On Friday, the European Football Association (UEFA) announced the names of the players nominated for the first round player award in the league stage of the Champions League.
The list that UEFA announced on its official website, after the end of the first round competitions on Thursday, included 4 players: the Brazilian Rafinha, the Spanish Barcelona star, the two Spaniards Ferran Torres, the French Paris Saint-Germain striker, Marc Bartra, the Spanish Real Betis defender, and the Bosnian Ermedin Demirovich, the German Stuttgart player.
Rafinha scored two goals during Barcelona's great 5-1 victory over its guest, Feyenoord Rotterdam, while Ferran Torres scored 3 goals (a hat-trick) in Saint-Germain's 6-1 victory over its guest, Slovan Bratislava, Slovakia.
Bartra scored twice, in the match between Betis and its French host, Lille, which ended in an exciting 3-2 victory for the Andalusian team, while Demirovich scored all three goals for Stuttgart during the German team's 3-1 victory over its guest, Norwegian Viking.
The winner of the award will be announced based on the highest vote from the public, in a referendum presented by UEFA on its website.
A psychiatrist summoned by the defense to testify defended the validity of the medications that Argentine star Diego Armando Maradona received during his home treatment, where he died in 2020, as part of the trial of seven health care workers in Argentina.
Maradona died as a result of cardiac and respiratory arrest and a pulmonary crisis during his home treatment, and the suitability and circumstances of this care are a key focus in the trial that began in April in San Isidro (north of the capital, Buenos Aires).
Seven members of the medical team are being tried on charges of medical negligence, which may have caused the death of the Napoli star during his recovery period after undergoing head surgery.
The trial entered a new phase this week with the summoning of the first witnesses by the defense of the medical team on trial.
Previously, experts called by the prosecution questioned the psychiatric medications prescribed by psychiatrist Agostina Kosachov, given their possible effects on liver, kidney and heart functions.
Psychiatrist Anibal Arico rejected this theory on Thursday, according to Kosachov's lawyers, saying: "The cause of death has not been determined, but I confirm that it was neither a heart disorder nor a drug-related problem."
He pointed out that “the prescription of psychiatric medications was appropriate for the patient’s clinical condition,” and that the dose given to Maradona “did not cause heart disorders.”
Arico also downplayed the importance of Maradona being hospitalized against his will, a point raised by other experts during the trial, saying: “There is no clear evidence that this patient needed this type of care.”
The prosecution challenges both the psychological treatment that Maradona underwent and the role of psychiatrist Kosachov in arranging his stay in Tigre Hospital, north of the capital, Buenos Aires, where he died at the age of 60 on November 25, 2020.
Maradona was taken home three weeks ago, after undergoing surgery to treat a hematoma in the head.
The trial is expected to end by next November. The defendants insist on their innocence, while they face a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
Robbie Evans, managing director of the English Football Club Leeds United, confirmed that the club and coach Daniel Farke are “in complete agreement” regarding efforts to reach a new contract.
Farke, who led Leeds to occupy fourteenth place in the English Premier League and reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup last season, is spending the final year of his current contract with the team.
Leeds made a good start this season in the English Premier League, as it is currently in ninth place in the prestigious competition with 5 points, after playing its first three matches in the tournament, which made Evans praise the “wonderful” work presented by the German coach.
Evans said in statements reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): “With regard to the contract discussions themselves, I have had very good conversations with Daniel and his supporting staff over the past three months, and everyone completely agrees on the same vision.”
He added: “Unlike contracting with him in 2023, or concluding a deal in the last moments of the transfer period, the time pressure is much less now, which gives us an opportunity to come up with the ideal formula that meets his aspirations and our aspirations.”
He explained: “I do not feel that it will take a long time, but rather it means that we are getting the work done properly and we have enough time for it. “As long as we work together as a group, which we do brilliantly, I am not worried.”
Evans concluded his speech by saying: “In short, the coach performed wonderfully, and we want him to stay with us in the long term, and we are currently working to achieve that.”
