Catégorie : Sport News

Kobe Bryant was obsessed with practicing and worked out thrice a day to get a leg up on his peers. The guard worked meticulously on his passing, shooting, and defense to ensure he was prepared for any situation during a game. However, he was also pretty efficient. The five-time NBA champion did not waste time trying things he knew would never be useful on the court. He also had no qualms about mocking coaches who tried to sell him unorthodox training methods, as Phil Handy learned firsthand.

During an appearance on Podcast P, the legendary player development coach, who spent seven years with the Lakers over two separate stints, reminisced about how he had tried to get Bryant to dribble two basketballs at once, to help improve his ball handling. However, the guard refused and asked Handy a question he did not have an answer for. He recalled,

“We were doing some ball handling, and I wanted him to do 2 ball handling. And he was like, ‘Man get out of here. I’m not doing that.’ He was like, ‘I don’t dribble with two balls in the game, what is this for?’ And he challenged me, ‘I’m not doing that.’ He was adamant. ‘We don’t play the game with two balls, I’m not dribbling with 2 basketballs.’”

Bryant shooting down Handy may suggest a lack of desire in wanting to learn a new skill or improve an existing one. However, that wasn’t the case. On the contrary, he had no issues trying to develop a niche ability. Handy explained,

“Like just imagine, you go to workout, and you go to the left block, and you’re just there for 45 minutes, and you’re just repping out a turnaround jump-shot for 45 minutes, and in a full sweat. I never trained like that.”

Bryant did not use the turnaround jumper much in his early years in the league. However, it became a staple of his offensive arsenal in the second half of his career.

He practiced it so often that he developed a muscle memory. Bryant continued to add new skills to his repertoire as the years progressed due to his otherworldly commitment to training.

Kobe Bryant’s maniacal training regime

The Lakers icon was obsessive about wanting to be a superstar right from the time he entered the league. To ensure he developed quicker than his peers and caught up to the top players in the league, he devised a training routine that may seem simple but was arduous to follow. He once explained,

“Imagine you wake up at 3 [am], train at 4, 4-6. Come home, breakfast, relax. Now you’re back at it again, 9-11. Relax, and now you’re back at it again, 2-4, and now you’re back at it again, 7-9. Look how much more training I have done, by simply starting at 4 am. So now you do that, as the years go on, the separation you have with your competitors and your peers just grows larger.”

As tenacious as Bryant was, he wasn’t delusional. He knew his body would suffer wear and tear as the years progressed. He decreased his training load with each passing year to extend his career as much as possible. His work ethic helped him clock 20 seasons before calling it a day on his incredible career in 2016 as one of the greatest players in history.

Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk is at risk of being issued the longest ban in Premier League history, after failing a recent drugs test and being provisionally suspended by the FA.

Joey Barton currently holds the record for the longest ban in Premier League history, with the FA suspending the former midfielder in April 2017 for 18 months after finding him guilty for placing best on 1,260 matches between March 2006 and May 2013. He later had the ban reduced to 13 months after appealing, though, that still saw him set the record.

When it comes to a drugs ban, Abel Xavier is the holder of that record, receiving an 18-month suspension while a Middlesbrough player in November 2005. UEFA found a positive test for an anabolic steroid following a UEFA Cup match, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport cutting his ban down to a year.

Mykhailo Mudryk facing four-year ban – the longest in Premier League history

Mudryk, though, could be issued a punishment four times as harsh as Xavier’s, with the maximum punishment a four-year ban from football.

The Ukrainian insists he has « never knowingly used any banned substances », despite the FA discovering an adverse finding in a routine urine test. Due to that adverse finding, Mudryk has been missed for the last four Chelsea games, as per FA rules dictating that a player is informed of a positive test and provisionally suspended before a decision is taken on a formal charge.

That formal charge relies heavily on the result of the ‘B’ sample. When players are tested, two samples are collected in separate containers – the ‘A’ sample is used to conduct the initial test, with the ‘B’ sample then required to verify the accuracy of results if a positive ‘A’ sample is returned.

Should that ‘B’ sample also come back positive, then Mudryk could face a maximum four-year ban from the FA. While the ‘B’ sample is being tested, Mudryk has the opportunity to provide an explanation for the initial positive result.

If Mudryk does receive the maximum punishment, he’d return to football aged 27 – 28 if the ban is handed out after January 5 – in the 2028/29 season. But while his current contract with Chelsea, which runs until the summer of 2031, will still have a couple of years remaining on it, there’s no guarantee the hierarchy at Stamford Bridge would look to keep him.

