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Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey quarter-final against Leganes will be played on Tuesday against Chelsea, and Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that Kylian Mbappe would have a bruised calf and backed his club’s complaints about Spanish refereeing.

Espanyol’s Carlos Romero hit French striker Mbappe down during their 1-0 defeat to the league leaders on Saturday, avoiding a red card and going on to score the winning goal.

Madrid criticized refereeing in Spain as “rigged” and “completely discredited,” in a letter to the Spanish football federation on Monday.

“Mbappe started to train today, yesterday we gave him an extra day of recovery”, Ancelotti told reporters.

He trained normally, but he will miss the game tomorrow because he has a bruised calf.

After the game, Ancelotti claimed that Romero’s decision to not send him off was “inexplicable” and that he had reiterated his position prior to the Leganes’ clash.

“We’re talking about something that’s inexplicable, we’re talking above all about the welfare of the players, and what Madrid’s message asks for is an explanation, and that seems right to me”, said Ancelotti.

We want an explanation of what transpired and why no action was taken to protect the player’s welfare.

Additionally, Ancelotti stated that David Alaba, who had been ruled out with a thigh injury earlier on Tuesday, and Jude Bellingham, who had been ruled out with a knock.

The Austrian defender will miss between two and three weeks, according to Ancelotti.

Alaba, who was only recently back from a year-long knee injury layoff, is unlikely to play in the Champions League play-off game against Manchester City on Saturday. He will not be able to play in the derby against Atletico Madrid.

On February 11, Los Blancos will face the Premier League side in Manchester, followed by the second leg on February 19.

With another thigh injury, Antonio Rudiger, who is likely to start at center-back for Madrid, is a major doubt.

For Madrid’s defense, Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal have been out for a long time due to injury.

“Unfortunately in the last two days we’ve lost two important players, that’s something we did not contemplate… Alaba was ready to play tomorrow, as he had good feelings”, said Ancelotti.

“It’s a moment of emergency which we have to bear out, because these are small problems, Alaba will be out for 15-20 days, Rudiger the same, so we have to deal with it with (the players) we have”.

Luis de la Fuente, the coach of Spain, said he had no idea the scale of the scandal or how to silence it at the forced kiss trial of the former football federation chief.

Jenni Hermoso, who had just helped Spain defeat England in the 2023 Women’s World Cup final in Australia, was the subject of Rubiales’ kiss, which sparked outrage all over the world.

Hermoso has become a symbol of the fight against sexism and macho culture as a result of Rubiales’ scandal, which forced him to resign in disgrace that year.

For Rubiales, the prosecution wants one year in prison for the forced kiss, and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso, 34, to downplay the incident.

Rubiales, 47, has called the kiss an innocuous “peck between friends celebrating” and denied any coercion.

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De la Fuente claimed to have no knowledge of a press release released in Hermoso’s name to a court hearing in Madrid, which he had prepared to stoke the growing outcry.

The men’s team coach, appointed during Rubiales ‘ 2018-2023 tenure, said he found out about the kiss on the plane but was “unaware of the scale” of the backlash.

He claimed he “didn’t exchange a word” with federation press chief Patricia Perez Requena during a crisis meeting between senior federation officials on August 23, 2023.

De la Fuente said, “We’re getting into a huge mess with the kiss business,” but we continued to speak about issues that bothered him.

Pablo Garcia Cuervo, a former communications director before the scandal broke out, made a statement defending his role in writing it.

Hermoso’s lawyer claimed in an interview that he had obtained her permission to write it.

He feared that Hermoso would “change her version” as the scandal spread back home and he denied asking her to appear in a video with Rubiales.

“Hermoso is a rather influence-prone and pretty manipulable person, so she can change her opinion”, Cuervo said.

Hermoso claimed on Monday that she felt “disrespected” following a “should not happen in any social or work setting.”

The trial will continue until February 19 until then.

Following Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s departure last month, Napoli announced on Monday the signing of AC Milan attacker Noah Okafor.

Switzerland’s Okafor arrives at the Serie A leaders on loan until the end of the season, with an option to buy.

Georgia’s Kvaratskhelia left Napoli in January for Paris Saint-Germain in a deal worth a reported 70 million euros ($72 million).

Aurelio De Laurentiis, the owner of Napoli, said, “Welcome Noah,” on X.

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De Laurentiis had attempted to sign Borussia Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi and Fenerbahce’s Allan Saint-Maximim before turning his attention to Okafor.

Since joining Milan from Salzburg in July 2023, the 24-year-old has only managed one goal in 11 league games this year.

Before hosting Udinese on Sunday, Napoli are three points clear of Inter Milan in the standings.

Following his shock trade to the Dallas Mavericks, Anthony Davis eulogied Los Angeles in a farewell message to his new home on Monday.

