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HE’S FINALLY BACK! Ronaldo Returns To Manchester United After 12 Years

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Cristiano Ronaldo makes stunning Man Utd return at the age of 36

Manchester United’s official statement reads:

“Manchester United is delighted to confirm that the club has reached agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, subject to agreement of personal terms, visa and medical.

“Cristiano, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, has so far won over 30 major trophies during his career, including five UEFA Champions League titles, four FIFA Club World Cups, seven league titles in England, Spain and Italy, and the European Championship for his native Portugal.

“In his first spell for Manchester United, he scored 118 goals in 292 games.

“Everyone at the club looks forward to welcoming Cristiano back to Manchester.”

Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes offered the former Red Devils forward to Man City after they missed out top target Harry Kane, but City dropped out of the race on Friday.

That allowed United to make a £24 million (€28m/$33m) bid to bring the 36-year-old back to Old Trafford, where he starred between 2003 and 2009.

In a statement on their club website, United said: “Manchester United is delighted to confirm that the club has reached agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, subject to agreement of personal terms, visa and medical.

“Cristiano, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, has so far won over 30 major trophies during his career, including five UEFA Champions League titles, four FIFA Club World Cups, seven league titles in England, Spain and Italy, and the European Championship for his native Portugal.

“In his first spell for Manchester United, he scored 118 goals in 292 games. Everyone at the club looks forward to welcoming Cristiano back to Manchester.”

In a press conference on Friday, Pep Guardiola suggested City’s squad will remain the same despite failing to replace Sergio Aguero who left for Barcelona at the end of last season.

“The position right now this is my feeling that I am more delighted with the squad I have and we will say the same,” said Guardiola.

“I am incredibly happy with the squad I have more than satisfied. We are the same squad except one player leaves Sergio and we have Jack [Grealish].”

United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, earlier on Friday, refused to rule out a deal.

“I don’t want to speculate too much. Cristiano is a legend of this club, he is the greatest player of all time,” said Solskjaer.

“He’s such a tremendous human being so let’s see what happens with him; everyone who’s played with him will have a soft spot for him.”

When pushed on whether or not United would be making a move for Ronaldo, he replied: “I didn’t think Cristiano would turn out leaving Juventus and it’s been speculation the last few days. We’ve always had good communication. I know Bruno [Fernandes] has been talking to him as well and he knows what we feel about him and If he was ever going to move away from Juventus he knows we’re here.”

Juventus boss Max Allegri confirmed at his news conference that Ronaldo has no “intention of staying” with the Italian club.

He was seen leaving Juventus’ training ground on Friday morning while the rest of the team began their session, before boarding a private plane out of Turin.

City held some talks over the possibility of a deal but there was no agreement on terms between the player and club.

Ronaldo was believed to be open to a move to the Etihad Stadium despite saying in the past that he would never line up for one of the Red Devils’ main rivals.

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MOHAMED ALI ON SONY LISTON

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He said:

“He knows I’m great. He went to school, he’s no fool. I predict that he will go in eight to prove that I’m great, and if he wants to go to heaven, I’ll get him in seven. He’ll be in a worser fix if I cut it to six.

“And if he keeps talking jive, I’ll cut it to five. And if he makes me sore, he’ll go like Archie Moore, in four. And if that don’t do, I’ll cut it to two. And if he run, he’ll go in one. And if he don’t want to fight, he should keep himself home that night. Just before the fight, when the referee was giving us instructions, Liston was giving me that stare.

“And I won’t lie, I was scared. Sonny Liston was one of the greatest fighters of all time. He was one of the most scientific boxers who ever lived, he hit hard, and he was fixing to kill me. It frightened me, just knowing how hard he hit.

“But I was there, I didn’t have no choice but to go out and fight. The first round, I was dancing, moving back and side-to-side. I hit him with a couple of combinations, and he got me once with a right hand to the stomach.

“At the end of the round, I went back to my corner, and I felt good because I knew I could survive. Round two, I made a mistake and he caught me against the ropes. I got away from most of the punches, but he hit me good with a left hook that shook me up. Round three, I changed my strategy.

“I’d planned to fight hard the first two rounds, and then coast while Liston got tired. That way, by round five or six, I’d be rested and he’d be out of energy, and I’d start coming on strong. But at the start of round three, I could see he was frustrated and getting tired already, so I decided to test him then.”

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HOW OSIMHEN’S STRIKE ENDED NAPOLI 33-YEAR WAIT FOR SERIE A TITLE

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Napoli finally ended their long wait to win Italy’s Serie A on Thursday after a 1-1 draw at Udinese secured their third league title with a record-equalling five games to play.

Thousands of fans in Udine, at the Stadio Maradona in Naples and all around southern Italy’s biggest city exploded with joy at the final whistle as 33 years of waiting came to an end.

