WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2017 SPORTS So long, Wayne? Cup final may be Rooney’s last United game MANCHESTER: Wayne Rooney could finish his Manchester United career by hoisting a European trophy, surrounded by jubilant team- mates and with fireworks exploding around him. Still, it wouldn’t be quite the end he would have envisioned after 13 years at the English club. Rooney is set to be a substitute for United today in the Europa League final against Ajax in Stockholm, a role which the club’s captain and record scorer has become increasingly accus- tomed to this season. Depending on the situation in the match, he might not even come on. That’s how it’s been for most of this season, watching from afar at a club where he was once the main man. Talk about United’s key players ahead of a final that means so much to the English club, and many would say Marcus Rashford or Paul Pogba or Henrikh AMSTERDAM: Ajax’s Danish forward Kasper Dolberg (left) and Dutch defender Mkhitaryan. Few would say Rooney. Kenny Tete take part in a training session in Amsterdam ahead of the team’s Europa That’s the reason why this game might be his League final football match against Manchester United in Stockholm today. — AFP last for United despite having two years left on his contract, why he has been linked for much of the past few months with a return to former club Dolberg leads impressive Everton, a move to MLS in the United States, or a short spell in the Chinese league. United is mov- new Ajax generation ing on under Jose Mourinho and Rooney is being left behind. Speculation grows that James AMSTERDAM: Teenage striker Kasper United like Ibrahimovic has bullied defens- Rodriguez will be moving to Old Trafford from Dolberg has drawn comparisons with es all over Europe during his career, the Real Madrid, adding to the list of attackers who Zlatan Ibrahimovic and there are shades of young Dane will also be off-and United will be ahead of Rooney in the pecking order next the celebrated 1990s vintage in his youth- have been linked with him. season. There was a symbolic moment Sunday ful Ajax side that faces Manchester United Dolberg’s agent Jens Steffensen says the on the final day of the Premier League season. in today’s Europa League final. Ajax lifted phone never stops ringing from interested Rooney was one of the few senior players the Champions League in 1995 with a clubs. But Dolberg is under contract until picked for a virtually meaningless match against sophisticated brand of football played by 2021 and says he wants to stay in the Crystal Palace - Mourinho rested most of his the likes of young stars Edgar Davids, Netherlands for another year to hone his Europa League starters - and he was replaced in Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, and the game. An impressive showing though in the final minutes by 16-year-old attacking mid- De Boer brothers. Stockholm would change that. Dolberg, fielder Angel Gomes, who became the first player Nobody in the Dutch capital is saying Kluivert and the others in this young Ajax born this millennium to play in the Premier that Peter Bosz’s side of 2017 are up to that side might however reflect they owe their League. Rooney applauded all corners of Old level yet, but some are making compar- coach at least another season. Last year, Trafford and walked off with his head down. Was isons because his is such a young Ajax when Ajax sold Polish striker Arkadiusz he saying goodbye to the stadium he has played team. The coach recently named the Milik to Napoli, Bosz put his faith in at since 2004, when - at 18 - he made a spectacu- youngest XI in the history of the Dutch Dolberg to fill the void. And Dolberg repaid lar debut by scoring a hat trick in a Champions league at an average age of barely 21. There his manager, hitting 16 league goals this League game against Fenerbahce? has been plenty of hype surrounding the 18- season (22 in all competitions) and making Since then, he has racked up 253 goals for year-old winger Justin Kluivert, son of his debut for his country. United to surpass Bobby Charlton’s longstanding Patrick, the forward who scored the only club record. He is also England’s record scorer goal in the 1995 Champions League final FIVE-SECOND RULE with 53 goals, again overtaking Charlton. He has against AC Milan. But the 19-year-old Bosz’s commitment to youth, allied to won the Premier League title five times, the FA Dolberg is getting plenty of notice too-and Ajax’s run in Europe, will also inevitably Cup once, the League Cup three times and the the Dane does not have a famous name to bring him temptations away from Champions League once. That last trophy came rely on. United forward Ibrahimovic, who is Amsterdam.The 53-year-old Dutchman is in 2008 when he was part of the famous frontline out of this week’s final in Stockholm with a almost the antithesis of United opposite containing Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. serious knee injury, sprang to prominence as number Jose Mourinho, the arch pragma- Rooney is no longer the force of old, unable to a young predator at Ajax. Dolberg does not tist. Bosz was a gritty midfielder as a player, influence matches in the same way or tear have the Swede’s hugely imposing frame, in a career which included lifting the around the field harassing opponents. Games but he is no pushover either and is similarly Eredivisie title with Feyenoord in 1993 and can pass him by and there is the fear that, after fast making a name for himself in the Ajax saw him capped by his country. 15 years in the spotlight of the soccer world, he is red and white. It has been a swift ascent for But as a coach he says winning is not simply burnt out. Dolberg, who was hardly known 12 months enough, he wants his team to excite the In his last appearance at a news conference, ago and only really made headlines in fans too. He made his name as boss at prior to the second leg of the Europa League Europe with his two goals in the Europa Vitesse Arnhem in 2013-2015 and has a fan semifinals against Celta Vigo, Rooney said his League semi-final tie against Lyon. “There in Mourinho. But while Mourinho wants to priority at this stage of his career was to “play MANCHESTER: Manchester United’s English striker Wayne Rooney walks on the pitch carrying are similarities with Zlatan,” said Bosz. win at all costs, Bosz has embraced the Ajax football.” When asked if that meant at United, his son Kit to applaud the fans at the end of the English Premier League football match at Old “Technically, and with his physical presence, way of nurturing young talent to be confi- he added: “Of course.” He will end this season Trafford in Manchester on May 21, 2017. — AFP and his ability to play with his back to goal. dent and comfortable on the ball, some- likely having started 25 of United’s 64 games. There is indeed some Zlatan in him.” thing akin to the Dutch “total football” phi- Often, he was an unused substitute. Mourinho wishes, so it is for the player to decide if today Whether he actually makes it onto the field losophy. Bosz, who has a reputation as said he would not sell Rooney against his is the last time he dons a United jersey. remains to be seen.— AP Big-money move? fiercely passionate and demanding, took The senior Kluivert and the rest from over from Frank de Boer in 2016 and places 1995 inevitably ended up leaving Ajax for great emphasis on recovering the ball as bigger clubs around Europe. The Dutch fast as possible-preferably within five sec- Ex-Barca president arrested side, for so long famed for their conveyor onds. “My players are very young and have Liverpool eye belt of young talent, know that their best the physical abilities to exert such pressure,” in money laundering probe players will be picked off. If Dolberg bullies he says.—AFP silverware BARCELONA: Former Barcelona president after being charged over alleged tax fraud LIVERPOOL: Liverpool need to experience the Sandro Rosell was arrested yesterday in a relating to the club’s signing of Brazil strik- feeling of winning trophies again to take the next money laundering investigation related to er Neymar from Santos. He was later step and compete with Europe’s best, defender image rights in the Brazilian national foot- cleared of all charges in connection with James Milner has said. Liverpool, who secured ball team, a police spokesman said. The the case following an agreement with fourth spot in the Premier League with a 3-0 win police operation was mainly carried out in prosecutors. Rosell will nevertheless be over Middlesbrough on Sunday, have not won a the northeastern region of Catalonia and tried for fraud and corruption relating to a major trophy since their League Cup triumph five for the moment “there are four or five parallel complaint filed by Brazilian invest- detainees, including the former president ment company DIS, which owned 40 per- years ago. of Barca, Sandro Rosell, and his wife,” the cent of Neymar’s sporting rights at the Liverpool lost out in last year’s League Cup and police spokesman said.