Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2015 i World Soccer

“Seeing PSG score six, says nothing to me. There’s a lack of emotion. It’s the triumph of football business” Jean-Pierre Caillot, the president of Ligue 1 club Reims, vents his spleen at the overwhelming financial muscle of the Qatari-backed Paris Saint-Germain Schalke reacted to the 2-0 Bundesliga defeat by Cologne by releasing midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng and striker Sidney Sam with immediate effect. The result put Schalke’s European hopes for next season at risk and sports director Horst Heldt warned there would be consequences following a run of poor form that saw the club win only one of their last eight games. “If someone isn’t prepared to do things our way, there’s no point him training with us,” said Heldt. Boateng, a former Ghana international, and Sam, who has won five…

“It was already difficult to know the exact identity of a player’s agent. Now it’s going to be worse” Jean-Pierre Louvel, the head of the association of French pro clubs, predicts chaos after FIFA calls time on its system of licensing agents More often than not, Pep Guardiola is dressed as stylishly as his teams play football. It is either a sharp suit or a smart, club tracksuit. So to see the Bayern Munich coach in a T-shirt for a Champions League press conference was a surprise. UEFA, however, was more than surprised and promptly began disciplinary proceedings against him. Guardiola’s misdemeanour was to wear a T-shirt bearing the words “Justicia Para Topo”. It was Guardiola’s contribution to the campaign for justice for Argentinian journalist Jorge Lopez. Known as “Topo”,…

“It’s not exactly the title of a horror film” luis Enrique complains about the sending-off of jordi alba (left) for saying “always me” to the ref in barcelona’s victory over local rivals Espanyol Rested...after a year out of the game, tuchel is back in business Dortmund turn to New boss tuchel Former Mainz boss THOMAS TUCHEL will take over from Jurgen Klopp as coach of Borussia Dortmund on July 1. Tuchel spent five seasons at Mainz before stepping down a year ago. During his time at the club, Mainz qualified for European competition for the first time, while Tuchel earned a reputation as an innovative tactician. EUROPE MICHAEL FRONTZECK replaced Tayfun Korkut as boss of Hanover for the last five games of the season. Cagliari appointed GIANLUCA FESTA as coach…

Paddy Agnew reports from Rome The first time that Carpi, Italy’s unexpected newcomers to Serie A next season, flashed across the international media’s radar it provided a moment of light relief. It happened a couple of years ago when a hapless Swedish couple opted to take a romantic holiday on the isle of Capri, off the coast of Naples. On picking up their hire car at Milan airport, instead of typing “Capri” into the satnav the couple inserted “Carpi”. And it was only when they went to the local tourist office to ask where the famous Blue Grotto (of Capri) was, that they discovered their mistake: the Blue Grotto was 600km away. As of next season, many more people are likely to become aware of Carpi. In an Italian springtime…

Jamaica will compete in the tournament for the first time after Japan rejected CONMEBOL’s invitation to appear as guests alongside Mexico. There was no official explanation as to why the “Reggae Boyz” were approached, although the Centennial Copa America in 2016 will take place in the USA and feature 16 teams, including six from CONCACAF. The key figures in the current squad are drawn from the English second tier and America’s MLS, as well as the Jamaican league. And the team go into the tournament in good spirits, buoyed by victory in the Caribbean Cup last November and friendly wins over Venezuela and Cuba in March “Our football is fighting, passing, counter-attack, teamwork. That is what we needÓ Jamaica coach Winfried Schafer German coach Winfried Schafer, who led Cameroon at…

Third place with an injury-hit squad at the last Copa proved a false dawn for the team then coached by Sergio Markarian. Once the World Cup qualifiers got under way, Peru were hit by an old problem: the inability to compete away from home. Since failing to make France 98 on goal difference, Peru’s away record in qualification reads won 2, drawn 6 and lost 27, with their last victory coming in 2004. The problem is part mental and part physical, with Pablo Bengoechea, who was Markarian’s assistant and then had a brief spell in caretaker command, complaining that the team were unable to sustain their rhythm over 90 minutes. Another more obvious problem is the lack of outstanding talent. And these are now the problems of Ricardo Gareca, whose…