Supporters streamed onto the pitch at the Dacia Arena to celebrate after a season dominated by Luciano Spalletti’s side, creating moments of tension with home fans not happy at such open partying on their ground.

Victor Osimhen scored the decisive goal in the second half as Napoli’s current stars came back from trailing to Sandi Lovric’s opener at half-time and emulated the teams led by Diego Maradona which won the league in 1987 and 1990.

Spalletti and his squad will receive an emotional welcome when they return to Naples, where the partying is set to continue to until at least their next home fixture against Fiorentina on Sunday evening.

“Seeing Neapolitans happy is enough to give you a sense of that joy they are feeling,” Spalletti told DAZN on the verge of tears.

“These people will look to this moment when life gets hard, they have every right to celebrate like this. You feel a bit more relaxed knowing that you’ve given them this moment of happiness.”

It was appropriate that Osimhen was the man to take Napoli over the line as the Nigeria striker has had the best season of his career and been key to Napoli’s historic charge to glory.

Osimhen’s title-deciding strike was his 22nd goal in 28 league appearances and rightly caused bedlam among the massed ranks of away fans who took over Udine.

Napoli’s 16-point lead over second-placed Lazio leaves them with a month-long parade between now and the end of the season which will allow their long-suffering supporters to fully unload more than a generation of frustration.

Osimhen seals deal

Napoli were straight on the front foot but as on Sunday looked worryingly bereft of ideas in the final third, and the away side were stunned in the 13th minute following the first spell of play in Udinese’s favour.

Lovric was given the freedom of the penalty area after being fed by Destiny Udogie, and the Slovenia midfielder took advantage by placing a lovely shot in the top corner.

Lovric stung the fingers of former Udine youth product Alex Meret in the Napoli goal just after the half-hour mark, by which point Napoli hadn’t created a single goalscoring opportunity.

Seconds later Osimhen, who looked like Napoli’s only hope of scoring in the opening period, headed a deep cross just the wrong side of the post.

And in the 52nd minute the 24-year-old stepped up as so often he has this season to unleash a wave of relief and blue smoke from the stands with his 27th goal in all competitions.

Osimhen was on hand to ram home the leveller when, after a corner, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s low shot was blocked and fell to the clinical striker.

He had the ball in the net again in the 67th minute but was denied by referee Rosario Abisso who rightly whistled for a foul by Eljif Elmas.

But by that point the fans grew ever more sure that Thursday night would be the night, chanting victory songs in Udine while flares billowed and fireworks were set off at the other end of the country.

While fans had to be cleared from the pitch in Udine to avoid clashes with home supporters the Stadio Maradona was lit up by phones held by teary-eyed Neapolitans singing along to songs by late local singer-songwriter Pino Daniele.

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NIGERIA’S WORLD CUP DREAM ON TENTERHOOKS AS MOROCCO BEAT GOLDEN EAGLETS 1-0

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Golden Eaglets. Photo: TWITTER/THENFF

• Senegal, Morocco pick quarterfinals ticket

Nigeria’s dream of qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup took a big hit, yesterday, when the Golden Eaglets lost 0-1 to Morocco in their second group game of the ongoing African U-17 Cup of Nations holding in Algeria.

Nigeria had beaten Zambia 1-0 in their Group B opening match on Sunday and needed another win to secure their passage to the quarterfinals. Instead, it was the Moroccans, who secured that honour with a lone goal victory.

Morocco has six points, Nigeria is on three points,

The game was barely two minutes old when Morocco made hay through an Abdel Hamid Maali’s first half deflected strike at the Mohamed Hamloui Stadium in Constantine.

Maali struck after only 75 seconds on the clock, a lead that the Atlas Cubs held on to the final whistle to move to six points on top of Group B.

After the early shocker, Nduka Ugbade’s boys threw everything at the North Africans, but they met a well-drilled Moroccan side, who conceded possession to Nigeria, but locked up their rear to halt the Golden Eaglets’ efforts at getting the equaliser.

As was the case in the game against Zambia, Nigeria did everything right but score, which could hunt them in the crucial final group match against South Africa.

Nigeria’s closest goal scoring chance fell to Abubakar Abdullahi when his run into the box was picked out by Emmanuel Michael’s cross, but his touch from close range rose over the bar.

Michael had a go at goal himself from a freekick, but it rose over the bar.

Two minutes to the break, Morocco were almost gifted a second when Jeremiah Olaleke’s short back pass was intercepted by Maali.

The goal scorer squared the ball to Adnane El Ahmer, but the latter fired straight at the keeper unmarked. However, Nigeria’s continued dominating possession in the second half did not make any difference as Favour Daniel and Yahaya Lawali frittered away chances.

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