Cristiano Ronaldo: “I am happy, I hope to retire in Real Madrid”

“Cristiano Ronaldo is and will eternally be madridista”, said Florentino Perez at the ceremony held to sign the Portuguese striker’s five-year extension

Realmadrid.com

Cristiano Ronaldo renewed his contract with Real Madrid this afternoon at a much-anticipated ceremony at the Santiago Bernabeu’s director’s box. The Real player, who extends his commitment to the club for the next five seasons, was extremely happy about the agreement: “It’s a very special day for me. I want to thank my teammates, the coach, and, above all, the president. This contract makes me really happy and it’s a privilege to continue in this house. It’s given me a lot. For me it’s as if today were my first day here. I’m always going to give my best for this shirt. I hope that I’m here until I retire. This is a great club”. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez explained that today is one of those special days that marks Real’s history: “This is a great day for the club. We’ve made the dream of all madridistas come true. Cristiano is and will eternally be madridista”. 

After making his Reds debut, Marouane Fellaini said

Marouane Fellaini has thanked the Manchester United fans for their support during his Reds debut on Saturday; a comfortable 2-0 win over Crystal Palace. 

After making his Reds debut, Marouane Fellaini said:
“I am happy to have started at Old Trafford with the crowd who supported me,” Marouane said. “It was a fantastic debut and we won, which was most important. I was both nervous and excited. I thought I had to play my game and with my quality.
“I would like to say thank you to the supporters, it was good for me. The supporters helped me, it was important for me. Every time I will give my maximum for the club and for my team-mates.
“It was a good win, not hard or easy, just a good win. Man United want to win every game and we won today so it was good for our confidence ahead of the next game - because the next game is a big game, it is a Champions League game. So this is good for the confidence.”

Manager David Moyes was understandably pleased for Fellaini to take his bow and explained why his arrival to the action was key to securing three points.

An OnBoard photo of ‪MarcMarquez‬ crashing in ‪MotoGP‬ Warm Up at ‪Misano

An OnBoard photo of ‪MarcMarquez‬ crashing in ‪MotoGP‬ Warm Up at ‪Misano. He escaped injury and starts on pole this afternoon.

Bale scores on debut but Real Madrid held by Villarreal

Gareth Bale scored on his long-awaited Real Madrid debut on Saturday, but it still wasn't enough to give his side all three points as they were held 2-2 at Villarreal.

The Welshman, who joined Madrid from Tottenham for a reported world record fee of around £80 million ($124 million, 94 million euros) earlier this month, turned home Dani Carvajal's cross five minutes from half-time to send Madrid in level at the break after Cani had given Villarreal a deserved lead.

Bale was then withdrawn to make way for Angel Di Maria on the hour mark, but the visitors were in front just two minutes later when Cristiano Ronaldo's effort ricocheted past Sergio Asenjo in the Villarreal goal.

However, Giovani Dos Santos, another former Tottenham player, swept home after Diego Lopez had denied Cani a second 21 minutes from time to preserve Villarreal's unbeaten record on their return to the top flight as Real fell two points behind Atletico Madrid and Barcelona at the top of the table.

Indian wrestlers set for World Championships

BUDAPEST: Buoyed by wrestling's re-inclusion in the Olympic Games, a 22-strong Indian team of grapplers will fight out it against a strong international field in the World Championships starting on Monday.

After bagging two medals at the London Olympics, Indian wrestlers would be hoping to script another success story at the week-long championships.

The sport received a massive boost after it was endorsed by the International Olympic Committee to rejoin the Olympic movement as an additional sport for the 2020 and 2024 Games. Squad:

Freestyle: Amit Kumar (55kg), Bajrang (60kg), Arun Kumar/Sushil Kumar (66kg), Narsingh Pancham Yadav (74kg), Pawan Kumar (84kg), Satyawart Kadian (96kg) and Hitender (120kg).

Greco Roman: Gaurav Sharma (55kg), Ravinder Singh (60kg), Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (66kg), Rajbir Chhikara (74kg), Harpreet Singh (84kg), Hardeep (96kg) and Naveen (120kg).

Female: Nirmala Devi (48kg), Vinesh (51kg), Pooja Dhanda (55kg), Geeta (59kg), Geetika Jakhar (63kg), Navjot Kaur (67kg) and Jyoti (72kg).

Yuvraj hits 123 runs helps India A to 312/4 against West Indies A

Yuvraj Singh on Sunday staked claim for national team selection as he struck a brutal 89-ball 123 to lead India 'A' to a formidable 312 for four from 42 overs in the first of the three-match unofficial ODI series against West Indies 'A'.

