Tottenham close in on Real Madrid star Lassana Diarra

Tottenham are close to completing a deal to sign Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra for a reported £10m.

The 26-year-old joined Real from Portsmouth for £20m in 2008 and has scored one goal in 89 appearances.Paris-born Diarra, who has 28 caps for France, started his career with Le Havre before joining Chelsea in 2005 and Arsenal two years later.

Tottenham are also in talks with Manchester City over a loan move for Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

If both players arrive at White Hart Lane, attention is sure to focus on how Spurs boss Harry Redknapp juggles a squad that already includes a number of established midfielders and forwards.

Redknapp's midfield options include Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas, Sandro, Wilson Palacios, Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar.

In wide and attacking positions he has Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon, Rafael van der Vaart, Steven Pienaar, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe.

Young amateur makes history at windswept British Open

- While the eyes of golfing world were on rising star Rory McIlroy on Thursday, two surprise names claimed the first-round lead at the British Open.While the eyes of golfing world were on rising star Rory McIlroy on Thursday, two surprise names claimed the first-round lead at the British Open.

A tearful Thomas Bjorn overcame the recent death of his father to shoot a superb five-under-par 65 despite difficult early conditions -- then late in the day 20-year-old amateur Tom Lewis shocked everyone by joining him at the top of the leaderboard with a record-breaking effort.

The duo share a coach, but apart from that their stories could not be more different.

The 40-year-old Bjorn was able to tee off at Royal St. George's -- where he blew his best chance of winning a major title in 2003 after squandering a four-shot lead on the last day -- only after several players pulled out, including Tiger Woods and lastly Vijay Singh on Monday.

The Dane, 11 times a winner on the European Tour, has made the halfway cut just twice since his father passed away in May following a long illness, but at the windswept English links course he rediscovered the form that earned him two winning Ryder Cup appearances

"Dad meant a lot to me," the world No. 80 told reporters before wiping tears from his eyes. "He would have been very proud of what I did today. That's all I've really got to say about that.

"Today was a massive step in the right direction for me. I have been finding golf extremely difficult but I did a lot of work with (coach) Pete (Cowen) yesterday and some things just started to make a bit of sense.

"I don't know if I can keep this up for the rest of the week. The start-all-over process has taken a lot longer than I wanted to, but I suppose that's part of the process. Let's just say I have realized this year there's more important things in life than golf."

Lewis has already tasted success at Royal St. George's, having won the British boys' amateur title there in 2009.

His father Brian, a former tour professional, named him after five-time British Open champion Tom Watson -- who was one of the Englishman's playing partners, with the 61-year-old American ending the day equal 71st after a 72.

Showing no nerves in such illustrious company, Lewis carded the lowest round by an amateur at golf's oldest tournament, surpassing the 66 shot by Frank Stranahan in 1950, Tiger Woods (1996) and and Justin Rose (1998).

He also became the first non-professional to lead the tournament after the opening round since 1968.


"It was really great out there today," Lewis told reporters. "When we started, I heard a lot of shouts like, 'Come on Tom' but I suspect they might have been for the other Tom, not me. But in the end I thought maybe there were a few for me, -- it would be nice to think so anyway."

Lewis birdied four of his last five holes to catch Bjorn as they took a one-shot advantage into Friday's second round from Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez and Americans Lucas Glover and Webb Simpson.

Glover, who won the 2009 U.S. Open, finished with three successive birdies while Simpson -- still seeking his first professional title -- picked up shots at the last two.

They were two shots ahead of a group of 12 players tied for sixth place, including U.S. PGA champion Martin Kaymer of Germany, 2010 U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell and former European Ryder Cup star Darren Clarke.

Among that cluster was American debutant Kyle Stanley, a 23-year-old who qualified for the 140th staging of the tournament when he finished second at the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic last weekend.

McIlroy, playing for the first time since winning his breakthrough major at the U.S. Open three weeks ago, battled back from a bad start to card a one-over 71 for a share of 51st.

The 22-year-old bogeyed two of his first three holes, but responded with birdies at the eighth, 13th and 17th holes to match the score of world No. 1 Luke Donald, second-ranked Lee Westwood, U.S. Open runner-up Jason Day of Australia and South Africa's Masters champion Charl Schwartzel.

The Northern Irishman, seeking to be the youngest winner since 1893, led last year at St Andrew's after a first-round 63, but crashed with 80 in the second.

"I struggled a bit with my speed all day on the greens, but it was a day where you just needed to grind out a score, and anywhere around even par was a good start," McIlroy said.

"On a day like this you can shoot a high number and put yourself out of the golf tournament, so it was nice to go out and shoot a decent score. I feel like if you keep it around level par this week you're going to have a good chance."

Donald, who like Westwood has never won a major, is one of the favorites following his victory at last weekend's weather-shortened Scottish Open.

The Englishman carded two birdies and a bogey in his front nine, but dropped three shots between 11 and 15 before pulling one back at 17.

