Italian icon Salvatore Schillaci, the top scorer at the 1990 World Cup, has died aged 59.

Schillaci, better known as ‘Toto’, scored six goals to win the Golden Boot at the 1990 World Cup on home soil.

Italy lost in the semi-finals, but Schillaci was also awarded the Golden Ball as the best player and gained hero status.

Schillaci was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022.

Capped 16 times for his country, scoring seven goals, he represented Italian giants Juventus and Inter Milan after beginning his club career at Messina.

Juventus, whom Schillaci joined in 1989, said: “We immediately fell in love with Toto. His desire, his story, his being so wonderfully passionate, and it showed in every game he played.

“We at Juve were lucky enough to get excited about him before – in that incredible summer of 1990 – the whole of Italy did, captivated by those wonderfully energetic celebrations of his.”

Schillaci scored his first goal of the 1990 World Cup as a substitute against Austria, and after another substitute appearance against the United States earned his first start against the Czech Republic.

Partnering Roberto Baggio up front, Schillaci scored again as Italy’s campaign built momentum, and his hero status was confirmed with further goals in the subsequent knockout round matches against Uruguay and the Republic of Ireland in the quarter-finals.

Despite opening the scoring in the semi-final against Argentina, Italy lost out on penalties in Naples – but Schillaci sealed the Golden Boot with his sixth goal of the tournament in the third-place play-off against England.

He would finish runner-up to Germany’s World Cup-winning captain Lothar Matthaus for the 1990 Ballon d’Or.

Source: BBC

For the first time since 2003, neither Argentina’s Lionel Messi nor Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo feature as nominees for the Ballon d’Or, while Olympic champions Spain and Champions League winners Real Madrid headline the list of players vying for football’s most prestigious individual award.

Lionel Messi will not win another Ballon d’Or this year after being left out of the nominees revealed by organisers on Wednesday, as stars of Spain’s Euro 2024-winning team and Real Madrid’s Champions League victors feature heavily.

Messi claimed the eighth Ballon d’Or of his glittering career last year. Now aged 37, he is not among the 30 contenders this time despite winning another title with Argentina at the Copa America in July.

The former Barcelona superstar, now playing club football in MLS for Inter Miami, was also missing from the nominees in 2022 when Karim Benzema took the honours.

However, he returned to win last year after leading Argentina to glory at the World Cup in Qatar.

The most prestigious individual award in football is voted for by a jury of journalists from each of the top 100 countries in FIFA’s world ranking.

Brazil forward Vinicius Junior is among the favourites and is one of six members of the Madrid team that won La Liga and the Champions League last season to be nominated.

Jude Bellingham, Dani Carvajal, Toni Kroos, Antonio Ruediger and Fede Valverde are the others, while Kylian Mbappe — who left Paris Saint-Germain for Real over the close season — features too.

Carvajal is among the contenders from the victorious Spain team alongside Alejandro Grimaldo, Dani Olmo, Rodri, Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal.

Manchester City’s Norwegian star Erling Haaland and England and Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane are on the list as well, but there is no place for five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo, now 39.

Xabi Alonso, who won the Bundesliga in an unbeaten season with Bayer Leverkusen, is among the favourites for best coach.

His rivals include Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti and Spain’s Luis de la Fuente.

Meanwhile, Aitana Bonmati of Barcelona and Spain will hope to retain the women’s Ballon d’Or.

Former winners Ada Hegerberg and Alexia Putellas are also nominated, along with five members of the United States’ Olympic gold medal-winning team in Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman, Lindsey Horan and goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.

The Ballon d’Or ceremony is due to take place in Paris on October 28.

Source: AFP

France coach Thierry Henry described his team’s Olympic performance as “magical” despite their agonising extra-time defeat against Spain in the men’s football final on Friday.

“I told the players they had done something magical and that I was so proud of them. In the end we have medals. It didn’t finish the way we wanted it to but it was still really an extraordinary evening,” France legend Henry said after his side lost 5-3 in a classic match.

Enzo Millot gave France an early advantage at the Parc des Princes only for Spain to come back and lead 3-1 by half-time.