Indeed, Juventus and Paul Pogba mutually agreed the termination of his contract earlier this season once the length of his drug ban became clear, which would likely happen between Chelsea and Mudryk.

Though Mudryk faces a potential four years out of football, it still wouldn’t be the lengthiest punishment issued by the FA in its history. That’s because former Torquay United goalkeeper Olafur Gottskalksson disappeared after being selected to give a sample in 2005, knowing his cocaine addiction would show up in the results.

A few months later the FA announced that Gottskalksson, who had fled to Amsterdam and didn’t return, had been banned from football indefinitely, with that lifetime ban trumping the 30 years Enoch got for match fixing in 1915.

Manchester City wanted Dani Olmo in the summer – but the 26-year-old found his way back to the Nou Camp, having spent most of his youth at Barcelona before moving to Dinamo Zagreb at the age of 16.

Now, he could be heading for the exit again. Barcelona’s financial complications are ongoing and Olmo’s transfer from RB Leipzig in August has been in their shadow from the start.

The club’s ability to register players with La Liga has long been compromised by their financial problems and Olmo’s future beyond December 31st remains in question. The Premier League could soon come calling.

Manchester City might get a Dani Olmo bargain after all

Olmo’s La Liga registration was a temporary arrangement, ratified only because of Andreas Christensen’s long-term injury. The deadline to extend his registration is looming for Barcelona and Manchester City, who were in competition for his signature in the summer, will be on blue alert.

Barcelona can’t register Olmo without cutting costs or boosting revenue in order to comply with the club’s annual spending limit as set by La Liga. If they run out of time, they won’t be able to register Olmo again and all bets are off.

Man City were reported to be ready to match Olmo’s Leipzig release clause but the Euro 2024 winner returned to Catalonia despite the obvious complications in securing his registration for the season ahead.

And they could benefit from a clause in Olmo’s contract. According to reports, the failure to extend his league paperwork would mean he’d be free to leave his boyhood club for a second time.

Olmo’s had a fantastic 2024, at least on paper. Leipzig qualified for the Champions League again in May with the attacking midfielder in fine form, and he scored three times as Spain won the European Championship in Germany. Olmo’s winning goal in the semi-final against France set up a final against England.

He’s already bettered his 2023/24 tally with five goals in ten appearances for the Spanish league leaders, but an injury – as well as being ineligible for the first two games of the season before scoring three times in his first three games – has affected his playing time.

If Olmo’s early promise at Barcelona is cut short by issues beyond his control, a belated switch to the Premier League would be a more than adequate outcome.

City’s own problems on and off the pitch have been well documented this season. The champions sit in sixth place after 16 games and have won once in their last seven league fixtures.

Lando Norris might have had the edge in McLaren’s drivers’ championship campaign, but even Oscar Piastri’s 2024 season was impressive. Except for a few races, the Aussie driver was right up there to fight for wins and podiums and maximize his results.

Piastri did not have a single DNF throughout the season and was the only driver to do so. He also completed every single lap of the season, a rare record — as he is only the fourth driver after Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen to race every lap of a season.

Ted Kravitz brought this up on the Sky Sports F1 podcast with Piastri’s race engineer, Tom Stallard in their discussion panel. Stallard claimed that it was a “phenomenal” achievement for McLaren’s design office to have such superb reliability that they did not have any DNFs in 2024.

Only Norris had to retire from the Austrian GP owing to his crash with Verstappen. However, it wasn’t classified as an official DNF as the #4 driver had completed over 75% of the race distance.

As for Piastri, Stallard stated that given he is the only non-F1 champion to complete every lap of a season, he would want to correct that in 2025. Schumacher, Hamilton, and Verstappen registered this record when they won a championship at the end of the season.

Schumacher did it in 2002 which was the third year of Ferrari dominance. Hamilton‘s flawless run came in 2019, which was during his streak of four titles with Mercedes from 2017-2020. Meanwhile, Verstappen raced every lap of the 2023 season, when he blew the field apart with a uber-dominant season of 19 wins in 22 races.

Piastri looking to build on his promising 2024

Despite not challenging for the championship, Piastri had an excellent season with two Grand Prix wins to his name. That coupled with his multiple podium finishes ensured that McLaren managed to clinch their first Constructors’ championship in 26 years.

The Aussie driver has been improving with each passing race even though he’s in his sophomore year. Despite struggling at some tracks, he was able to squeeze out the best possible result, and this ability could come in handy in 2025 if he can polish up on his mistakes.

