Tae-yong is expected to be in Indonesia a day after Christmas to sign a contract to be the new head coach of the country’s national team.

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The South Korean admitted that he wasn’t only asked by the Indonesia Football Association (PSSI) to revolutionise the senior team, but also to improve the Under-23 and Under-20 teams.

Tae-yong rejected the advances of China club Shenzhen FC and not even the offers from several top J-League clubs could change his mind on the matter.

“I will go to Indonesia on December 26 to sign the contract. Nothing will change and that is finalised.

“I’ve been asked to improve all aspects of the national teams including the junior teams what with the World Cup U-20 being held in Indonesia,” said Ta-yong in a Dong-A article.

Indonesia is the host of the FIFA tournament in 2021 where the current Under-19 players are expected to be the group that will feature in the tournament.

The coach has plenty of experience in age-group level having taken South Korea to the last 16 of the U20 World Cup in 2017 as well as qualifying the U23 side to the 2016 Olympics.

Source – Goal.com

Having started his career with Malmo FF, the former Sweden striker has now bought shares in rivals Hammarby and his former fans are less than pleased.

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A statue of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his hometown of Malmo has been vandalised – and not for the first time – after his investment in Stockholm club Hammarby IF.

Ibrahimovic started his career with Swedish giants Malmo FF, leaving in 2001 for Ajax and going on to represent Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and LA Galaxy.

Having made 116 appearances for the Swedish national team, scoring 62 goals, he is one of the most famous sportsmen in Scandinavia and Malmo fans hoped he might return to the club in some capacity at the end of his playing career.

Instead Ibrahimovic has bought 23.5 per cent of the shares in Hammarby, an up-and-coming club who finished third in the Allsvenskan last season. Hammarby ended up behind Malmo on goal difference alone and were a single point away from winning only their second ever league title.

Ibrahimovic’s involvement with Hammarby has not gone down well among his former fans. A statue of Ibrahimovic outside Malmo’s home ground, unveiled in October, has been repeatedly damaged since his investment in their rivals was announced last month, with vandals attempting to saw through the feet, cover it with paint, adorn it with toilet seats, bombard it with fireworks and set it on fire.

At one stage, racist graffiti was sprayed on the ground nearby. Swedish police announced that they were investigating, with spokesperson Jimmy Modin telling Sportbladet: “We are at the scene, there is a patrol and we are compiling a report. We will see what they come up with but no-one has been arrested and there are no suspects.”

Now, in the latest act of defacement, someone has cut off the statue’s nose. This also follows vandalism at Ibrahomivic’s house in Stockholm, where someone painted the word ‘Judas’ on his front door.

The statue’s artist Peter Linde has asked people to stop vandalising his work. He told Sportbladet earlier this month: “People act like they’re at war, but this isn’t war, it’s about football. It’s so insane that one cannot respect that Zlatan is a free man.

“I want the statue to be repaired and restored and for those who are doing this to realise how stupid they are.”

Source – Goal.com

Bayern Munich interim coach Hansi Flick will remain in charge until the end of the season, the Bundesliga champions have confirmed.

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Flick was promoted from the coaching staff after Niko Kovac‘s dismissal following Bayern’s 5-1 thrashing away to Eintracht Frankfurt last month.

He was initially hired for two matches against Olympiakos in the Champions League and against Borussia Dortmund in the league. But after two wins he was trusted to continue until the winter break.

Following Bayern’s 2-0 win at home to VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday, CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic agreed that continuing with Flick is “explicitly a viable option”.

“Under him as head coach, the on-field development has been outstanding, both in terms of the quality of our play and the results achieved,” Rummenigge said in a statement.

Bayern currently sit third in the Bundesliga standings, four points behind leaders RB Leipzig ahead of the mid-season break, and have been drawn against Chelsea in the Champions League last 16.

“I’m happy that FC Bayern is continuing to place trust in me as head coach,” Flick said.

“Now we’re recharging our batteries, and we’ll prepare ourselves intensively for the second half of the season at the training camp. Then we’ll try to achieve as many victories and titles as possible.”

Source – Eurosport.com

Lazio deservedly beat Juventus 3-1 to win an entertaining Italian Super Cup game in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Lazio have beaten Juventus in two of the past three Italian Super Cups

The Italian Cup winners led after 16 minutes through Luis Alberto’s finish from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s lay-off but Paulo Dybala levelled with a tap-in at the end of the first half.

Senad Lulic volleyed Lazio back into the lead with 17 minutes to go.

Juve had Rodrigo Bentancur sent off in injury time, and Danilo Cataldi curled home the resulting free-kick for Lazio.

Juventus have only lost two games under Maurizio Sarri, both 3-1 to Lazio this month, having been beaten by Simeone Inzaghi’s side in Serie A two weeks ago.

This was Juve’s eighth consecutive Super Cup appearance – having won Serie A each time – with four of those against Lazio, winning half of them.

Source – BBC News

The Red Devils boss says the goalkeeper remains confident and focused despite his costly error in the loss to Watford.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has dismissed David de Gea’s mistake against Watford as “one of those things” after his side suffered a 2-0 defeat on Sunday.

Watford scored twice in the early stages of the second half to seal the three points against the Red Devils.

De Gea was held responsible for Watford’s first goal as Ismaila Sarr’s shot bounced past him and into the top corner before Troy Deeney converted a penalty.

The loss is United’s first in seven matches in all competitions and leaves them eighth in the Premier League, drifting further behind their rivals for a top-four finish.

Despite the costly setback, Solskjaer praised De Gea’s effort for United and says he still has confidence in him.

“It’s one of those things,” he told BBC Sport. “He’s been so good in training and focused.

“One goal is a mistake and the second is penalty. David’s been very confident lately and I don’t look at it any other way.”

