On the move Malaga CF have three points in the bag

MALAGA CF headed up to Castellon to take on Villar‐real B in their second con‐secutive match away from La Rosaleda in the last seven days. A loyal band of 500 Blue and White fans made the journey to the Estadio de la Cerámica on Friday, April 7, as re ‐ported by malagacf.com

Sergio Pellicer made some changes from the team that lost narrowly to FC Andorra on Sunday April 2 as the Costa del Sol club tries to keep pace at the top of Segunda B.

From the outset, Mala ‐ga CF came out with in ‐tensity, showing clear ideas both in defence and attack. Despite several at‐tacks from the home side, Pellicer’s team dominated the first half.

It took just 14 minutes for Pablo Chavarría to open the scoring. After a great assist from Julian Delmás, the Argentinian striker popped up at the near post to put his team 0‐1 up.

Continuing to press Iker Álvarez’s goal, Malaga once again, managed to generate a great chance.

Aleix Febas found Rubén Castro inside the penalty area and the number 24 crossed the ball to score his 194th goal in the Sec ‐ond Division. As a result, the legendary achieved a second milestone on the same day.

Castro is now the equal all ‐ time top scorer in the history of Segunda B along with Nino. On the same day, he became the player to make the most appearances in LaLiga, ac‐cumulating an astounding 710 appearances.

At the start of the sec ‐ond half, Pellicer brought on Ramalho to replace Es‐cassi ‐ who had been shown the yellow card. Shortly afterwards, Lago

Junior came on for Chavarría, but with his first touch of the ball, he sustained an injury.

Whilst the Malaga strik‐er was limping, Villarreal took advantage in the 63rd minute with Sergio Carreira’s shot making it 2‐1. Immediately after the goal, Álex Calvo came on for the injured Junior.

Malaga maintained their lead until the final whistle to seal an impor ‐tant victory. Next Sunday, the team will return to La Rosaleda to face Cartage ‐na on LaLiga SmartBank matchday 36. A large crowd is expected as the fans will once again be de‐cisive in the search for a second consecutive win.

Candidate for Turkey AKP party

MESUT ÖZIL, the former Arsenal and Ger‐many midfield star has put his name for‐ward in Turkey as a candidate for Presi ‐dent Erdogan’s political party.

After hanging up his football boots, Mesut Özil, the former Arsenal and Ger ‐many legend, has positioned himself for a move into politics. According to welt.de, his name appears on the list of candidates for Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s party. This was also backed up by the Turkish news portal Haber7 which reported that the name of the 34 ‐ year ‐ old ex ‐ interna ‐tional player was on the candidate list of the Turkish governing party AKP.

Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in Turkey on May 14. Presi‐dent Erdogan recently announced that ‘surprising names’ would appear on the list of candidates ‐ including a name from sports.

It comes as no surprise that Özil is run ‐ning for Erdogan’s party. The former foot‐baller has openly acknowledged his friend‐ship with the President for years, and in

2019 Erdogan was even the best man at Özil’s wedding.

Before the 2018 World Cup, Özil caused a stir by posting a photo online with the au‐thoritarian head of state. The midfielder, then a German international, did not dis ‐tance himself from Erdogan but did not want the image to be understood as a po‐litical message. In the course of the de ‐bates, Özil later withdrew from the nation‐al team.

Born in the city of Gelsenkirchen in west‐ern Germany, Özil has regularly comment‐ed on political issues in the past. Just two days ago, he called on his followers on Twitter to show solidarity with the Pales ‐tinians.

The ex ‐ professional posted a photo in which he was wearing a top with the in ‐scription ‘Freedom for Palestine’, in a mes‐sage directed against the State of Israel.

Özil is on course with President Erdogan: the 69‐year‐old politician has played down the Holocaust several times by comparing the Jewish state with the Nazi regime.

LIVERPOOL stalwart Roberto Firmino will be leaving Liverpool after eight years it has been confirmed.

Brazilian international and Liverpool star Roberto Firmino, 31, has decided he will not renew his con‐tract with Anfield bosses at the end of this season, wrote a news source, on Tuesday, April 11.

Full name, Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira signed for Liver ‐pool in 2015 and has scored 109 goals in 359 appearances for the Merseyside club.

Firmino’s place in the football marketplace, who is available on a free transfer, is sure to attract much interest, with no less than Real Madrid throwing their hat into the ring.

As reported by El Na ‐tional , the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez is interested and could be set to ask the star to join them at the Santiago Bernabeu later this year.

Real’s Karim Benzema has yet to confirm his con‐tract, which is also due at the end of this season but if he does resign the com‐bination of him working with Firmino could be a powerful one.

In addition to the earli ‐er comments from El Na ‐cional, the choice of strik‐ers available to Real Madrid is limited, as they are either too expensive or not trusted by the club.

Madrid are treading carefully at the moment after spending £52 million on Luka Jovic, who strug ‐gled at Los Blancos, be ‐fore being released.

40,000 The number of registered association football clubs in England.

Spain’s Jon Rahm wins the 2023 Masters in Augusta, Georgia

SPAIN’S Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters after holding off the challenge of American golfer Brooks Koepka.

Rahm turned things around on the final day of the 2023 Masters at the legendary Augusta National Golf Club to win his first‐ever Masters tournament on Sun‐day, April 9.

American golfer Brooks Koepka led the field by two shots at the start of play. However, 28‐year‐old Rahm stunned his opponent by finishing on 12‐under after carding a three‐under last round of 69 to win by four shots and take the famous green jacket.

Koepka had to settle for second place, tying with the legendary Phil Mickelson. The 52‐year‐old American pulled out all the stops to finish on eight‐under after a stunning seven‐under round of 65. Further down the field, two previous champions, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, tied in sixth spot in this 87th edition of the event.

Scottie Scheffler, the defending 2022 Masters champi‐on could only manage a disappointing finish of four un‐der. The highest‐placed player from Great Britain and Northern Ireland was England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, the cur‐rent US Open champion.

Continuing a fine history of producing golfing champi‐ons, Rahm becomes the fourth Spaniard to win the pres‐tigious golf tournament.

Quite fittingly, his victory came on what would have been the birthday of Seve Ballesteros, the two‐time Masters champion in 1980 and 1983.

The other two Spanish golfers to win in Augusta were Sergio Garcia in 2017, and José María Olazábal who was victorious in both 1994 and 1999.