Padilla, primero por la dcha., con el Cádiz de Mágico, de gira por EEUU.
Por Sebastián Dulbeca
"Tenía algunas ofertas y estuve cerca de fichar por el Villarreal, pero al final quise cumplir uno de mis sueños: volver a mi tierra, adquirir una parcela y dedicarme al olivar". Click to continue reading...

Spain regain top slot in this month's Fifa world rankings. Brazil are second followed by the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal. England are in 9th place. Argentina are 8th.
France are in 7th after Thierry Henry handed them victory in their World Cup play off encounter with Ireland in Paris. Cameroon are the highest African team in 11th. Click to continue reading...

1986 World Cup in Mexico...Argentina vs England...Diego Armando Maradona...If you still don't know what I'm talking about, here's a quick summary:It was a quarter final game and Argentina defeated England 2-1. Argentina's second goal was scored by Maradona, who is 5 ft 5 in, against England's goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who is 6 ft 1 in, on a "header"! Click to continue reading...

The Football Finance website "Futebol Finance" (Portugues) publishan interesting article to hightlight the "Top 20 Most Valuable U-21Players in the World". The first Top 3 named "youngsters" all play inthe Spanish League - "La Liga". (Sergio Aguero for Atletico de Madrid)LIST: The TOP 20 players U-21 most valuable in the world 2009Name Age Country Club Amount€1 . Click to continue reading...

Este es el fixture completo de la 8va edición de la Copa Sudamericana.Participan 32 equipos de los 10 países miembros de la Conmebol. Esta vez no hay invitados de la Concacaf.Aquí todo el programa de partidos de la Copa Sudamericana 2009, que concluirá el 2 de diciembre:
FASE PRELIMINAR
26/8 - Belo Horizonte: Atlético Mineiro 1 - 1 Goiás
16/9 - Goiania: Goiás 1 - 1 Atlético Mineiro / Goiás clasificó por penales 6-5
5/8 - Bogotá: La Equidad 2 - 2 Unión Española
25/8 - Santiago: Unión Española 1 - 0 La Equidad
13/8 - Salvador: Vitória 2 - 0 Coritiba
15/8 - Curitiba: Coritiba 2 - 0 Vitória / Vitória clasificó por penales 5-3
4/8 - Santiago: Universidad de Chile 2 - 1 Dep. Click to continue reading...

With 32 names in the bag (irrespective of how they got there) thoughts can now turn to the subject of the draw for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.
The first thing to be decided is which countries to seed. This is calculated just before the draw and is based on past performances in recent World Cups and the FIFA World Ranking. Click to continue reading...

Who can wait a month? I had to speculate the pots and make my own groups:

GROUP A -- South Africa, Greece, North Korea, Paraguay
GROUP B -- Brazil, Slovenia, Honduras, Nigeria
GROUP C -- Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Uruguay
GROUP D -- Spain, Slovakia, USA, Ghana
GROUP E -- Argentina, Netherlands, Mexico, Cameroon
GROUP F -- Italy, Serbia, South Korea, Chile
GROUP G -- France, Portugal, Australia, Algeria
GROUP H -- England, Switzerland, Japan, Ivory Coast

How about that Group E, eh? Click to continue reading...

Novit� importanti arrivano dal Ranking Fifa relativo alle nazionali. Sono, infatti, le Furie rosse a strappare il vertice della speciale graduatoria al titolato e prestigioso Brasile. In testa da luglio, la corazzata verdeoro si vede superare, dunque, dalla Spagna, campione d'Europa in carica.
Al terzo posto, sul gradino più basso del podio, c'è l'Olanda. Click to continue reading...

FIFA has made official its National Team Ranking for December issuingtheir table today. As advanced earlier in the week, SPAIN regains theNº1 spot from Brazil.Here are the Top 10 places:1. Spain 1622 pts2. Brazil 15923. Holland 12794. Italy 12155. Portugal 11816. Germany 11707. France 11228. Argentina 10859. Click to continue reading...