Next season could see McLaren take top billing, as their car has proved to be the most consistent one across the field in 2024. And if that is the case, Piastri isn’t sitting back as a wingman to Norris. The #81 driver has shown that he is not afraid to fight his teammate and get his gloves off to fight for the win and the championship.

However, Piastri will have to face more competition than just Norris. The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are likely to be in contention at the front.

On top of that, the Red Bull in the hands of Verstappen, and Mercedes often coming good at certain tracks won’t make things easy for Piastri gunning for his maiden world title. Still, he has shown the ability to overcome these rivals and win the championship even ahead of Norris, who is being hyped up as the favorite for 2025.

Lamine Yamal crowned his outstanding year with the prize for the best Under-21 player in Europe. Barcelona was well represented at the awards, as Vicky Lopez won the Golden Girl trophy, while Txiki Begiristain scooped the accolade for the best director.

The trio didn’t attend the ceremony as Barcelona deemed it challenging logistic-wise. Instead, all three spoke from a screen at the awards night, which was organised in Turin’s National Automobile Museum.

Outlet Relevo, reported that Barcelona’s players didn’t attend to due ‘Due to various logistical disagreements with the Italian sports newspaper, organiser of the event, which have upset the Catalan club.’

Yamal, who played a big part in Spain’s Euro 2024 victory, succeeds Jude Bellingham who won the men’s award last year.

How the Golden Boy voting works

Representatives of 50 media across Europe can vote and each first pick gives a player 10 points, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth.

The 17-year-old Barcelona forward accumulated 488 of the possible 500 points in the end, which is a record tally in the men’s category.

Second came Kobbie Mainoo with 114 points, who saw his impact at Man United rewarded.

His teammates Alejandro Garnacho (9th) and Leny Yoro (17th) also made the final ranking, while their neighbours at Manchester City were represented by Savinho (7th) and Rico Lewis (13th), while their former academy player Jamie Gittens also made the list with a 19th place.

Evangelos Marinakis, who owns Nottingham Forest among other clubs, received a Career Award, while Jorge Mendes was named as Best Agent. Toni Kroos won the Golden Player Man, the prize for best player over 21.

Yamal, who became the fourth player of Barcelona to win the Golden Boy after Lionel Messi (2005), Pedri (2021) and Gavi (2022). In October this year Yamal also won the Kopa Trophy, the best young player award at the Ballon d’Or.

Liverpool could look to take advantage of a developing situation on the continent and land a free signing in January, following a torrid six months at Anfield for Federico Chiesa.

To date Arne Slot’s only signing as Liverpool manager who has actually arrived at the club, Chiesa has played just 78 minutes in all competitions having suffered with injuries and a lack of sharpness.

Liverpool legend Dietmar Hamann has branded the signing a « nightmare » overall, but there could be more positive signs on the way as the Reds hierarchy look to make a more astute deal in the upcoming window.

Liverpool on red alert to Dani Olmo situation at Barcelona

As The Athletic reports, Barcelona face losing Dani Olmo for free this January, despite having signed him for £50m from RB Leipzig in the summer. The Spaniard is currently not eligible to play for the Catalan side from January 1, 2025, however, due to yet more issues regarding La Liga’s salary rules.

Clubs in La Liga are set salary caps every year in order to prevent overspending, with those limits based on each individual club’s operating costs. Barcelona have constantly teetered on the edge of the limit, meaning new players often have to wait for squad members to leave before being registered – and even then that might not be enough.

Indeed, though Barcelona signed Olmo on August 9, they failed to officially register him with La Liga until August 27, because the wages both parties agreed to were too high and would have seen Barca flout La Liga’s salary cap. Barcelona only actually managed to register Olmo when Andreas Christensen picked up an injury that would keep him out for four months – a length of period in which La Liga allows a club to register a replacement player if their wages are no more than 80 per cent of the injured player’s.

But, with Olmo’s new six-year deal far outweighing Christensen’s salary, rather than falling the required 20 per cent below, Barcelona were awarded a temporary permit to register Olmo for just four months. With that allowance set to expire on December 31, Olmo will no longer be a Barcelona-licenced player come January 1 if the issue isn’t resolved.

Mundo Deportivo reported last week that Olmo has a clause in his contract allowing him to leave for free if he’s unregistered by that date, and though The Athletic suggests he wants to stay in Catalonia, it’s unlikely he’d remain for at least six months without the option of playing.

Liverpool, therefore, could look to take advantage of the situation with an offer of their own in the January transfer window. The Reds were heavily interested in signing the 26-year-old in the summer after he impressed at Euro 2024, and could look to reignite negotiations.