World-record signing Gianluigi Lentini of Milan was on World Soccer’s cover, with an inset of Marseille’s Rudi Voller, ahead of the European Cup Final in Munich. The Final would be a contest between two clubs that were owned by two of European football’s richest and most controversial figures: French multimillionaire Bernard Tapie, who owned Marseille, and Silvio Berlusconi, owner of hot favourites Milan. It also brought together two of Europe’s most notable coaches: the “old man” Raymond Goethals of Marseille and Milan’s up-and-coming Italian, Fabio Capello. Previewing events that were likely to unfold on the pitch, Keir Radnedge wrote; “Milan won all their six matches in the qualifying Champions League and have only recently come off the end of an unbeaten run of 58 Italian league games spanning nearly two…

Twelve months ago, when Unai Emery’s Sevilla overcame Benfica on penalties in the Europa League Final in Turin, the coach could have been forgiven for casting an envious eye towards the riches that were on offer in the Champions League. Yet Emery has had no regrets about spending this season toiling in the Europa League; not least because the winners this term will enjoy a passage to next season’s Champions League. “We care about this competition more than anyone,” said Emery after watching his side beat Fiorentina in the semi-finals to set up a Final clash with Dnipro in Warsaw on May 27. “I’m tremendously happy with the work of this group. For all they have given to this competition. Now we’ll enjoy this moment and think about the Final.”…

HOWARD JOHNSON The news that Sochaux are to be sold to Chinese electrical company Tech Pro Technology Development for ¤7million will come as no surprise to the club’s supporters. After all, rumours had been circulating for a year that carmakers Peugeot, the club’s long-term owners and benefactors, wanted to cut all ties. However, the sale is still something that fans of Football Club Sochaux-Montbeliard will find hard to swallow. This, after all, is a club that has been joined at the hip to Peugeot since day one, when family member and company director Jean-Pierre Peugeot founded it back in 1928. However, relegation from Ligue 1 at the end of last season – after an unbroken run of 66 years in the French top flight – coupled with tougher conditions in…

CONCACAF MARTIN DEL PALACIO LANGER Club America’s 5-3 aggregate victory over Canada’s Montreal Impact gave Mexico its 10th consecutive CONCACAF Champions League title – a feat no other nation, in any region on the planet, can match. And since Costa Rican side Saprissa were victorious in 2005, seven of the 10 finals since have been contested exclusively by Liga MX teams. Yet there were times in this season’s competition when it looked as though the Aztec clubs might be losing their regional dominance. For the first time ever, two Mexican teams were eliminated at the group stage and the eventual champions seemed to be on the ropes at one point in the Final. Montreal Impact were undoubtedly the surprise package of the competition. Despite being the worst team in the…

EUROPE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Quarter-fnals 1st legs Apr 14 Atletico Madrid (Spa) 0 Real Madrid (Spa) 0 Att: 52,553. Ref: Mazic (Ser) Apr 14 Juventus (Ita) 1 (Vidal pen 57) Monaco (Fra) 0 HT: 0-0. Att: 40,801. Ref: Kralovec (CzR) Apr 15 Paris Saint-Germain (Fra) 1 (Mathieu og 82) Barcelona (Spa) 3 (Neymar 18, Suarez 67, 79) HT: 0-1. Att: 45,893. Ref: Clattenburg (Eng) Apr 15 Porto (Por) 3 (Quaresma pen 3, 10, Martinez 65) Bayern Munich (Ger) 1 (Thiago 28) HT: 2-1. Att: 50,092. Ref: Velasco Carballo (Spa) 2nd legs Apr 21 Barcelona 2 (Neymar 14, 34) Paris Saint-Germain 0 HT: 2-0. Att: 84,477. Ref: Moen (Nor) Barcelona 5-1 on agg Apr 21 Bayern Munich 6 (Thiago 14, Boateng 22, Lewandowski 27, 40, Muller 36, Xabi Alonso 88) Porto…

