Carlo Ancelotti became the first coach to win the league in all five of Europe’s major leagues as Real Madrid beat Espanyol to win La Liga. Two goals from Rodrygo and strikes from Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema confirmed Real’s 35th Spanish title. They are 17 points clear of second-placed Sevilla with four games to play. Ancelotti has also won titles in Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, the Premier League in England and the German Bundesliga.
Norwich City were relegated from the Premier League with defeat against Aston Villa at Villa Park. The tame loss, coupled with Burnley’s dramatic comeback win at Watford, left the Canaries bottom of the table and 13 points from safety with four games to play. Their fans continued to support as a relegation that has looked on the cards for some time was confirmed.
Mino Raiola, the agent who represented some of football’s most high-profile players, has died at the age of 54. The Dutch-Italian’s stable of players included Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland, Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba and AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Raiola was also president of the Football Forum, which represented leading agents and their players.
It is no longer news that Cote d’Ivoire’s football legend, Didier Drogba, yesterday lost his bid to become the president of the Fédération Ivoirienne de Football (FIF). After the first round of the polls, Drogba had 21 votes. His opponents Yacine Idriss Diallo and Sory Diabate had 59 and 50 votes respectively. The second round of voting saw Diallo squaring up against Diabate and it was Diallo who emerged as FIF president with 63 votes to Diabate’s 61. Drogba had tried in the past to lead FIF but did not receive the required support from clubs, players’ union and coaches’ association whose support he needed to get on the ballot. A FIFA induced change in statues and electoral code enabled Drogba to be on the ballot this time.
The police and some officials of the Canada Soccer Federation and the BC Place Stadium stewards forcefully removed the bands, drums and some Nigerian supporters (especially those playing the drums) from the stadium where they were supporting the Super Falcons of Nigeria during their friendly game against the Canada Women National Team at the BC Place Stadium, Vancouver. In the process, they manhandled one Nigerian-Canadian man who have lived for over 20 years in Canada. We witnessed this before oue eyes and it was so sad. The President of Nigeria Association of BC protested but the officials had their way. The President said they did exactly same thing in 2016 when Nigeria played USA in the Women’s World Cup. I mean, who does not see supporters drumming and singing even in World Cup proper.