However, Maghnes Akliouche pulled one back and a last-gasp Jean-Philippe Mateta penalty made it 3-3 to force extra time, in which Sergio Camello scored twice for Spain to hand them gold.

“What is really important for me is that the team really fought. There really wasn’t much in it in the end, so we can’t say the team didn’t fight, from the first to the last minute of every game,” Henry said after France claimed silver, their first football medal since winning gold in 1984.

“I would have preferred to win, but we must still celebrate this. It is the first time in my life where I have lost a final but won a medal all the same,” added the former Arsenal and Barcelona star.

“That is what is great about the Olympics. It has been an extraordinary human adventure. This team have earned my respect for life.”

Source: AFP

Boxer Cindy Ngamba said she was “just human like any other refugee” after making history by guaranteeing the Refugee Olympic Team a first Games medal.

The 25-year-old beat sixth-seeded Frenchwoman Davina Michel by unanimous decision on Sunday to reach the women’s 75kg semi-finals.

With both losing semi-finalists awarded bronze, the Cameroon-born fighter is assured of a medal at Paris 2024.

Ngamba moved to the UK aged 10, but cannot compete for Team GB because she does not have a British passport.

“It means the world to me to be the first ever refugee to win a medal,” she said. “I’m just a human, just like any other refugee and athlete all around the world.”

The Refugee Olympic Team first competed at Rio in 2016, but prior to this Games the team’s best results were two fifth-placed finishes in Tokyo through Hamoon Derafshipour in karate and Kimia Alizadeh in taekwondo.

Ngamba, who was the team’s flagbearer at the opening ceremony in Paris, next faces Atheyna Bylon of Panama on Thursday.

She added: “Hopefully in the next one, I will also get the job done. No, not hopefully. I will get it done.”

From Cameroon to Britain – who is Ngamba?

Ngamba is unable to return to Cameroon because of her sexuality – with homosexuality in the country punishable with up to five years in prison.

However, after 15 years in England, she is still fighting to be granted a visa and UK citizenship.

Five years ago she was on the verge of being deported after attending what she thought was a routine signing-on process to let authorities know she was still in the country.

Ngamba was arrested, along with her brother Kennet, and sent from Manchester to a detention camp in London, before being released the following day.

Before Paris 2024, GB Boxing unsuccessfully tried to add Ngamba to their ranks for the Olympic programme, even writing a request to the Home Office to grant her citizenship.

She won a scholarship with the IOC refugee team, and is the first female boxer to represent the team at a Game.

Source: Capitalfm.co

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic scored his first Olympic gold on Sunday after beating Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in stunning men’s tennis singles final. Djokovic, who claims a men’s-record 24 Grand Slam titles, previously won a bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics  — but he had made it clear that was not sufficient.

Novak Djokovic won his first Olympic gold medal by beating Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in an enthralling men’s tennis singles final Sunday, giving the 37-year-old from Serbia the last significant accomplishment missing from his glittering resume.

Djokovic’s impressive career already featured a men’s-record 24 Grand Slam titles and the most weeks spent at No. 1 in the rankings by any man or woman. It also already contained a Summer Olympics medal, from 2008, but it was a bronze — and he has made clear that simply was not sufficient.

Until he got past bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in the semifinals Friday, Djokovic was 0-3 in that round at the Games. He lost to the eventual gold winner each time: Rafael Nadal at Beijing in 2008, Andy Murray at London in 2012, and Alexander Zverev in Tokyo three years ago.

In Paris, wearing a gray sleeve over the right knee that required surgery for a torn meniscus two months ago, Djokovic faced Nadal in the second round and eliminated his longtime rival in straight sets. Now Djokovic is the oldest man to win the singles gold in his sport since 1908 — and prevented Spain’s Alcaraz, who is 21, from becoming the youngest.

When the victory was his, when the gold was his, thanks to one last forehand winner, Djokovic turned toward his team in the stands — sitting in front of his wife and their two children — and dropped his racket as he knelt on the clay. As emotional as ever, he cried and covered his face, then rose and grabbed a red-white-and-blue Serbian flag. After hugs in the stands, Djokovic waved that flag. Alcaraz wept afterward, too.

