Sports x 07CONTACT US AT: 8351-9190, WINDYSJF@HOTMAIL.COM

Wednesday October 25, 2017

RONALD KOEMAN paid the price for Everton’s poor start to the season, losing his job Monday with the team in the English Premier League relegation zone despite spending about US$200 million on new players.

The Dutchman was dismissed two months into his second season in charge following a 2-5 loss to Arsenal at Goodison Park in Liverpool on Sunday. That left Everton without a win in its last fi ve matches in all competi-tions.

The team has eight points so far in the league and is faring no better in Europe, sitting last in its Europa League group with one point from three games.

Everton returned to conti-nental competition by fi nishing seventh in the English Premier League last season and Koeman benefi ted from about 150 mil-lion pounds (US$198 million) in spending to strengthen the squad in the offseason to take the club to new highs.

Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaassen cost almost 70 mil-lion pounds between them and striker Wayne Rooney was brought back from Old Trafford on a high-profi le free transfer from Manchester United. But Everton didn’t adequately replace Romelu Lukaku, who was sold to United for 75 mil-lion pounds, and has struggled for goals this season, netting only six in the league.

Another 55 million pounds was spent on goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and defender Michael Keane, yet Everton has conceded 18 goals in nine league games and only last-place Crystal Palace has a worse goal difference. Now Everton is searching for a new manager to steer the club out of the drop zone.

“Chairman Bill Kenwright, the board of directors and major shareholder Farhad Moshiri would all like to express their gratitude to Ronald for the service he has given to the club over the past 16 months and for guiding the club to seventh place in last season’s Premier League campaign,” Everton said in a statement.

Beyond the poor results, Ever-ton’s supporters have been dis-couraged by a series of muddled displays with formations and players frequently switched as Koeman, an increasingly distant fi gure, struggled for cohesion.

(SD-Agencies)

Everton fi res Koeman

Ronald Koeman

REAL Madrid’s Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo was crowned the best soccer player in the world for the second year run-ning at FIFA’s The Best awards gala Monday.

The four-time Ballon d’Or winner won a La Liga and Champions League double with the Madrid club this year, strik-ing twice against Juventus in the European Cup fi nal to help Real become the fi rst team to retain the trophy in its current format.

Barcelona’s Argentina forward Lionel Messi, who has won the Ballon d’or fi ve times, and Paris St Germain’s Brazil forward Neymar were runners-up for the award voted for by national team coaches and captains plus the media and fans.

The Best FIFA Men’s Player award and the Ballon d’or, which is voted for only by the media, are now separate awards.

FIFA has shifted its award ceremony from its usual Janu-ary slot to October so players are judged across a season — based on the typical European sched-ule — rather than the calendar year.

Lieke Martens was crowned women’s player of the year after winning the European Champi-onship with the Netherlands.

The 24-year-old winger was part of the Dutch team that beat Denmark in the fi nal in August, scoring once.

She beat Carli Lloyd of the United States and Deyna Cas-tellanos of Venezuela.

Real Madrid’s French coach Zinedine Zidane won the man-ager of the year trophy for his part in the club’s success.

Ronaldo crowned best soccer player

“I don’t think I’m the best coach in the world, far from it,” Zidane said before the cer-emony.

“I’m lucky to be at the best club in the world with the best players. I’m being honest — I like what I’m doing, I do it with passion and I’m getting better at it.”

Zidane fi nished runner-up to Claudio Ranieri in the voting for last season’s gong, which is evenly weighted between national team coaches, national team captains, members of the media and fans.

Sarina Wiegman was named women’s coach of the year at the ceremony.

Wiegman led the Nether-

lands to its fi rst major women’s title when it won the European Championship in August by beating Denmark.

Five Real players were named in the best XI of the year, with Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos joining Ronaldo, while Messi, Neymar, Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Dani Alves (PSG), Leonardo Bonucci (AC Milan) and Andres Iniesta (Barcelona) were also selected.

