TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2021 10

Barcelona sign Sergio Aguero until 2023: club Zidane says he quit Real AFP |

arcelona have signed Ser- Bgio Aguero on a deal until because of club’s lack of ‘faith’ 2023, the Catalan giants an- nounced yesterday. In a statement, Barca said that Aguero, who arrives after reveals the reasons that led to his departure from Real Madrid in a decade at Manchester City, an open letter has a buy-out clause “set at 100 million euros ($122 million).” Aguero’s signing for Bar- ca comes two days after he Zidane takes aim missed out on the Champions • League with City after losing at Pérez and says he is this season’s final to Chelsea. not finished as a I am not abandoning The 32-year-old leaves Sergio Aguero ship and I am not tired City as their all-time record AFP | Madrid of coaching. I am going goalscorer with 260 goals, and because I feel that the with the most goals scored club no longer gives for a single club in Premier inedine Zidane resigned me the trust I need League history -- 184 goals in 184 Zas Real Madrid coach be- 275 appearances. goals were scored cause he felt the Spanish club and doesn’t offer me His departure for Barcelona by Sergio Aguero for no longer had any confidence in the support needed Manchester City in the had been long in the offing, Premier League to clinch him, he wrote in an open letter to build something with City coach the record for the most yesterday. in the mid and long saying a week ago that he was goals scored for a single “I’m leaving because I feel the term. Over the last few close to a deal. club in the tournament club no longer has the faith in months, I would have Aguero returns to Spain af- history me I need, and doesn’t offer me Real Madrid’s French coach Zinedine Zidane gestures during a match ter spending five years with the support to build something liked my relationship Atletico Madrid between 2006 June, is yet to sign a new deal in the medium or long term,” the title in 2017, before abruptly with the club and the and 2011, and the club will with Barcelona. Frenchman wrote in the letter quitting on May 31, 2018. president to have been hope his arrival in Aguero will participate in published in the sports daily AS. Less than a year later he re- a bit different to that of helps to convince his compa- this year’s Copa America, “I am a born winner and I turned after Julen Lopetegui other managers triot Lionel to stay. which yesterday was moved was here to win trophies, but and Santiago Solari were sacked ZINEDINE ZIDANE Barca captain Messi, whose from Colombia and his home beyond this there are human in quick succession. KNOW WHAT contract expires at the end of country to Brazil. beings, emotions, life and I have Zidane said in the letter. the feeling that these things ‘Hurt me’ “I say it from the heart, I will have not been valued, that it In his letter, Zidane said he always be grateful to the ‘presi’ has not been understood that left the club in 2018 because It was the first time for it. Always,” he added. Postlberger double joy at Dauphine this is also how the dynamic of it needed “a different voice to that Real Madrid, the Zidane also had a message a great club is maintained,” he keep itself at the very top” but to Real fans, saying he wanted AFP | 13-time European said. this time “things are different”. champions, had failed them to know that “we gave 100 “But everything I built on a “I want what we have percent”. ukas Postlberger of Bo - daily basis, what I brought to achieved together to be respect- to win a trophy in 11 Zidane’s resignation roiled Lra-Hansgrohe won a hilly the relationship with the play- ed. I would have liked in recent seasons an already turbulent coaching second stage of the Criteri - ers...has been forgotten.” months my relationship with picture at the continent’s elite um du Dauphine yesterday to “I’m leaving, but I’m not the club and with the president he had repeatedly refused to clubs. claim the overall leader’s yel- jumping ship and I’m not tired (Florentino Perez) to have been confirm he would still be at the One of Zidane’s former clubs, low jersey. of coaching,” he added. a little different from that of club next season. Juventus, has replaced Andrea The Austrian, the sole survi- Real had a disappointing sea- other coaches,” Zidane said. Pirlo with Massimiliano Allegri. vor of a long-range breakaway, son, finishing second in “I wasn’t asking for privileges, ‘Always be grateful’ Antonio Conte, a former team- just clung on for the win after a behind neighbours Atletico Ma- of course not, but a little more He has a history of making of Zidane’s at Juventus, 172 slog over five verdant hills drid and losing to eventual win- memory,” added Zidane. surprise announcements: as a quit after leading from Brioude to Sauges. ners Chelsea in the Champions “It hurt me a great deal when player, he initially announced them to the Serie A title. Overnight leader and sur- League semi-finals. I would read in the press, after his retirement from interna- Bundesliga champions Bayern prise winner of Sunday’s open- It was the first time that the a loss, that they were going to tional football in 2004 before Munich have replaced Hansi ing stage Brent Van Moer fin- 