The Maltese Super Cup might be worth a watch if Valletta FC succeed in their quest to sign eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt.
Days after scoring his first professional goals for the Central Coast Mariners in Australia, Bolt has a chance to play in Europe following news that Valletta FC have offered the Jamaican a two-year contract in a bid to enhance their chances of competing in the Champions League, according to Stephanie Brantz and Tom Hamilton of ESPN FC.
“A champion is always welcome and at Valletta FC we believe nothing is impossible,” managing director and CEO Ghasston Slimen said.
Slimen added that the club hopes to secure Bolt’s services in time for the 32-year-old to be available to compete in the Maltese Super Cup against Balzan on Dec. 13
Bolt’s agent, Tony Rallis, hinted that his client had an offer on the table from a club that had recently been taken over by new owners whose objective is to compete in the Champions League.
Valetta FC have won the Maltese Premier League in five of the last eight seasons, but the club has failed to advance beyond the European tournament’s second qualifying round – most recently losing to Albanian side Kukesi in the first round of Champions League qualifying on away goals before failing to reach the Europa League when it lost to Bosnia’s Zrinjski Mostar.
Bolt, who previously expressed a desire to play for his favorite club, Manchester United, and trained with Bundesliga outfit Borussia Dortmund, opened his professional scoring account with an impressive goal Saturday before doubling his tally thanks to a defensive gaffe.
Despite his impressive display, Central Coast Mariners CEO Shaun Mielekamp wasn’t ready to guarantee a future for Bolt at the club, saying, “it’s too early to tell” whether he would be offered a permanent contract.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots would have liked to finish more decisively what they started in Sunday night’s 43-40 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs — a game they won at the final gun with a 28-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal.
But the end result was still pretty sweet, as these are the types of games — with just one punt between the teams and a tense finish in which clutch plays needed to be made down the stretch — that can build championship mettle.
“I think we’ve got a lot of clutch players. I think we have no problem grinding it out,” quarterback Tom Brady said. “That’s what the football season’s all about.”
Even better for the Patriots: By improving to 4-2, and dropping the Chiefs to 5-1, it keeps them out of what could have been too deep of a hole from which to recover for possible home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs.
Of course, that’s a long way away.
The Patriots prevailed with a last-second field goal in an impressive back-and-forth contest that had the atmosphere of a playoff game. Jim Rogash/Getty Images
They head to Chicago having learned a lot about their team.
Coach Bill Belichick has said that two of the most important characteristics of his best squads are mental toughness and the ability to rise up in the crucial situations to make winning plays. The 2018 Patriots showed Sunday night they are capable of that.
“That was a great job by our players and coaching staff. Just battling for 60 minutes. We talked about that all week,” Belichick said. “In the end, we were able to just do a little bit more, do enough. I’m really proud of the way we competed all the way through — from the opening kickoff to the final kick. It’s a great effort. I thought we went out and played hard. I think we deserved it.”
The Patriots led 24-9 at halftime, which at their home stadium is one of the most ironclad locks in professional sports. Since Brady took over as the starter in 2001, the Patriots are 95-1 in the regular season at home when leading at the half.
The lone loss came to the Chiefs (in the 2017 season opener), and in a stunning second-half turnaround Sunday night, it looked as if the Chiefs were ready to do it again.
A Patriots defense that forced two turnovers in the first half suddenly became vulnerable to the big play after halftime. Uncharacteristic decision-making from Brady led to a strip sack that Kansas City quickly turned into a third-quarter touchdown.
“I don’t think we’ve seen our best. We can all play a lot better,” Brady said. “And that’s what we plan to do.”
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Tom Brady floats the ball deep to Rob Gronkowski for a 39-yard gain, setting up Stephen Gostkowski for a 28-yard field goal to win the game.
But the Patriots showed fortitude in overcoming the slippage — a clutch play with the game on the line as old reliable Rob Gronkowski reeled in a 39-yard catch to set up the winning field goal as time expired — in what was a playoff-type environment.
