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EURO 2012 CHAMPIONSHIPS

FOOTBALL

Match preview: Sweden to give France a fight

Sweden may have no chance of qualifying for the Euro 2012 quarter-finals having lost both their games thus far but if France are expecting an easy ride into the last eight they are in for a shock on Tuesday.

Match preview: Sweden to give France a fight

The Swedish squad are all determined to bow out on a high after twice letting leads slip to lose 2-1 and 3-2 to co-hosts Ukraine and England respectively.

For coach Erik Hamren and the players the pride factor apart there are different things motivating them.

Hamren, who took over in 2009 after a successful club coaching career in Norway and Denmark, wants to come away with a win so as to be able to continue his project in developing the team into a more adventurous and technically capable side – defeat could bring an abrupt end to his dream and his tenure.

“Tuesday’s match is important for Sweden and for other sides,” said Hamren, an emotional character who accused some of his players of being cowards after the Ukraine loss.

“I want to see the same professionalism that the players have already shown here. We want to win the match.

“I believe that we can keep on working along the same lines and get closer to being the team that I want it to be.

“We have done many good things but the great teams know how to attract luck. We are not there yet.”

However, Hamren said that he hadn’t got a special speech prepared for motivating the players for the game but nevertheless he would say something.

“I will not need to motivate the players, maybe just help them a little.” Hamren added that he was pleased with the manner in which the players had showed a desire to keep on progressing.

“The objective is to be happy after a match. We can be content with the way we have played, that is good, but we also want to be happy because we won.

“For that reason I am not going to just select someone for the sake of it against France.

“There will be changes, perhaps several,” added Hamren, who will definitely be without injured first choice duo, striker Johan Elmander and midfielder Rasmus Elm.

Elmander, who came on as a substitute in the 2-1 defeat by co-hosts Ukraine and started the 3-2 loss to England, is still troubled by the foot injury he suffered playing for his club Turkish champions Galatasaray on the last day of the season.

“Elmander is not fit to play,” said the 54-year-old coach.

“He is still suffering from the foot injury and given that nothing is at stake in terms of the match, I don’t want to take a risk.

“I have too much respect for both him and his club.

“Elm has a thigh problem. Apart from that all of us are ready and motivated and eager to play the game.”

A third loss will be a poor reward too for the extraordinary 15,000 or so fans who have come all the way from Sweden to support them and had to put up with some pretty basic living conditions on an unfinished campsite.

Swedish captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored in the Ukraine match but was also responsible for letting Andrei Shevchenko score the winning goal, said every players in the squad wanted to play against the French.

“You won’t have a problem finding people who want to play,” said Ibrahimovic, who has said he will continue to represent his country.

“We are all professionals and everyone is hungry to get some game time.

“We came here to qualify from the group and there is still one game to do something.

“There are a lot of players who are playing for their futures, either at club or international level.”

While AC Milan star Ibrahimovic, who turns 31 in October, has pinned his colours to the Swedish cause others who have given long service will be looking to bow out with a memorable last performance.

Olof Mellberg (34, 117 caps), who scored Sweden’s second against England, Anders Svensson (35, 127 caps) and probably Saudi Arabia-based winger Christian Wilhelmsson (32, 76 caps) will all call it a day after the French game, though, only the first two are likely to be on the pitch from the start.

AFP/The Local

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FOOTBALL

Putellas becomes second Spanish footballer in history to win Ballon d’Or

Alexia Putellas of Barcelona and Spain won the women's Ballon d'Or prize on Monday, becoming only the second Spanish-born footballer in history to be considered the best in the world, and claiming a win for Spain after a 61-year wait.

FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award.
FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Putellas is the third winner of the prize, following in the footsteps of Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018, and United States World Cup star Megan Rapinoe, winner in 2019.

Putellas captained Barcelona to victory in this year’s Champions League, scoring a penalty in the final as her side hammered Chelsea 4-0 in Gothenburg.

She also won a Spanish league and cup double with Barca, the club she joined as a teenager in 2012, and helped her country qualify for the upcoming Women’s Euro in England.

Her Barcelona and Spain teammate Jennifer Hermoso finished second in the voting, with Sam Kerr of Chelsea and Australia coming in third.

It completes an awards double for Putellas, who in August was named player of the year by European football’s governing body UEFA.

But it’s also a huge win for Spain as it’s the first time in 61 years that a Spanish footballer – male or female – is crowned the world’s best footballer of the year, and only the second time in history a Spaniard wins the Ballon d’Or. 

Former Spanish midfielder Luis Suárez (not the ex Liverpool and Barça player now at Atlético) was the only Spanish-born footballer to win the award in 1960 while at Inter Milan. Argentinian-born Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid star who took up Spanish citizenship, also won it in 1959.

Who is Alexia Putellas?

Alexia Putellas grew up dreaming of playing for Barcelona and after clinching the treble of league, cup and Champions League last season, her status as a women’s footballing icon was underlined as she claimed the Ballon d’Or on Monday.

Unlike the men’s side, Barca’s women swept the board last term with the 27-year-old, who wears “Alexia” on the back of her shirt, at the forefront, months before Lionel Messi’s emotional departure.

Attacker Putellas, who turns 28 in February, spent her childhood less than an hour’s car journey from the Camp Nou and she made her first trip to the ground from her hometown of Mollet del Valles, for the Barcelona derby on January 6, 2000.

Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas (R) vies with VfL Wolfsburg's German defender Kathrin Hendrich
Putellas plays as a striker for Barça and Spain. GABRIEL BOUYS / POOL / AFP

Exactly 21 years later she became the first woman in the modern era to score in the stadium, against Espanyol. Her name was engraved in the club’s history from that day forward, but her story started much earlier.

She started playing the sport in school, against boys.

“My mum had enough of me coming home with bruises on my legs, so she signed me up at a club so that I stopped playing during break-time,” Putellas said last year.

So, with her parent’s insistence, she joined Sabadell before being signed by Barca’s academy.

“That’s where things got serious… But you couldn’t envisage, with all one’s power, to make a living from football,” she said.

After less than a year with “her” outfit, she moved across town to Espanyol and made her first-team debut in 2010 before losing to Barca in the final of the Copa de la Reina.

She then headed south for a season at Valencia-based club Levante before returning “home” in July 2012, signing for Barcelona just two months after her father’s death.

In her first term there she helped Barca win the league and cup double, winning the award for player of the match in the final of the latter competition.

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