Currently top of the Premier League and looking to build upon a strong start to the season, Arne Slot will undoubtedly want to strengthen his squad in January. In FourFourTwo‘s view, this is a situation that is certainly worth keeping a close eye on – Olmo is a top player who want to wait around for Barcelona to pull more levers so they can pay him the agreed fee, especially when a club like Liverpool are ready and waiting with an offer of their own.

The Premier League season couldn’t be going much better for Arne Slot and Liverpool, and the biggest question might have been answered.

Mohamed Salah has been linked with a move away from Liverpool for the past couple of seasons with his contract up in the summer of 2025 and amid persistent interest from Saudi Arabia.

But retired Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero thinks he knows what’s going to happen, and it would be huge news for Liverpool supporters.

Sergio Aguero knows the score on Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool contract situation

32-year-old Salah has been in terrific form in 2024-25, firing the Reds to the top of the Premier League with 13 goals in 15 games.

That’s a better ratio of goals per 90 minutes than any full season in his career except for 2017-18 and leaves him just five goals short of his total for last season. He’s scored two goals and made four assists in six Champions League fixtures for good measure.

With speculation swirling all season about Salah’s future, Aguero has moved to clear up any doubts, claiming that the Egyptian striker has done the deal and will be staying at Liverpool.

“So, I’ve read a little about this over the past few hours,” Aguero told Stake.com.

“As I understand, Salah’s renewed his contract with Liverpool for two more seasons. I think this should clear all doubts about his future.

“He remains a key player and a fresh contract is the best news Liverpool could receive.”

Liverpool supporters will decide whether Aguero has the authority to clear their doubts about the fifth-highest goalscorer in their club’s history.

Salah, whose Premier League display against Manchester City in 2021 is ranked at number 22 in FourFourTwo’s list of the greatest individual performances of all time, has won the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and Carabao Cup with Liverpool since joining from Roma in 2017.

He’s scored 227 goals in 372 appearances in all competitions for the Reds including 44 in the Champions League, the record number for an English club.

Aguero won five Premier League titles with Man City. In 2019/20, Liverpool’s first title win of the Premier League era prevented what would otherwise have been a run of four consecutive championships.

Salah’s contribution to Liverpool’s title-winning side under Jurgen Klopp was undeniable. 2019-20 was only the second time he’d reached double figures for both goals and assists in a Liverpool shirt.

There have been many more since then and he’s on the cusp of adding another. With nine assists and 13 goals already this season, Salah is making the idea of letting him go on a free transfer look very difficult to swallow.

With the latest Hollywood F1 movie’s production in full swing, Brad Pitt came face to face with Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz. Though Kravitz was surprised at first to learn that Pitt was a frequent viewer of his special segment on the broadcasting platform ‘Ted’s Notebook’, he was also thrown off guard by a request the Academy Award winner made to him.

Pitt’s project on the sport simply titled ‘F1′ has garnered a lot of anticipation owing to how authentic the movie is billed to be. As part of the project, the likes of Martin Brundle have been offered cameos. And so was Kravitz. While he thought it was a joke, Pitt really took him up on that offer.

On the Sky Sports F1 podcast, he revealed, “I think the offer of a cameo role was a sort of joke because I think he offers everybody a cameo role.”

“I think it was meant in jest and I returned [the offer] in jest. What I should have said of course, was ‘No, you’re right Brad, I’m a terrible actor so I wouldn’t be any good to you in a film and I don’t take direction well,” he added.

The teaser trailer for this highly anticipated project is out and neither Brundle nor Kravitz have featured in it yet. So, we’ll not really know if Pitt was seriously considering giving the Sky F1 presenter his first feature film credit until the movie hits the theaters next year.

Who is Brad Pitt’s favorite Sky Sports F1 analyst?

Pitt was recently seen chatting Brundle up for a segment to promote his movie. After speaking to the former Benetton and McLaren driver, Pitt was kind enough to offer Brundle a cameo in the movie — stating that the era of the sport where his fictional character Sonny Hayes drove intersected with Brundle’s own F1 career.

This offer, however, came as a gesture of penance. This is because, in the past, the duo had in fact crossed paths — during Brundle’s iconic grid-walk segment. It was at the 2022 US GP, when the American actor had unknowingly snubbed him on the grid, garnering a lot of flak from fans online.

Now the question that really remains unanswered is whether only Brundle or Kravitz will feature in the movie itself. Or, maybe the duo will feature together with the scriptwriters pulling off a scene in the film to depict how important the two have been in making F1 as enjoyable as it is for the fans today.

