Former Germany captain Michael Ballack is reported to be organising his own farewell match for July 2013 having retired from professional football in October.
The 36-year-old is planning to hold his own farewell match on July 5 with Leipzig, Kaiserslautern and Leverkusen as possible venues, according to Cologne newspaper Express.
“We are in talks with Michael,” said Leverkusen director of sport Rudi Voeller, where Ballack spent the last two years of his career.
Having won 98 caps for his country, Ballack rejected an offer by the German federation to make an honorary appearance against Brazil in August 2011.
Monaco confirm Beckham interest
Monaco are interested in signing David Beckham, the second-tier French club’s chief executive Tor-Kristian Karlsen said.
“Our team is young. If we’re lucky enough to attract a player to Monaco with such charisma, such a competitive spirit and who is physically in form it would be terrific,” Karlsen said.
Since their relegation from the top flight in 2010, Monaco have been taken over by billionaire Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev.
The Riviera side, coached by Claudio Ranieri, are currently top of Ligue 2.
Ribery ‘sure’ of the Bundesliga title
Franck Ribery has said he is “100 per cent sure” that Bayern Munich will finish the season as Bundesliga champions ahead of today’s crunch showdown with Borussia Dortmund.
Bayern host champions Dortmund with the Bavarians currently 10 points clear at the top of the table and Ribery in fine form with four goals in nine games.
“I am 100 per cent sure that we will be German league cham-pions,” Ribery said.
“We have to be careful and not allow any mistakes against the smaller clubs, like we did last year.
“Bayern had an eight-point lead last season, but Dortmund were still German champions. I am sure we have learnt our lesson.”
Sterling future
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has warned teenage winger Raheem Sterling that he would be “very foolish” not to sign a long-term contract with the Premier League club.
Sterling, 17, has broken into the Liverpool first team this season and made his England debut in the recent friendly with Sweden.
With contract talks still to reach a conclusion, Rodgers has urged Sterling to reward Liverpool’s faith in him by committing to a new deal.
“It’s important for the club to sign our young talent but it’s even more important for Raheem.
“If you are 17 and playing regularly, you would be very foolish not to commit yourself very quickly,” Rodgers said.
Iniesta appeals for Albacete aid
Barcelona playmaker Andres Iniesta (picture) has written an open letter asking for people to invest money to help save his boyhood club Albacete from extinction.
Iniesta and his family are the third-tier club’s majority shareholders and he said they were doing everything they could to stop Albacete from folding but needed more outside financial investment.
Albacete, who have had a couple of stints in Spain’s top flight, are the latest club to suffer financially as the economic crisis gripping Spain dents revenue from match-ticket sales and sponsorship.
Russia mulls new Soviet league
The Russian Premier League is studying the possibility of organising a new championship that would involve the other states of the former Soviet Union, its chief said.
“Several premiership clubs have asked the league to study their proposal to create a CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) football champion-ship,” Sergei Pryadkin said.
“I consider this idea to be interesting and correct.
“The league will start the assessment of this project.”
The CIS is a bloc formed after the collapse of the USSR, which includes almost all the ex-Soviet states.
The idea of recreating the Soviet league has appeared in the post-Soviet area on a regular basis.
Del Piero has faith in coach Farina
Alessandro del Piero yesterday said he was confident Frank Farina could turn around Sydney FC’s miserable season after the former Socceroos boss was appointed new coach.
Farina will be on the touchline for tomorrow’s clash against Melbourne Heart in Sydney and Del Piero said he hopes he can spark a revival after just two wins from eight games left them bottom of the 10-team ladder.
Del Piero, who knows Farina from the coach’s time with Bari, said: “We hope we can do a good job with him. We need to improve and we hope we can do that and build something for the rest of the season.
“Frank Farina will bring great passion and knowledge to our game.”