CHICAGO: Landon Donovan was named winner of the US Soccer Federation’s male athlete of the year award on Monday after helping spark the Americans into next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
The 27-year-old playmaker also won the award in 2003 and 2004 and his third honor matches the all-time mark held by goalkeeper Kasey Keller.
“It’s a great accomplishment and a great award,” Donovan said.
“I’m very proud of it and knowing that the fans vote on it, your teammates vote on it, and your colleagues vote on it is very special to me.” Donovan, named Major League Soccer’s Most Valuable Player as well, scored three goals and made key set-up passes to assist on nine others as the US squad advanced to the World Cup for the sixth time in a row.
“We look forward to next year,” Donovan said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Donovan’s 35 caps and 12 career World Cup qualifying goals are US records.
Donovan sparked the Los Angeles Galaxy into the MLS Cup final, where the squad was beaten by Real Salt Lake. Donovan signed a new contract with the Galaxy last week and was loaned to Everton of the English Premier League.
Zidane on head-butt
In Paris, former French midfielder Zinedine Zidane is glad he was sent-off for his head-butt in the 2006 World Cup final because he has not had to live with regret over escaping punishment.
Zidane received a red card for head-butting Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the 2006 final, the last match of his career, which Italy won 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
“It (the sending off) was a very good thing,” the former Real Madrid and Juventus playmaker told France Football magazine in an interview released on Tuesday.
“It’s good that (Italian keeper Gianluigi) Buffon signaled what I had done to the referee because it was not pretty. I don’t know how I could have lived with it had France become world champions and I had stayed on the pitch.”
Zidane, who helped France lift the World Cup in 1998, thought there had been an overreaction to Thierry Henry’s handball that led to France beating Ireland in November and securing a 2010 World Cup place.
“Many people outside football got involved, people who love you when you lift trophies and let you down when things go wrong. I’m certain Henry is not proud of his gesture.”
Arrests down
Meanwhile, the number of arrests at English soccer grounds dropped last season, according to Home Office figures released on Tuesday.
In the 2008-09 season police made 3,752 arrests in or around stadiums, equivalent to one arrest per game, which was a two percent reduction. The total of 354 fans arrested for violent incidents was a five percent decrease from the previous season.
“Hooligans once blighted our national game, but we now set an example for the rest of the world in how we police football matches,”
Policing Minister David Hanson said in a statement.
Figures also suggested English fans traveling overseas to watch European matches were better behaved. Out of the 105,000 fans, which traveled to 49 games in European club competitions, only 30 were arrested.
Low crowds
In another development, Singapore clubs could be banned from competing in future Asian Champions League (ACL) competitions because of poor attendances in their domestic league.
An Asian Football Confederation (AFC) spokesman said on Tuesday that from 2012 only teams from leagues that have average attendances of over 5,000 per match would be given entry.
Average S. League attendances are below 2,000 this year but organizers of the competition remained confident they could boost that number sufficiently.
“We’ve met the majority of the list of criteria set by AFC and we are confident of meeting most, if not all, of the latest list of criteria,” Football Association of Singapore (FAS) spokesman Eric Ong said by telephone.
“Singapore football and the S.League is constantly improving on and off the pitch in terms of the business models, management, marketing and technical standards among other areas.”
South Korean side Pohang Steelers is the current holders of the AFC Champions League, the biggest club competition in Asia. Singapore Armed Forces, current champions of the S. League, have a chance to qualify for the group stages of the 2010 Champions League if they can win through two qualifying rounds early next year.
