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    Brazil football hero Falcao quits job after ‘rubbing his crotch against hotel worker’

    BRAZILIAN football hero Falcao has quit his job amid claims he sexually assaulted a woman.Falcao, 69 — a star of the midfield at the 1982 World Cup — is claimed to have rubbed his crotch against a hotel worker.
    World Cup star Falcao allegedly rubbed his crotch against a hotel workerCredit: PA:Empics Sport
    She is said to have told police there was at least one witness and the incident was on CCTV.
    A specialist sex crimes police unit are investigating the allegations.
    The star — full name Paulo Roberto Falcao — denies wrongdoing but quit as sporting director at Brazilian side Santos.
    As a leading defensive midfielder, Falcao made his name at Internacional before moving to Italian side Roma in 1980.
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    He won 34 caps for Brazil.
    At the peak of his career, Falcao was one of the Brazil national team’s greatest stars playing against English contemporaries like Kevin Kegan and Glenn Hoddle.
    He played at a club level for Internacional, Roma, and Sao Paulo and was once the world’s highest-paid player.
    He was later manager of the Brazil national side and had three separate stints in charge of Internacional before taking the Santos sporting coordinator job in November.
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    Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher fear getting Sky Sports axe and admit job could be ‘taken away any from us’

    GARY NEVILLE and Jamie Carragher have both admitted they cannoy rest on their laurels or they will risk the Sky Sports axe.The two legendary greats regularly go head-to-head in debates while covering the Premier League for the broadcaster.
    Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville are worried for their futures at Sky SportsCredit: Alamy
    Soccer AM was recently cut as part of the company’s shake-upCredit: Sky
    While Geoff Shreeves has also recently left the broadcasterCredit: Getty
    The former Manchester United and Liverpool defenders are the stars of Monday Night Football and offer brilliant insight into the game.
    However, with Sky Sports recent freshen-up that has seen Soccer AM axed and some of the channel’s star names leave, they are both concerned over their futures.
    Neville told FourFourTwo: “I don’t really think about how long it’s been. But it is hard, you know. It’s not playing football, it’s not being a manager, but anyone who looks at it and thinks, ‘Oh, they’re just on television, talking about football’… well, yeah, OK.
    “But there are thousands of jobs all over the world now doing this, so to stay at Sky, the Premier League rights-holders in this country, and on shows like Super Sunday and Monday Night Football, the demands are high.
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    “To stay there for several years is an achievement, because it’s probably a gig that most people would want. If you think of the top gigs in football punditry, there’s only three or four.
    “Working on major tournaments, Match of the Day, Monday Night Football – they’re the pinnacle of football broadcasting.
    “We know it will be taken away from us the minute it doesn’t work any more, so we’re very conscious of making sure we change things all of the time.”
    Carragher added: “Yeah, we know what viewers think because we’re viewers ourselves, and you don’t want to watch exactly the same thing every single season.
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    “I don’t want to do that and I don’t think Gary does. We always want new ideas, different guests, different formats.
    “Friday Night Football, which we’ve done for the last three or four years, was a good example: the format was completely different to the other shows that we do.”
    Soccer AM had been on screens for nearly 30 years until Sky sports pulled the plug on the show.
    While personnel-wise, commentator Martin Tyler has left the broadcaster and been replaced by Peter Dury and pitchside reporter Geoff Sheeves also left the company after three decades.
    Martin Tyler left Sky Sports earlier this yearCredit: Getty
    The changes have been in the air for a while, as the broadcaster sacked Soccer Saturday trio Matt Le Tissier, Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson before the 2020/21 season.
    Neville joined Sky in 2011 following his sack from LaLiga side Valencia while Carragher joined up with his former rival two years later. More

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    Premier League side Burnley advertising job for matchday stretcher bearer

