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World Soccer Headlines Ronaldo aiming to return by end of the year
Posted: Tuesday May 30, 2000 01:17 PM
Injured Brazilian striker Ronaldo aims to be back in action for Italian side Inter Milan before the end of the year. The two-time World Footballer of the Year tore the tendon in his right knee on his comeback for Inter on 12 April, his first game since sustaining a similar injury six months earlier. "The doctors have said I could be back eight months after the operation and that is what I am aiming for," said Ronaldo, recuperating at home in Brazil following surgery last month in Paris. BATISTUTA COMPLETES $33m ROMA MOVE Gabriel Batistuta has completed his $33 million move from Fiorentina to Italian Serie A rival Roma. The 31-year-old Argentine international striker, who is set to earn $5.7 million a year, had been with the Florence club for nine years. The fee is among the highest in world football history, and certainly the biggest for a player of such an age. Batistuta hit 166 league goals in 265 appearances for Fiorentina. O'NEILL QUITS LEICESTER FOR CELTIC Martin O'Neill has agreed to take over as coach of Glasgow Celtic, ending a successful four-and-a-half year spell in charge of English side Leicester. Celtic finished 21 points adrift of Scottish champion Rangers and coach John Barnes was sacked earlier in the season following their humiliating Cup defeat by Inverness Caledonian Thistle. O'Neill has just completed his best season at Filbert Street, in which Leicester won the League Cup and finished eighth in the Premiership. DORTMUND APPOINTS SAMMER AS COACH Former German international Matthias Sammer has been appointed coach of Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. The 32-year-old defender, a former European Footballer of the Year, has not played since a knee operation in 1997. He had been assisting Udo Lattek, who quit last week after replacing Michael Skibbe earlier in the season. MATTHÄUS OUT WEDNESDAY Lothar Matthäus has been ruled out of Germany's friendly with Liechtenstein on Wednesday after tearing a thigh muscle in training. GALATASARAY DOMINATE TURKISH SQUAD Turkish coach Mustafa Denizli has announced his 22-man squad for the European Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands, starting on 10 June.
Nine players from UEFA Cup winner and Turkish champion Galatasaray are included, along with London-born Leicester City midfielder Muzzy Izzet. ROBERTO CARLOS RE-SIGNS FOR REAL MADRID Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos has signed a new contract with Real Madrid that will keep him at the European champion until 2005. "I will finish my career with the elite at Real," said the 27-year-old, one of the stars of Real's 3-0 European Cup final win over Valencia last Wednesday. Carlos also played in their previous success over Juventus in 1998. "I have signed the best contract of my life which will bring me peace of mind and will also be good for the club." ALBANIANS CALL FOR YUGOSLAV EURO BAN Kosovo Albanians living in Belgium have filed a suit with Belgian authorities calling for Yugoslavia to be banned from taking part in Euro 2000, which starts on 10 June in Brussels. Their legal case is based on European Union sanctions taken against Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in the wake of last year's Kosovo conflict. The sanctions forbid EU countries from granting visas to representatives of the Milosevic regime or from having any financial dealings with Yugoslavia. RAPID VIENNA SACK COACH WEBER Heribert Weber has been sacked as coach of Rapid Vienna following his side's disappointing third place finish in the Austrian championship, 11 points behind champion Tirol Innsbruck. Club officials said that Weber, a former Austrian international, had not treated his players "in the correct psychological manner." Rapid's sporting director Ernst Dokupil, from whom Weber took over in March 1998, will combine coaching duties with his managerial role. Available on television sets in over 50 million cable and satellite households in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and in 1 million hotel rooms, CNN text complements CNN's unsurpassed 24-hour television coverage with text-delivered content available instantly at the press of a button on viewers' remote controls.
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