to move up and down
David Beckham is retiring: The end of an era
The 38-year-old Beckham, who recently won a league title in a fourth country with Paris Saint-Germain, has become a global superstar since starting his career at Manchester United.
“I’m thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level,” Beckham said in a statement Thursday. (Photo: Getty Images/AFP/Files)
DOUBLE DUTY: U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed BOTH the Los Angeles Kings and L.A. Galaxy to celebrate their respective 2012 championship wins at the White House on Tuesday.
Dustin Penner was very excited about it.
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
Suit & Tie: David Beckham showed off some of his skills on Wednesday during his trip to China, playing with students at a middle school in Beijing.
Beckham is on a five-day visit to China at the invitation of the China Football Association as China’s first international ambassador. (Photos: Alexander F. Yuan/The Associated Press; Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Rival teams the ‘Up’ards and Down’ards’ battle for the ball in the river during the annual Ash Wednesday ‘no rules’ football match on February 13, 2013, in Ashbourne, England.
First played in the 17th Century between teams from opposite ends of the Derbyshire town, hundreds of participants aim to get a ball into one of two goals that are positioned three miles apart at either end of Ashboune.
The match starts on Shrove Tuesday and can last until 10 PM. If a goal is scored before 6 PM, then a new ball is ‘turned up’ again and a new game started. If the goal is after 6 PM then the game ends for that day and continues into the next day - known as Ash Wednesday. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
A Burkina Faso supporter cheers ahead of the kickoff of the 2013 African Cup of Nations final match between Burkina Faso and Nigeria on February 10, 2013 at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg. Burkina Faso was trying to win its first African trophy but fell short in a 1-0 loss. (Photo: Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images)
The offices of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team were set on fire early Friday in an apparent arson attack, police said, a day after four of the club’s fans were charged with anti-Muslim chanting at a recent game. Tensions have been bubbling ever since the team announced last month it would sign on two Muslim Chechen players — Zaur Sadayev and Gabriel Kadiev — in a break from the team’s unofficial tradition of not signing Arabs or Muslims. (Bernat Armangue/The Associated Press)
A cash-strapped Greek soccer team found a new way to pay the bills: Their practice jerseys feature the logos of the Villa Erotica and Soula’s House of History. You guessed it — they are sponsored by brothels.
League organizers have banned the jerseys during games, saying the deal violates “the sporting ideal” and is inappropriate for underage supporters.
Soula Alevridou, the brothel owner and the team’s new benefactor, has already paid more than $1,284 for players to wear her jerseys.
“Here is where it all begins, with amateur sport. It’s where the talent is bred,” Alevridou noted. “I am a Greek woman, and I love my country.”
She watched quietly, holding a cigarette and wearing a straw fedora with a leopard print band, as her team struggled.
“The team will get better,” she said. “I’m certain of it.”
Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair has been suspended for four games and fined $3,500 for an incident at the London Olympics.
FIFA, the sport’s governing body, opened an investigation into undisclosed events after Canada lost its semi-final against the United States, a 4-3 loss marked by questionable calls from Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen. FIFA’s disciplinary committee was to weigh the case last Friday.
According to a release distributed by the Canadian Soccer Association on Friday, Sinclair was being punished by FIFA “for displaying unsporting behaviour towards match officials after the match.”
Sinclair has stood by comments she made after the loss in London, including this one: “It’s a shame in a game like that that was so important, the ref decided the result before it started.”
‘I don’t think the boys really understand how sick I am’: Coach leads his under-14 team to Soccer nationals after deadly cancer diagnosis
A year ago, they were 13 years old. A year ago, they were the Bad News Bears of Manitoba minor soccer, a motley band of serial losers who would put on their soccer boots and head out onto the pitch praying for a tie, praying for anything other than another 13-0 whooping.
Winnipeg South End United (WSEU) went from not being able to win to never losing, to capturing a city — and then a provincial championship — and earning a trip to Ontario to compete for the national prize.
Julian Avila credits their coach, Riccardo De Thomasis.
“With Riccardo’s help every one of us stepped up our game,” he says. “With Riccardo’s help, we all came together. Riccardo believed in us.” (Peter J. Thompson/National Post)
Post Arcade: FIFA 13 is the perfect gateway into soccer fandom
Just how good is the latest iteration of EA’s wildly popular soccer franchise? Good enough to turn casual observers into fans of the beautiful game.
Here is your soccer ball-shaped 2014 World Cup mascot: A picture released by A Caatinga NGO shows a Brazilian three banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus), aka Tatu-Bola in Portuguese. The Tatu-Bola was chosen as the mascot of the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 and will be presented next September 16 during a television programme.
Photo: AFP/Mark PAYNE-GILL/naturepl.com/A Caatinga
Canada’s Christine Sinclair celebrates their Olympic bronze medal victory on Thursday.
Photo: Ed Kaiser/Postmedia Olympic Team
Canada makes history with Olympic bronze victory vs. France
Canada’s women’s soccer team has captured a bronze medal at the London Olympics.
Diana Matheson scored in the 92nd minute to beat France 1-0 in the third-place game.
The result gives Canada its first Summer Games medal in a traditional team sport since 1936. (Photos: AP Photo; Getty Images)
Nine-year-old Quebec girl pulled from soccer tournament for wearing hijab
A nine-year-old Gatineau, Que., girl who refused to remove her headscarf was forced to stand on the sidelines as her team played — and won — the final match of a soccer tournament.
The order came just days after the International Football Association Board voted to lift its hijab ban based on the fact “there is no medical literature concerning injuries as a result of wearing a headscarf,” the organization stated on its website.
Rayane Benatti was told to take off her headscarf for safety reasons, but she refused.
“It made me feel very sad,” she said. “I love soccer.” (Photo: Bruno Schlumberger/Ottawa Citizen)
The Quantified Month
From Rock of Ages to Euro 2012, Sarah Lazarovic has a look at the cultural highs and lows of the month that was.