So much for a quiet summer. We normally spend this time of year reviewing the season’s major events and, in a World Cup or European Championship year, previewing the big summer tournament. But this year, the schedule has allowed us to take a detailed look at a host of different events taking place this summer. The Copa America, being played for the first time in four years, is the headline act (page 50), while the Women’s World Cup (page 76) is growing in stature. It is hard to preview the European Under-21 Championship (page 24) and the Under-20 World Cup (page 78) because the bigger story tends to be the young players who emerge from the tournament. The Copa America, which is being played for the first time in four…

BOURNEMOUTH Seven years after going into administration and then almost dropping out of the Football League, they were promoted to the English top flight for the first time in their history. XAVI Became only the eighth player to make 500 appearances in La Liga when he came on as a substitute in Barcelona’s 2-0 victory at Espanyol. GEORGE DOWELL Paralysed from the chest down in a car crash six years ago when a promising 16-year-old playing for English eighth-tier side Worthing, he has now bought the financially troubled club with the compensation money he received and plans to guide them up the football pyramid. PHILIP COCU Became only the third person to win the Dutch title with PSV Eindhoven as both player and coach, following Eric Gerets and Ronald Koeman,…

“I think there will be even more teams sanctioned by FIFA. Too much haste in making signings comes with its dangers” Getafe president, Angel Torres suggests real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and others will receive transfer bans for the improper signing of youngsters The last great idol of Mexican football has fnally retired. More so than Hugo Sanchez, Rafael Marquez and Javier Hernandez – all much better-known internationally – the player who has aroused more passions and made more headlines in Mexico is Cuauhtemoc Blanco. And on April 21, 2015, at the age of 42, he walked away from football in the same way he had always played the game: showcasing his talent, earning accolades and generating controversy. Unlike Sanchez, Marquez and Hernandez, who all emerged from middle-class families, Blanco grew…

Magical Messi, but Pele is still the greatest Lionel Messi, the best of them all? After his devastating performance at Camp Nou against Bayern Munich for Barcelona, his two superbly taken goals and the way he left a bewildered Jerome Boateng sprawled in confusion on the ground, eulogies have proliferated. And one of the most fulsome of them came from none other than Graeme Souness, just after Jamie Redknapp had written that in bygone days a Souness wouldn’t have let Messi get away with things. Even before the semi-final first leg, Pep Guardiola, the former Barcelona boss now in charge at Bayern, had declared that Messi was unstoppable. Yet if World Cup finals provide the ultimate criteria, there have to be some reservations. Messi has played in them twice. In…

I’m aiming to do what Marcelo Bielsa did with Chile,” said Mauricio Soria, raising the bar very high for himself on his appointment as Bolivia coach in January. “I want to play attacking football. I don’t want to defend as much as we’ve normally done. We’ve lost many times playing that way, so let’s attack.” Such bold words come against a backdrop of administrative confusion as Bolivia’s three previous internationals were overseen by three different coaches. In September, veteran Spanish coach Xabier Azkargorta was put in caretaker command. Soria then took charge in October, for a creditable 2-2 draw in Chile, and was all set to be named permanent “I want to play attacking football. I don’t want to defend as much as we’ve normally done” Bolivia coach Mauricio Soria…

In the nine years of his second spell in charge of Uruguay, Oscar Tabarez has achieved great things, reaching the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup and leading his country to a record 15th Copa America triumph a year later. Now comes the time for the next phase of the coach’s work: the rebuilding of the side with the promotion of graduates from Uruguay’s highly successful youth ranks. This process has been ongoing since last summer’s World Cup – with pleasing results so far. Debuts have been handed to nine players since Brazil 2014 – including some of the side who were runners-up in the 2013 World Under-20 Cup – and the team’s post-World Cup record includes a 2-1 win away to Copa hosts Chile. Now, however, comes the first…

3 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT HOJBJERG • He was born in Copenhagen to a Danish father and French mother. • Unhappy at a Copenhagen coach’s decision to play him out of position up front, he almost quit at 13. A subsequent move to Brondby put him back on track. • For his first two years in Munich, he lived at the family home of Michael Tarnat, the former German international full-back turned Bayern youth co-ordinator. Pierre HOJBJERG Midfielder, 19 (05.08.95) Augsburg (ger, on loan from bayern Munich, ger) & Denmark In a sentence Versatile, dynamic and self-confident Danish international who, after being restricted to a handful of first-team games for Bayern Munich in the first-half of this season, opted for a six-month switch to fellow Bundesliga outfit Augsburg, where…