Davis described the deal as “business” in his first comments since it became known that the Los Angeles Lakers were trading him to Dallas in exchange for Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic.

The Doncic-Davis trade, which was conducted in complete secrecy, is widely regarded as the most jaw-dropping deal in NBA history.

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In a post on Instagram, Davis said he was pleased to have been able to deliver an NBA championship for the Lakers during the pandemic-disrupted 2020 season.

“Six years ago, I came here with the vision to win a Championship, and I will never forget the moment we did”! the 31-year-old wrote.

According to Davis, who reportedly paid $ 31 million for a mansion in the exclusive Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles in 2021, “the business of basketball is a business just like all other businesses. I am grateful to the city where my first ring came from, grew my family and friendships, and I will always have a home there.”

He cited deadly blazes that destroyed parts of the city last month as evidence that “my family and I thank everyone who made this place home.” “We are still thinking of those who lost their homes in the fires,” he said.

Los Angeles “will always have a special place in my heart”, he added. “Every great story has an exciting next chapter… Dallas — Here we come”!

When Neymar left Brazil aged 21 in 2013, bound for Barcelona, he set off to establish himself as a footballing great, seemingly destined to be remembered as his country’s greatest player since Pele.

Twelve years later, he made his first appearance at Santos, playing for the first team, Neymar, a celebrity with unimaginable wealth but a player whose fragile body has suffered from severe injuries.

Neymar has been one of the best players in the world when he was playing at the top of his game. He has dazzling skill and “understands football as art,” as his former Barcelona coach once said.

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Equally true, he never realized his potential as a player who had a ballon d’Or dreamt but always found himself in the shadow of other players at club level, such as Kylian Mbappe or Lionel Messi.

Having signed a six-month deal, he is expected to make his second debut for Santos on Wednesday, his 33rd birthday, when they play Botafogo-SP in the Sao Paulo state championship.

“He will play on Wednesday”, confirmed Santos coach Pedro Caixinha, who had a short spell as manager of Rangers in Scotland in 2017.

However, Neymar’s presence is already present, leading to Sao Paulo’s 3-1 victory on Saturday, just after the superstar was presented at the club’s Vila Belmiro residence.

After scoring twice and receiving praise from Neymar, forward Guilherme said, “He played a big part in this victory.”

“He passed on so much positive energy. I am grateful. This praise comes from no one, just anyone. He is an idol of mine, of my children, of the nation”.

Neymar is Santos’s greatest player since Pele, and he overtook ‘ O Rei ‘ as Brazil’s record goal-scorer in September 2023.

Diminished by injuries

But by age 33 Pele had won the World Cup three times, while Neymar’s three World Cups have ended in tears.

Each time he has carried a nation’s hopes on his shoulders, but the tournament has exposed his vulnerable physique and brittle emotions.

He was cut down in a quarter-final victory over Colombia in 2014, on his own turf, and stretchered off in agony with a broken vertebra in his back.

He recovered from an injury just in time to return to Russia 2018, but Belgium sent Brazil packing in the quarter-finals.

And in Qatar in 2022 he was hampered by an ankle injury suffered in Brazil’s first game. He came back to score a brilliant goal against Croatia in the quarter-finals, but could not stop his team losing on penalties.

His final chance to win a World Cup will be at the North American tournament next year.

“Now I need to play again”, said Neymar. And only Santos can offer me the love I need to face the challenges of the coming years.

After joining Al Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2023, he recently spent 18 months there, earning a rumored 100 million euros ($103m) per season.

Before suffering a serious knee injury while playing for Brazil, Neymar made five appearances for his new team.

After a year out, he returned last October and made two more appearances, only to suffer a hamstring tear.

Helicopter arrival

Neymar has now made a comeback to Santos, where his previous illustrious era included him as a thrilling young talent, which was capped off with a Copa Libertadores triumph in 2011.

He was a fantastic player for Barcelona, who won the Copa del Rey, La Liga, and the Champions League in 2015.

That now feels like the high point in Neymar’s career. In that year, he placed third behind Messi and Ronaldo in the Ballon d’Or rankings.

His world record transfer to PSG in 2017, for 222 million euros, was supposed to be his chance to escape Messi’s shadow.

Neymar made 118 goals in 173 games for PSG, but he frequently suffered untimely injuries when big games came around.

Mbappe, also signed in 2017, quickly became the biggest star in Paris.

“For me, he was at his best at Santos. At Barcelona too. But at PSG not so much, even though he scored goals”, reflected Muricy Ramalho, Neymar’s coach at Santos.

Neymar made his way back to the beginning of his career on Monday at Santos training by helicopter.

He may still have a lot to offer, but that will all depend on his health.