Football news

French striker Nicolas Anelka will become a “player-coach” at Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua, the club said while insisting coach Jean Tigana remained on board.

A Shenhua official confirmed reports they had sacked three assistant coaches after winning only two of their five matches this season, but said Tigana was still in his position following speculation he would also be axed.

“We fired the assistant coaches. Tigana is still the coach of the team,” the official told AFP.

“Anelka is now on the coaching team, too.”

Shenhua said Anelka would be “player-coach”, participating in the management of daily training, according to a statement on its website.

Real in control

A Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick fired Real Madrid to a 4-1 derby win at Atletic o Madrid late Wednesday to restore their four-point cushion over Barcelona at the top of the Primera Liga.

Ronaldo opened after 25 minutes with Falcao getting the equaliser for Atletico after 55 minutes before the Portuguese star wrapped up his hat-trick to make it 40 league goals for the season, one more than Lionel Messi.

Jose Callejon got the other goal for the leaders.

“After Barca’s win there was a bit of pressure, but we’re happy with that and we have to look to win the rest of our games,” said Ronaldo.

MLS All-Stars to take on Chelsea

Chelsea will take on Major League Soccer’s All-Stars in the US league’s annual exhibition on July 25, MLS announced.

The match comes six years after a select side of MLS stars shocked Chelsea 1-0 in the 2006 All-Star game at Chicago.

This time around, the match will be held at PPL Park, home of the Philadelphia Union.

It will be the second stop on Chelsea’s US visit, following the announcement last month that they will play the Sounders in Seattle on July 18.

Former FIFA chief improving

The condition of Joao Havelange, the 95-year-old former president of FIFA, has improved and he is breathing without a respirator.

Doctor Joao Mansur Filho, of the Samaritano hospital in Rio de Janeiro, said that Havelange had been transferred to a new cardiology unit, after suffering cardiac and respiratory failure on Monday.

Havelange was still receiving intravenous antibiotic treatment, Filho said, but added he did not know when the former world football chief would be released.

Havelange, who was the president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998, was first hospitalised last month, suffering from a serious infection.

Van Persie earns Wenger praise

Arsene Wenger saluted another goalscoring milestone from Robin van Persie in a 3-0 win at Wolves this week.

Van Persie netted against a 17th different Premier League team in the same season with his penalty at Molineux and has only failed to hit the target against Manchester City and Fulham.

It equalled the achievement of former Arsenal striker Ian Wright, who scored against every other side bar Man. United and Sun-derland in a 38-game season in the 1996-97 campaign.

Wenger said: “Robin has equalled the record of Ian Wright and it is absolutely remarkable in the modern game to do that.

“When you think you only have 19 competitors and your striker scores against 17 of them, that is something sensational.”

Martinez denies quit claims

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez has dismissed speculation that he is ready to quit the club this summer. After Wednesday’s momentous 1-0 win over Man. United, Martinez claimed the stories were not true.

“I heard that and was very surprised,” he said.

“You wonder where that rumour is coming from. At this stage of the season there is a real fight among the bottom five in the league, you feel stories can upset clubs internally.

“There is nothing true about it. I signed a new deal in the summer for an extra two years. That was my conversation with the chairman and nothing has changed since.”

Simone questioned

Monaco coach Marco Simone was briefly questioned by police as part of a probe into alleged racist insults he made against an airport worker.

The case goes back to August 15 last year when the former Milan player was at Paris’s main Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport before taking a plane.

According to reports, an airport worker of Moroccan nationality who was helping a wheelchair-bound passenger requested that Simone pay attention to a child who was accompanying him and was playing in front of the wheelchair.

The worker was allegedly in-sulted by Simone and filed a complaint with police.