Newcastle United have agreed a £12m fee with Swansea City to sign midfielder Jonjo Shelvey. Shelvey is scheduled to have a medical at Swansea’s Premier League rivals before a deal can be finalised. The 23-year-old England international has been unsettled at Liberty Stadium this season. He is set to be the first player to leave since Alan Curtis was appointed interim manager in the wake of Garry Monk’s sacking.
The South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is to seek an appeal against his conviction for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp in February 2013 after firing four times through a locked toilet door. A manslaughter verdict was overturned last month and a murder verdict introduced in its place. The athlete’s defence has lodged papers at the Constitutional Court, urging a review of his murder conviction. He is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail. South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in December that the lower court had not applied correctly the rule of dolus eventualis – whether Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best player for the fifth time. The 28-year-old Argentine had 41.33% of the vote, with Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo (27.76%) second and Barca’s Neymar (7.86%) third. Lionel Messi extended his record haul of world player of the year awards with his fifth after winning the treble – La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League – with Barcelona in 2014-15.He had 52 goals and 26 assists in 61 games.
Naija Sports Crib 