The final, which lasted 2 hours, 50 minutes despite being decided in only two sets, was a rematch of the Wimbledon title match three weeks ago that Alcaraz won to follow up his French Open title in June.

Alcaraz also defeated Djokovic in last year’s final at the All England Club, but Djokovic won when they met in the semifinals of the 2023 French Open, the annual clay-court tournament held at Roland Garros, the site used for tennis during these Olympics.

Sunday’s contest was an enthralling matchup, featuring one of the best to ever do it in Djokovic, and the best at the moment in Alcaraz. Indeed, could have been frustrating for Djokovic to find himself once again across the net from a younger, speedier version of himself. Maybe that’s why Djokovic frequently looked up and gesticulated and muttered toward his guest box.

Still, he came out on top

It required long exchanges filled with superb ball-striking at the baseline, deft drop shots — Alcaraz’s tended to be more successful, sometimes so good Djokovic declined to even give chase — and tremendous sprinting, sliding, stretching defense at both ends. They served so well that neither got broken even once: Djokovic saved eight break points, Alcaraz six.

Most remarkable, perhaps, was how cleanly both men played, despite the talent of the opposition and pressure of the occasion. Unforced errors were rare.

The only shame, perhaps, for the fans — and, naturally, the loser — was that the Olympics uses a best-of-three-set format, instead of the best-of-five at Grand Slam tournaments. Make no mistake, this encounter between the No. 1-seeded Djokovic and No. 2-seeded Alcaraz was worthy of a major final, and no one fortunate enough to hold a ticket could complain about not getting their money’s worth.

Those in the stands became part of the show, repeatedly breaking out into choruses of “No-le! No-le!” or “Car-los! Car-los!” that often overlapped, creating an operatic fugue. In the second set, as Alcaraz attempted to mount a comeback, his supporters began chanting, “Si, se puede!” (essentially, “Yes, you can!”) while shaking their red-and-yellow flags. Chair umpire Damien Dumusois occasionally reminded folks to remain silent during the action.

Yet it also became as quiet as a theater between points, enough so that play was delayed briefly in the first set when the air thick with anticipation was pierced by a young child’s crying.

Both men played to the crowd. When Alcaraz raced to reach one drop shot and deposit it over the net for a winner, he basked in the raucous reaction by pointing his right index finger to his ear. When Djokovic laced a cross-court forehand winner on the run to cap a 10-shot point to lead 3-2 in the second tiebreaker, he waved both arms overhead to encourage folks who already were on their feet, screaming.

The first set alone lasted more than 1 1/2 hours, chock full of epic shots and epic games. One lasted 18 points spread over more than a dozen mesmerizing minutes, including five break chances for Alcaraz, before Djokovic managed to hold for a 5-4 lead. In the tiebreaker, Djokovic was superior in crunch time, as he so often is, taking the last four points.

At 3-all, Alcaraz delivered a body serve, but Djokovic slid just enough to his left to smack a cross-court forehand return winner. After two mistakes by Alcaraz, Djokovic produced a volley winner and turned to face his family with a fist held high.

Source: AP

Oleksandr Usyk has confirmed he will vacate his IBF title just weeks after he became undisputed world heavyweight champion.

The Ukrainian, 37, became the first heavyweight to hold the IBF, WBO, WBA and WBC belts when he beat Tyson Fury on a split decision in Saudi Arabia last month.

With Usyk now contracted to a rematch with Britain’s Fury, he is not in a position to defend the IBF crown against interim champion and mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois.

That means Dubois’ expected all-British fight against Anthony Joshua at Wembley in September could now be for the vacant title.

Usyk said in a video posted on social media: “Anthony and Daniel, listen. I know the IBF title is important to you. It is my present to you on September 21.”

Britain’s Lennox Lewis was the last man to unify the major heavyweight belts — three at the time — prior to Usyk, in 1999.

Source: AFP