“I’ll keep throwing to him in the biggest moments,” Brady said of Gronkowski, whose big catch was the 500th of his career. “We talked about competing for 60 minutes, and that’s what it took — right down to the last three seconds.”
In doing so, the Patriots improved to 94-2 at home with Brady as a starter when they get a double-digit lead.
“A lot of us had been expecting that all week, knowing that’s a high-powered offense,” Patriots receiver Josh Gordon said. “We had one of our own, so we were expecting to take it the full length of the game.”
Ajax sporting director Marc Overmars has said there is a “zero percent” chance teenage defensive star Matthijs De Ligt will leave the club in January.
De Ligt is just 19 but has reportedly attracted the interest of clubs including Barcelona and Manchester City with his hugely impressive, commanding performances for the Dutch giants. His defensive display as Ajax secured a 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich in the Champions League at the start of October was of particular note.
Related – Report: Manchester City monitoring Ajax stud De Ligt
Overmars, who played for both Ajax and Barca during his own career, has insisted that although “it’s a possibility” the phenom will leave next summer, he will be completing the current season in Amsterdam.
“The chances of De Ligt leaving Ajax in January are zero percent,” Overmars told LaRoma24, via ESPN’s Sam Marsden.
Matthijs de Ligt is the third-youngest player in history to earn 10 senior caps for the Netherlands men’s national team.
The youngest in the post-war era. ?? pic.twitter.com/Zk1BZKbpmk
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) October 13, 2018
De Ligt is regarded as one of European football’s next biggest stars. The center-back made his senior Ajax debut as a 17-year-old two years ago and was named club captain at the age of 19 this summer.
He has reached 74 appearances for the club – scoring eight goals in the process – and has amassed 10 caps for the Netherlands national team with 10 months of his teenage years still remaining.
After the 3-0 Nations League win over Germany on Saturday, in which De Ligt played the full 90 minutes, the defender was asked whether he would prefer a move to Barcelona or Manchester. He would not be tempted, however, instead replying: “Ajax! The newspapers need to write something, it’s normal,” as quoted by Barcelona-based outlet Sport.
An investigative series by the Boston Globe reveals that former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who killed himself in prison last year, was sexually molested as a young boy.
The previously undisclosed information came from the Globe’s “Spotlight Team” from interviews, thousands of court and government records, and text messages, emails and images Hernandez sent and received while in a Massachusetts prison, where he was serving a life sentence without parole for the 2013 slaying of onetime friend Odin Lloyd.
The newspaper’s six-part series, the first installment of which was published Saturday, included details about Hernandez’s childhood, sexuality and drug use. Among them:
• Hernandez and his brother, Jonathan, were often beaten by their father, Dennis, while growing up in Bristol, Connecticut. The beatings were sometimes related to Dennis Hernandez’s drinking.
• Aaron Hernandez started smoking marijuana in high school with a teammate before school, before football practice and after games.
• The teammate, Dennis SanSoucie, told the Globe that he had a sexual relationship with Hernandez in junior high and high school and that the two tried to hide it.
• Jonathan Hernandez told the Globe that Aaron Hernandez disclosed later in his adult life that he had been molested as a young boy. One of Aaron’s lawyers in his criminal case also said Aaron spoke to him of sexual abuse as a child. Neither was willing to identify the perpetrator to the Globe.
• Aaron Hernandez was close to a cousin, Tanya Singleton, and he was crushed when he learned that his mother, Terri, was in a serious romantic relationship with Singleton’s husband, Jeff Cummings.
The report Saturday included information gleaned from recordings of nearly 300 phone calls Hernandez made from jail over a six-month period.
Hernandez was found hanging from a bed sheet in his cell on April 19, 2017, just days after he was found not guilty of two counts of murder in the killing of two men in a drive-by shooting outside a Boston nightclub five years earlier.
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