If they are to prove Adama Traore’s final contributions in a Wolves shirt, they were out of character. He came off the bench against Southampton to score an injury-time goal. A substitute at Brentford, he found the net again, even if it was chalked off.
But as he returns to Barcelona, initially on loan, with the option of a permanent deal and with the possibility the Premier League has seen the last of one of its most idiosyncratically entertaining talents, the statistics show a mere eight goals in 160 appearances in England’s top flight.
There were only 14 assists, too, none of them this season, while the clincher against Southampton was a belated first goal. Few have terrorised so many defences without actually delivering the killer blow.
The fact he has gone to Barcelona, albeit an impecunious Barcelona who have somehow managed to fund his wages, is an illustration of his unique talents. He has a distinguished fan club. “He is a motorcycle,” Pep Guardiola once said. “Unplayable in moments; what a player,” Jurgen Klopp stated.
Antonio Conte wanted Traore at Tottenham, but tellingly as a wing-back, to use his mesmeric dribbling to get Spurs up the field and take opponents out of the game but without much expectation he would score.
Unstoppable but unproductive, Traore is a conundrum of a forward, one Wolves manager Bruno Lage failed to solve. Wolves averaged under a goal a game both this season and last. Pick Traore and it places a greater responsibility on the other forwards to score.
All of which Barcelona should know. “The people from the academy should know what my qualities are,” said a graduate of La Masia. Xavi Hernandez’s reign looks both a nostalgia project, taking Barcelona back to their roots, and a youthful rebrand.
And yet Traore feels the least Barcelona-esque player ever to emerge from their youth system. If Xavi was a byword for tiki-taka, Traore seems his opposite, the serial solo runner.
Barcelona’s ethos revolves around passing, Traore’s around sprinting. Perhaps it makes him better suited to a counter-attacking team than a possession side. His methods are very different. Traore took to greasing his arms to prevent opponents from tugging him back.
Their tactics meant he dislocated his shoulder four times in 2019-20, while 24 players were booked for fouling him in his first 26 games. Other statistics can highlight his uniqueness. He completed 160 dribbles in the Premier League last season. The next most was 88.
There was Traore and then there was everyone else. Defenders can be confounded. “I’ve never felt so powerless against someone,” said Trent Alexander-Arnold in 2020.
The challenge for every manager has been to turn those rare talents into a greater end product, to unlock his extraordinary potential and make him a regular match-winner. Certainly Traore can beat the best: three of those eight goals came in wins against Manchester City.
Rewind to his Middlesbrough days, however, and Tony Pulis used to switch Traore from one wing to the other at half-time so he was on the touchline nearest him and could coach him mid-match.
Now the task falls to Xavi, the Catalan antidote to Pulis. “I’m happy that Xavi has trusted me and I hope to return that confidence on the pitch,” said Traore. “I will have the opportunity to learn from a coach who is a legend at the club. I always say that an Adama who doesn’t learn from the day before is a lost Adama.”
As it is, Wolves have lost Adama, perhaps permanently, with memories of some scorching surges from the roadrunner but perhaps also the sense that their explosive enigma should have been more decisive.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Results
United States beat UAE by three wickets
United States beat Scotland by 35 runs
UAE v Scotland – no result
United States beat UAE by 98 runs
Scotland beat United States by four wickets
Fixtures
Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland
Admission is free
PSG's line up
GK: Alphonse Areola (youth academy)
Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)
Midfield - Angel di Maria (€47m); Adrien Rabiot (youth academy); Marco Verratti (€12m)
Forwards - Neymar (€222m); Edinson Cavani (€63m); Kylian Mbappe (initial: loan; to buy: €180m)
Total cost: €440.4m (€620.4m if Mbappe makes permanent move)
THE SPECS
Cadillac XT6 2020 Premium Luxury
Engine: 3.6L V-6
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 310hp
Torque: 367Nm
Price: Dh280,000
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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World Sevens Series standing after Dubai
1. South Africa
2. New Zealand
3. England
4. Fiji
5. Australia
6. Samoa
7. Kenya
8. Scotland
9. France
10. Spain
11. Argentina
12. Canada
13. Wales
14. Uganda
15. United States
16. Russia
MEFCC information
Tickets range from Dh110 for an advance single-day pass to Dh300 for a weekend pass at the door. VIP tickets have sold out. Visit www.mefcc.com to purchase tickets in advance.
UAE Team Emirates
Valerio Conti (ITA)
Alessandro Covi (ITA)
Joe Dombrowski (USA)
Davide Formolo (ITA)
Fernando Gaviria (COL)
Sebastian Molano (COL)
Maximiliano Richeze (ARG)
Diego Ulissi (ITAS)
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
Mobile phone packages comparison
MATCH INFO
Northern Warriors 92-1 (10 ovs)
Russell 37 no, Billings 35 no
Team Abu Dhabi 93-4 (8.3 ovs)
Wright 48, Moeen 30, Green 2-22
Team Abu Dhabi win by six wickets
MATCH INFO
Quarter-finals
Saturday (all times UAE)
England v Australia, 11.15am
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm
Sunday
Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm
Last 10 winners of African Footballer of the Year
2006: Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast)
2007: Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla and Mali)
2008: Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal and Togo)
2009: Didier Drogba (Chelsea and Ivory Coast)
2010: Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan and Cameroon)
2011: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2012: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2013: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2014: Yaya Toure (Manchester City and Ivory Coast)
2015: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund and Gabon)
2016: Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City and Algeria)
Factfile on Garbine Muguruza:
Name: Garbine Muguruza (ESP)
World ranking: 15 (will rise to 5 on Monday)
Date of birth: October 8, 1993
Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela
Place of residence: Geneva, Switzerland
Height: 6ft (1.82m)
Career singles titles: 4
Grand Slam titles: 2 (French Open 2016, Wimbledon 2017)
Career prize money: $13,928,719
Chelsea 2 Burnley 3
Chelsea Morata (69'), Luiz (88')
Burnley Vokes (24', 43'), Ward (39')
Red cards Cahill, Fabregas (Chelsea)
England World Cup squad
Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures and results:
Monday, UAE won by three wickets
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
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