Yuvraj, who played his last international match in January, produced a sensational exhibition of strokeplay to tear apart the West Indies 'A' bowlers as he struck eight fours and seven sixes in his scintillating innings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.123 runs 89 balls 8(4s) 7(6s) 138.20(sr)Mandeep Singh and Yusuf Pathan played perfect second fiddle to help themselves to 67 (78 balls; 7x4, 1x6) and 70 not out (32 balls; 4x4, 6x6) after West Indies 'A' chose to field as the match was reduced to a 42-over-a-side affair after wet outfields forced its start to be delayed by one hour and 45 minutes.

Sturridge fit and ready to fire- Rodgers

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has backed in-form striker Daniel Sturridge to add to his rising reputation when his side play Swansea at the Liberty Stadium on Monday.

England striker Sturridge has hit 16 goals in 20 matches since the Reds bought him from Chelsea for £12 million ($19 million, 14.3 million euros) in January.

The 24-year-old's goals have fired Liverpool to three wins from their first three matches and earned him the Player of the Month award for August.

The forward struggled to get in the starting line-up at Manchester City and Chelsea, but his new boss expects him to shine now he is getting game-time.

"You never know how it is going to go but I felt if you gave him an opportunity...I think he has shown in his career if he is given the opportunity he is a natural goalscorer," said Rodgers.

"At this stage of his career, aged 24, he has all the things to his game to be a top striker.

"Since coming here he has had the confidence he is going to play and we work on him on a daily basis -- on and of the field -- to make him the best he can be.

"Standards are set throughout European football now and if you want to be a top striker you have to get in the goals."

Sturridge missed England's midweek World Cup qualifier against Ukraine due to a thigh strain, but has been declared fit for Monday's game.

Rodgers stressed that Sturridge was disappointed to miss out on playing for England, but pointed out that "the medical experts made the decision, not Daniel Sturridge.

"He should not be held up, if he does play on Monday, as being someone who has turned down his country because that is not the case at all."

But opposing manager Michael Laudrup, whose side beat West Brom 2-0 in their last league outing, expressed surprise at Sturridge's quick recovery from injury.

"I was a little surprised," the Swansea chief said. "When we talk about England and young players and the importance of the game (in Ukraine), I was surprised to read less than 48 hours after such a crucial game that he is fit to play against us.

"I thought there were some rules that if you were injured you couldn't just play with your team three of four days later."

Cristiano Ronaldo extends Real Madrid contract

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has renewed his contract with the club, which had been due to expire in 2015, the Spanish giants confirmed on Sunday.

The Portuguese international will attend a ceremony at 1:45 pm (1145 GMT) with Real president Florentino Perez at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium to mark the renewal of his deal, the club said on its website.

The 28-year-old's record since joining Madrid from Manchester United for a then world record 94 million euros back in 2009 has been phenomenal with the Portuguese scoring 203 times in 203 appearances.

Real Madrid did not give details of the contract extention, but Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the deal will run until 2018 and make Ronaldo the best paid player in the world.

"The salary of the player will be close to 20 million euros, making him the best paid footballer in the world," it said.

Four-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi was the previous highest paid player in Spain with a salary of 16 million euros a season.

The deal ends a series of drawn out negotiations that began back at the end of the 2011-12 season.

Speculation then mounted that the Portuguese would leave the Spanish capital after he said he was "sad" in September last year and was believed to be upset at the lack of support offered to him by the club in his quest to reclaim the Balon d'Or, which Messi has won for the past four years.

However, any chance that Ronaldo could make a sensational return to Manchester United or indeed to big-spending French duo Paris Saint-Germain or Monaco now seems a long shot with the player set to under contract until he is 33.

Despite the speculation, Perez was always confident that the player would renew his contract and end his career at Real.

"Ronaldo wants to retire at Real Madrid, and we want him to retire here, just like [Zinedine] Zidane and so many other great players did," Perez said in July when asked about the reports that Ronaldo was planning to leave the Spanish side.

Since then Perez has splashed over 90 million euros once more on Gareth Bale.

The Welshman's transfer from Tottenham was finally sealed at the start of September and he made his debut for the club alongside Ronaldo on Saturday, with both men scoring in the 2-2 draw at Villareal.

Bale is just the latest in a string of "galactico" signings, Real president Perez has made during two spells in charge of the club, in a drive to boost their commercial revenue and success on the pitch.

