World football’s governing body announced a trio of nominees for The Best FIFA’s Men Player award on Monday, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah, and Golden Ball winner Luka Modric beating out seven others shortlisted for the annual honor.
Barcelona star Lionel Messi and World Cup-winning Frenchmen Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, and Raphael Varane are among those not named as finalists, as are Belgian duo Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, and England’s Harry Kane. Messi had been a finalist for the award in each of the last 11 years.
FIFA also revealed the three finalists for the Men’s Coach Award, with the third man to win the World Cup as a player and a manager, Didier Deschamps, joined by fellow former Les Bleus standout and last year’s winner Zinedine Zidane and Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic.
The distinction for best goalkeeper also appears to heavily weigh international exploits over those for club, with France’s Hugo Lloris, Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois, and Denmark shot-stopper Kasper Schmeichel nabbing nods.
Nominees for the Women’s Player Award and Women’s Coach Award were also revealed. Brazilian legend Marta, German midfielder Dzsenifer Marozsan, and Norway’s Ada Hegerberg are up for the player’s distinction, while Netherlands’ former winner Sarina Wiegman was named for the coaching honor alongside Lyon gaffer Reynald Pedros and Japan’s Asako Takakura.
The quintet of accolades and the FIFA Puskas Award will be handed out in London on Sept. 24.
ALAMEDA, Calif. — While Derek Carr did not expect Khalil Mack to be traded, the Oakland Raiders quarterback said the team is already over the shock of the two-time first-team All-Pro edge rusher and 2016 NFL Defensive Player of the Year being traded to the Chicago Bears.
“It isn’t what anybody wanted — I think that’s clear,” Carr said Monday, two days after the Raiders packaged Mack, who had been holding out all offseason, a second-round draft pick in 2020 and a 2020 conditional fifth-rounder to Chicago for the Bears’ first-round picks in 2019 and 2020, a sixth-rounder in 2019 and a third-rounder in 2020.
The Raiders on Monday signed veteran wide receiver Brandon LaFell, days after moving on from wide receiver Martavis Bryant
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“But it is what it is — it’s part of the business,” Carr added. “It’s one of those sucky things that happen. The hardest part for me is, obviously, you lose a good football player, but he’s my brother, man. He’s one of my best friends. I think the hardest part is, I don’t get to see my friend every day.”
Carr and Mack came to Oakland in the 2014 draft, with general manager Reggie McKenzie using the No. 5 overall pick on Mack and the fourth selection of the second round on Carr.
The two had goals of changing the losing culture in Oakland, which had not had a winning season since 2002, and winning games while making the Raiders a desirable destination for free agents.
“And I feel like we did that,” Carr said.
In 2014, their respective NFL careers got off to an 0-10 start. Two years later, the Raiders went 12-4 with a postseason appearance as Carr, despite missing the season finale and playoff loss at Houston with a broken right leg, finished tied for third in NFL MVP voting and Mack was feted as the league’s best defensive player.
Carr said he and Mack had “planned the next 10, 15 years of our life” going forward.
“We both have kind of the same goals; I just don’t want him to win the Super Bowl,” Carr said with an uneasy laugh.
“I’m still going to dunk on him when he comes to my house in the offseason. He can expect that.”
Carr again laughed nervously.
Derek Carr says he and Khalil Mack had “planned the next 10, 15 years of our life” going forward. Cary Edmondson/USA TODAY Sports
The Bears then inked Mack to a record six-year, $141 million deal with $90 million guaranteed after acquiring him, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported. Gruden said the Raiders’ offer to Mack, made back at the start of the league year in March, did not come close.
The Raiders, meanwhile, had given extensions to Carr, right guard Gabe Jackson (five years, $56 million) and defensive tackle Justin “Jelly” Ellis (three years, $15 million) in the past year.
“That’s what makes it hard, because we all knew, me, Gabe, Khalil, Jelly, we all saw it coming,” Carr said. “It’s one of those things that you just hope it can work out. We all did our best, I’ll say it that way … it just didn’t work out that way. Honestly, it hurts because we did, we tried, and we were always open.”
Carr added that the shock has worn off “because we’re back to work.”
“I think, obviously, we had the day off that day and so that made it harder because I’m just sitting there thinking about it all day. Whereas now, I’ve got a job to do. Once we showed up and got to work, Coach addressed it with the team, said what he said, invited anyone who needed to talk to him, open door. He understood that a lot of us were close with him,” Carr said.