You know that baby wanted a photo with Martin Palermo... but his family stopped Veron's sleek black ride instead as it drove up to Estudiantes' training ground last week. The baby's got the "Papa, you lied. We were supposed to go to Boca's training ground, dammmit!

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Portugal/Argentina - 1938
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Estos son los 32 países clasificados a la XIX Copa Mundial de la FIFA, Sudáfrica 2010:
Por la UEFA: Alemania, Dinamarca, Eslovaquia, Eslovenia, España, Francia, Grecia, Holanda, Inglaterra, Italia, Portugal, Serbia y Suiza.
Por la Conmebol: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay. Click to continue reading...

The Algerian post-match celebrations.

[101GG]

• Hooligans force a player's premature retirement. (Dirty Tackle)
• The Diego Ban and How It Affects You (Futfanatico)
• Beginning the search for Scotland's next manager. (Inside Left)
• The vignettes of Finland.

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British newspaper reports say that Chelsea are closing in on a deal for Sergio Aguero from Atletico Madrid which could be worth £50million.

The deal would make the Argentina striker the highest-paid player in the Barclays Premier League at more than £170,000-a-week.

Over the summer Chelsea had a £31m bid for Aguero turned down last summer but are now prepared to increase their offer after seeing Aguero score two stunning goals against Chelsea in the Champions League earlier this month.

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From the country that brought you "Maradona, the coach", even greater wisdom has now conceived the Plan for Argentina to Win the World Cup™: a virtual petition demanding Messi get the perm job Maradona wore to the '86 Final. I love this; the best people's movement since the petition to bring back Family Guy when it got canceled. Click to continue reading...

Gaby Milito is finally back on the football field.

Milito played the first 45 minutes in Barcelona's friendly yesterday against FC Bolivar.

It's been a long road back for Milito. He's been sidelined for 569 days since injuring his right knee in a Champions League game against Manchester United.

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Benfica midfielder Angel di Maria has been the subject of much transfer speculation recently, with Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool all linked with the Argentine international. A ridiculous fee of £36million has been mentioned for the 21 year old, although somewhere around £10-15million is more likely.

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Citeh striker might feel more at home at Rovers Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez is improving his notoriously dodgy linguistic skills with the help of ITV soap Coronation Street. The Argentina international has recently come under fire from team-mate and compatriot Pablo Zabaleta for his poor English, but Tevez seems eager to step up to the [. Click to continue reading...

So another weekend has passed with another story linking Javier Mascherano with a move to Barcelona.
It was good to read in the ECHO yesterday that Liverpool quickly dismissed the speculation, as he is an important player.
But the time has now come for Argentina's captain to back up the faith many have shown in him with a string of top displays for the Reds at this most crucial period. Click to continue reading...

The great Alfredo Di Stéfano was honored by the Argentine government with the title of Argentina Sports Ambassador.

The ceremony took place in Madrid. Julio Grondona spoke and presented Di Stéfano with an Argentina shirt autographed by all the current national team players.

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For many years Carlos Bilardo campaigned for his players from the 1986 World Cup to be brought as managers to all levels of the national team. These players who eventually became managers are refered to by the Argentine media as the "86 Generation".

Players like Jorge Luis Burruchaga, Hector Enrique, Sergio Batista, Jose Luis Brown, Nery Pumpido, Oscar Garre, Julio Olarticochea.

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Okay, so as far as we can gather, Leo needs to grow his hair like Maradona for them to bond during Argentina's World Cup action. Or, it's an ode to perms. Or a warning not to get perms. Or a reminder that only extremely talented footy players are allowed to have perms.

Yeah, no idea.

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El comité disciplinario de la FIFA, dio a conocer el castigo del técnico argentino Diego Armando Maradona.

Solo dos meses fuera de cualquier actividad relacionada con el futbol y una multa de 16.500 euros, fue lo que se ganó Maradona por insultar a los medios de comunicación tras el partido de Argentina vs Uruguay.

