Football News

Brazil Player Kaka Named Fifpro Player Of The Year. More than 25,000 professional footballers around the world vote for the award. AC Milan's Brazil playmaker Kaka has been named as the Fifpro player of the year, following in the footsteps of countryman Ronaldinho, winner for the past two years.

Also in Fifpro ideal XI:

Gianluigi Buffon; Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, John Terry, Carles Puyol; Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Steven Gerrard; Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Ronaldinho.


Source: TOI

Visit of the FIFA president Sepp Blatter was one such initiative that took the country by storm, not to mention the international football fraternity. His sole mission was to encourage Indian businesses to invest in the game and to spread the message that football can be a great investment venture.

The appointment of Bob Houghton as the national team’s coach in 2006 was an inspired move by the AIFF. The former Fulham midfielder came in with bags of international coaching experience as well as technical and tactical prowess which no Indian coach could have brought. He immediately instilled a sense of responsibility and solidity into the side.

Bob failed in convincing Michael Chopra who currently plays for Sunderland F.C in the English Premier League to join the Indian national team but he did manage to increase the average height of the team, which still falls short by a couple of inches of international standards.

The Englishman's next endeavor was to convince the AIFF to reinstate the Nehru cup after a 10 year long hiatus. The 2007 edition of the cup feature big football playing countries(Uruguay,Hungary,Poland or Russia) like the previous editions of the cup had, this time the highest ranked team invited was Syria at 112.)

Before the Nehru cup the AIFF arranged some practice matches in Portugal which turned out to be a good practice trip for the players. Although the matches were played against second and third division club sides it was ideal preparation for the team to win their maiden Nehru cup.

When India beat Syria in the final (1-0) thanks to a N.P Pradeep goal, the whole country saw the rebirth of Indian football much like the rebirth of the Nehru cup. Although the tournament didn’t get a lot of international media coverage it made the whole country stand up and take notice of the achievements of the team. Baichung Bhutia, the Indian captain, was quick to praise his team mates and the work done by Houghton.

The win marked a kind of renaissance in Indian football and calls for further improvement were echoed by the whole team. The improvement in Indian football can be seen, but there is still a long and arduous road ahead, the lack of infrastructure is proving to be a major stumbling block.

From the lack of international standard stadiums to the lack of quality coaches, Indian football has been plagued with these problems since time immemorial. Having said that, things are slowly changing for the better.

Source: //Goal.com

Wigan manager Chris Hutchings has a number of injury concerns for tomorrow's Barclays Premier League clash with Liverpool at the JJB Stadium.

Already without Emile Heskey and Denny Landzaat, Hutchings finds himself also waiting on Kevin Kilbane (ankle), Ryan Taylor (calf) and Antonio Valencia (hamstring).

Team (from): Kirkland, Melchiot, Granqvist, Bramble, Kilbane, Brown, Scharner, Skoko, Koumas, Sibierski, Bent, Aghahowa, Boyce, Cotterill, Hall, Olembe, Taylor, Valencia, Pollitt.

Liverpool (from): Reina, Finnan, Hyypia, Carragher, Arbeloa, Aurelio, Riise, Pennant, Gerrard, Sissoko, Mascherano, Benayoun, Babel, Kuyt, Crouch, Voronin, Torres, Itandje.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez will decide whether to retain Carling Cup hat-trick hero Fernando Torres in his starting line-up.