Agencies/Miami
David Beckham has barely found a new stadium site for his Miami-based Major League Soccer expansion team, and he already says he wants to sign Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Beckham told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that he is interested in the Paris Saint-Germain striker, according to a posting on the MLS website. “If Ibrahimovic is still active, then I want to buy him right away. He is a magnificent physical specimen, so it’s entirely possible,” Beckham said. “Who does not want a man who is prepared to kill to win?”
Beckham and Ibrahimovic were teammates in the English midfielder’s final days as a professional player with the French club. Beckham has found a stadium site in Miami after years of struggles and told the newspaper construction of a venue “will take three years, maybe two.”
Ibrahimovic, 34, could be nearing the end but still might be just what Beckham is looking for to jump start his new club. “I’ve played with or against the very best in the world. I have never met anyone who was so serious during both practice and games,” Beckham said of Zlatan.
“When I came to Paris I knew that he was an incomparable talent as a player, but he’d be so tough and merciless on himself at all times, I had no idea. He’s a born winner. He is a beast with huge self-confidence and I’m one of his biggest admirers.”
Inter’s Melo banned for 3 games, Roma’s Dzeko for two
Inter Milan midfielder Felipe Melo has been suspended for three games following a red card he received during a league game at the weekend, the Lega Serie A said. The Brazilian was sent off in the 90th minute for kicking Lazio’s Luca Biglia in the shoulder during a 2-1 home defeat on Sunday. A two-game ban was handed to Roma Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko, who was dismissed for insulting the referee as the Giallorossi beat Genoa 2-0. Roma also had Miralem Pjanic and Radja Nainggolan suspended for one game.
Gladbach captain Xhaka banned for three games
Borussia Moenchengladbach captain Granit Xhaka was banned for three games by the German football federation DFB for kicking an opponent. Xhaka was sent off in the first half of Sunday’s 3-2 Bundesliga victory against Darmstadt after he kicked Peter Niemeyer from behind.
The 23-year-old Swiss will miss the first three games after the winter break against Borussia Dortmund, Mainz and Werder Bremen before being eligible to return on February 14 when Moenchengladbach visit SV Hamburg.
However, he will be suspended again if in the Hamburg game he picks up what would be his fifth yellow card. The temperatental Xhaka has also been dismissed twice for a second bookable offence this season before the straight red against Darmstadt. DFB ruling can be appealed within 24 hours.
Put suspended
as Jordan coach
Paul Put has been suspended as Jordan’s national football coach pending “clarification” of a prison sentence in his homeland Belgium for match-fixing, Jordan’s football federation said.
A Belgian appeals court last week gave the 59-year-old a two-year jail term and ordered his immediate arrest for allowing a Chinese businessman to bribe players when he was coach of Lierse, according to the Belga news agency.
Jordan’s football association “decided to immediately suspend the coach of the national team pending clarification of the legal situation in order to make a final decision,” it said in a statement.
Put was one of more than a dozen managers, players, coaches and agents charged in connection with a huge match-fixing scandal dating back to 2004-2006.
He was initially given a two-year suspended sentence but the appeal court ordered him to serve time behind bars.
The Belgian was banned for three years following the scandal.
But world football’s governing
body FIFA did not extend the ban worldwide, allowing Put to head for Africa where he coached Gambia and then Burkina Faso before being named Jordan coach in June.
David Beckham
