O Se retires from inter-county football

(UKPA) – 9 hours ago

All-Ireland champions Kerry could begin the defence of their All-Ireland football title without one-third of the starting 15 from last September's victory, following the retirement of legendary midfielder Darragh O Se.

O Se has announced his retirement from inter-county football after 81 Championship appearances.

With Tadhg Kennelly and Tommy Walsh having moved to Australia and the AFL, and Diarmuid Murphy retired, speculation niow surrounds the future of Mike McCarthy, who came out of retirement last year to play a key role in the Kingdom's Sam Maguire Cup triumph.

O Se won the last of his six All-Ireland medals against old rivals Cork last September, the first having come in 1997.

Crewe manager Dario Gradi has praised the contribution of Neil Baker to the club's success in unearthing talent from non-league in the past decade.

"Neil's a proper football man, he just loves football," Gradi told BBC Radio Stoke. "People say I'm a football man, but I'm not a football man like he is.

"I don't want to be going out in the evenings watching non-league football with 50 spectators, but he does.

"He's made a great contribution to our success over the years."

Baker has worked as an assistant manager, coach and scout during his time with the League Two club, having previously managed non-league Leek Town.

The likes of Luke Varney, Tom Pope, Joel Grant, John Brayford and Carl Martin have all been taken from non-league clubs and gone on to make first-team appearances for Crewe.

His latest discovery from outside the Football League is young Flixton striker Danny Gardner, who signed a contract with the Alex until the end of the season on Monday.

"I wouldn't have signed him if I didn't think he had a chance of being taken on next season," said Gradi, 68.

"It's not an overnight thing with a player like him because he's come from nowhere and he hasn't got a record for us to look at."

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London: With smartphone sales in UK predicted to skyrocket this year because of the FIFA World Cup, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has said it will launch new sports and news applications to satisfy mobile phone user and football fan demand.

Live Sport is one of a string of free video-on-demand applications, which the BBC plans to launch this year, starting with its news applications in April.

The decision means that football fans will be able to watch every England game live on their smartphone, as well as clips of every goal scored in this summer's tournament in South Africa.

"It's been 12 years since the launch of BBC Online, but as media converges and technology accelerates, licence fee payers are increasingly using sophisticated handheld devices to access information," The Telegraph quoted Erik Huggers, BBC's director of future technology, as saying.

"They tell us that they want to access the digital services that they have paid for at a time and place that suits them," he added.

He added the BBC is "catching up" with its audience and the new technology will offer "greater public value" to licence fee payers.

Initially, the apps will launch on Apple's iPhone and iPod devices, however, similar versions are planned for Blackberry and Android operating systems later in the year.

Parmeet

National Team Players Of The Twin Kolkata Clubs Leave For Delhi
Players from East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have boarded the flight to Delhi to report to the national camp...Rahul Bali
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Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan and East Bengal had barred their players from going to the national camp, without seeking their permission and failure to do so would result in the wages being cut. Indian Football Association (IFA
), which is the state football governing body of West Bengal, were to have a meeting with the two clubs in the afternoon after the association’s secretary, Utpal Ganguly had met the Indian FA yesterday. Speaking to Goal.com, a senior Mohun Bagan player said, “We are leaving for Delhi. I had spoken to the club earlier in the day, and I was told that there is a strong possibility of us being released for the camp. “No official information from the club has reached us.” Meanwhile, another experienced East Bengal player stated that they haven’t been intimated of the decision, but they are leaving for the camp, as their flight is scheduled to leave Kolkata at 17.10 IST. Rahul Bali.

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Arsenal have reportedly joined Manchester United in the race to sign Lyon’s French International striker Karim Benzema.
Benzema has been heavily linked with a transfer to Manchester United since the January transfer window and are now looking to replace Argentinean striker Carlos Tevez who recently left the club, but The News of the World have claimed that Benzema is now also being targeted by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
The Gunners boss is reportedly tracking the French International striker as a replacement for Emmanuel Adebayor, who is expected to join Italian giants AC Milan during the summer transfer period.
Arsenal have put a £25million price-tag on Adebayor, which means that Arsenal could easily place a £30million bid for Benzema, which may be enough to persuade the 21-year-old to leave the Stade Gerland this summer, but after the departure of striker Carlos Tevez from Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson is believed to be willing to match that offer and he already has the funds available to seal the deal.
Despite the attention from the two Premier League clubs, Benzema has already stated that he would prefer to remain at Olympique Lyonnais next season, to help secure a place in the France national squad for the World Cup in South Africa next year.
But the club's owners have hinted that a bid of more than £30m would be enough to start talks, while Benzema is also believed to favour a move to Arsenal, who have a host of French speaking players at the club, to a transfer move to Manchester United.
Meanwhile, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan have all been linked with Benzema so, unless Arsenal secure a deal with AC Milan for Adebayor in the next few days, Manchester United - now flush from the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid – are the frontrunners to seal the transfer of the young French star.
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas confirmed the strikers wish to stay at the club, but also revealed that a big money offer could sway things.
“Karim has said that he wants to stay another year at Lyon,” said Aulas to French daily L'Equipe. “But I think that Kaka or Ronaldo maybe imagined remaining with their respective clubs.
“There is a tsunami called Real Madrid which provokes reactions at Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United.
“So it is very complicated to say that he is non-transferable. It's obvious we want to keep him. There is more chance he'll be at Lyon next season than that he won't be.
“I won't hide from you the fact that he has been approached. For the moment, I managed to convince them not to go further.”
But, tellingly, Aulas has also recently said: “Nobody knows what is going to happen. What should we do if Manchester, who have a lot of cash to spend, want to sign Benzema?
“We didn't think Michael Essien would leave at the time, but when Chelsea arrived with the cheque...”

barcelona FC

Futbol Club Barcelona also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça is a sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is best known for its football team, which was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Spanish men led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution, hence the motto "Més que un club" (More than a club). The official Barça's anthem is El Cant del Barça by Josep Maria Espinàs.
FC Barcelona is one of the only three clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga and the second most successful club in Spanish football having won nineteen La Liga titles, a record twenty-five Spanish Cups, seven Spanish Super Cups and two League Cups. They are also one of the most successful clubs in European football having won nine official major European trophies in total.[1] They have won three UEFA Champions League titles, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cups and two UEFA Super Cups. They also have a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cups. In 2009 Barcelona became the first club in Spain to win the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League.
The club's stadium is the Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe with a capacity of 98,772 seats. Barcelona enjoys a high rate of popularity; about 25.7% of Spanish population support the club,[2] while according to a recent survey Barcelona is the most popular football club in Europe with around 44.2 million fans.[3] With 156,366 socis (members) in June 2007, the Catalan club is also placed among the top football clubs in the world with the most registered members, and the number of penyes, the officially-registered supporter clubs, reached the number of 1,782 worldwide in June 2006. The fans of FC Barcelona are known as culés. The club shares a great rivalry with Real Madrid and contest in one of the most famous football matches worldwide, known as El Clásico.
During the season 2007–08, Barcelona was the third richest club in the world with a revenue of €308.8 million. It was also one of the founding members of the now-defunct G-14 group of the leading European football clubs and its modern replacement, the European Club Association. The club also operates a reserve team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, while there was a youth team until 2007, FC Barcelona C.