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The Players: Mario Balotelli



Mario Balotelli is only 18 years old and already a key player for Inter Milan in Serie A. He’s been at Inter for 3 seasons now and is a regular in Italy’s Under-21 team. And he can score great goals. Like the one against Sweden in the European U-21 Championship last Friday (above). Balotelli has not yet played in the Italian senior side, but that’s only a matter of time. Italy played with an ageing team in the Confederations Cup and its strikers, with the exception of Guiseppe Rossi, hardly found the back of the net (the US and Egypt scored more goals then the Italians in group play). So there’s bound to be changes with the World Cup in mind.

A complete player at such a young age, “Super Mario” is confident about his own abilities: he told Goal.com recently that “One day Christiano Ronaldo will ask for my shirt.” (Also watch Balotelli’s post-goal celebration, like in the video above.) Balotelli (whose parents are Ghanaian immigrants) also shrugs off racist Italian fans. One downside: he may have discipline problems: minutes after scoring the goal above, he was sent off for a rash challenge (though it can be argued the Swedish player is quite an actor).

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Florent Malouda can’t sing



The Chelsea and France winger joined reggae singer Fantan Mojan on stage at a reggae festival in French Guyana in the Caribbean (Malouda’s birthplace). They also fooled around with a football.

[Via Dirty Tackle]

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Who robbed the Egyptian players?

First, The Mail & Guardian, a weekly newspaper in South Africa reported that some members of the Egyptian football team–who play the United States this afternoon in their final match of the first round of the Confederations Cup–had about $2,400 stolen by thieves from their Johannesburg hotel rooms.

This was bad news for the local organizers who were already facing questions about how it would keep players and fans safe during next year’s World Cup in a country with a high crime and murder rate.

The details were vague and a team representative blamed the players: “We are disappointed, but it’s their own fault. There are safes, but they left the money outside. It’s over now. This can happen anywhere. This will not spoil our experience. We are focusing on the tournament and the South Africans are supporting us as though we are their national team.”

Today a Johannesburg tabloid newspaper, Sunday World, reported that police had a different theory: “… some of the Egyptian players brought hookers to their hotel to celebrate their historic win against world champions Italy on Thursday night.”

What really happened here.

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Socceroos’ Dutch coach sings Australian national anthem on TV



Two years ago, Pim Verbeek, Australia’s Dutch coach, promised he would sing the Australian national anthem on TV if the team qualified for the 2010 World Cup. They have now.

[Via The Spoiler]

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Marcel Desailly: France will win the World Cup

CUP-FR98-FRA-KSA-DESAILLY-JABER

The former France defender was a member of France’s World Cup winning side in 1998, makes a bold prediction to Goal.com, suggesting the current crop of young players in the French national is even better than the generation of 1998.

The French are currently second in Group 7 of European qualifiers behind Serbia. Third-placed Lithuania is one point behind the French. Only the top two teams in a group qualify.

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the brilliance of Egyptian goalkeeper El Hadary


BBC pundit Garth Crooks (and Tottenham Hotspurs legend) going on (especially from 1:50 of the video) about the brilliance of Egyptian goalkeeper, Essam El Hadary–chiefly responsible for his side’s gritty 1-0 defeat of Italy in Confederations Cup group play yesterday.

Egypt, by the way, is currently last in group qualifiers for next year’s World Cup. Only the top teams in the five African groups qualify. Egypt currently trail favorites Algeria. Zambia is second and Rwanda third.

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Is Bernard Parker the successor to Benni McCarthy in South Africa’s forward line?



Hosts South Africa has to win or draw against Spain in their final group match of the Confederations Cup tomorrow to go through to the semi-final round. Red Star Belgrade (of Bulgaria) striker Bernard Parker has been central to his team’s fortunes thus far:

First, bizarrely preventing his own team from scoring in their first group game against Iraq (watch for yourself) and then scoring twice against the very weak New Zealand team (see the video above).

If Parker plays well tomorrow (and even better, scores) in a tournament which is certainly the last competitive games South Africa will play before the World Cup, he will certainly improve his chances to be the permanent replacement for the out of favor, and off-form, Benni McCarthy.

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