They were a shot better off than American Phil Mickelson, who was in another sizeable group tied for 36th on 70 that also included Spain's Sergio Garcia, after carding two birdies and two bogeys.

Mickelson's compatriot John Daly, the 1995 winner, was tied for 71st on 72 along with South Africa's 2002 champion Ernie Els and reigning titleholder Louis Oosthuizen.
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Italian + French economic data continues to deteriorate

Italy’s May industrial output was -0.6% MoM and +1.8% YoY. The data was worse than forecast for a modest MoM (-0.1%) decline and a +2.2% YoY rise. I’m now getting nearly convinced that Italy will report a negative 2nd Q GDP figure. Remember, Italy is still forecasting that GDP will be +1.1% this year. Yeah really !!!!. Italian 10 year bond spreads widened 8bps to 228 bps, following the release of the above infoMore details re Bank of France’s reduction (yet again) of 2nd Q GDP to
+0.2% from +0.4% previously.

The Bank of France reported today that French economic activity is “likely to remain subdued in the near term, with industry stagnant and the services losing momentum”. Factory gate prices slowed and services are tending to stable ie inflation reducing. Industry output contacted in June due to weaker performance in automotive, equipment manufacturing and other industrial goods sectors”. Furthermore, capacity utilisation declined to 80.2% from 81.1%, and now some 2 points lower than the long term average.
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Lionel Messi's first football club

It is a freezing cold but sunny July morning. Two teams of five-year-old boys play on a dusty pitch, watched by a small but enthusiastic crowd of parents and children. Welcome to Grandoli, Lionel Messi's first football club.

I travelled the 300km journey....
north of the capital, Buenos Aires, to Rosario to find out more about the club where the (very) young Messi first made his name.

David Trevez, the club president, told me the future World Player of the Year showed his quality almost straight away when he joined back in 1991.

"He had something since he was born, it was stunning what they saw him do at the age of four," he said.

"He was doing the kinds of things that he does today but then the ball came up to his knees; it was incredible.

"We were concerned about his physical problems, particularly his size, and we worried how he would progress considering his lack of growth.

"But his technical skills made us think we were looking at the new (Diego) Maradona."

Unfortunately Grandoli's relationship with Messi ended on a sour note, as a falling out between the family and the club resulted in Messi going to play with the youth team at Newell's Old Boys, the local professional side.

It may explain why Messi hasn't come back to visit the club where it all started.

"He comes back to Rosario every year because his family is here - one of his brothers lives here - but unfortunately he hasn't returned to the club," Trevez told me.

"I was with him, I spoke to him, and he agreed to come back. But it hasn't happened yet. "I hope it does, because for the kids he's their idol."

As if to prove his point, once the match is over all the Grandoli boys are eager to give me their opinion on Messi and why he hasn't reproduced his Barcelona form for Argentina.

"Messi plays different because he has different teammates," says one. "Because at Barca he has players who give him the ball like Xavi and Iniesta and they play for him," says another.

Interestingly, when I ask them who their favourite player is, Cristiano Ronaldo gets as many votes as Messi.

Whether or not the club will discover another Messi remains to be seen, but the bulging trophy cabinet and number of players suggest a team in pretty good health.

"The kids pay a fee of 10 pesos a month," Trevez says. "What they get is a game on the weekends, we also try to get subsidies from the government and that’s what we survive on. We try to give the kids the best we can, we're doing very well."

Right now playing without the weight of the world on your shoulders must feel an awful long way away for Lionel Messi.

Watching him during Argentina's game with Colombia even though he was way short of his best, he still produced the pass of the match. Unfortunately Lavezzi then produced one of the misses of the match which ended 0-0.

If his teammates can step up and give him the support he deserves then they should go through from this group with a win against Costa Rica. Whether Argentina can win it, after this performance I seriously doubt it.
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Real promotion for Zidane

Madrid manager Mourinho was eager to get Zidane more involved with the first team [AFP]

Zinedine Zidane will start working as Real Madrid's sporting director from next week, the French sporting legend said on Thursday.

The 39-year-old, who was voted World Player of the Year on three occasions, has been working at the Spanish club as president Florentino Perez's special adviser.

"We are going to start working in the role as director of football to the first team," Zidane told reporters.

"(Real manager) Mourinho has been fundamental in this and so has the president as well."

When asked what the role would involve, he replied: "We shall see. Everyone has been asking me the same question, but I will be there from next Monday, until the end of the season."

Zidane could be taking on some of the responsibilities that used to be handled by Jorge Valdano until the Argentine was sacked as director general at the end of last season.

The relationship between Valdano and Mourinho, who was appointed coach in 2010, steadily deteriorated last term.

Perez's decision to ditch his right-hand man Valdano and back Mourinho in May was a victory for the Portuguese as he sought to gain more influence over sporting matters at the nine-time European champions.

Mourinho had petitioned for Zidane to work more closely with the first team last season and it was the former Real playmaker who helped convince the club to buy French defender Raphael Varane from Lens last week.

