<\/div>\nMAN CITY STAR IGNORES CRITICS OF CHOICE TO LEAVE WORLD CUP<\/b><\/p>\n
Jeremy Doku has become a father, the Belgian football association announced Monday, days after the player\u2019s plans to leave the World Cup to be there for the birth sparked controversy.<\/p>\n
After consultations with medical staff, Doku was allowed to temporarily leave the Red Devils before last Sunday\u2019s game with Iran to join his wife in London where the couple welcomed a baby boy, Praise, it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJeremy received the news before yesterday\u2019s match that the birth was imminent,\u201d the team\u2019s doctor Brahim Hacene said.<\/p>\n
Doku had already been ruled out of Sunday\u2019s match due to illness. \u201cAs he had already been receiving the appropriate medical treatment for several days, he was able to fly without any medical risk to be with his family during this very special moment,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMother, father, and baby are all doing wonderfully,\u201d he added. Doku, who is to rejoin his teammates in Seattle on Tuesday, is regarded as one of the best young players in the Belgium squad, who have made a solid if unspectacular start to their campaign, drawing both their matches thus far.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Jeremy Doku #11 of Belgium reacts after the 1-1 draw during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G match between Belgium and Egypt at Seattle Stadium<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe 24-year-old had made it clear before the Red Devils\u2019 first match that he would have wanted to be there for the birth of his first child — drawing criticism from some quarters.<\/p>\n
A presenter on L\u2019Equipe TV, the TV channel of the historic French sports newspaper, questioned the decision saying fathers were \u201cuseless\u201d at childbirth whereas hundreds of footballers would have killed to play in a World Cup.<\/p>\n
The comments triggered an online storm, forcing L\u2019Equipe to apologise and distance itself from them, the presenter has been stood down from her show.<\/p>\n
Doku started in Belgium\u2019s first match against Egypt but struggled to make an impact before being replaced.<\/p>\n
The lacklustre scoreless draw against Iran in Los Angeles drew scorn from Belgian media, which lambasted the team\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
Belgium, who are rebuilding after their \u201cgolden generation\u201d showed age had caught up with them in exiting at the group stage in the 2022 World Cup, can assure themselves of progressing to the last 32 with a win over New Zealand in their final group match on Friday.<\/p>\n
<\/amp-ima-video><\/p>\nMbappe brings up 15th WC goal in style! | 00:31<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nARGENTINE STAR\u2019S POST-GAME SHOCK<\/b><\/p>\n
Moments after Argentina\u2019s 2-0 victory against Austria to book their place in the Round of 32, Julian Alvarez made a public request to be sold by Atletico Madrid. <\/p>\n
The former Manchester City forward spoke to the media post-game at the home of the NFL\u2019s Dallas Cowboys and dropped a bombshell.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to fulfil my dream. I have spoken with the people at the club that I needed to speak to. The best thing for my future is a transfer,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The 26-year-old is believed to have agreed personal terms with Barcelona on a five-year contract.<\/p>\n
The Catalan giants\u2019 initial \u00a386 million ($162.8m) bid was rejected by their Spanish rivals. <\/p>\n
Atletico were reportedly looking for more than the \u00a3104m ($196.9m) they sold Antoine Griezmann to the current La Liga champions for in 2019.<\/p>\n
But they have since released a statement saying: \u201cThere is no amount of money for which Bar\u00e7a can buy Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez. He will not be transferred to Barcelona\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEither they pay the release clause for \u20ac500m (A$817m) or there is no deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tensions between the two clubs heightened when Atletico took to social media to taunt Barcelona after rejecting their bid.<\/p>\n
England winger Anthony Gordon has already joined Barcelona from Newcastle for \u00a370m ($132.5m) this summer and are still keen on Marcus Rashford.<\/p>\n
Rashford spent last season on loan from Man United, but Barca did not activate their \u00a326m ($49.2m) option.<\/p>\n
They are hoping to either get him back on loan or negotiate a lower fee. <\/p>\n
Real Madrid also made an \u00a3130m ($246m) bid for Alvarez. <\/p>\n
That offer was rejected, however, and Atletico again took to social media to blast their rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficial statement with our clarifications regarding the official statement from our neighbours Real Madrid,\u201d Atleti posted on X earlier this month.<\/p>\n
\u201c1. They cut out the part of the Pope\u2019s video where he said he was an Atleti fan too. 2. You must have confused education with gratitude, but to leave no doubt: we don\u2019t thank you for anything.<\/p>\n
\u201c3. We neither study nor consider any offer for Julian. 4. How could we not get along, when you make us laugh even more than FC Barcelona does.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Julian Alvarez #9 of Argentina controls the ball against Rafik Belghali #17 of Algeria during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group J match between Argentina and Algeria<\/span>Source: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nManchester City paid just \u00a314m ($26.5m) to sign the World Cup and Copa America winner from Argentine giants River Plate in January 2022.<\/p>\n
Alvarez helped City win the treble in his first season with the club and then Atletico paid around \u00a382m ($155.2m) for him in August 2024.<\/p>\n
City did not want to let him go, but superstar Erling Haaland was preventing him from becoming the main man under Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was never any kind of problem,\u201d Alvarez said last year. \u201cI simply told him how I felt \u2014 that I wanted more minutes in some matches where I knew I wouldn\u2019t get them, or simply wasn\u2019t getting them.\u201d On Guardiola, he added: \u201cOf course he understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers always want more minutes, they want to grow, they want to play the big moments. And if I felt I wasn\u2019t going to have them there, he gave me the freedom to choose my path.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s national team left a message of \u201cpeace, respect and friendship\u201d following their scoreless draw with Belgium at Los Angeles Stadium on Monday morning. The clash was Iran\u2019s second game of the tournament – having drawn with New Zealand in their opening Group G encounter – and it was also their second and final game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-249624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}