Latest news with #Spain
The Sun
2 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Man Utd transfer news LIVE: Fernandes' agent holds Al-Hilal TALKS, Rashford's camp ‘meets with Barcelona', Cunha MEDICAL
Big night ahead Manchester United will be looking to keep their season alive when they face Real Sociedad in the second leg of their Europa League round-of-16 tie tonight. The tie is finely poised at 1-1 after last week's first leg in San Sebastián, meaning everything is to play for. United took the lead through Joshua Zirkzee in last week's game but were later pegged back by a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty. Ruben Amorim has insisted that while winning the Europa League would not "change a lot", it would give the team more energy. He said: "It is also important; it will give us more energy to continue the season."
Free Malaysia Today
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- Free Malaysia Today
Hamilton says talk of friction with engineer ‘all noise'
Scuderia Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton finished fifth at the Monaco GP, with teammate Charles Leclerc securing second in his home race. (EPA Images pic) BARCELONA : Lewis Hamilton said he has a great relationship with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami and continuing speculation about friction between them is just noise. Terse radio exchanges at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton's race debut in the Italian Formula One team's red overalls, raised questions in March and they resurfaced in Monaco last Sunday. Then the seven-times world champion was heard asking Adami over the team radio 'are you upset with me?' after the Italian did not respond to earlier messages. Ferrari explained that silence as being due to radio and signal problems in a race that features cars speeding through a tunnel. 'It was literally just there were areas where we had radio problems through the race, and I did not get information that I wanted. We spoke afterwards,' Hamilton told reporters at the Spanish Grand Prix on Thursday when asked for clarification. 'There is a lot of speculation and most of it is BS. We have a great relationship. He is amazing to work with. He is a great guy, working so hard, we both are,' added the Briton, who joined from Mercedes in January. 'We don't always get it right every weekend. Do we have disagreements? Yes, like everyone does in relationships. But we work through them. We are both in it together. 'We both want to win a world championship together and we are both working towards lifting the team up. So it is just all noise and we are not paying attention to it. It doesn't make a difference to the job we are trying to do.' Hamilton said he and Adami, who previously worked with four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, were learning more and more about each other and adapting the way they worked. 'He has worked with lots of different drivers before. We don't have any problems whatsoever,' said Hamilton, who won a sprint race in Shanghai but is otherwise yet to stand on a podium for Ferrari. The Briton finished fifth in Monaco, with teammate Charles Leclerc second in his home race. Hamilton's radio comments also put him in the spotlight in Miami when he suggested sarcastically that the team 'have a tea-break while you're at it' as he waited for a strategy call.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- News.com.au
Piastri: 2 driver strategy still the way
F1: Oscar Piastri speaks ahead of the Barcelona Grand Prix about his fight to become world champion against teammate Lando Norris.
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Huge US band forced to cancel shows after ‘freak accident'
Kings of Leon have been forced to cancel their UK and European shows after frontman Caleb Followill suffered a 'freak accident' while playing with his kids. The Grammy-winning group had been due to perform across several countries this summer, including stops in Spain, Germany, Wales, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Belgium and Portugal. But Caleb, 43, has been sidelined after breaking his foot and requiring emergency surgery, giving the band no choice but to pull out of all appearances in June and July. In a video posted to the band's Instagram account, he explained: 'Hello to everyone out there, especially our European fans that are coming to see us this summer. 'Unfortunately I regret to inform you that those shows will have to be cancelled due to a freak accident that happened the other day.' 'I broke my foot pretty bad just playing with my kids… It's pretty gnarly and I'll spare all the details.' 'But we're fortunate enough to have some great doctors here in Nashville that gave me emergency surgery.' Caleb, who shares daughter Dixie Pearl, 14, and son Winston Roy, six, with model Lily Aldridge, 39, revealed that he's been told to stay off his feet for around two months. He added: 'I'm on the mend, but they've told me that I can't be on my feet, travelling, or anything for the next eight weeks or so. That's a big bummer.' The singer looked visibly frustrated as he continued: 'We were so excited. We've been preparing for this tour for a long time, we've been preparing for a lot of things.' 'We've been in the studio recording, we have a bunch of new songs, we were going to debut a few of them on this run. We had a lot of exciting things planned and now we're going to have to pivot and find a new way to continue the work that we've started.' Despite the disappointment, Caleb ended the message on a more hopeful note. He said: 'I'm very excited for when we do get to show you the stuff we're doing, and in the meantime we're going to do whatever work we can while I have these limitations.' 'Exciting stuff is coming, I know this isn't the message anyone wants to hear, and it's certainly not the message I want to be sending, but it's going to be alright. Everything is going to be good. Hopefully, we will see y'all soon.' The clip ended with a shot of Caleb's foot in a cast. His bandmates, Nathan, Jared and Matthew Followill, issued a separate statement, confirming the necessary recovery time. They said: 'Kings of Leon are updating fans that Caleb Followill has recently sustained a serious injury, shattering his heel and requiring a significant emergency surgery, that will prevent him from travelling and performing. 'The anticipated recovery process is expected to take eight weeks, under strict guidance of expert orthopaedic specialists.' 'The band regrets to report that they will need to cancel all upcoming UK and European festival headline shows in June and July of this year.' The tour had been set to include a high-profile headline slot at Lytham Festival in Lancashire, where they were billed alongside Justin Timberlake and Alanis Morissette. Organisers have since confirmed the festival will be reduced from five days to four, as it's too late in the day to book a replacement act. They also wished Caleb a 'speedy recovery'.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Warrior by Christopher Clarey: The nice guy you wouldn't want to face across the net…