FIFA’s policy of building up women’s football will confront, and almost certainly pass, its most highly visible examination to date when the seventh Women’s World Cup kicks off in Canada on June 6. If size is a yardstick, then the test has already been marked positively with 24 competing nations – which is eight more than were in Germany, in 2011, when the hosts were surprised to be left in the quarter-final shadows by Japan’s success. Expansion has opened the gates to newcomers such as Cameroon, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Holland, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand, with the Thais benefitting from the extra space made available to Asia by North Korea’s ban after five of their players failed dope tests for steroids in 2011. The worldwide audience will also reach…

MARK GLEESON Holders ES Setif sneaked through to the group phase of the African Champions League on penalties, but they have lost their coach to fatigue and been drawn with two of their compatriots in an historic first for the competition. The Algerian club looked to be comfortably on course after a 2-2 away draw in the first leg of their third-round match with Raja Casablanca from neighbouring Morocco and then leading 2-0 at home in the return. But they conceded two late goals to set up a dramatic penalty shoot-out in which they emerged victorious to squeeze through in defence of their title. It was all too much for Kheireddine Madoui, who last year, at the age of 37, became the youngest coach to win the tournament since the…

STEVE MENARY Hosting a major international tournament is supposed to generate a positive legacy but, on the surface, preparing to host FIFA’s biennial Beach World Cup in 2017 does not appear to be helping the grass game in the Bahamas. The senior national side were beaten 8-0 on aggregate by Bermuda in the first round of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers – two games that overlapped with the 2015 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship in El Salvador. Key players such as the sole full-time professional, Lesly St Fleur, who plays for Montego Bay United in Jamaica, played in the 5-0 thrashing at home but missed the return in Hamilton, where the Bahamas were level until the 79th minute only to lose 3-0. “There was a struggle to find players,” says striker…

“The money evidently has disappeared” Ivory Coast forward Salomon kalou reveals that the squad has yet to receive its bonus for winning this year’s african nations Cup 1 LEE DONG-GOOK Jeonbuk Motors v Kashiwa Reysol Controls the ball on his chest and then scores with a bicycle kick. 2 RAFAEL CARIOCA Atletico Mineiro v Colo Colo Takes the weight off the pass with his first touch before striking the ball on the volley. 3 YEVHEN SHAKHOV Dnipro v Club Brugge A fluent counter-attack by the Ukrainian side is finished in style for the only goal in both legs of this Europa League quarter-final clash. 4 PHILIPPE MEXES Milan v Genoa The French defender hits an unstoppable shot from outside the area that crashes in off of the crossbar. To see…

Challengers sidelined as FIFA president prepares for fifth term On May 30, 1996, Joao Havelange sat down to dinner with the members of FIFA’s executive committee. For the 80-year-old Brazilian the following day’s business was already done and dusted; all that remained was the formality of opening the meeting and then a vote to award the finals of the 2002 World Cup to his longtime favourites, Japan. But what Havelange heard over the next 45 minutes astonished him. Instead of a decisive majority in favour of the Japanese, around half of his ExCo, including all the Europeans, wanted host rights directed to South Korea. Japan had been out there, campaigning for years, and their marketing experts and sponsors had played a key role in creating a new financial model for…

Sam Beckwith reports from Prague With some pride, the Czech Republic hosts the most prestigious football tournament in its history, from June 17 to 30. However, in the absence of any stadium with a capacity in excess of 30,000, the eight-team European Under-21 Championship represents the pinnacle of Czech ambitions in this area. Not surprisingly, the country is making the most of the event, but away from the tournament’s smart stadiums and picturesque host cities, the domestic game remains a tangle of traditional power, new money and occasional dirty deals, all constrained by the economic realities of life in a post-Communist country. In many ways, the four clubs whose home grounds will host the tournament – Slavia Prague, Sparta Prague, Sigma Olomouc and Slovacko – typify these contrasts. Group A…