13-time European champions fire me if I did not win the next coming back for the 2006 World Flick with Julian Nagelsmann. ished three minutes down on Lukas Postlberger celebrates as he had failed to win a trophy in 11 match. Cup, after which he retired for There is doubt about the future the peloton, which sped up crosses the finish line seasons. “It hurt me and the entire good following his red card for of who became the final incline trying to catch It is the second time that Zi- team because these messages headbutting ’s Marco Ma- coach at Barcelona last August, Postelberger. Tour de France winner, was dane has resigned as Real Ma- which were intentionally leaked terazzi as France lost the final. while Mauricio Pochettino, who Sonny Colbrelli was again dropped as he continues to drid coach. to the media created negative “Spending 20 years in Ma - took over at Paris Saint-Ger- second and lies 12sec off the struggle to rediscover his form. The 1998 World Cup winner interferences with the squad, drid has been the most beautiful main in January, is reportedly overall lead while Alejandro The eight-day stage race first took the helm in January they created doubts and misun- thing that has ever happened being courted by former em- Valverde is in third at 20sec. is a warm up for the Tour de 2016 and guided Real an unprec- derstandings.” to me in life and I know that I ployer Tottenham Hotspur and In the final chase, Briton France which starts from Brest edented hat-trick of Champions Zidane’s contract with Real owe it exclusively to Florentino has also been linked with Ma- Chris Froome a four-time in four weeks time. League titles as well as a La Liga was set to expire in 2022 but Perez who bet on me in 2001,” drid. Copa America taken from Argentina due to Covid, moved to Brazil AFP | Buenos Aires Record surge body tweeted. outh America’s largest foot- Ten days ago, the tournament Argentina’s President Al - Sball tournament, the Copa lost a co-host in Colombia, berto Fernandez said he had America, was moved yesterday which had its games stripped asked CONMEBOL for “time” to Brazil, bracing for a third by CONMEBOL amid social un- until yesterday to analyze the KNOW WHAT coronavirus wave, after Argen- rest that has now entered its health situation, but that the tina was stripped of hosting du- fifth week and claimed dozens country was “on epidemiological ties due to its own pandemic of lives. alert”. surge. This left Argentina as the sole An Argentine poll pub- His chief of staff, Santiago Argentina was to have co-host- host, but on Sunday, CONMEBOL lished on Friday found Cafiero, added that “with so ed the June 13-July 10 football also disqualified it amid a record that most respondents many cases we could not car- spectacle with Colombia, which surge that has seen a daily death were against holding ry out an organization of these was itself disqualified by football toll of about 500 on average, and the tournament as the characteristics. Argentina had federation CONMEBOL over vio- between 21,000 and 40,000 new a commitment that we tried at lent social unrest. cases per day. country experiences all times to meet, but the epide- With two weeks to kick-off, The country has had more its worst phase of the miological reality prevented it”. the federation tweeted yester- than 77,000 deaths in the pan- pandemic so far In Brazil, opposition congress- day that “The CONMEBOL Copa Former Brazil footballer Juninho Paulista presenta the Copa America trophy at demic to date and nearly 3.8 mil- man Marcelo Freixo was among America 2021 will be played in the draw ceremony in December 2019 lion infections. size of each team’s delegation. the first to denounce the latest Brazil!” a day after it cancelled It would have been the first and more than 16.5 million cases. On May 22, Argentina entered But a poll last week found that move. Argentina’s hosting of the event time in its history that the tour- The Fiocruz research insti- a nine-day lockdown in the 70 percent of Argentinians be- “Argentina refused the Copa “in view of the current circum- nament was co-hosted by two tute has warned of a new surge hopes of flattening the infection lieved the country should with- America because of the wors- stances”. countries. in the pandemic in the country curve ahead of the sports event. draw, and CONMEBOL agreed. ening pandemic. There, the av- Originally scheduled for last New host Brazil is one of the already hard hit by a more in- The country had presented “CONMEBOL informs that in erage of deaths in the last seven year, the Argentina-Colombia countries in the world worst fectious new strain, and where a “strict protocol” to CONME- view of the current circumstanc- days was 470 people... Here, it’s Copa, to be played without fans, affected by the coronavirus out- many people have died due to BOL for hosting the tournament, es it has decided to suspend the 1,844. FOUR TIMES MORE. This was postponed by 12 months due break, with the second-highest a shortage of hospital beds and which involved preparing addi- organization of the Copa Amer- is a picture of a murderous gov- to the coronavirus epidemic. death toll of over 460,000 so far oxygen. tional stadiums and reducing the ica in Argentina,” the governing ernment.”