Manchester City announced yesterday that they have appointed former Barcelona director Txiki Begiristain as their new director of football.
The 48-year-old worked at Barca between 2003 and 2010, and helped the club recruit stars such as Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Dani Alves.
At City he will replace Brian Marwood, who will become managing director of the new City Football Academy (CFA) when it opens at the start of the 2013-14 season.
City said that Begiristain will “take responsibility for supporting the first-team manager, Roberto Mancini, in first-team recruitment and operations”.
Del Piero on mark
Alessandro Del Piero converted a penalty and Socceroo Brett Emerton grabbed the winner in Sydney FC’s 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Perth Glory in Australia’s A-League yesterday.
The Italian World Cup winner scored his third goal in four starts to equalise for Sydney before former Blackburn Rovers man Emerton nabbed the winning goal in the 70th minute.
The Sky Blues have now climbed into the top six and sit alongside Perth on six points.
Mancini sweats on Richards injury
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini hopes a week of rest can help kickstart his team’s season after a lacklustre victory over Swansea featured a worrying injury to Micah Richards.
The English defender was stretchered off after receiving treatment to his knee, an injury which followed Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm also being carried off after tearing his groin.
The two injuries meant that referee Martin Atkinson played 12 minutes of injury time, making this the longest game in Premier League history.
“Micah has a problem with his knee,” said Mancini. “I don’t know the situation but probably it is bad.”
Diego backs interim boss
Brazil midfielder Diego yesterday backed interim boss Lorenz-Guenther Koestner to take over as permanent head coach of 2009 Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg in the wake of Felix Magath’s dismissal.
Reserve team coach Koestner was promoted to oversee the Bundesliga side and enjoyed a good start as Wolfsburg came away with a 4-1 win at Fortuna Duesseldorf on Saturday.
“Lorenz is very smart and respectful,” Diego told reporters after training, while Wolfsburg fans produced a flag in Duesseldorf with the slogan “More than an interim solution”.
“We have to collect the points, then it would be normal for him to stay. I hope that happens.”
Messi breaks 300-goal barrier
Lionel Messi smashed through the 300-goal mark with a brace as Barcelona crushed Rayo Vallecano 5-0 in Madrid on Saturday.
Messi’s goals were the 300th and 301st of his career, a total made up of 270 for Barca and 31 for Argentina in only 419 matches. They also took him to 13 in the league this season and 73 in all competitions in 2012.
That’s just two behind Pele’s 75 goals for Santos and Brazil in 1959, and only 12 shy of Gerd Mueller’s all-time best calendar year record of 85 for Bayern Munich and West Germany in 1972.
Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova said: “We’re very pleased with Leo, but I’m sticking with what he did in the 89th minute, when we were up 5-0 he ran back 30 metres to defend a corner kick.”
Face in Scottish crowd gets ref call
A spectator stepped out of the shadows to make sure a Scottish Div. One match was completed on Saturday after the referee was forced out with an injury.
When referee Kevin Clancy was hurt in a collision with Cowdenbeath boss Colin Cameron during the game at Dunfermline, the game was held up for 30 minutes as a replacement was sought.
It was then a qualified official came forward from among the paying crowd to run the line while a match-day linesman took charge of the game.
The BBC identified the man as 61-year-old security worker Jock Campbell who officiates at Sunday league matches.
Lennon angry
Manager Neil Lennon said Celtic’s 2-0 league defeat by Kilmarnock on Saturday was a reality check for his side.
The Hoops had earned plenty of plaudits for their performance in Camp Nou last week when they suffered a last-gasp 2-1 defeat to Barcelona in their Champions League match.
“It is unacceptable from us all. It’s a dose of reality and brings us back down to earth with a bump,” Lennon said of Saturday’s defeat
“They’ve had a lot of nice things said about them but we warned them not to take that all in.
“If ever we have seen the unpredictability of football then it is today.”