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FOOTBALL

Star winger axed from Germany Euros squad

Marco Reus endured more injury heartache with Germany on Tuesday - his 27th birthday - as he was cut from their final Euro 2016 squad, two years after missing the World Cup.

Published: 31 May 2016 13:53 CEST
Star winger axed from Germany Euros squad
Marco Reus. Photo: DPA

A groin injury means Reus joins Julian Brandt, Sebastian Rudy and Karim Bellarabi to make up the four names cut as Germany announced their final 23-man squad while injured captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, who tore his knee ligaments in March, is included.

Reus, Borussia Dortmund's fleet-footed winger, missed out on Germany's 2014 World Cup win after tearing ankle ligaments in a warm-up friendly international just before the squad flew to Brazil.

Now an injury on club duty has scuppered his bid to be fit for the finals in France.

Germany coach Joachim Löw has opted not to take Reus, although both Borussia Dortmund's Bayern Munich-bound centre-back Mats Hummels and Manchester United midfielder Schweinsteiger are included even though both are carrying injuries.

“The medical department have confirmed that Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mats Hummels will be fit to play at the tournament,” explained Löw at Germany's pre-Euro training camp in Ascona, Switzerland.

“The prognosis for him [Reus] wasn't good, so for medical reasons we had to strike him off the list.

“Of course, it's bitterly disappointing for both him and for us.”

Reus' former Dortmund team-mate Mario Götze, whose goal won the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina, tweeted: “Happy Birthday, Marco, but we are all really sad. Unbelievable. That hurts me.”.

Löw has included two promising 20-year-olds in Dortmund defensive midfielder Julian Weigl and Schalke forward Leroy Sane, who both made their debuts in Sunday's 3-1 friendly defeat to Slovakia.

Bayer Leverkusen's Brandt, 20, who also won his first cap against Slovakia, misses out, while his club colleague and fellow winger Bellarabi, who has won 10 caps, is ruled out with injury.

Hoffenheim midfielder Rudy completes the quartet to be left at home as Germany now turn their attentions to their final pre-tournament friendly on Saturday in Gelsenkirchen against Hungary.

The Germans open their Group C campaign against Ukraine in Lille on June 12 before also playing Poland and Northern Ireland.

Germany's 23-man squad for Euro 2016:

Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona/ESP)

Defenders: Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Emre Can (Liverpool/ENG), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Shkodran Mustafi (Valencia/ESP), Antonio Ruediger (AS Roma/ITA)

Midfielders: Julian Draxler (Wolfsburg), Sami Khedira (Juventus/ITA), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/ESP), Mesut Özil (Arsenal/ENG), Leroy Sane (Schalke 04), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Manchester United/ENG), Julian Weigl (Borussia Dortmund)    

Forwards: Mario Gomez (Fiorentina/ITA), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Lukas Podolski (Galatasaray/TUR), Mario Goetze (Bayern Munich), Andre Schürrle (Wolfsburg)

 

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FOOTBALL

Putellas becomes second Spanish footballer in history to win Ballon d’Or

Alexia Putellas of Barcelona and Spain won the women's Ballon d'Or prize on Monday, becoming only the second Spanish-born footballer in history to be considered the best in the world, and claiming a win for Spain after a 61-year wait.

Published: 30 November 2021 09:55 CET
FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award.
FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Putellas is the third winner of the prize, following in the footsteps of Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018, and United States World Cup star Megan Rapinoe, winner in 2019.

Putellas captained Barcelona to victory in this year’s Champions League, scoring a penalty in the final as her side hammered Chelsea 4-0 in Gothenburg.

She also won a Spanish league and cup double with Barca, the club she joined as a teenager in 2012, and helped her country qualify for the upcoming Women’s Euro in England.

Her Barcelona and Spain teammate Jennifer Hermoso finished second in the voting, with Sam Kerr of Chelsea and Australia coming in third.

It completes an awards double for Putellas, who in August was named player of the year by European football’s governing body UEFA.

But it’s also a huge win for Spain as it’s the first time in 61 years that a Spanish footballer – male or female – is crowned the world’s best footballer of the year, and only the second time in history a Spaniard wins the Ballon d’Or. 

Former Spanish midfielder Luis Suárez (not the ex Liverpool and Barça player now at Atlético) was the only Spanish-born footballer to win the award in 1960 while at Inter Milan. Argentinian-born Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid star who took up Spanish citizenship, also won it in 1959.

Who is Alexia Putellas?

Alexia Putellas grew up dreaming of playing for Barcelona and after clinching the treble of league, cup and Champions League last season, her status as a women’s footballing icon was underlined as she claimed the Ballon d’Or on Monday.

Unlike the men’s side, Barca’s women swept the board last term with the 27-year-old, who wears “Alexia” on the back of her shirt, at the forefront, months before Lionel Messi’s emotional departure.

Attacker Putellas, who turns 28 in February, spent her childhood less than an hour’s car journey from the Camp Nou and she made her first trip to the ground from her hometown of Mollet del Valles, for the Barcelona derby on January 6, 2000.

Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas (R) vies with VfL Wolfsburg's German defender Kathrin Hendrich
Putellas plays as a striker for Barça and Spain. GABRIEL BOUYS / POOL / AFP

Exactly 21 years later she became the first woman in the modern era to score in the stadium, against Espanyol. Her name was engraved in the club’s history from that day forward, but her story started much earlier.

She started playing the sport in school, against boys.

“My mum had enough of me coming home with bruises on my legs, so she signed me up at a club so that I stopped playing during break-time,” Putellas said last year.

So, with her parent’s insistence, she joined Sabadell before being signed by Barca’s academy.

“That’s where things got serious… But you couldn’t envisage, with all one’s power, to make a living from football,” she said.

After less than a year with “her” outfit, she moved across town to Espanyol and made her first-team debut in 2010 before losing to Barca in the final of the Copa de la Reina.

She then headed south for a season at Valencia-based club Levante before returning “home” in July 2012, signing for Barcelona just two months after her father’s death.

In her first term there she helped Barca win the league and cup double, winning the award for player of the match in the final of the latter competition.

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