4 posts tagged “athletes”

HONG KONG (AFP) - David Beckham's move to Major League Soccer may have been good for his wallet but it has apparently not helped his popularity in Asia.Empty seats and surprising indifference greeted football's greatest star, who was mobbed like a rockstar on his first trip to the region, as he completed an Asian tour with LA Galaxy. Just 11,000 paying fans turned up to watch Galaxy's lethargic performance here, leaving most of Hong Kong Stadium empty, while similar numbers watched the team in Shanghai.Dozens, rather than hundreds, of supporters greeted the former Real Madrid and Manchester United man at Hong Kong airport, while screaming fans at the team hotel were notable by their absence.Beckham, whose England future has also been clouded by the US move, thanked fans for an "incredible" welcome. However, he may have been wondering why so many of them didn't turn up."It's been incredible," he said. "It's been a great tour for us. Everywhere we've gone, people have been amazing to the team and showed us lot of love."Loyal supporters here said Beckham's profile had dipped since his transfer to Galaxy on a reported 250-million-dollar, five-year deal."The fact that you don't get to watch the American league here so much, and the fact he's not playing in the English Premier League or in Spain is a big factor," said fan Chuck Lee."He's handsome, he's attractive," said Esther Chan. "But I think the Galaxy is not so good at football."The sentiment was borne out on the field as Beckham looked in a different class to his team-mates, who were content to feed him the ball and wait for his pin-point crosses.Despite two converted penalties by the Englishman, Galaxy were beaten by South China invitational in a poor advertisement for US football -- and, by extension, for Brand Beckham.However, he said the tour had been important for the team, coached by Ruud Gullit, as it prepares for the upcoming US season."Team spirit can win a game or a championship," Beckham said."In these...

BERLIN (AFP) - Double Olympic figureskating champion Katarina Witt of Germany has brought the curtain down on her career after closing out her farewell tour before an 8,000 crowd in the northern city of Hannover."For weeks I have been reflecting on what I was going to say at this particular moment. I just want to say - thankyou," said Witt, 42, as she bade the crown an emotional goodbye Tuesday night following a two-hour show.The four-time world champion and six-time European champion had criss-crossed the country over the past three weeks with gala shows at venues including Berlin and Chemnitz, which when she was growing up there was called Karl-Marx Stadt in the former East Germany.Witt, still hugely popular in her homeland despite her support for the former East's Communist whose sporting icon she was, said she simply wanted to enjoy her free time after retirement."Since I was a child I always had an annual goal," she explained in an interview with Die Welt newspaper, whereas now she can relax.Witt said her Olympic triumphs of 1984 and 1988 remained great memories, particularly the latter, when she skated to an interpretation of Carmen."I realised the eyes of the world were on me," said the woman dubbed "Germany's little fiancee" or indeed the "beautiful face of Socialism" before the Eastern regime collapsed in 1989.An attempt to return to the top ended in failure at the 1994 Lillehammer Games but Witt insisted that she now has "tons of propositions," while she is already working as a presenter for broadcaster ProSieben and also writing a book on fitness.Source: AP

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Football star David Beckham visited young leukaemia patients at a Shanghai hospital on Tuesday, causing a wave of chaos which forced police to seal off several of the hospital's entrances.Hundreds of fans, staff, the media and curious bystanders converged upon the hospital, prompting police to close off access to a wing of Xinhua Hospital, an AFP reporter witnessed. No-one was allowed to enter or leave the wing for several hours.One woman screamed hysterically as angry police refused to allow her inside, and organisers were forced to cancel a donation ceremony scheduled to take place outside the hospital."I want to see a doctor," she said as she tried to fight her way in.Beckham is in Shanghai with his US club, LA Galaxy, for an exhibition match against a Shanghai-Hong Kong team on Wednesday.Police struggled to clear people away from the ward's main entrance, holding up Beckham's car for at least 15 minutes.The Galaxy, who begin their regular season in the US at the end of March, are in Shanghai as part or a three-city Asian tour.The club lost in a penalty shootout to K-League side FC Seoul on Saturday. After their Shanghai match, Beckham and his team will travel to Hong Kong for a game against a South China side on March 9.The former England captain is very popular in Asia, drawing huge crowds when he captained the national side during the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.Source: AFP

LONDON (AFP) - There were increasing claims on Monday that media coverage of Prince Harry's 10-week tour in Afghanistan had been "propaganda" and overlooked a failed military strategy there.Meanwhile, British newspapers reported that the 23-year-old was set to get a promotion following his time fighting the Taliban in the restive Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, cut short when a US website blew his cover Thursday, forcing the military to withdraw him.According to The Times and The Sun tabloid on Monday, Harry is guaranteed a promotion next month, having completed two years in the army, along with a 5,000-pound (6,500-euro, 9,900-dollar) annual pay increase.The Daily Telegraph also reported, quoting an unnamed senior source, that he will be assigned to train young soldiers in his role of Forward Air Controller, which involves calling in air strikes and and carrying out surveillance.The prince returned to Britain on Saturday to a hero's welcome, and vowed to return to the frontline as soon as possible, though British military chiefs have said that prospect is unlikely for 18 months or so.But dissenting voices are now beginning to be heard above the widespread praise for the young prince, not least because of the British media's agreement with the defence ministry to a news blackout until he returned.The royal and his superiors say the coverage could help the public appreciate more their role in Afghanistan while the former head of the British Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, said it was "not unhelpful" for recruitment.A high-profile parliamentary committee warned in January that pressure on Britain's military to meet its commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq, where about 12,000 soldiers are stationed in total, has battered morale and spurred experienced officers to leave.Some, though, question whether the news blackout deal had eroded trust between media organisations and their audiences.Centre-left publications the Independent on Sunday and The Observer both...