Digest

SOCCER

Barca slaps billion-euro buyout clause on Fati

Ansu Fati has extended his contract with Barcelona until 2027, the club announced on Wednesday, shortly after its 1-0 victory over Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League.

Fati, who has recently returned after almost a year out with a knee injury, will have a release clause in his new deal set at 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion).

"FC Barcelona and the player Ansu Fati have reached an agreement to renew his contract until 30 June, 2027. The buyout clause is set at 1 billion euros," a club statement read.

Fati and Spanish midfielder Pedri are widely regarded as the most exciting talents in an emerging group of Barcelona youngsters. The club's statement described Fati as "currently one of football's hottest properties".

After losing Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, the 18-year-old Fati has taken the Argentine's iconic No 10 shirt at Camp Nou and his return from injury has lifted the mood at the embattled club in recent weeks.

Ronaldo waxwork wearing 'wrong' shirt

Dubai's Madame Tussauds said Wednesday it will soon change the shirt of the wax figure of Cristiano Ronaldo after netizens complained that the Portuguese was wearing the "wrong" jersey.

London's renowned waxwork museum opened its first outpost in the Arab world in Dubai this week, with Ronaldo's wax figure donning the striped black and white shirt of his previous team, Italy's Juventus.

In August, Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in the English Premier League on a two-year contract with an option to extend that deal by a further season.

"With the ever-changing, fast world of sports where players regularly move teams, fans of Cristiano Ronaldo will be excited to hear that his wax figure is being updated with his new Manchester United jersey very soon," the museum said in a statement to AFP.

FIFA drive for biennial World Cup stalling

FIFA's drive to get approval in December for holding World Cups every two years stalled Wednesday, one day after its president met fierce resistance from European soccer leaders.

Gianni Infantino instead announced FIFA would host a remote "global summit" on Dec 20 to discuss the future of the international game and "try to reach a consensus".

That fell short of staging an extra congress of 211 member federations which could formally vote on the planned biennial World Cups for men and women in which Infantino has invested his and FIFA's political capital.

"It is really important to listen to all the legitimate questions... and to see how we can adjust the proposals that have been made," Infantino said at a news conference after chairing a meeting of FIFA's ruling Council.

Infantino's comment about exploring "what other kinds of events we can create" was a further hint that staging extra World Cups has not reached the broad agreement he is aiming for.

BASEBALL

Valdez takes Astros to brink of World Series

Houston pitcher Framber Valdez shut down Boston's batting lineup as the Astros romped to the brink of a place in the World Series with a 9-1 demolition of the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Wednesday.

Dominican lefthander Valdez delivered a superb performance from the mound, striking out five through eight innings for a win that gives Houston a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.

The Astros now need to win just one of the two remaining games in the series－both in Houston－to return to the World Series.

Valdez's gem was backed by another ruthless performance from the Astros bats, with Cuban slugger Yordan Alvarez leading the charge.

Alvarez opened the scoring for Houston in the second inning, smashing an opposite field home run off Red Sox starter Chris Sale.

TENNIS

Sabalenka victorious on return from virus

In her first match since reaching the US Open semifinals and subsequently testing positive for COVID-19, Aryna Sabalenka beat Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup.

The No 2-ranked Sabalenka, who had a bye in the first round in Moscow, served 10 aces but also made 30 unforced errors.

"She's a tough opponent for the first match after a long time out,"Sabalenka said. "I calmed down a bit and started playing well."

Sabalenka had not played since her three-set loss to Leylah Fernandez in the US Open. The 23-year-old Belarusian had been scheduled to play in Indian Wells, California, but said she had tested positive for the coronavirus the day before play started.

She will next play Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina 6-4, 6-1.

CYCLING

Germany sets women's team sprint record

Germany set a new world record in the three-rider women's team sprint final at the track cycling world championships on Wednesday, while the Netherlands added the men's title to the Olympic gold medal it won in Tokyo.

The German trio of Lea Friedrich, Pauline Grabosch and Emma Hinze comfortably saw off the Russian Cycling Federation by 0.654 seconds despite trailing early on in Roubaix. Britain beat Japan to take bronze.

Friedrich and Hinze were the pair who lost out to China, absent from the event on Wednesday, in the Olympic final.

The Dutch continued their domination of men's track sprinting as Roy van den Berg, Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen crushed host France in the team final to win the gold for a fourth straight year.

It was the same Dutch trio who ended Britain's Olympic reign in the event earlier this year at the Tokyo Games.

Agencies