Auditors Deloitte's latest Money League report showed that Real had become the first football club to generate more than 500 million euros a year, whilst Forbes ranked them as the most valuable sports team in the world last month with an estimated value of $3.3 billion.

Barclays Premier League

Barclays Premier League point table

Childhood Pictures of Cricketers

Childhood Pictures of Cricketers

Zimbabwe & pakistan Sharing The test Trophy

Latest ICC Test Rankings

Latest ICC Test Rankings

Sir Alex At Old Trafford

Sir Alex At Old Trafford to watch Premier League match against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford in Manchester.

Czech Republic to a third Davis Cup final in five years

Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych led holders Czech Republic to a third Davis Cup final in five years after breezing past Argentina's Carlos Berlocq and Horacio Zeballos in Saturday's doubles.

Stepanek and Berdych won 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and three minutes to earn an unbeatable 3-0 lead after they had dominated Friday's singles.

The Czechs, who won the 2012 trophy by beating Spain 3-2 in Prague, will travel to either Canada or Serbia for the November 15-17 final.

"It's pure fantasy, the guys played at a hundred percent again," said team captain Jaroslav Navratil.

"They didn't give the Argentinians a chance, they wiped them out, and we're very happy we can fight for the lovely trophy again after a year," he added.

"We would like to keep the trophy because it's beautiful," said Stepanek.

The Czech duo on Saturday won the 13th of their 14 Davis Cup doubles rubbers together since teaming up in 2007, while Berlocq and Zeballos played their debut doubles match together in Prague.

Besides, Stepanek, the world number five in doubles rankings, got a boost from the US Open doubles title with Leander Paes a week ago.

Pushed on by an emotional crowd of more than 11,000 fans around the superfast hardcourt at Prague's O2 Arena, the Czechs benefited from good serving and Stepanek's dominance at the net.

All they needed was four breaks, one apiece in the first two sets and two in the third.

Berlocq was the first to lose his serve in game eight of the first set, handing the Czechs a 6-3 set win.

He failed again late in the second set which the Czechs won 6-4. Each of the Argentinians then lost their serve in the last set which the Czechs took 6-2.

"We played a great game. Everything was in the right place today, we didn't drop a serve," said Berdych.

"As long as you are able to make pressure on them, you make chances, and that's what we've done today," he added, calling the rubber "one of the very good matches together with Radek."

On Friday, Stepanek, the world number 61 in singles and Czech number two, saw off 30th-ranked Argentinian number-one player Juan Monaco 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-2 in the opening rubber.

Fifth-ranked Berdych then beat world number 93 Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Argentina were missing their top star Juan Martin Del Potro, who is taking a break from the competition this year, as well as an injured David Nalbandian.

The 2012 Davis Cup triumph was the first for the Czechs since Czechoslovakia, which split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, won the trophy in 1980 with a team led by then 20-year-old Ivan Lendl.

Argentina, who have played three finals in the last seven years, are still seeking their first Davis Cup trophy.

20 Runs Off 1 Ball - World Record in Cricket History 2013

BCCI to oppose two new balls ODI rule

CHENNAI: The BCCI is set to push for some rule changes in the forthcoming chief executives committee (CEC) meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) next week.

On the sidelines of the Asian Cricket Council meeting here on Saturday, it was decided that the sub-continental boards will ask to abolish the two-new-balls rule for One-dayers. As per present playing conditions, two new balls are used from two ends and that is creating major problems for the spinners.

"The teams are spin dependent and when two-new-balls are used, the potency of the spin attack comes down significantly. So it has been decided to oppose the two new ball rule," a BCCI source said.

The umpires' decision to take the players off due to bad light without consulting the batting or bowling teams was criticized during the Ashes and there might be a proposal to change that as well.

"There are options of offering the light to the batting team and there's a possibility that we could revert to that. Other options of extending play at the end of the day with the help of floodlights by an extra hour will also be discussed," the source added.

The cut-off date for the four teams qualifying for the World Test Championship is Dec 31, 2016. There will be some Test series that will be going on during that time and the BCCI will propose to the ICC that the points should be calculated only at the end of those series.

"But no Test series after 2016 will be taken into consideration," the source added. There was no discussion about the rumoured India-Pak-Lanka tri-series in December in India instead of India going to South Africa.

Though there are no legal hurdles for BCCI to break the FTP because they haven't signed it yet, it's understood that the board is ready to go ahead with the proposed curtailed series in SA. It was also decided that the Asia Cup will be played in Bangladesh from Feb 24-March 7.

Wayne Rooney English Premier League

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney applauds after their English Premier League match against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford in Manchester.