He continued to Sky Sports: “It was a mistake. It happens in football and it is what we train for every day to make sure they don’t happen again.

“David has been very good lately, it is just one of those things that happen.

“You have to earn every point on the pitch and today we didn’t deserve that. I can talk about it all day long. We have to face the fact we have two games coming up that we have to improve on.”

United attacker Jesse Lingard missed United’s biggest opportunity in the first half when he went through on goal but tried to chip it over Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster and missed the target.

Although the coach feels the attacker made the wrong decision, he held off criticising him.

“Ben Foster stood up so I don’t think a chip was the right option,” he added. “It was a good run, we could have been 1-0 up but it happens.

“Sometimes you miss the target and sometimes you score.

“We need a reaction.”

United are in action again on Boxing Day, when they host Newcastle at Old Trafford before they visit Burnley two days later in their last game of 2019.

Source – Goal.com

After the German was the victim of alleged racist abuse during Sunday match, the home side has pledged to take action.

Robert Lewandowski: Bayern Munich striker to have groin operation.

Robert Lewandowski scored the quickest quadruple in Champions League history against Red Star Belgrade in November

The Bundesliga’s top goalscorer with 19 goals after 16 games, Lewandowski is expected to be out for 10 to 14 days.

Bayern are third in the German top flight and will have a four-week winter break after Saturday’s fixture.

“We don’t want to lose any time,” said Bayern manager Hansi Flick on Friday.

Lewandowski became the Bundesliga’s all-time third highest goalscorer with his 221st goal in 306 games in the competition against Freiburg on Wednesday.

Bayern beat Freiburg 3-1 courtesy of two goals in injury time to remain four points behind leaders RB Leipzig, as they chase an eighth consecutive Bundesliga title.

Lewandowski has made a blistering start to the 2019-20 campaign, scoring in the first 15 of Bayern’s European and Bundesliga games and netting the quickest quadruple in Champions League history against Red Star Belgrade in November.

He has scored 30 goals in 24 games across all competitions for Bayern this season.

Source – BBC News

Mino Raiola says that Paul Pogba would love to “win prizes” at Manchester United but admits the club blocked a potential move to Real Madrid last summer.

Paul Pogba wants to win trophies with Manchester United

Pogba, who has not played for United due to injury since September 30, was heavily linked with a move to the Spanish giants before the start of the season but Raiola has insisted that the 26-year-old would not push for a transfer due to the respect he has for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Despite that, the World Cup winner continues to be linked with a move away from United after rejoining the club for a then-world-record £89″For example, he’s not able to be angry at Ole because Ole treated him so good when Ole was an older player and Paul was a younger player and the respect and the love that he received from Ole means he cannot get angry at Ole.in 2016, a move Pogba made “with his heart” according to Raiola, but the agent says the midfielder remains keen to win trophies at Old Trafford.

“I think that Paul really went home,” Raiola told the Daily Telegraph. “Paul could have gone elsewhere. But he really chose with his heart, to go home. Paul is a very, very nice person.

“For example, he’s not able to be angry at Ole because Ole treated him so good when Ole was an older player and Paul was a younger player and the respect and the love that he received from Ole means he cannot get angry at Ole.

Paul Pogba wants to ‘win prizes’ at Manchester United says Mino Raiola

“Paul wants to be successful and happy and wants to win prizes and he would love to do that with Manchester United. Okay there was big interest from Real Madrid and Manchester didn’t let him go. We didn’t make a fuss about it and he didn’t make a fuss about it because I work in accordance with the player.

“You know other players can bring things to extreme but Paul doesn’t like that. So you work differently. There was an interest from Real Madrid but they didn’t let him go and I’m sorry because I think that Paul being French then [Zinedine] Zidane is an important factor in French football history.”

Raiola believes that United need to appoint a sporting director who can “bridge the sides” between the team, coach and owners and says the club are lacking in a clear philosophy in terms of players and how to play.

Source – Sky Sport

The Portuguese believes that head coaches with more experience are now being snubbed in favour of those new to the job.

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Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has taken a sly dig at Arsenal’s decision to hire Mikel Arteta as their new head coach, saying clubs now think the best candidates are the ones with ‘zero defeats’ rather than ‘more victories.’

Mourinho had been linked with the Gunners as pressure mounted on then-boss Unai Emery, but Spurs made the surprise decision to sack Mauricio Pochettino after a poor start to the season and hire the former Chelsea and Manchester United man instead.

Arsenal, on the other hand, have elected to place their faith in former midfielder Arteta, who has never been a head coach before, over Carlo Ancelotti, who seems set to take over at Everton – a decision Mourinho finds difficult to understand.

“The only point I can find, and it is for us to laugh a little bit, is that years ago the best managers were the guys with more victories and now the best is the guy with the fewest defeats,” he said.

“So, Ancelotti has three Champions Leagues, won the league in Italy, France and England and won cups here and there – but Ancelotti has lost, I don’t know, 200 matches?

“I have lost 150-180 – Carlo is a little bit older than me. I think now it is not about how much you won, it is about the matches we didn’t lose. So, probably the best managers now are the managers with zero defeats.

“The only reason I can understand is that they look through the CVs and see guys with more defeats and guys with less defeats, so guys with less defeats are given the job. I cannot find another reason.”

Mourinho has plenty of trophies to his name and feels confident he can take Spurs one step further than his predecessor Pochettino did and win silverware for the north London club.

“If you don’t win, it is better being close to winning than to be far away,” he said. “Tottenham were close to winning the league when Leicester won, were close to winning the Champions League last season and close to winning the League Cup when I played against Tottenham.

“Of course, we are going to try [to take the next step]. It’s not my profile, or my DNA to be comfortable with ‘almost’. I never liked very much the almost.”

Source – Goal.com