“It’s one of those situations that sucks — we lost our friend, we lost our brother, but we have games to win, we’ve got a job to do.”
Derek Carr
“It didn’t go away, because he’s your buddy, but at the same time it went away because we have a game to get ready for.”
Still, Carr said he was initially worried about the effect of Mack being traded on the Raiders’ locker room.
But no more. Not with teammates calling to reassure the quarterback.
“It’s one of those situations that sucks — we lost our friend, we lost our brother, but we have games to win, we’ve got a job to do,” Carr said he was told.
“And I think that’s the mark of Mr. McKenzie and Coach Gruden bringing in the right kind of people … handle it like men. You don’t have to like it or agree with it, but we’re paid to win games.”
Tottenham confirmed on Monday that plans to open their new stadium in time for a visit from Manchester City on Oct. 28 have been delayed.
The north London side released a statement, adding that the match with the reigning Premier League champions will be played at Wembley Stadium on Monday, Oct. 29 because of an NFL game scheduled for the previous day. The club’s initial plans were to open the new stadium for a Sept. 15 visit from Liverpool.
Tottenham also confirmed that England’s national stadium will also be the venue for the club’s three Champions League group stage matches against Barcelona (Oct. 3), PSV (Nov. 6), and Inter (Nov. 28).
The club played all of their home matches at Wembley last season amid the construction of a new 62,062-seater ground at the same location as White Hart Lane.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy apologized for the delay as part of the club’s statement:
Amongst the consequences of the delay have been substantial additional costs, not least of which the need for alternative venue hire, along with the inconvenience for our fans and those of our opposition.
I want to apologise once again and thank you all for your support, many of you have taken the time to write to us and commend what we are doing for the Club. When you face times like this in an organisation it’s teamwork and pulling together that gets you through.
We are now being regularly updated on progress and as soon as we have confidence in our project managers’ and contractors’ ability to deliver against the revised schedule of works, we shall be able to issue dates for test events and the official opening game.
Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy said Sunday that he will be “smart” but aggressive in getting Khalil Mack up to speed in time to play next Sunday night at the Green Bay Packers.
Nagy said Mack will practice Monday and the Bears are “going to do everything we can to get him to a point to where he can play.” Asked to clarify the likelihood of Mack playing in Week 1, Nagy answered, “Hopefully pretty good.”
“We’ll get to see where he’s at mentally here after tonight, and then physically we’ll have a practice tomorrow and physically get an idea, and then we’ll just kind of have to listen to his feedback where he’s at,” Nagy said. “We told him, communication is imperative here. It’s not like being able to plug somebody in on a Madden game and just say, ‘Go sack the quarterback.’ There’s some planning that goes [into it].
DE Khalil Mack, traded from Oakland to Chicago, is now the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history with a six-year extension that averages $23.5M per season.
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“We’ll see where he’s at, and hopefully he’s able to go out there and play well, but it will be more of a day-by-day thing than anything.”
Mack held out of training camp with the Oakland Raiders before he was traded to the Bears on Saturday. Mack, who was training on his own during his holdout, was asked Sunday how ready he thinks he will be.
“I feel like I’m ready, but you know, the game, we’ve got to get out there and get to it, and my body will respond the way it’s going to respond, and then coaches are going to kind of ease me into it, and so we’re going to figure it out,” he said.
The Bears gave up first-round picks in 2019 and 2020, a third-round pick in 2020 and a sixth-round pick in 2019 to acquire Mack earlier Saturday. In return, the Bears received a second-round pick in 2020 and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2020.
Bears general manager Ryan Pace said getting the second-round pick in 2020 from the Raiders was a “critical piece” of the trade for the Bears.
“In that draft, we’re going to have two 2s, and I think we’ve proven that in the second round, we can get high-caliber players,” he said. “So that was important because you’re talking about draft capital and also financial resources you’re giving up, but fortunately we’re in a really good space with our salary cap, and so our roster can handle this right now.”
Mack agreed to a record-setting, six-year, $141 million extension, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Mack is now the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history. The deal, which averages $23.5 million per season, includes $90 million in guaranteed money and $60 million at signing, the source said.
Mack said he “absolutely” feels pressure with the status of being the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player.
“I’d be lying if I told you it weren’t. But just based on how hard I worked and how hard I play, I want to be able to go out and show why, and that’s just me,” he said. “I’ve always thought of myself as the best defensive player in the league, and I want to play like the best defensive player in the league. I want to be the best at what I do, and that’s just me.”