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According to Spanish daily MARCA, the bowls for the World Cup final draw have already been arranged. Now, the arrangements are pending approval by the FIFA Executive Committee, and MARCA tends to be wrong quite a bit, so take this with some grains of salt. Given all that, the composition of the bowls is the following: Seeds (Bowl 1): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England, France (if they beat Ireland) Bowl 2: the remaining UEFA teams Bowl 3: the CAF/CONMEBOL teams Bowl 4: the AFC/CONCACAF teams (Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras) The. Click to continue reading...

Rumours of the potential transfer of Javier Mascherano from Liverpool to Barcelona during the winter transfer window are understood to be without any concrete foundation, according to Spanish publication Sport.
Speculation surrounding the Argentina captain has continued throughout the season after he was strongly linked with a summer move to Camp Nou and recent reports suggested that the players representatives had reached an agreement on the personal terms of a winter move. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool are not expecting any fresh interest from Barcelona in Javier Mascherano in January.
Weekend reports suggested the midfielder's advisers had already negotiated personal terms with the Catalans in advance of a transfer fee being agreed with the Reds.
However, there has been no contact between the clubs since the summer when Barca were informed Mascherano was not for sale. Click to continue reading...

Welcome to the World Cup party New Zealand, Nigeria and Cameroon!
Egypt scored a goal in the 5th minute of extra time against Algeria to keep its W.C. dream alive, it needed a 2-0 result. The rematch between the two teams is Wednesday in Sudan.
Here are the results of the UEFA playoff first legs: Russia 2-1 Slovenia, Ireland 0-1 France, Portugal 1-0 Bosnia, Ukraine 0-0 Greece. Click to continue reading...

The Argentina coach is banned from all football related activity for two months and has been fined 25 thousand Swiss francs for his post-match rant following the World Cup qualifier against Uruguay last month... Click to continue reading...

After trying his best to engineer a move away from Anfield in the summer, rumours are flying again that Javier Mascherano is on the verge of leaving Liverpool. So where's the problem? Why can't Liverpool just let him leave? There seems to be this idea that Mascherano is somehow irreplaceable and integral to Liverpool's success, but in my view, Liverpool could cope perfectly well without him. Click to continue reading...

Class Act FIFA has banned Argentina Manager Diego Maradona from football from Nov 15- Jan 15 following his outburst post 1-0 victory over Uruguay last month. The stress of World Cup Qualification proved a bit much for Diego and although his nation had just won their spot in South Africa, he opened up in a lewd tirade [. Click to continue reading...

Diego Maradona was banned from all football for two months by FIFA on Sunday over his sexually-explicit rant last month. The Argentina coach, who was also fined 25,000 Swiss francs (24,691 dollars, 16,565 euros), fell foul of world football's governing body after losing his cool with journalists following Argentina's qualification for . Click to continue reading...

FIFA will hand in its December 2009 Football rankings in a few days,but until then we can advance that SPAIN will regain the Nº1 Nationposition after defeating Argentina 2-1 last Saturday.Spain overtakes Brazil who is the only country in which Spain hasn´t played or defeated, being a World Champion. Click to continue reading...

La selección de Suiza ganó el primer título de su historia, en el 13er Campeonato Mundial Sub 17 de la FIFA (Sub 16 hasta 1991) que se disputó en Nigeria. Los helvéticos tuvieron un paso arrollador, que dejó en el camino a los grandes del fútbol mundial y de la categoría: Brasil, Alemania, Italia y la propia Nigeria, que era la poseedora del trofeo. Click to continue reading...

There's never a dull moment in the life of Diego Armando Maradona. Following last month's crunch World Cup qualifying victory over Uruguay, guaranteeing his side's passage to next summer's Finals, the current Argentina coach unleashed an almighty, foul-mouthed tirade at journalists and critics.

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Argentina were thoroughly outclassed by the European champions on Saturday night in the Vicente Calderón, losing 2-1. Xabi Alonso scored twice for the home side, the second a late penalty, whilst Lionel Messi got a temporary equaliser also from the spot after just over an hour. I wasn't in the best shape last night, hence [. Click to continue reading...