Italy coach Marcello Lippi said his playmaker Francesco Totti is '90 per cent' likely to quit the national team after Sunday's World Cup final.
"As far as I am aware he has said that it is 90 per cent that he will quit (the Italy team)," Lippi said yesterday.
"However, you have to always wait to find out what is going through people's hearts and minds before commenting," added Lippi.
Italian media had speculated that 29-year-old Totti would retire from international football after the tournament.
Totti broke his ankle in February and spent three months on the sidelines before the World Cup. He was unable to reach full fitness before the start of the tournament.
However, the Roma forward played the full 120 minutes in Tuesday's 2-0 extra-time win over hosts Germany that booked a place in Sunday's final.
Sleepless night for Lippi
Italy coach Marcello Lippi did not waste any time in reviewing his team's 2-0 semi-final victory over Germany, staying awake during the night watching the entire game again on video.
"I'm tired, I just slept two hours because I wanted to watch the whole game again, including extra-time," Lippi said yesterday.
"I went to bed at 5 a.m. and I was up at seven as I usually am. I liked what I saw though, it confirmed the impression I had at the end of the game. We beat a quality side and there was everything you want from a game at that level.
"It was a very important victory, probably the most important of my career - apart from Sunday's of course."
Bus driver hit for criticising team
A Berlin bus driver crashed into a parked car after being hit in the head with a beer bottle by a passenger who had disputed his views over Germany's defeat by Italy, police said yesterday.
The passenger and the driver were alone in the bus travelling through southwest Berlin not far from the team hotel at about 2 a.m. and were discussing the match Germany had lost 2-0 just a few hours earlier.
"When the driver commented that the 'German players just weren't good enough', the passenger started insulting him," a police spokesman said. "He then suddenly hit the driver in the head with a beer bottle."
The driver temporarily lost control of the bus and rammed a parked Mercedes - although the bus was only going at 30 kph at the time. The passenger opened an emergency exit and fled.
Police are searching for the man who was wearing a Germany team jersey with number 20, the same as Germany striker Lukas Podolski.
Ronaldo likely to have surgery
Ronaldo is likely to have knee surgery during his vacation following Brazil's exit from the World Cup, Brazil doctor Jose Luis Runco said yesterday.
Runco said Ronaldo had been suffering from knee pains, caused by tibial calcification, for about eight months and the operation was needed to remove the calcium deposits.
"Now at the end of the World Cup he told me that he would probably use the holidays for the surgery. He's had it for eight months and every now and then he complains (of pain)," Runco told Reuters by phone.
Kenyan Brazil fan killed
Kenyan football fans beat to death a young man supporting Brazil in a row after France's World Cup victory at the weekend.
"They were going home after watching the game when an argument came up between them about the match," district deputy police boss Charles Gathiari told Reuters from the village in western Siaya district where the incident took place.
Despite not having a decent national team, Kenyans are feverish soccer fans, following the English Premier League and now the World Cup with almost religious fervour.
Fights in bars over soccer are common. When a passerby came across the fight after France knocked out Brazil 1-0 on Saturday night, he carried the 21-year-old Brazil fan, Austin Ochieng Okello, to his house where he died overnight, Gathiari said.
The other two men, who had been supporting France and apparently began taunting Okello, fled and were still missing.
FIFA to fly kung fu abbot to final
The abbot of China's ancient Shaolin Temple will fly to Germany to watch the World Cup final at the invitation of FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
The FIFA invitation came thanks to the growing influence of the Shaolin Temple and Shaolin kung fu, Xinhua news agency quoted abbot Shi Yongxin as saying.
The temple opened a Shaolin "cultural centre" in Germany in 2001, Xinhua said.
The 1,500 year-old Buddhist temple in China's central province of Henan is famous as the birthplace of Shaolin kung fu but is best known in the West as the training ground of David Carradine's main character, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s "Kung Fu" television series.
African official in ticket probe
A second leading African football official has been implicated in a World Cup ticket scandal, Confederation of African Football (CAF) officials have said.
CAF executive committee member Celestin Musabyimana has been arrested in Rwanda for allegedly forging documents in an attempt to secure tickets to matches at the finals in Germany.
Musabyimana has been charged with fraud after his arrest last month, CAF officials have confirmed.
Last month FIFA sent home Botswana official Ismail Bhamjee after he sold tickets in Germany just after the start of the finals. Bhamjee said he had acted in the belief he was helping desperate fans.