Buffon was declared best goalkeeper. The 39-year-old won a sixth consecutive Serie A title last season. But he missed out on a fi rst Champions League title when Juventus lost to Real Madrid in the fi nal in June.

Buffon told the ceremony at the Palladium Theater in London: “It wasn’t enough to win in Europe. For this year I hope to play better for the national team and Juventus.”

Italy will take on Sweden in a playoff next month to make the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The FIFA Best awards cer-emony opened with Olivier Giroud winning the goal award for his scorpion-style kick while playing for Arsenal.

The Puskas Award-winning goal from an overhead back-heeled strike came on New Year’s Day in Arsenal’s 2-0 vic-tory over Crystal Palace in the English Premier League.

(SD-Agencies)

BOTH the Memphis Grizzlies and the Houston Rockets were unde-feated heading into Monday’s matchup in the NBA, but it was Memphis that remained perfect after a 98-90 win.

The Grizzlies were coming off a huge win against the Golden State Warriors (111-101) Saturday while the Rockets were without one of their star players, Chris Paul, due to a knee injury.

Even without Paul, the Rockets were able to take control of the game after a close fi rst half but they were not able to close it out late, failing to score more than three points the fi nal six minutes while the Grizzlies embarked on a 20-2 run to end the game.

James Harden was clearly frustrated down the stretch when he pushed Mario Chalm-ers for tripping him while on the ground. Harden was called for an offensive foul and both players were issued technical fouls. The play ignited the Grizzlies to pull away from the 88-88 stalemate.

“He embodies what we are and for that to happen at that point of the game, it got everybody going,’’ Mike Conley said of Chalmers

SIMONA HALEP made a winning start to her WTA Finals campaign with an impressive 6-4, 6-2 vic-tory over Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia on Monday, the Romanian surging clear in the second set to subdue her in-form opponent at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The second Red Group match of the day was a completely one-sided affair when Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki blew away Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-0 in less than an hour to gain revenge for two fi nals defeats against the Ukrainian this season.

Garcia was the last to qualify for the elite eight-woman event when the 24-year-old won back-to-back titles in China but her tournament debut ended in defeat when world No. 1 Halep halted her 11-match winning run in emphatic fashion.

There was little to choose between the aggressive baseliners in the fi rst set but Halep stepped up a gear on the key points in the opener before hassling and har-rying Garcia all over the court in the second to triumph in 88 minutes.

“I am really happy that I could win my fi rst match as the No. 1 in

Grizzlies remain unbeaten with comeback win over Rockets

after the game. “It got everybody believing that, ‘Hey, we belong here, we’re supposed to be here, and this is our chance to win the game.’’’

Grizzlies big man Marc Gasol led the way with 26 points, with fi ve rebounds and two assists while Harden fi nished with 22 points, eight assists and fi ve rebounds.

Meanwhile, Ben Simmons led the 76ers to their fi rst win of the season over the Pistons (97-86).

(SD-Agencies)

Halep, Wozniacki take openers

the world, it takes the pressure off,” Halep, who was beaten by Garcia in the China Open fi nal this month, said in a courtside interview. “I enjoy being in this position and hopefully I can play better in my second match than I did today.”

While Halep was making her fourth straight appearance in Sin-gapore, Garcia belied any signs of big stage nerves with a solid hold in the fi rst game, displaying plenty of aggression and volleying well. (SD-Agencies)

Simona Halep of Romania hits a return against Caroline Garcia of France during their match in Singapore on Monday.

SD-Agencies

Real Madrid’s French coach Zinedine Zidane (R) stands with his trophy for winning The Best FIFA Men’s Coach of 2017 Award alongside Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo, with his trophy for winning The Best FIFA Men’s Player of 2017 Award in London on Monday. SD-Agencies

Houston Rockets’ James Harden reacts during the game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday. SD-Agencies