Motor racing-Piastri wins in Spain to stretch his F1 lead
Formula One F1 - Spanish Grand Prix - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain - June 1, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri passes the chequered flag to win the Spanish Grand Prix REUTERS/Albert Gea/Pool
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The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Soccer-Spain v France not a Ballon d'Or decider, says Yamal
Soccer Football - LaLiga - FC Barcelona v Villarreal - Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, Barcelona, Spain - May 18, 2025 FC Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS/Albert Gea TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY (Reuters) -Spain's Barcelona striker Lamine Yamal has said the Ballon d'Or award won't be decided by performances on Thursday when he and France's Paris St Germain forward Ousmane Dembele take part in the Nations League Final Four. Spain and France meet in Stuttgart for a place in the final, with the winners facing either Germany or Portugal who play in the other semi-final on Wednesday. Yamal and Dembele have been crucial for club and country this season and the prestigious golden ball trophy could end up with one of them in September during the ceremony in Paris. But the Barca striker challenged a journalist who asked whether Thursday's clash would be decisive for the voting. "If you had to give the Ballon d'Or, who would you give it to - the best player of the year or the one who wins on Thursday?" Yamal told Spanish broadcaster Cadena COPE on Monday. "I'm confident we'll win on Thursday, but whether we win or not, I'd vote for the player of the year because if something happens to me or Dembele on Thursday, who do you vote for? One who plays on Sunday? "I would give it to the best player of the year, and I'd keep it for myself." The competition is tough between the duo, with Dembele winning a Ligue 1, French Cup and Champions League treble, while the 17-year-old Yamal won LaLiga, the Spanish Cup and Spanish Super Cup. Dembele has scored 35 goals in all competitions for club and country this season, while Yamal has netted 19. The nominees for the 2025 edition of the Ballon d'Or award, which covers August 1-July 31, will be announced at the start of August, with the ceremony taking place on September 22. (Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk; Editing by Ken Ferris)
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Tennis-Andreeva keeps Kasatkina's wristband as reminder of French Open win
Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 2, 2025 Russia's Mirra Andreeva in action during her fourth round match against Australia's Daria Kasatkina REUTERS/Lisi Niesner PARIS (Reuters) -Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva will hang on to the sweat-soaked wristband that Australia's Daria Kasatkina jokingly threw towards her at the net as a souvenir of their entertaining French Open clash on Monday. The prodigious 18-year-old underlined her credentials as a Roland Garros title contender by outwitting her frequent practice partner and 17th seed Kasatkina 6-3 7-5 to storm into the quarter-finals for a second straight year. Last year's semi-finalist approached the net to shake the hand of the Russian-born Kasatkina after the match and was met with a soggy wristband flying in her direction instead. "She's a great person and a great player. I had a feeling that after the match she's going to do something like this, and I knew that if I would lose I would also do something funny," sixth seed Andreeva told reporters. "When she threw her wristband at me, it was funny. It was a nice gesture from her. "After that, we exchanged kind words, and she told me congratulations. Of course, I said it was a good match. I kept the wristband so it's going to be in my bag for now." Andreeva joked in her on-court interview that she practised with Kasatkina only because she "hated" her and later said that a changed mindset helped her avenge a three-set defeat by the 28-year-old in the Ningbo final last year. "When I first played Dasha, it was much more difficult for me to stay focused and not to be nice on the court," she said. "Compared to the last match, today I knew that she's going to want to beat me on the court. I don't know what changed, but today was not that hard to change my mindset and step on court and be opponents. "I don't know how, but I managed to tell myself that I'm playing against the ball, not against the opponent. I just tried to focus on the ball that I have to hit, and I was able to keep this focus throughout the whole match so I'm proud of myself." (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris)
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Soccer-FIFA's inaugural Club World Cup set to kick off in the US amid challenges
FILE PHOTO: The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 winners trophy is displayed in Times Square ahead of the tournament featuring 32 teams and 63 matches, spread across 12 stadiums in 11 U.S. cities in June and July, in New York City, U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo (Reuters) - FIFA's billion-dollar gamble to revolutionise club football begins a week on Sunday with plenty of cash up for grabs but questionable enthusiasm as 32 teams prepare to contest the expanded Club World Cup in 12 stadiums across the United States. The tournament – designed as a glittering showcase ahead of the 2026 World Cup – has had to contend with the prospect of empty seats along with controversial qualification rules and player welfare concerns after an exhausting European season. Lionel Messi's Inter Miami face Saudi Arabia's Al Ahly in the opening fixture on June 15 at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, with tickets still widely available days before kickoff. A glance at FIFA's website shows lots of tickets available, including for the July 13 final at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium. Messi's presence underscores the tournament's contentious foundations. Inter Miami gained entry by topping Major League Soccer's regular season standings, despite losing in the first round of the playoffs – a decision critics say shows FIFA's desperation to have the Argentina great at their inaugural showpiece. FIFA's decision to give the host nation a spot and award it to Inter Miami underlined the opaque nature of the qualifying criteria for the tournament, which won't feature Liverpool, Barcelona or Napoli who have all just been crowned champions of three of the most prestigious leagues in Europe. Apart from the winners of each confederation's premier club competitions, teams qualified according to a ranking based on their performances over a four-year period. There is also the case of Club Leon, the 2023 CONCACAF Champions Cup winners, who were excluded from the tournament just over a month ago due to having shared ownership with another qualifier. The spot has gone to MLS's Los Angeles FC. RIGHTS DEAL Nailing down a last-gasp $1 billion TV rights deal with sports streaming platform DAZN six months before the tournament means a total of $2 billion in expected revenues. That led FIFA to announce a totalprize pot of $1 billion, with the winning club to receive up to $125 million. That figure represents 25% more than Paris St Germain earned from their entire 17-match Champions League campaign. But this largesse has not quelled concerns about player welfare, with the global players union FIFPro taking legal action against FIFA over a tournament that further compresses the precious recovery time between gruelling seasons. Furthermore there is still concern over the playing surfaces after last season's Copa America, when many headlines focused on the sub-par conditions and smaller pitch dimensions. Those pitches, measuring 100 by 64 metres, were 740 square metres smaller than FIFA's standard size, prompting widespread discontent among players and coaches. FIFA has given assurances that this time the NFL stadiums hosting the matches will meet their specifications, confirming that all venues will feature natural grass and adhere to the standard regulation dimensions of 105 by 68 metres. Divided into eight groups of four teams, top contenders include Real Madrid, winners of six of the last 12 Champions League titles, plus German champions Bayern Munich and 2023 Premier League and Champions League winners Manchester City. European champions Paris St Germain are the in-form team heading into the tournament after their historic 5-0 thrashing of Inter Milan in the Champions League final on Saturday. But they must survive a tough Group B featuring South American and Brazilian champions Botafogo and 2024 CONCACAF winners Seattle Sounders plus Spanish giants Atletico Madrid. Whether you call it soccer or football, for FIFA the tournament represents a dress rehearsal and a referendum on America's appetite for the sport and on the world governing body's vision for its commercial future ahead of the 2026 World Cup being co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada. (Reporting by Fernando Kallas in Madrid; Editing by Ken Ferris)