    PREMIER League side Burnley are hoping fans get carried away with their latest job ad — for a matchday stretcher bearer.The newly promoted club — managed by former Manchester City hero Vincent Kompany — want someone who can “perform the manual handling requirements to lift and lower a stretcher”.
    Burnley are advertising for a stretcher bearer to carry injured players off the field at their groundCredit: Reuters
    The newly promoted club is managed by former Manchester City hero Vincent KompanyCredit: Getty
    They say applicants must be fit and active and be able to work evenings and weekends.
    The ad tells hopefuls they would “be present at a list of fixtures to remove injured players by stretchers from the field”.
    It adds: “They will also need to have a flexible approach to work and be able to work evenings and weekends.”
    It stresses: “The ideal candidate will have experience in pre-hospital first aid.”
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    But no salary is given and it is described as a zero hours contract.
    The Clarets, who play at Turf Moor, won the Championship with 101 points last season.
    Burnley will now be taking their place in the Premiership, with Vincent Kompany hoping to put a dent in former club Man City’s hope of winning the league. More

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    I’m Elle Brooke’s trainer, she’s a natural athlete who can punch and could become a professional boxer

    ELLE BROOKE has been backed for a career in professional boxing by her esteemed trainer Mark Tibbs. The OnlyFans star is 3-0 and has established herself as a top attraction in the influencer boxing space.
    Elle Brooke is in training for her next fightCredit: Rex
    The OnlyFans star is 3-0 in boxingCredit: Rex
    But her coach Tibbs believes Brooke has the ability and attributes to one day cross over to the pro ranks.
    He told SunSport: “She’s a natural athlete for sure. She’s strong, she’s agile and when you give her an instruction she carries is out. 
    “It’s not always perfect straight away but she works at it and it comes.” 
    The pair were introduced to each other by IBF bantamweight champion Ebanie Bridges.
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    Tibbs – a well-schooled amateur boxer – had to build Brooke from the ground upwards as she walked into the gym a raw novice.
    He said: “You have a look, you bring in certain sparring partners that you can work with and not have fights. 
    “You work on tactics, you work on footwork and placing the shots so it’s all broken down like that. 
    “Each and every fighter is different, every trainer has a system and according to who your client or fighter is you have to tweak that system to get them to the places you think you can get them to. 
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    “With Elle Brooke, I’ve got amateur boxers in to work with her and I’ve got professional boxers in to work with her and she’s looking like a little professional. 
    “It’s been a bit of a fast track but we’re doing it, we’re not there yet but it’s an ongoing process, even for me as a trainer.”
    Tibbs has trained the likes of Dillian Whyte and Billy Joe Saunders but kept an open mind when celebrity Brooke came into his gym doors.
    He said: “To be honest with you, I look at it a little bit different, I look at the client who I want to get ready for the fights. 
    “And as long as I’ve got a rapport and I feel they can get somewhere in the sport that’s all I focus on. 
    “I focus on getting them ready for a fight. I always have an open mind, I’m enjoying it and she’s a pleasure to work with.” 
    “When you’re working with a novice it’s alway hard work but if that novice wants to work with me, we’ll get them to places she could only dream of. 
    “She’s in a good place right now, she’s boxing like a little professional now.” 
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    Graeme Souness closes in on top new job with Champions League club following Sky Sports departure

    RANGERS want to sort out a top job for club legend Graeme Souness at the second attempt.The Scottish giants plan to meet their former manager for a final summit after initial talks a few weeks ago.
    Rangers want to sort out a top job for club legend Graeme Souness at the second attemptCredit: Rex
    Souness, 70, would return to Ibrox in some capacity but only if the post was worthwhile and meaningful.
    Gers boss Michael Beale is hands-on in the transfer market and doing much of the work that former director of football Ross Wilson did.
    Souness is based in Dorset but would go back to Glasgow on a regular basis for his boyhood club if the job made a difference.
    The Scot revealed he wanted to stay on with Sky Sports longer.
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    He fought back tears during his final appearance on Sky back in April after 15 years on the platform.
    Speaking to The Guardian, Souness was asked whether it was he or Sky’s decision to part ways, to which he said: “Mutual. I mean, I was keen to stay another year.
    “They thought it would be a good idea that we called it a day, gave their reasons and I accepted that and have zero complaints about Sky.
    “I worked for them maybe 15 years solid – but it’s more like 20 years.
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    “They’ve been great for me, gave me the weekends to look forward to, the buzz of live football.”
    Souness had teased a new job when asked if he will miss Sky.
    He said: “Yes. But I’m talking to other people and we’ll go again. There’s life in the old dog yet.”
    Rangers’ second placed Scottish Premiership finish means they will enter the Champions League at the third qualifying round next season.
    Graeme Souness has left Sky SportsCredit: Getty More