Extension for Pellegrini

Former Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini has agreed a two-year contract extension with Malaga which ties him until 2015, the Qatari-owned La Liga club said on Thursday.

"The Andalucian club strengthens its project for the future showing complete confidence in the work of Pellegrini, (and assistants) Ruben Cousillas and Jose Cabello," Malaga said in a statement.

The 57-year-old former Villarreal coach was appointed to replace Jesualdo Ferreira in November and led the side to 11th in the standings.
Manuel Pellegrini eyes up European competition after a busy transfer period [EPA]

Malaga were bought by a member of the Qatari royal family at the end of the 2009-10 campaign and have been the busiest Spanish top-flight club in the transfer market since the end of the campaign.

They have landed eight new players, including Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, and have their eyes set on challenging for a European qualifying berth next season.

However, it is unlikely Spanish club Racing Santander will be making any big money signings after applying to the courts to go into voluntary administration with debts of more than $48 million.

"Today isn't a good day for the club and it will be very hard now to have to tell the players and the suppliers who we owe money to," club president Francisco Pernia told a news conference on Thursday.

"(We are) thinking of the club and in avoiding bigger problems such as relegation to Segunda B. It's a problem of cash flow and of access to credit."

Racing explained in a statement released earlier that they had been forced into the move due to the complex institutional situation that had been provoked by the sale of the club to Ahsan Ali Syed.

Racing are one of a number of top-flight Spanish clubs with serious financial problems. They join fellow La Liga sides Real Mallorca and Real Zaragoza, and the three newly-promoted teams Real Betis, Rayo Vallecano and Granada in administration.

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FIFA website for sale

As all fairytales start...

Once upon a time - in Doha in the Middle East...

The sun rose, the birds were singing, traffic was free-flowing and Qatar was waiting to host the World Cup in 2022.

There I was, minding my own business. When suddenly - dot dot dot dot.

Producer - please cue dramatic music!

I was searching for a second-hand laptop on the net, when suddenly...play dramatic music at full volume please.


Historical Football Blogger site for Sale!

That's what the ad read on a popular Qatar-based website.

It was just one of hundreds of items for sale. The advert was posted just minutes before it grabbed my attention.

The website's going price is 350,000 Qatari Riyals - about USD $96,000.

And for those of you who are interested in the South African Rand value - R700,000.

If you have that amount of cash lying around, the genius (and I use this term quite loosely) who came up with the idea of a Qatar 2022 World Cup website, wants to sell the domain to you.

Ten times the price

He reckons it will be worth 10 times that price in 11 years' time.

Much to my disappointment - there is nothing historic about this site - www.fifa2022qa.com.

Anyone else hear the alarm bells yet?

I couldn't contain my interest and logged onto the site.

There were plenty of photos, uploaded videos and other FIFA bits and bobs.

More alarm bells!

It wasn't long before I rang the owner up. Of course it came as no surprise that he was negotiable on that price.

When I asked if he wasn't scared of FIFA's lawyers "taking the site down" - or if he was confident of selling it before FIFA President Sepp Blatter's guys pounced - he said: "No, it's a common name (Qatar 2022 Fifa World Cup), you see?"

The owner of this website is someone called Andrew Ruben from India, or so he says. I'd like to believe that he gave me his real name - seeing as I brought him down to 300,000 QAR - a truckload of money in anyone's book.

Andrew asked where I was from. "Joburg," I said. "I've never heard of that country," he replied. Still, he was confident we were in business.

In my mind this deal would play itself out like a scene from a 70s mafia movie.

We meet in a dark alley, both dressed in thick, long coats and both flanked by bodyguards. I hand over a briefcase, he gives me an envelope with the passwords.

And we all live happily ever after.

On a more serious note - I am not sure if Andrew knows, but the world football governing body is very precious about its name and any sort of reference to the football events they stage across the globe.

In South Africa last year FIFA's lawyers were busy stopping shopkeepers from selling World Cup lollipops, and they even threatened a Bloemfontein restaurant owner who was selling his breakfast for R20,10.

It might seem like a brilliant entrepeneurial opportunity for Andrew. He is obviously out to make a quick buck. I mean, why else would he promise in his advert that anyone who bought it could easily make 3.5 million QAR in 2022?

But I know FIFA's lawyers won't take this matter lightly.

In fact - they're reading this blog right now (and probably plotting the website's demise). I patched a call through to their headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland and asked them to read it. Mainly because I'd like Sepp Blatter to become a regular reader of my columns.

I don't think I'm wrong on this one, but the name FIFA is sacred. You can't so much as whisper it without raising the suspicions of FIFA's legal eagles.

And I believe it's only a matter of time until they find Andrew Ruben from India - now living in Qatar - and....

I shudder to think what they'll do to him.

Uncle Sepp - I am appealing to you. Andrew means no harm. He's just trying to promote your tournament in this country 11 years from now - albeit in an unorthadox way.

Please don't hurt him... where it hurts the most, I mean.

His pocket!

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