"Look At Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli...": India Great's Blockbuster Verdict On IPL

BERLIN: Jurgen Klopp is “very happy” in his current post at Red Bull despite rumors linking him to a return to management with Real Madrid, his agent said Friday. The former Liverpool manager became Red Bull’s Global Head of Soccer in January, taking care of a stable of clubs including RB Leipzig, the New York Red Bulls and Bragantino in Brazil. Real Madrid’s quarter-final elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Arsenal this week has led to speculation manager Carlo Ancelotti is headed for the exit at the end of the season. German media reported that Klopp was one of the names that the Spanish giants want to take over in the Bernabeu dugout. Asked about the rumors, his agent Marc Kosicke said 57-year-old Klopp was enjoying his new job. “Jurgen is very happy with his new role with Red Bull,” Kosicke told Sky Deutschland. Also speaking on Friday, RB Leipzig coach Zsolt Low said he “could not imagine” Klopp moving to Real Madrid, adding the German was “very happy in the job.” Low praised Klopp’s impact, saying “he’s shown that he can bring a club together, a group of 40, 50, 60 people, and take them with him. “He adds incredible value with his experience, his human quality and his energy.” In a 23-year career as a top-flight manager with Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz, Klopp left each club of his own accord, a rarity in coaching. “No matter where he’s been, he’s given 100 percent,” Low said, adding “regardless of where he is he’s stayed and done the job. It’s important to him to make a clean exit.” Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso is considered a leading candidate for the Real Madrid job.

CASABLANCA: The former president of Morocco’s most successful football club maintained in court Friday that he legally acquired a villa he is accused of seizing from a convicted Malian drug trafficker dubbed the “Escobar of the Sahara.” Said Naciri, who was chairman of Casablanca club Wydad AC and president of the city’s prefectural council, is being tried alongside the head of a regional council in eastern Morocco, Abdennabi Bioui, in a vast drug trafficking case related to the jailed kingpin. Both defendants — former officials of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), a member of the country’s ruling coalition — have been in custody since the end of 2023, and face charges of “possession, marketing, and export of drugs,” as well as corruption and related offenses. Naciri was accused by the Malian trafficker, Ahmed Ben Brahim, of having wrongfully dispossessed him of a villa in an upscale Casablanca neighborhood, one of Naciri’s lawyers told AFP. But Naciri denied the allegation in court on Friday, saying he legally purchased the villa though a real estate company in 2017 before finalizing the acquisition in 2019. “I am taking advantage of my hearing before the court to refute the false allegations being made,” he told the court, presenting documents and testimony that he said supported his version of events. The trial is the first in Morocco to see prominent political figures accused in a drug trafficking case. It opened last May, and involves 25 people alleged to have played roles in the trafficking network of Ben Brahim, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence. Ben Brahim, whose complaint initiated the proceedings against Naciri and Bioui, accuses the pair of helping him smuggle drugs to elsewhere in

JEDDAH :Max Verstappen will be racing for Red Bull next season and there is no crisis at the Formula One team, principal Christian Horner said on Friday as speculation swirled about the champion's future.

WATFORD, England :Josh Brownhill's second-half strike earned Burnley a 2-1 win at nine-man Watford on Friday, extending the visitors' unbeaten run in the Championship to 30 matches and moving them closer to a Premier League return.

JEDDAH :Pierre Gasly was surprise top of the timesheets for Renault-owned Alpine in first practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Friday.

Delhi Capitals head coach Hemang Badani has backed out-of-form batter Jake Fraser-McGurk to come good in upcoming IPL games but maintained silence on the availability of Faf du Plessis in the match against Gujarat Titans on Saturday. Fraser-McGurk has been off-colour this year, scoring just 55 runs in six games after a fabulous 2024 IPL season when he amassed 330 runs including four half-centuries in nine matches. Despite the young opener's lack of form, DC have done remarkably well and are leading the points table after five wins from six games.

Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso on Friday refused to shut down speculation he could be set for a move to Real Madrid in the summer. Madrid's heavy Champions League quarter-final defeat by Arsenal could bring an end to Carlo Ancelotti's second stint at the club, with Alonso believed to be the preferred replacement. Alonso spent five seasons at Madrid during his playing career, winning the Champions League and La Liga. After taking over as Leverkusen boss in October 2022, his first top-flight job, Alonso led the club to an unbeaten league and cup double last season, the first time they had ever won the Bundesliga.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said he would bet on Kai Havertz returning before the end of the season as his recovery from a hamstring injury is ahead of schedule. The German international had initially been ruled out for the campaign after having surgery on the injury suffered during a Dubai warm-weather training camp in February. Arsenal have survived the loss of both Havertz and Gabriel Jesus to make the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since 2009 with a famous 5-1 aggregate victory over Real Madrid. Arteta cooled speculation Havertz could return in time to face Paris Saint-Germain in the last four. But he is on track to be available should Arsenal get the final in Munich on May 31.