Ozren Podnar reports
Real Madrid top the earners chart
According to the new ranking by Deloitte financial agency, Real Madrid are still the highest earners in world soccer and the first club clearing the 400 million euros mark.
Barcelona came second with 365.9 million, edging Manchester United, the same team they beat in the last season's Champions League finals.
Five more clubs register earnings in excess of 200 million euros – Bayern, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Juventus. Curiously, the Turin club are commercially more successful than their superior rivals Inter and Milan, sharing nineth and tenth place.
England has the most teams to the top 20, seven in all, two more than Germany. England's strength is proved by the presence of Newcastle, placed 20th in spite of playing in the second level this season.
In another ranking, compiled by the University of Navarra, Barcelona and Real Madrid are the most mediatic teams in the world, while Manchester United fell from first to third after losing Cristiano Ronaldo to Madrid. The Spaniards rose from fifth to second thanks to the string of strong summer purchases that included Kaka and Benzema.
Barcelona's Leo Messi tops the individual chart ahead of Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
TOP-20 highest earners
Amounts are in millions of euros
1. Real Madrid 401.4
2. Barcelona 365.9
3. Manchester United 327
4. Bayern Munich 289.5
5. Arsenal 263
6. Chelsea 242.3
7. Liverpool 217
8. Juventus 203.2
9. Inter 196,5
10. Milan 196.5
11. Hamburger 146.7
12. Roma 146.4
13. Olympique Lyon 139.6
14. Olympique Marseille 133.2
15. Tottenham 132.7
16. Schalke 04 124.5
17. Werder Bremen 114.7
18. Borussia Dortmund 103.5
19. Manchester City 102.2
20. Newcastle 101.0
Bridge ignored Terry's hand
Wayne Bridge, who preferred to quit the England team to sharing the dressing room with John Terry, ignored the Chelsea's defender as Manchester City players shook hands with their hosts at Stamford Bridge.
The two players became the center of attention after Terry had an affair with Bridge's former fiance, French underwear model, Vanessa Perroncel. After shaking hands with the referees, Bridge came to his one-time friend, gave him a quick look and proceeded to greet other Chelsea players.
The second part of Bridge's revenge came during the game, as City ran riot at Stamford Bridge and defeated the Blues 2-4, ironically allowing Manchester United to come within one point of the leaders Chelsea.
Zidane: Not apologizing to Materazzi
Legendary French player Zinedine Zidane reminisced about the famous head-butting episode from the last World Cup and proclaimed he would never apologize Marco Materazzi for knocking him down in Berlin.
"I would prefer to die than asking forgiveness from that bad man," said Zidane to the Spanish El Pais daily.
"Of course I'm sorry for what happened, but apologizing would equal admitting what he did was normal. And for me it wasn't normal."
Materazzi insulted Zidane by mentioning his sister in an offensive context, which Zizou could not stand.
"If that had been Kaka, a normal guy and a good person, of course I would have apologized. But not to Materazzi. If i did that, I'd show disrespect to myself and the people I carry in my heart," added the Frenchman.
Curiously, the Italian provocateur later said he did not mean to offend Zidane's sister and that in fact he had no idea Zizou had one, but this admission made no difference to the best French player in the last two decades.
Atletico's coach calls his assistant 86 times during a game
After being sent off in the match at Almeria ten days ago, Atletico Madrid's Quique Sanchez Flores was banned from coaching his team against Valencia on Sunday. Having opted to view the game on a TV set in the dressing room, he decided to stay in touch with his assistants on Atletico's bench. Quique used his mobile phone to call the goalkeepers' coach Emilio Alvarez, whose duty was to convey the orders to the assistant coach Francisco Escriba.
As Alvarez confessed to Canal+, Quique called him 86 times during the game, won by Atletico 4-1.
"I counted 34 calls during the first half and 52 more in the second half for a total of 86 brief calls, each in the duration of five to ten seconds," said Alvarez.
Among the concise orders given by Quique was the one to substitute the injured Sergio Aguero immediately. Still, Escriba could not arrange for a quick substitution so Aguero was given time to score a goal before he was replaced.
Nakata auctions off his boots for Haiti
The former Japanese skipper Hidetoshi Nakata auctioned off the boots used against Croatia during the 2006 World Cup in order to rally funds for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. The retired midfielder collected over a million euros for the boots in an online auction for the 300,000 thousand casualties of the January 12th quake that devastated the Caribbean nation.
The game against Croatia ended goalless and after the next match against Brazil, who smashed Japan 4-1, a tearful Nakata announced his surprising retirement.
© Soccerphile.com
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