Balkans say prayer for grieving star

Bucharest, June 8: Romanian striker Adrian Mutu’s career has seen its fair share of ups and downs but this weekend indeed on the eve of his team’s opening Euro 2008 clash with France his many fans were lighting candles and offering their prayers for their beloved son after yet another dose of bad news.

The Fiorentina forward looked to have put all his woes behind him after a fine season with the Serie A side — who reached the Uefa Cup semi-finals and won the final Champions League place for next season edging out AC Milan — only for him to receive two bodyblows within days.

On Friday he was ordered by world governing body Fifa to pay former club Chelsea 12million euros for revenues they claimed to have lost following his sacking for testing positive for cocaine in 2004. As if that wasn’t enough of a hammerblow, on Saturday his adored maternal grandmother died leaving him devastated according to team camp sources as he had spent much of his childhood in the home of his grandmother at Calinesti, a small town some 150 km northwest of Bucharest.

In a country where it is normal to cross yourself three times on passing a church, many have gone inside them to either light candles or offer up their prayers for Mutu.

His woes reflect a series of depressing news for the Romanian squad as five of their players have learnt since they went into preparing for the tournament their club Steaua Bucharest has been swept up in a matchfixing scandal. — AFP

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Van the man back in tune

Berne, Switzerland, June 8: Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy cuts a much happier figure these days than he did at the 2006 World Cup finals and with him soon to turn 32 he realises that Euro 2008 may well be his last appearance on a major international stage.

The Real Madrid sharpshooter was totally out of sorts at the World Cup as he was out in the cold at Manchester United and was eventually dropped to the bench for the ill-tempered second round match with Portugal — if looks could kill he would have disposed of coach Marco van Basten.

When he was told that van Basten could not guarantee him being an automatic pick that was that for the former PSV Eindhoven star, who closed down his international career — a situation which stayed like that for a year.

However, he has made his peace with van Basten, though, he admits it doesn’t mean they will be going out to dinner a deux in the forseeable future.

"This conflict is forgotten. Our relationship, though, is strictly professional. We both share the same goal and vision: to do everything possible to win. It is not necessary to go to a restaurant together in order to do one’s job," said van Nistelrooy variously known as ‘Van Gol’ or ‘Van the Man’ a title normally reserved for legendary Irish singer Van Morrison. — AFP