When Red Bull Salzburg play their next league fixture in February, there will be a new head coach at the helm.

Salzburg have won the Austrian Bundesliga 14 times in 18 seasons and finished second in each of the other four but headed into the winter break in fifth place after a subpar start to 2024-25.

The Red Bull hierarchy decided to call time on head coach Pep Lijnders after less than six months in charge – just in time for Jurgen Klopp’s first day as the controversial multi-club group’s Head of Global Soccer.

Winless run ends Pep Lijnders’ brief spell at Red Bull Salzburg

Salzburg picked up a dominant win over Austria Klagenfurt in their last Bundesliga match on Saturday but didn’t win any of the previous six, losing consecutive games against Blau Weiss Linz and LASK along the way.

It’s unfamiliar territory for a club that was built to win and has ruthlessly fulfilled its promise for two decades. Lijnders was appointed in July to replace Gerhard Struber, who returned to Austria from New York Red Bulls and was sacked in March with their title hopes slipping away.

Lijnders was Klopp’s assistant manager at Liverpool for ten years either side of four and a half months in charge at NEC in Holland’s second division.

He signed a three-year deal at Red Bull Salzburg in the summer and his team have fallen far short of expectations both domestically and in the Champions League, where they’ve lost five of their first six games without scoring a goal in any of them.

Red Bull’s decision to dispense with his services was inevitable and leaves a big question mark over Lijnders’ suitability as a head coach after two jobs amounted to less than a year combined.

But concerns about Salzburg’s failings run deeper than an abortive head coach appointment.

Red Bull Salzburg continued to win Bundesliga titles until last season, when Sturm Graz clawed back a two-point deficit after the league split to win the championship by two points.

Lijnders’ appointment was made with Salzburg in a state of flux. After years of success on the pitch and at the centre of one of football’s great player diasporas, the prolific production line has slowed down.

With RB Leipzig now well-established in the top division in Germany, Salzburg’s position in the Red Bull hierarchy might now be starting to bite.

Their best and most promising players have either been sold off outside the group or picked off by Leipzig. That’s just a consequence of a multi-club model rooted in player development.

There’s a much more dangerous question on the table now, and it’s one that Klopp will need to address in his controversial new role: Is Red Bull still producing those players in the first place?

Salzburg will replace Lijnders between now and February. New York Red Bulls boss Sandro Schwarz is likely to be in the conversation after guiding his team to the MLS Cup final earlier this month.

Klopp’s level of involvement in the recruitment process could give some indication about the extent of his hands-on involvement in the football business of the group.

The Ballon d’Or has rarely been shared around in the last 17 years, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominating the award.

Rodri is the most recent winner of the Golden Ball, though, with Karim Benzema and Luka Modric both having lifted the gong to end the Messi and Ronaldo duopoly.

One of the recent winners is considering retirement now, though, with their next venture post-playing already lined up.

Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema considering hanging up boots

According to Spanish outlet Relevo, Karim Benzema is considering retiring at the end of the 2024/25 season. The report suggests that he is growing tired of having to train in the evenings in Saudi Arabia because the sun isn’t as strong, while he’s also mentally fatigued just simply playing in the Middle East.

Now 36, Benzema’s contract with Al-Ittihad is set to expire in 2026. The Saudi giants expect the Frenchman to call time on his playing career in 18 months as a result, but there’s a strong possibility that it happens a lot earlier than anticipated.

Benzema moved to Al-Ittihad in the summer of 2023 after a trophy-laden 14 years at Real Madrid, where he won five Champions Leagues, four La Liga titles and three Copa del Reys – not to mention the 2022 Ballon d’Or after a dominant season in the Spanish capital.

But while he would be giving up a reported €100m in Saudi Arabia by retiring a year early, Benzema would be able to join back up with Los Blancos. Indeed, he already has an agreement in place to join Real Madrid as an ambassador when he does finally hang up his boots, which could come a lot sooner than first expected.

The role would see him represent the club in the Arab region of the world, helping further raise the profile of Real Madrid. His 354 goals in 648 games would certainly enable him to do that.

In FourFourTwo‘s view, it seems likely that Benzema could retire at the end of the current campaign. With an agreement already in place to return to Real Madrid, he might simply prefer living in Spain and want to make that process happen quicker.

Regardless, he’s by no means struggling at Al-Ittihad, with his 10 goals and three assists in 10 Saudi Pro League games proving his worth this term.