Park: Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung has retired from international duty with South Korea after winning his 100th cap, his national coach Cho Kwang-Rae announced yesterday. Park, 29, reached the milestone in his team’s penalty shoot-out defeat by Japan in the Asian Cup semi-finals this week.
Milan: Espanyol defender Didac Vila signed a four-year deal with Milan. “The transfer of the player to Milan will be concluded in less than 48 hours,” said a club statement.
Carew: A debt-ridden car dealer who conned almost £250,000 out of John Carew after promising to supply him with luxury vehicles was jailed for 40 months. A judge condemned Richard Esprit for using “the verbal equivalent of smoke and mirrors” to steal from the Norway striker.
Rakitic: Schalke 04’s Croatian midfielder Ivan Rakitic signed a three-and-a-half year contract with Sevilla. Rakitic will bolster Sevilla’s midfield as they target an improvement on last year’s fourth placing.
Kranjcar: Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp confirmed the club had received an offer from Werder Bremen for Niko Kranjcar. The Croat’s future at White Hart Lane has been thrown into uncertainty following his failure to command regular football.
Zwanziger: UEFA nominated German football federation chairman Theo Zwanziger to replace outgoing FIFA executive committee member Franz Beckenbauer. FIFA announced late last year that Beckenbauer would not seek-relection as a member of its executive committee next March for family reasons.
Asian Cup: Play-off for third place – Uzbekistan vs S. Korea 2-3. Today’s final – Australia vs Japan.
Basketball: Division One (men) – Athleta vs Loyola 79-63. Women’s Louis Borg Cup QF – Athleta vs Hibs 35-66.
MFA Div. Three: Sta Lucija vs Sta Venera 0-3; Xgħajra vs Marsaskala 0-4.
In England: The Championship – Millwall vs Barnsley 2-0. League One – Colchester vs Peterboro 2-1. League Two –Bury vs Shrewsbury 1-0.
Figure Skating: Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won their fourth European pairs figure skating title, edging out Russians Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov and Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov in Berne. The 2008 and 2009 world champions came through with 206.20 points after initially trailing in behind title holders Kavaguti and Smirnov (203.61 points) in the free programme.
Golf: Former world number one Tiger Woods launched his 2011 US PGA Tour campaign with a modest three-under par 69 at Torrey Pines and said his game is progressing. Woods, playing on the Torrey Pines North Course, had three birdies and no bogeys but couldn’t build significant momentum on the course considered the easier of the two in use for the event. Woods’s effort left him five adrift of surprise leader Kang Sung-hoon, of South Korea.
Rugby Union: London Irish’s former Springbok prop Faan Rautenbach was banned for three weeks for stamping on the head and shoulder of Munster flanker David Wallace during a European Cup tie. The 34-year-old was yellow-carded following the incident during Munster’s victory in Limerick last Saturday. The subsequent citing was upheld with an initial suspension of five weeks reduced by two.
Basketball: Chinese player Yao Ming was named as the starting Western Conference centre for the NBA’s all-star game despite missing nearly all of this season because of serious ankle surgery. Houston Rockets centre Yao picked up 1.14 million votes to easily beat out Los Angeles Lakers rising star Andrew Bynum by more than 170,000 votes. The flawed vote came about because of a huge backing Yao received from his countrymen in China.