The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and his kingdom of clay by Christopher Clarey (John Murray £22, 360pp) What a privilege it's been for tennis fans – no, for sports fans everywhere, for anyone who admires excellence – to have lived through the game's Golden Age, the era of the 'Big Three'. There's Roger Federer in his stylish branded whites, effortlessly firing off exquisite winners while occasionally flicking away a bead of sweat with his little finger. There's the Serbian Novak Djokovic, like some supranatural Transylvanian being who wouldn't give up even if you buried him outside the court and put a stake through his heart – he would still find a way to leap out and defend the next point. And finally here's Rafael Nadal, Rafa the inexhaustible fighter, the force of nature, never ever knowing he was beaten. Never-say-die Rafa, with his obsessive on-court rituals, lining up his water bottles and touching his nose before each serve. Rafa the great, perhaps the most likeable of them all. With his muscles bulging out of his sleeveless shirt, his ferocious hitting and his intense focus, he could look scary and remote, but when he pulled off his bandana and shook out his sweat-soaked hair, a sweet boyish smile would spread across his face. Humble and surprisingly shy, Nadal was born into a prosperous middle-class family, in Majorca, but he had no airs and graces. I saw him once on a budget airline flight, in the early stages of his career, stuffing his tennis rackets into the overhead compartment. He would always stay behind to talk to tournament staff, everyone from referees to media room typists, thank them personally and sign autographs. Guy Forget, the former French No 1 and tournament director, put it like this: 'He was always very polite, he showed respect for everybody. Some guys walk in like they own the place. Rafa was always connecting with people, from the guy who does the court to the referees, to anybody he sees. That's why people like him so much, because he hasn't changed for all these years, with all that fame and success.' This year the French Open, currently under way at Roland Garros in Paris, is for the first time in three decades not playing host to Nadal, its greatest ever champion. Finally, the body gave out, the pace was too much, and it was time for Rafa to stop. Even that gladiatorial fighter had to retire last year, aged 38, amid much tearfulness from all and sundry. Fittingly, French tennis laid on a spectacular and hugely emotional tribute to their great champion on the first afternoon of this year's tournament. With at least 90-odd members of Rafa's family and stars past and present on centre court, as well as the band being brought back together when Federer, Djokovic and Andy Murray came on for a special appearance, this was always going to be a tear-stained afternoon. Rafa himself was weeping and there wasn't a dry eye in the house, certainly not from me. But this masterful and exhaustive portrait from one of the world's leading tennis writers should be some compensation. Christopher Clarey, the long-time sports correspondent for the New York Times, has interviewed Nadal and his associates countless times since he made his debut as a pro in 2001, and The Warrior is an affectionate biography of one of the world's greatest athletes. But it is much more, too. Between them, the Big Three won a scarcely believable 66 Grand Slam titles. Federer won 20, Djokovic, who is still ploughing on at the age of 37, has won 24, and Nadal 22, of which an unsurpassable 14 came on the clay of Roland Garros. I say unsurpassable, and of course it could be bettered, that's what records are for, but it's hard to imagine. Before Nadal came along, the man who had won most French Open titles was Bjorn Borg. He won six, a triumph that prompted Ilie Nastase to say it would never be beaten. But he hadn't met Nadal. It was always likely that Nadal would be a sportsman of some kind. One uncle played football for Barcelona and Spain; another, the irrepressible Uncle Toni, was a former tennis player who saw his nephew's talent from an early age. But it wasn't easy. A natural right-hander, under Uncle Toni, Nadal turned himself into a ferocious left-hander, sustained by the belief that suffering and pain were to be embraced. He grew up playing on the clay courts at Manacor, his hometown and base of his tennis academy which now occupies most of his energies. He was clearly a teenage prodigy. At 12 he had signed with Nike. At 14 he beat former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, and at 19 he won his first French Open. He was blessed with unique hand speed and power, and hit with blistering topspin. Murray has ruefully described how tiring it was, when playing Nadal, to keep hitting the ball from shoulder level, such was the power of his topspin. And to play well on clay, you had to know how to slide to return a shot, and Nadal could slide equally effectively to his left and right. Richard Gasquet, a hugely talented one-time French No 1, and a teenage rival of Nadal, said after one defeat: 'When I came off court I told my father, 'It's over, that's the new champion of Roland Garros. There's no doubt.' I saw very quickly that he was an extra-terrestrial.' Among the rich commentary from other star players, Jim Courier talks most illuminatingly about Nadal's extraordinary competitiveness. 'It's the attitude, the way he handles defeat, the way he handles success. He's the Kipling quote [on triumph and disaster, from the poem If] come to life. As famous as that guy is, he's never seemed famous. He's the guy who cleans up the practice court when he's done. He's not entitled in the least . . .' Then Courier chokes up. 'It's hard not to break a racket. The guy's never broken a racket.' Nadal's uncle Toni taught him that breaking a racket would be showing a lack of respect to those who either have to buy their rackets, or cannot afford them. What moved Courier, says Clarey, was Nadal's dualities: the blend of self-control with competitive passion; of modesty with ambition; and relentless destructive force with ingrained common decency. Clarey, as you would expect, writes about some of Nadal's greatest victories away from Roland Garros, the breathtaking 2008 Wimbledon final when Nadal finally overcame Federer in gathering darkness after hours of thrilling, rain-interrupted battle – the best tennis match I have ever seen. 'This is sports,' Nadal said. 'It's a competition so of course my goal is to finish with the most. But for me it truly never has been an obsession. I was never looking over to see if someone had more than me, if their house was bigger or their phone was better. Whatever happens, Roger, Novak and I have all made our dreams come true.' You can't argue with that. And if you have ever held a racket or seen a champion play, you will find this splendid book a rich source of pleasure and inspiration.
