Jerome Boateng - players.bio

South Korea thump Thailand 4-0 to reach Asian Games last 16

HANGZHOU, China: Defending Asian Games men’s football champions South Korea became the first team into the last 16 after a 4-0 cruise past Thailand on Thursday. Hosts China and North Korea also registered second successive wins and both need only a point from their final group games on Sunday to guarantee a place in the knockout phase. South Korea raced into a 4-0 lead by half-time at the Jinhua Sports Center stadium via a goal apiece for Hong Hyun-seok, An Jae-jun, Um Wong-san and Lee Jae-ik. It sparked thoughts that the gold medal winners from Jakarta in 2018 might repeat their 9-0 opening game rout of Kuwait on Tuesday, but the Thais were more resolute in the second half. China had a sizeable crowd at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium rocking by half-time as they also went 4-0 up before the break against Myanmar. Two goals from Long Tan and one apiece from Dai Wenjun and Wang Zhenao put them into cruise control and though they peppered the Myanmar goal in the second half they, like the South Koreans, could not add to their score. Earlier on Thursday, India kept their last-16 hopes alive by edging Bangladesh 1-0 with a goal from 39-year-old striker Sunil Chhetri. “I feel relief that we gave ourselves a chance to stay in the tournament,” said the veteran. India lost their opening game 5-1 to China on Tuesday but can still go through from Group A if they beat Myanmar on Sunday. “It wasn’t easy, playing back-to-back in two days, and in three days we have a game again.

German court orders new assault trial for footballer Boateng

MUNICH, Germany: A German court on Thursday threw out the assault conviction of footballer Jerome Boateng for attacking his ex-girlfriend in 2018 and ordered a new trial. In a legal odyssey now on its third ruling, the superior regional court in Munich decided in favor of Boateng’s appeal, that of his alleged victim as well as state prosecutors’, citing procedural errors. “The responsible tribunal will begin again with the taking of evidence,” the court said in a statement. If it sides with the plaintiff, the new court could level a more severe sentence than the 1.2-million-euro ($1.3-million) fine Boateng was ordered to pay in November 2022. Boateng was found guilty in 2021 of assaulting and insulting his former partner, the mother of his twin daughters, during a Caribbean holiday five years ago. The footballer had always denied the allegations and sought an acquittal on appeal. The district court in Munich confirmed he was guilty last November but reduced the original fine — calculated according to the accused’s net income — to 1.2 million euros from 1.8 million euros. During the initial trial, Boateng’s former partner told the court that Germany’s 2014 World Cup winner had punched her, causing her to lose her breath for a moment during a heated argument. The incident happened in the weeks after the World Cup in Russia, when Boateng was in the Germany squad which was knocked out in the group stage. Boateng’s former partner described how he “pressed against my eye with his thumb, bit me in the head and pulled me to the floor by my hair.” She said the now 35-year-old repeatedly insulted her and hit her on the back with “one strong punch and several light punches.” In the latest appeals, the Munich court agreed with