All posts tagged: Roberto

Roberto Lopes: Cabo Verde’s hero vs Spain was recruited through LinkedIn | Football News

Roberto Lopes: Cabo Verde’s hero vs Spain was recruited through LinkedIn | Football News

Published by Webster

3 min readJun 16, 2026 06:22 AM IST LinkedIn is a social media platform one would associate more with Football agents but not professional football players. However, 33-year-old Roberto Lopes, who plays as a defender for Shamrock Rovers in Ireland was recruited through LinkedIn to play for Cape Verde. On Monday, he made the crucial block in the 89th minute as the debutant island nation held European champions Spain to a 0-0 draw. “It is a crazy story of how I started in international football. Basically during college, I set up a LinkedIn account, connected with a few friends and left it in the dark for a few years,” Lopes told FIFPro. “Then one day, I got a message from the manager of the Cape Verde team at the time, Rui Aguas. He dropped a welcome message in Portuguese, which I didn’t speak at the time. I just assumed it was like, “thanks for connecting with me, message or spam.” Cape Verde’s Roberto @PicoLopes almost missed out on international football because he ignored a LinkedIn …

The 900-page plan Italy ignored: How Roberto Baggio’s vision was lost as Azzurri miss third straight FIFA World Cup | Football News

The 900-page plan Italy ignored: How Roberto Baggio’s vision was lost as Azzurri miss third straight FIFA World Cup | Football News

Published by Webster

4 min readApr 2, 2026 07:10 PM IST Italy’s failure to qualify for recent World Cups has prompted renewed reflection on missed opportunities — none more striking than the reform blueprint once proposed by Roberto Baggio. Long before the Azzurri’s unprecedented absence from three consecutive World Cup — Italy failed to qualify for this year’s edition after losing to Bosnia in the playoffs on Tuesday — the former forward had drafted a sweeping, 900-page document titled “Renew the Future,” a comprehensive plan aimed at rebuilding Italian football from its foundations, Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport reported. The newspaper added that the proposal, compiled with the input of 50 experts, laid out detailed structural, technical, and educational reforms. It was never implemented. Baggio’s legacy in blue remains inseparable from the drama of the 1994 World Cup. On July 5 in Foxborough, Italy stood on the brink of elimination against Nigeria in the round of 16, reduced to ten men after Gianfranco Zola’s dismissal. With just two minutes remaining, Baggio, fondly called the ‘Divine Ponytail’, equalised before converting …

Struggling Premier League club Tottenham hires Roberto De Zerbi amid concerns from women’s fan group | Football News

Struggling Premier League club Tottenham hires Roberto De Zerbi amid concerns from women’s fan group | Football News

Published by Webster

4 min readMar 31, 2026 11:04 PM IST Roberto De Zerbi was hired Tuesday as Tottenham’s third coach of the season in a last-ditch bid by one of England’s top clubs to avoid costly relegation from the Premier League. The appointment came amid criticism from fans’ groups about the Italian coach’s past support of a player who was charged with – but not convicted of – offenses including attempted rape. Tottenham, the reigning Europa League champion and an ever-present in England’s top division since 1978, is one point above the relegation zone in the Premier League with seven games left. De Zerbi has replaced Igor Tudor, who was fired on Sunday after 44 days as interim coach. De Zerbi left Marseille in February and previously worked in the Premier League as Brighton’s manager. De Zerbi signed a “long-term contract,” the team said. “Our short-term priority is to climb the Premier League table, which will be the complete focus until the final whistle of the last game of the season,” De Zerbi said in the announcement. …

‘Very easy’ to manage 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, says Portugal manager Roberto Martinez

‘Very easy’ to manage 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, says Portugal manager Roberto Martinez

Published by Webster

3 min readFeb 14, 2026 10:34 PM IST How easy is it to manage one of the greatest footballers of the 21st century at the twilight of his career? At 41, Cristiano Ronaldo still happens to be Portugal’s talisman heading into his sixth FIFA World Cup campaign this year, too. But the rider of having to manage a five-time Ballon d’Or winner wasn’t something Roberto Martinez had been daunted by since taking over the Portuguese national side since after the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO Shortly after Martinez’s Belgium side crashed out of the 2022 World Cup in the group stages despite being ranked No. 2 in the world, he was offered the reins of Portugal after the Fernando Santos-led side exited in the quarter-finals. While most may have expected an ageing Ronaldo to have lost his final shot at World Cup glory then, the former Real Madrid striker has continued to maintain supreme levels of fitness on the road to the 2026 World Cup. Ronaldo’s remarkable standards as …

T20 World Cup: Who will sport flowing locks like Italian football legends Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio? | Cricket News

T20 World Cup: Who will sport flowing locks like Italian football legends Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio? | Cricket News

Published by Webster

The Moscas have lived in Sydney for three generations now. It is where the brothers – Anthony and Justin – picked up the cricket bat and ball in the dream of wearing the “Baggy Green” one day. The 31-year old Justin, a physical education teacher, is giving the Vietnamese community wings to fly. Anthony, 34, a carpenter who works at a juvenile centre, is reshaping broken lives. In the middle of all this, they have already made history by being part of the Italy team making its maiden appearance at a T20 World Cup. But all it takes for the Moscas to reveal their true colours is the mention of the ‘Azzurri’. “We both always wanted to be like Paolo Maldini or Roberto Baggio,” Anthony concedes. So much so that as Italy had a shot at qualifying for the T20 World Cup, the first thing that Justin did was grow his hair like Maldini’s long, flowing, feathered brown locks. “When I played football, I used to love sliding tackles because Maldini was the best at …

