WATT: Celtic striker Tony Watt has signed a new four-year contract. The 18-year-old has been in impressive form for his home town Glasgow club, which included the decisive goal in Celtic’s stunning 2-1 Champions League win over European giants Barcelona. He is now set to stay at Parkhead until 2016.
ABEGA: Former Cameroon captain Theophile Abega died aged 58 yesterday. The Cam-eroon Football Federation did not give the cause of death but news reports said Abega had suffered cardiac arrest. Abega captained Cameroon to their first African Nations Cup title in 1984, when he scored in a 3-1 win in the final over Nigeria in Abidjan. He was named African Footballer of the Year the same year.
HENRY: Thierry Henry is one of three players nominated for Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Player award. New York Red Bulls forward Henry finished in the top three of a poll of current MLS players, coaches and the media. The 35-year-old Henry struck 15 goals for the Red Bulls who were ousted from the playoffs by D.C. United in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
FREI: Alexander Frei, Switz-erland’s all-time top goalscorer, is to hang up his boots at the end of the season, his club, FC Basel, said yesterday. The 33-year-old scored 42 goals in 84 appearances for his country between his debut in 2001 and April 2011, when he retired from the international game.
BUS STONED: Zambia’s goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene was cut by shattered glass when two boys threw stones at the team bus after they beat South Africa 1-0 in a friendly in Soweto Wednesday night, organisers said. The two boys, aged 12 and 13, did not attend the game in the FNB stadium, also known as Soccer City, where the opening and closing matches of next year’s Africa Cup will take pace.
PANATHINAIKOS: Panathinaikos have named scout Juan Ramon Rocha as head coach following the resignation of Jesualdo Ferreira. Ferreira, 66, stepped down late on Wednesday and almost instantly Panathinaikos confirmed on their website that Argentine Rocha, 58, a former Greens players who also coached the club from 1994 to 1996, would take charge.