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    I was living the dream as a professional footballer – now I work on a scrap yard… and I’ve never been happier

    ALEXANDER Easdale was living every young man’s dream – playing professional football.But he sensationally quit the game and for the last 10 months has been working in a scrap yard – and he has never been happier.
    Alexander Easdale played professional football for Scottish Championship side Greenock MortonCredit: Kenny Ramsay
    Alexander now works at his dad’s scrapyardCredit: Supplied
    The disillusioned striker with Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton has swapped football boots for steel toe caps.
    Instead of enjoying a couple of hours a day pre-season training, he is up at the crack of dawn and working till dusk sorting through scrap metal.
    He has swapped coaching sessions for swotting up to pass his HGV licence to drive skip lorries to deliver metal to the company’s three junk yards.
    Alexander, 23, who was on Morton’s books for nine years and attracted the attention of a handful of English clubs, says: “I’m a lot happier. I’m really enjoying every day.
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    “Football is fairly well paid. The lifestyle is good. You train in the morning and then you have got time off in the afternoon to do whatever you want and recover.
    “I was full time for almost 10 years in football. I started full-time when I was about 15 or 16 but I just thought, I have achieved what I could at football.
    “One day I thought maybe I could go into the scrap business and start at the bottom where my dad and uncle started.”
    Alexander’s dad is tycoon Sandy Easdale, who with his brother James, started in the family scrapyard business as boys, going there every night after school.
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    Alex says he doesn’t miss the pressure of being a pro footballerCredit: The Sun
    Alexander with his dad SandyCredit: Supplied
    Sandy and brother James Easdale are worth over £1billionCredit: Supplied
    Today, in their fifties, the duo are worth £1.4billion after making their fortune in buses, taxis and window manufacturing.
    Sandy says: “Scrap is in your blood, you either like it or hate it.”
    He and James once travelled to London to buy a Bentley GT first edition from Jack Barclay’s Mayfair showroom, which was in the middle of a renovation.
    Sandy, 53, says: “There was a skip outside with some copper in it. I said to James, ‘There’s £30 worth of copper in there, put it in the boot.’
    “To the amusement of Jack Barclay’s senior manager we put thirty quid of copper in a two hundred grand car.
    “We will walk round London and everybody is looking at the super cars but we’ll be looking at a skip!
    “I’d rather have a skip lorry than a Ferrari – they’re the same price.” 
    Hard graft
    Alex has taken to the new job quicklyCredit: Supplied
    Last October Alexander told his dad he was quitting Morton to become a scrap man working in the family junk yard in Greenock and Renfrew, near Glasgow.
    Sandy says: “It’s difficult to go from a Championship club to do a hard day’s graft.
    “He left the football club on the Monday and started at the scrap yard the next day.
    “At football you get your breakfast, then have a massage followed by a workout, then you get your dinner and watch a movie to recover.
    It’s difficult to go from a Championship club to do a hard day’s graftSandy Easdale
    “Compare that to driving about collecting rubbish. I thought the experience would either make him or break him. But it has obviously made him.
    “I told him, ‘Remember the future in football is an easy life compared to the scrapyard, you’re not going to sit in the boardroom,’ and he was fine with that.
    “It’s dead easy to say wear a suit and sit in the boardroom and get 100 grand a year and a company car, but he didn’t want that.
    “So he’s at the bottom rung of the whole empire. He’s a dogsbody, has no rank through his name.”
    ‘Down to earth’
    As part of his car collection, Sandy has Lamborghinis, Porches and Rolls-RoycesCredit: Supplied
    Alexander is learning the business quickly, having already passed his truck and bus test, and has a material handling licence.
    “That comes from the football training, having to focus on something and do it well,” Sandy explains.
    “He has been there nine months. He loves it. I am proud he has adapted so well.
    “He doesn’t miss football at all and has not kicked a ball since.
    “In the last ten years, I probably spoke to Alexander for five minutes a day. Conversation over and then he’d go to his room.
    “Now he sits, has his dinner and we talk for ages. ‘I did this, I spoke to this person. How do you do this? How do you do that?’ 
    Alexander doesn’t miss football at all and has not kicked a ball sinceSandy Easdale
    “He’s in the office dealing with customers and dealing with prices. He’s learned in the last nine months where to buy stuff, how much to sell for, what the profit margins are.
    “He has the mental arithmetic that me and James have got. 
    “It surprises me how he’s adapted. He seems to have picked it up and run with it better than I’d ever have thought.”
    Sandy says his son is also helping to modernise the operation, expanding into precious metals and trading in catalytic converters for cars.
    “Talking of cars, I have the biggest car collection ever, so Alexander has access to Lamborghinis, Porches and Rolls-Royces,” Sandy says.
    “But he’s happy driving a little white VW Caddy van that he goes to work in.
    “He’s the most unbelievably down-to-earth boy you’d ever meet in your life.
    “On the day he told me, ‘Dad, I’ve had enough,’ I said to him ‘You’re 22, I don’t want you telling me in five years’ time you finished my football career for me.’”
    But Alexander has no regrets about turning his back on the world of football.
    He says: “There was a lot more pressure in football than in my working life because you are being watched every Saturday.
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    “Here I’m just a worker, doing the job, 8-5, going out in the lorry picking up scrap, working the skips and the machinery in the yard.
    “I feel a lot happier now and I am really enjoying it every day.”
    Alexander says he’s never been happierCredit: Supplied
    Sandy and James are delighted to have Alexander on boardCredit: Supplied More

