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Mbappe under fire for skipping France duty while fit to play for Real Madrid

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The forward picked up a muscle injury last month but made his return to the pitch in the Champions League last Wednesday.

France coach Didier Deschamps left Mbappe out of the squad he announced on Thursday, saying the 25-year-old lacked preparation, having played too few matches.

Mbappe started Real’s La Liga game against Villarreal on Saturday.

“Either you’re injured, and you don’t play with your club and you’re not called up in the national team,” former France international Maxime Bossis told French sports daily L’Equipe on Monday.

“But when you come off the bench in the Champions League and you start a league game, it makes things fuzzy. He’s a special player. We’ve known that with Michel Platini, when we still wanted him with us when he was injured.”

Mbappe’s situation is more complicated because the former Paris St Germain player is the national team captain after being handed the armband ahead of Antoine Griezmann, who last week announced his retirement from international football.

Griezmann’s commitment to Les Bleus was never in doubt as the Atletico Madrid forward played a record 84 consecutive matches for his country between 2017 and 2024.

“As a captain (Mbappe) must be an example for the fans, and he has not been,” Fabien Bonnet, spokesperson for the Irresistibles Francais, the main France supporters’ group, told L’Equipe.

“What emerges is that the real captain, Antoine Griezmann, is gone.”

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France, second in Group A, face Israel in Budapest on Thursday and travel to Belgium next Monday. (Reuters/NAN)

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Teenager hands Djokovic shock defeat in Miami Open final

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Nineteen-year-old Czech Jakub Mensik beat his childhood idol Novak Djokovic 7-6(4) 7-6(4) in an upset for the ages on Sunday, claiming his first ATP title at the Miami Open.

Victory for Mensik meant he denied the former number one, Djokovic, his bid for a milestone 100th.

The 54th-ranked Mensik faced tough odds in only his second ATP final but harnessed his best weapon to subdue the 24-time major winner with 14 aces.

He collapsed onto the court, overcome with emotion, after sealing it with an unreturnable serve.

The oldest ever to reach a Masters 1000 final, 37-year-old Djokovic had hoped to join Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) as the only three men in the Open Era with 100 or more titles.

He however ran out of steam in the end.

“When I was young I started to play tennis because of you,” Mensik said to his opponent at the trophy ceremony.

“There is no harder task for a tennis player than to beat you in the finals of a tournament.”

Djokovic arrived on the court after several hours of rain delays with swelling near his right eye.

He appeared off-kilter as he handed Mensik a break with a clumsy shot out of bounds in the second game.

He slipped and fell in the fifth game, taking his time to get back up off the court.

This was as his legions of devoted fans in Hard Rock Stadium urged him on, and applied eye drops to his afflicted eye during the changeover.

The Serb levelled it in the seventh but boiled over with frustration as Mensik got off to a 5-0 head start in the tiebreak.

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He fumed at his box, where his former rival-turned-coach Andy Murray sat stone-faced.

The Czech held his nerve, meanwhile, and pumped his fist with satisfaction as he clinched the set with an overhead smash.

The two players battled toe-to-toe in a thrilling second set, where Mensik used his speed to his advantage to neutralise Djokovic’s fine drop shots at the net.

Djokovic had his veteran survival instincts on display as he fended off two break points in the fifth game.

But he gradually showed the wear-and-tear of the match before collapsing from exhaustion after a 21-shot rally in the tiebreak.

“It hurts me to admit it but you were better,” said Djokovic, who had previously invited Mensik to train with him after the then-16-year-old reached the Australian Open juniors final in 2022.

“In the clutch moments, you delivered the goods.”

The win capped a dream run through the tournament for Mensik, who upset third seed Taylor Fritz en route to the final.

“To be honest, I don’t know what to say. It feels incredible, obviously,” he said in on-court remarks.

The victory was made all the more sweet as Mensik said he nearly dropped out of the tournament an hour before his first match due to knee pain.

He gave his physio full credit for keeping his hopes alive.

“I came for treatment, needed a miracle,” said Mensik. “And because of him I stepped on the court and because of him I’m standing here.”(Reuters/NAN)

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Arsenal, Tottenham to play pre-season derby in Hong Kong

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The London rivals will play at the southern Chinese city’s new 50,000-capacity Kai Tak Stadium on July 31.

“Playing against Tottenham Hotspur in the magnificent new Kai Tak Stadium will be a great experience for both teams and supporters, and will be a very important part of our pre-season preparations ahead of the new season,” said Arsenal’s managing director Richard Garlick.

Liverpool will play Serie A giants Milan on July 26 at the same stadium.

It will be a replay of the classic 2005 Champions League final, which the Reds won on penalties after being 3-0 down at half-time.

Arne Slot’s Liverpool are likely to head to Hong Kong as Premier League champions — they are currently 12 points clear with nine games left.

Liverpool will also travel to Japan for the first time during pre-season, the club said, without giving dates.

Hong Kong this month officially opened a major $3.85 billion sports park with futuristic Kai Tak Stadium the centrepiece of it.

The stadium saw its first major event at the weekend when it hosted the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens with more than 110,000 spectators attending over three days.

It is all part of efforts to restore the city’s image, which took a battering after political protests and a Beijing-imposed national security law.

Visitor numbers to Hong Kong also plummeted during almost three years of strict Covid curbs and have only recently begun to recover.

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Nigerian Boxer ‘Success’ Olanrewaju Dies After Ring Collapse

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A Nigerian boxer, Segun “Success” Olanrewaju, has died after slumping during a boxing match in Ghana.

The Secretary-General of the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C), Remi Aboderin confirmed the death of the boxer on Sunday.

The 40-year-old boxer, nicknamed “Success”, stumbled to the canvas while fighting Jon Mbanugu, a Ghanian, at Fight Night 15 of the Ghana Professional Boxing League at Bukom Boxing Arena, Accra, on Saturday.

Olanrewaju was not punched or near his opponent when he collapsed violently in round three of the light-heavyweight bout.

The referee called the match immediately, and medical aid was ushered into the ring.

Olarenwaju died after he was rushed to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

Ther boxer was a former West African and national light-heavyweight champion.

He competed in 24 bouts with 13 wins, eight losses, and three draws.

In 2022, Chukwuemeka Igboanugo, another boxer, also died after suffering a technical knockout (TKO) in a bout at the National Sports Festival (NSF) in Delta.

Igboanugo died after he took a fatal blow to the nose and did not survive the hit.

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