup, decided to retire from international football at 34, following a disastrous World Cup campaign during which he was dropped from the side. Said Xavi in a press conference, “I have decided to retire from international football. I’m grateful for all those years. It has been a fantastic time.”
“From now on I’m another fan of the Spain team. I’m grateful to everybody at the federation (RFEF), it’s been a marvelous time for me to be there for so many years and have so much success. I’m leaving very proud and I wish them all the best.”
With Xavi’s retirement, the Golden Generation of Spanish football seems to be on the way out.
3. British bookmakers fancy Manchester United to win the English Premier League
After a highly successful pre-season tour of the United States in which Louis Van Gaal’s side won all their 5 matches comfortably, including wins over Real Madrid and Liverpool, bookmakers in Britain are so impressed that they have cut down the odds on Manchester United on winning the English Premier League to 5-1. Van Gaal’s appointment as coach, which comes after a sensational campaign in the World Cup when he led the Dutch national side to the third position, has inspired a lot of confidence in the club, which was down and out under their last manager, David Moyes. Addition of the tenacious midfielder, Ander Herrera seems to have galvanized the side as Wayne Rooney seems refreshed and rearing to go, Phil Jones looks world class, Darren Fletcher seems to have improved and Ashley Young looks good as well. Rooney’s finishing has come in for a lot of praise. Van Gaal however, has sought to dampen the expectations and said he should only be judged at the end of the season, not before.
4. Pepe Reina looks set to sign for Bayern Munich
Liverpool’s trusted goalkeeper, Pepe Reina’s long career at the club seems to be drawing to a club as Bayern Munich have agreed to sign the Spanish goalkeeper, subject to his clearing the medical examination. In fact, Reina spent the entire last season on loan at Napoli having lost his regular first-team place under Brendan Rodgers Simon Mignolet.
While the Belgian goalkeeper hadn’t had the best of starts to his Liverpool career, Reina was totally sidelined by the Liverpool manager and did not feature at all on the club’s recent pre-season tour of the United States.
5. Finally, professional football sees a woman manager
A great victory was won by feminists worldwide as Corinne Diacre became the first woman to coach a men’s professional football team in a competitive match in France on Monday. Diacre’s first match in charge however went off to a poor start as her second division club Clermont Foot 63 s lost 2-1 at Brest.
“It’s never nice to lose, that’s obvious,” Diacre said. “But Brest played well. We made a couple of mistakes for their goals. But we did good things too, which is a good sign for the future. You can’t ignore Clermont this season.”