Arun of eight successive wins by Dunga’s side since a humiliating World Cup exit has caused some to trumpet the return of Brazil; others prefer to recall that predecessor Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men went into last summer’s tournament on a roll of nine consecutive victories. All this would seem to indicate the unreliability of friendlies as a guide to genuine quality, and that the prestige Brazil lost in competitive action can only be regained in competitive action. The Copa is Brazil’s first real test since last year’s debacle. Dunga is keen to stress the priority is whipping a side into shape for the World Cup qualifiers, but he knows what is at stake: one slip and all those friendly wins will be instantly forgotten. “The number of goals he scores…

The only South American team not to make it out of the group stage in the last two World Cups, there were rumours of a rift in the Ecuador camp after Brazil 2014 – apparently confirmed when star wingers Antonio Valencia and Jefferson Montero were not called up for the friendlies late last year under caretaker coach Sixto Vizuete. However, new boss Gustavo Quinteros is not a man to stand for that kind of nonsense, and Ecuador were, barring injuries, back at full strength for his first games in charge at the end of March, which resulted in narrow defeats by Mexico and Argentina. Quinteros, who a couple of weeks earlier had seemed not so upbeat, was sufficiently pleased with what he saw to declare that “we are on the…

The well-travelled Swede – the only coach to win league-and-cup doubles in three different countries – is now in charge of Chinese club Shanghai SIPG “You became Shanghai SIPG’s coach in November last year. How are things going? It is good. We were level with Beijing Guoan at the top of the table after five games, so no complaints there. We had four players, including our two best foreigners missing against Beijing, who had not lost for 21 games, so we were happy to get a [1-1] draw against them. And on a personal level, how are you enjoying life in China? Football is growing in China, getting more and more popular, and the quality has been getting better in the past few years. I am happy here. Why is…

Brazil, traditionally one of the favourites ahead of the Under-20 World Cup, will go into the 2015 tournament in New Zealand without coach Alexandre Gallo, who was sacked following a poor fourth place at the South American Under-20 Championship in Uruguay. He had also been due to take charge of next year’s Olympic team and that responsibility will now fall to Brazil’s senior coach, Dunga. Gallo had made drastic changes to the squad that will now travel to New Zealand under his replacement Rogerio Micale. His list of 26 players included just nine of the players who went to Uruguay in January. There was no place for Atletico Paranaense’s Chelsea-bound midfielder Nathan, who did well at under-17 level but badly in Uruguay. Much more surprising was the absence of Fluminense’s…

It was heralded as the panacea to all of Spanish football’s ills, the start of a bright new era – and it may yet prove to be just that – but the initial consequence could not have been more different. Instead of peace and equality, Spanish football’s new TV deal brought a strike that threatened the final two weeks of the season. In the end, the strike failed, postponed by a judge pending a full hearing in June, but things will probably never be the same again. From the start of the 2016-2017 season, TV rights will be sold collectively and centrally in Spain, with the aim of reducing the huge disparities earned by the country’s clubs in a deregulated system in which each negotiated its own deal. The idea…

The Libertadores Cup may miss a marketing trick by not staging a draw ceremony for its knockout stage, but the fact is there is simply no time for such fripperies as South America’s premier club competition is squeezed into the first half of the year. Throw in the distances and difficulties of travel around the continent – not to mention the huge journey up to Mexico – and it becomes apparent why the Libertadores does things differently. The clashes in the knockout stage are dictated by the performances of the teams in the group stage – not just in the second round, but all the way to the Final. One alteration to the schedule is possible; if two teams from the same country make it through to the last four,…

HOW IT WORKS Every month, journalists from each member of the European Sports Media group select their first Xl based on the best individual performances from Europe’s top competitions. For details of how each ESM member voted, visit worldsoccer.com/esm11 SEASON RANKINGS Cumulative votes through the season GOALKEEPERS DEFENDERS MIDFIELDERS FORWARDS ESM – EUROPEAN SPORTS MEDIA The members of ESM are: A Bola (Portugal), Elf (Holland), Fanatik (Turkey), Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung (Germany), Goal News (Greece), Kicker (Germany), Marca (Spain), Nemzeti Sport (Hungary), So Foot (France), Sport (Belgium), Sport Express (Russia), De Telegraaf (Holland), TIPSbladet (Denmark), World Soccer (England). More details of votes at worldsoccer.com/votes…