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    I quit my job as a BINMAN to become a European boxing champion and my team all wore high-vis jackets to the ring

    RENDALL MUNROE is the former binman turned world title challenger – whose team used to don high-vis vests on their way to the ring.Back in the 2000s, Munroe juggled the Sweet Science with his day job of collecting bins in the streets of Leicester.
    Rendall Munroe challenged Toshiaki Nishioka for the WBC super bantamweight title in 2010Credit: AP
    Munroe juggled his job as a full-time bin man with his boxing careerCredit: GETTY
    Munro eventually packed in collecting bins to focus on his fightingCredit: GETTY
    “The Boxing Binman”, however, eventually packed in his refuse work when he got the call to challenge Toshiaki Nishioka for the WBC super-bantamweight title in Japan.
    He recalled in an interview with talkSPORT: “Mike and Jay [Shinfield, my trainers] said to me, ‘Look, you need to concentrate more on the boxing now’.
    “It was the wrong thing to do because I used to like being a ‘normal person’.
    “I liked being a boxer for a training camp, eight weeks, and then I’m just Rendall, back on the bins – a normal guy.
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    “After that, everything became boxing. You’re bored in the daytime but can’t train because you’d over-train.
    “I was always very active, so it messed me up a little. I started going for runs when I didn’t need to. When I retired [in 2014], I went back and they told me I had no job.”
    Munroe’s team often played up to his moniker, accompanying him to the ring in high-vis vests – which a slew of Japanese fans wore in tribute to him the night before his unsuccessful bid to dethrone Nishioka.
    The former EBU super bantamweight champ said: “At the weigh-in [pre-Nishioka], I had a few Japanese fans with high-vis [binman] vests at the scales.
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    “There was a Japanese fan that came and waited outside my [hotel] room and gave me a cup and a dream catcher. I’ve still got them at home in a glass cabinet.
    “I’m a guy who just enjoys boxing. For people like that to wait outside my hotel room – there must have been about 600 rooms – it touches you a bit.”
    Munroe and his body failed to rise to the occasion as he suffered a unanimous decision defeat in what would be his sole world title fight.
    He recalled: “It got to the fifth round, and I remember sitting down and Jay would be, ‘Are we ready to turn up the gas now?’.
    “Normally I’d be, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah’. [This time] I stood up, and both my calves cramped up. ‘Wow, what’s going on here?’ I’m half-a-second out, all the time.
    “It was about the seventh round I come back and said, ‘Jay, I don’t think I’m going to win. I ain’t going to let him stop me’.
    “When the final bell went I went back to my corner and broke down. ‘The biggest fight of my career, and it’s gone wrong. I just don’t know what’s gone on.’
    Rendall Munroe’s final fight was against Josh Warrington in 2014Credit: Getty
    “It’s like someone’s looking at you – hit this – and then it’s gone. My body just didn’t feel that sharpness.
    “Sometimes you can get away with it; when you’re in there with the elite, you ain’t getting away with it.”
    Munroe bounced back from championship heartache with three victories before back-to-back bouts with Scott Quigg, the first of which he drew and the second he lost.
    He ended his career – which he looks back on with great pride – following a seventh-round TKO defeat to Josh Warrington.
    He said: “I proved myself good enough to be in there with the best.
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    “I wanted enough money out of boxing to buy a house to live in and buy a house to rent, and then I’m going to kick back and enjoy life.
    “Boxing wasn’t as much money as it is now, but it was still decent. I achieved what I wanted to achieve.” More

