The most prestigious individual award in football will be presented to a young man from the island of Mad-eira on Monday, in a Paris ceremony designed to look a little like the Oscars. There, Cristiano Ronaldo will accept the Ballon d'Or trophy from its organisers, France Football magazine, and probably be reminded that he, the 2008 winner, has much in common with the first man to receive the prize, 52 years ago - at least in as far as Stanley Matthews too was a winger who earned his living in England.
Most of the more recent holders of the Ballon d'Or, formerly known as the European Footballer of the Year prize, have tended to travel to Paris from homes in Italy. Kaka, of Milan and Brazil, won it in 2007. Fabio Cannavaro had it the year before, based principally on what he had done as captain of Italy that June and July. Andriy Shevchenko, then, as now, of AC Milan, had been 2004's choice, Juventus's Pavel Nedved the victor in 2003. Even Ronaldo - that's Brazil's Ronaldo, not Portugal's - who was voted No 1 in 2002, had spent most of that year as an employee of Inter Milan, though it was his dream World Cup that turned the voters in his direction.
The point here is that, even through the scandals, the crowd trouble, the loss of its dominant position in the recruitment of the leading stars, Serie A has until now carried over from the garlanded 1990s the idea that it was the best launching pad for a footballer to attain top billing. Not so this year. The Italians who shone at an ordinary Euro 2008 for the Azzurri were defensive players like Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini, and, the Canavaro precedent apart, it is harder for these types to captivate the 96 journalists from around the world who elect the winner than it is for an attacking footballer. No Italian club made it beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League either and if the scudetto holders, Inter, have an outstanding individual, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he spent periods sidelined with injury and was never going to score the phenomenal number of goals Ronaldo did for Manchester United.
Ibrahimovic, incidentally, has been lobbying for the prize, if not this year - "I would give it Cristiano Ronaldo," he says, "or Iker Casillas the Spain goalkeeper if Euro 2008 was the main thing taken into account" - then imminently. Ibrahimovic granted an interview to France Football's sister publication, L'Equipe last week, and it is safe to report that an excess of modesty was not his chosen posture. Ranking himself in the same bracket as United's Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the likely top two in the 2008 rankings, he also compared himself to the two most recent of the Ballon d'Or winners who are currently at work in Italy. "I feel I'm on a level with Kaka and Ronaldinho. Put me alongside them and I don't think I'd be out of place," said the Inter striker. Beyond the preening, Ibrahimovic also made the sensible point that to be honoured as the world's best, a Champions League medal seemed essential and that the Ballon d'Or doesn't always go to the best man, "otherwise Paolo Maldini would have won it". Milan's evergreen captain probably should have done in at least one of the 22 years he has been playing in Serie A.
Even the ageless Maldini would acknowledge he has probably, at 40, missed that boat now. Francesco Totti, the Roma icon, may have done too. Only one Italian, Buffon, so much as made the shortlist of 30 this time. Only three Serie A players - Kaka and Ibrahimovic the others - were on it, compared with 11 players each from the English Premier League and from Spain's La Liga. It's a low yield for Italy. Inter and Juve need to correct that with a good run in Europe in the first five months of 2009.
@Email:ihawkey@thenational.ae
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Madrid Open schedule
Men's semi-finals
Novak Djokovic (1) v Dominic Thiem (5) from 6pm
Stefanos Tsitsipas (8) v Rafael Nadal (2) from 11pm
Women's final
Simona Halep (3) v Kiki Bertens (7) from 8.30pm
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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AIDA%20RETURNS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECarol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAida%20Abboud%2C%20Carol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5.%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Challenge Cup result:
1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults
UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
%3Cp%3EFirst%20ODI%20-%20Sunday%2C%20June%204%20%0D%3Cbr%3ESecond%20ODI%20-%20Tuesday%2C%20June%206%20%0D%3Cbr%3EThird%20ODI%20-%20Friday%2C%20June%209%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EMatches%20at%20Sharjah%20Cricket%20Stadium.%20All%20games%20start%20at%204.30pm%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20squad%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EMuhammad%20Waseem%20(captain)%2C%20Aayan%20Khan%2C%20Adithya%20Shetty%2C%20Ali%20Naseer%2C%20Ansh%20Tandon%2C%20Aryansh%20Sharma%2C%20Asif%20Khan%2C%20Basil%20Hameed%2C%20Ethan%20D%E2%80%99Souza%2C%20Fahad%20Nawaz%2C%20Jonathan%20Figy%2C%20Junaid%20Siddique%2C%20Karthik%20Meiyappan%2C%20Lovepreet%20Singh%2C%20Matiullah%2C%20Mohammed%20Faraazuddin%2C%20Muhammad%20Jawadullah%2C%20Rameez%20Shahzad%2C%20Rohan%20Mustafa%2C%20Sanchit%20Sharma%2C%20Vriitya%20Aravind%2C%20Zahoor%20Khan%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
