Cruzeiro: Cruzeiro midfielder Everton Ribeiro has been chosen as Brazil’s Player of the Year for the second year running. The club won Serie A, the national first division, for the second consecutive season and Marcelo Oliveira took the coach of the year award while five of the positions in the annual league select XI went to players from the Belo Horizonte team. Goias’s 20-year-old striker Erik took the Young Player of the Year accolade.
Friendly: Brazil will face France in a friendly in Paris on March 26. The game will take place at Stade de France, the same ground where France beat Brazil 3-0 in 1998 to lift their first World Cup. The match will provide a tough test for Dunga’s new Brazil side. The coach took over in July after Brazil’s humiliating World Cup semi-final defeat and his side have won all six matches since, scoring 14 goals and conceding just one.
Hignett: Middlesbrough have confirmed that assistant head coach Craig Hignett has left the Championship club with immediate effect. The 44-year-old left his role as assistant manager to Colin Cooper at League Two Hartlepool in March to join Aitor Karanka’s backroom staff at the Riverside Stadium and has helped guide Boro into play-off contention this season.
Gignac: Andre-Pierre Gignac says he plans to leave Marseille in the summer when his contract runs out – and is keen on a move to Inter. The France international has scored 11 goals this season, level with Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette. “I think I will leave at the end of the season,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport. “I want to know if (coach Marcelo) Bielsa will stay, but I want a big challenge. I will consider all proposals but I’d love to join Inter.”
Kompany: Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has been ruled out of the champions’ Premier League trip to Sunderland today with a hamstring injury. That leaves City short of options in central defence with Eliaquim Mangala suspended after his sending off at Southampton.
In Scotland: Scottish Cup, fourth round replay – Inverness vs St Mirren 4-0. League Two – Annan vs Albion 2-1; Elgin vs Arbroath 1-1; Montrose vs Berwick 2-1.