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Ronaldo healthy and prepared for Club World Cup, says Milan

ROME: Injury-plagued Brazil forward Ronaldo will be fit to play a part in AC Milan's Club World Cup challenge later this month, club vice-president Adriano Galliani said on Monday.

Milan begins its quest for the title on December 13 in Japan, where it will play a team from the Asian Football Confederation.

Ronaldo has featured in just one match this season, starting against Cagliari just over a week ago in his return from a thigh problem before re-injuring himself in training last week.

Galliani said it was only a strain and not a muscle pull and that the 31-year-old will soon be back in action.

"He will leave for Japan with his teammates for the Club World Cup and we hope he will be ready for December 13," said Galliani.

The Club World Cup runs from December 7-16 in Japan and pits the champions of each continent in a straight knock-out tournament.

The three previous editions have all been won by Brazilian teams, although that will change this year as no Brazil team qualified.

Keeper Lehmann draws Wolfsburg's interest

BERLIN: Out-of-favor Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann, who has said he was ready to return to Germany, has drawn interest from first division club VfL Wolfsburg, German press reported on Monday.

Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath told Bild daily newspaper: "I am not ruling anything out," and bi-weekly football magazine Kicker said Lehmann could be a replacement for Wolfsburg's out-of-form keeper Simon Jentzsch.

Spain's Manuel Almunia has been favored over Lehmann at Arsenal and the German has publicly shown his dissatisfaction.

The 38-year-old Lehmann has even said he would be prepared to play for a German second division club if it meant he would be first-choice on the run-up to Euro 2008.

Nallet named France player of year in rebuke to Laporte

PARIS: Lock Lionel Nallet was named France's international player of the year on Monday in a stinging rebuke to former national coach Bernard Laporte.

Laporte, who quit as coach after the World Cup to become junior sports minister, omitted the 31-year-old Castres forward from his team for the World Cup semifinal loss to England in October.

"I think I won the award because I played all the games of our winning Six Nations campaign," Nallet told reporters during the "Night of Rugby" ceremony.

"I would have liked to play more during the World Cup. It was really frustrating because we didn't reach our objective which was to win the World Cup", he added.

The awards were made by the French rugby league, players' union and coaches' association.

Southworth, Williams, O'Malley among new Hall of Famers

NEW YORK: Former managers Billy Southworth and Dick Williams were elected to the Hall of Fame on Monday along with ex-Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former owners Walter O'Malley and Barney Dreyfuss.

Southworth, who compiled a 1,044-704 record in seven seasons with St Louis and six with the Boston Braves, guided the Cardinals to World Series titles in 1942 and 1944.

Williams managed for 21 seasons with six teams, recording 1,571 victories against 1,451 losses and winning two World Series championships with Oakland in 1972 and 1973.

O'Malley was best known as the Dodgers owner who moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles 50 years ago.

Dreyfuss was president-general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates for 32 years and bought half-ownership of the club in 1900.

Kuhn served as commissioner from 1969 to 1984.

(China Daily 12/05/2007 page19)