Brazil great Roberto Carlos ‘recovering well’ after undergoing heart procedure | Football News

Brazil great Roberto Carlos ‘recovering well’ after undergoing heart procedure | Football News

Published by Webster

Brazilian football great Roberto Carlos has said that he is recovering well after undergoing a heart procedure. Carlos, who won the 2002 World Cup and finished runner-up in 1998 with Brazil, posted a picture of himself smiling in a hospital on his social media handles. It had been rumoured on social media that the 52-year-old had suffered from a heart attack. However, the Real Madrid great clarified that this was not the reason for his hospitalisation. “I did not suffer a heart attack. I am recovering well, and looking forward to returning to full fitness and resuming my professional and personal commitments soon,” the 52-year-old former defender said on social media. Earlier Wednesday, Spanish media reported he had undergone surgery in Brazil. “I recently underwent a preventative medical procedure, planned in advance with my medical team,” the World Cup and three-time Champions League winner said. “The procedure was successful, and I am well.” Hospital Vila Nova Star in Sao Paulo, Brazil, said in a statement that Carlos had a heart obstruction detected on Monday and …

Brazil legend Roberto Carlos hospitalized for emergency heart surgery, stable now: Report | Football News

Brazil legend Roberto Carlos hospitalized for emergency heart surgery, stable now: Report | Football News

Published by Webster

Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos was hospitalized and underwent emergency surgery due to a heart problem, according to various reports. According to Spanish outlet AS, the former Real Madrid defender went for a medical test on his leg, where he had a small blood clot and a full-body MRI revealed that his heart was not functioning properly. The World Cup winner was immediately admitted for surgery to have a catheter inserted but the procedure, which was supposed to last 40 minutes, stretched to almost three hours due to a complications, according to the outlet. Carlos is fine now, as per his representative as quoted by AS. Carlos played for several clubs throughout his career, including Real Madrid where he played 584 matches and scored 71 goals. With the Los Blancos, he won La Liga 4 times as well as the Champions League 3 times before leaving for Turkish club Fenerbahce in 2007. After that, he would also have stints with Corinthians and Anzhi Makhachkala. Carlos also has 127 caps for the Brazilian national team, scoring 11 …

Riyad Mahrez And Roberto Firmino Propel Al Ahli Into Asian Semis

Riyad Mahrez And Roberto Firmino Propel Al Ahli Into Asian Semis

Published by Webster

Riyad Mahrez and Roberto Firmino helped fire Al Ahli into an all-Saudi Arabian AFC Champions League Elite semi-final after the Jeddah club beat Thailand’s Buriram United 3-0 on Saturday. Effectively playing as hosts since the quarter-finals to final are staged in Jeddah, Al Ahli needed only four minutes to take the lead at King Abdullah Sports City. Captain Firmino slid the ball through to Mahrez, who rifled his right-footed shot past Neil Etheridge in the Buriram goal. It took the Algerian, a treble winner with Manchester City, to nine goals in this season’s competition, making him the joint-top scorer alongside Al Hilal’s Salem Al-Dawsari and Gwangju’s Jasir Asani. Mahrez also leads the assist charts, with seven. Within two minutes, Al Ahli had another. This time, defender Roger Ibanez’s expert pass sent fellow Brazilian Galeno through and the winter-signing from Porto fired through Etheridge’s legs to double the hosts’ advantage. On 16 minutes, Firmino missed a golden opportunity to make it 3-0, the former Liverpool forward somehow glancing wide with the goal at his mercy.  …

Hollywood Big Names Joe Russo, Lucy Lawless, and Others Pay Tribute to Roberto Orci, Star Trek Producer Who Died at 51

Hollywood Big Names Joe Russo, Lucy Lawless, and Others Pay Tribute to Roberto Orci, Star Trek Producer Who Died at 51

Published by Parlour News

Trigger Warning: This article contains mention of death. Roberto Orci was one of the most appreciated screenwriters as well as producers in Hollywood. All of the film industry was shocked and sad to hear that the talented soul was no more.  As per Deadline, Roberto Orci passed away at the age of 51 after a long battle with kidney disease.  Hearing the news about Roberto Orci’s death, Joe Russo took to X and stated, “My first boss in Hollywood said the script for Star Trek was the best he’d ever read—and he wasn’t kidding.” The director of Avengers: Infinity War also added that the late screenwriter held generational talent, and he believes that he could have brought some more great works in the future.  Lucy Lawless, who is widely known for her role in Xena: Warrior Princess, took to social media as well, stating, “Desperately sorry to hear of Bob’s passing. A beautiful, sweet man and outrageously talented. I send my heartfelt condolences to all the many people who loved him.” Joining the name was …

Saudi Arabia national coach Roberto Mancini complains ’20 of my players sitting on bench’

Published by Webster

The Saudi Pro League has seen some of the biggest names in the world of football make their way to the country in recent years. But while the presence of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema in the playing XIs of Saudi Pro League clubs has brought a lot of attention from the rest of the world, it has also significantly impacted the playing time that local Saudi players get for clubs. The manager of Saudi Arabia’s national football team, Roberto Mancini, spoke out against the national team players not getting enough time on the pitch in SPL games, as teams prioritised game times for foreign recruits. “Saudi Arabia’s national team players must participate as core players with their clubs,” Mancini said before lamenting: “I have 20 players sitting on the bench in local matches.” Most clubs in the Saudi Pro League prefer to use their full quota of 10 foreign imports. Mancini’s comments came ahead of Saudi Arabia’s crucial match against China at Dalian. The high-profile Saudi Arabian football team struggled in …