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    I won the World Cup with Foden and Sancho, now I work a 9-5 office job.. I sometimes wonder how this happened

    FORMER Manchester City prospect Curtis Anderson went from World Cup glory with England’s Under-17s to an office job at the age of 22.Anderson was crucial in the Young Lions’ 2017 triumph in India with some key saves as he denied a penalty and scored another in the quarter-final shoot-out against Japan before the final versus Spain.
    Curtis Anderson was a Manchester City and England prospectCredit: Getty
    Anderson has stopped playing football and currently works as a financial adviserCredit: Instagram / @curtando_
    He stood out for Steve Cooper’s side alongside Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden , Conor Gallagher, Marc Guehi, Morgan Gibbs-White, Emile Smith Rowe and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
    The goalkeeper, who now classifies as a free agent, appeared to be on the way up as he even impressed City manager Pep Guardiola who named him as his third choice at the Etihad.
    However, it all started to go south at the age of 19 when Blackburn came calling during the January transfer window.
    The Citizens told him to stay on until the end of the season but he insisted on a move to Ewood Park, which never materialised.
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    Anderson told The Times: “Me being a kid and thinking I knew everything, I was like, no, I need to go and play.
    “Blackburn were clearly there — why not train, stay earning this money and go to Blackburn at the end of the season? Nobody told me to do that.”
    That led Anderson moving across the pond to Charlotte Independence, which was a second-tier club in the United States.
    Celtic’s former youth coach Jim McGuinness attracted him to Charlotte after he was appointed manager and thought he would help him move to the MLS.
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    But McGuinness was sacked just three months later and the shot-stopper only managed 11 appearances before his departure a few months later.
    Anderson added: “Going to America stopped my momentum. Coming back to England during Covid killed me.
    “I went from loving football, ages eight to 18, to thinking, ‘This isn’t what I thought it was’.
    “Whether it’s unlucky, unfortunate, wrong decisions here or there, people not helping, whatever you want to call it, it’s not great. I sometimes struggle with how I feel about it.”
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    Anderson was crucial in England Under-17s’ World Cup glory in 2017Credit: Reuters
    Anderson returned to England for Wycombe in the Championship but was quickly sent out on loan to non-league sides Walton Casuals and Eastbourne Borough before his departure on January 31.
    He joined Lancaster City and that is when he decided to look for a different career in finance as he wanted more stability in his life.
    Anderson now works as a financial adviser for Markland Hill Wealth in Lancaster – he is in fact the only one from that England Under-17 side that is no longer active in football.
    However, he admitted he “really struggled” watching former team-mates, like Foden and Gallagher, getting called up by England manager Gareth Southgate for the 2022 World Cup.
    And he stayed behind watching his buddies compete in Qatar during his lunch break at the office wondering what could have been.
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    Anderson said: “I really struggled [during the World Cup] because I was seeing so many of my old team-mates and people I had spent a lot of time with.
    “And then there’s me, sat at home watching on TV, thinking, ‘How has this ended up happening?'” More