Togo’s World Cup preparations have been hit by cold weather and a chicken-pox scare, according to the country’s team doctor.
Togo were forced to train on an artificial pitch at their camp here due to driving hail and temperatures that plummeted to 10 degrees celsius, but it was the discovery of the potentially contagious chicken-pox in the camp that has most worried the west African nation.
Ivory Coast-born striker Salomon Kalou has become big-spending Chelsea’s second signing of the close season after his Dutch club Feyenoord agreed to sell him to the English Premiership giants.
More than 3,000 English football hooligans were due to have handed over their passports to police to prevent them travelling to the World Cup in Germany.
The 3,286 football supporters subject to a banning order preventing them from attending matches were required to hand their passports in to their local police stations by 5:00pm (1600 GMT) Tuesday.
The Austrian maker of the energy drink Red Bull denied reports that it had offered Brazilian striker Ronaldo a 10-year contract worth 120 million dollars to play for US club Red Bull New York.
“It is false that there is or was a 10-year offer in the absurd amount of 120 million dollars,” the company said in a statement.
Paraguayan international striker Nelson Haedo Valdez has signed a four-year contract with German club Borussia Dortmund after Werder Bremen finally accepted a 4.7-million-euro bid.
Bremen wanted to keep Valdez, who will spearhead Paraguay’s attack at the World Cup, but the 22-year-old said he was tired of sitting on the substitutes’ bench.
Midfielder Francesco Totti will make his comeback from a broken bone in his left leg suffered in February in Italy’s World Cup warm-up game against Switzerland, coach Marcello Lippi said.
Portugal’s lawmakers said they had changed their schedule on the day of a key World Cup match between the country and Mexico next month so that members of parliament could watch the game.
Reports of dissension within France’s World Cup squad has failed to douse public enthusiasm with over 50 percent of fans canvassed in an opinion poll saying the team would at least reach the semi-finals.
