World's best crown beckons for Kaka

AC Milan playmaker Kaka hopes to crown a magnificent 2007 by being named the FIFA Player of the Year on Monday.The Brazilian has already taken the Ballon d'Or for the best European player and was also named the world's best by World Soccer magazine beating his two Monday rivals, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Kaka also helped AC Milan to the Champions League title in 2007 as well as the World Club Cup and European Super Cup. And on sunday he earned the best tittle for clubs, Club World Cup by beating Argentine giants Boca Juniors by 4-2.Kaka scored once and assist Filippo Inzaghi twise. Italian giants AC Milan overwhelmed Boca Juniors in the Club World Cup final on Sunday to win a record fourth intercontinental crown. Milan added the crown to their 1969, 1989 and 1990 titles. Alessandro Nesta took the credit of the fourth goal.

Last week, the 25-year-old Kaka was named as World Player of the Year by World Soccer.Barcelona's Messi, who also won the young player of the year award for the second successive year, was second and Ronaldo of Manchester United was third.
In the Ballon d'Or award, organised by France Football, Ronaldo, was second and Messi third.
World Soccer readers in 48 countries contributed to their magazine's poll and Kaka gained 52.8 per cent of the votes, making him only the second player in the 26-year history of the award to receive more than half those cast. The only other player to do so was France's Michel Platini in 1984

Kaka has won rich praise from fellow players ahead of the awards ceremony to be held in Zurich. "He is the complete modern player," said former Brazil left-back Roberto Carlos of his compatriot. Meanwhile, Barcelona's Edmilson praises Kaka's "humility and straightforwardness". He added that Kaka "has the aura of a leader that should make him the player to captain the Brazil national team at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups."

Argentinian ace Messi saw his year of action come to an end on Saturday when a thigh injury picked up in Barcelona's 3-0 win over Valencia ruled him out for five weeks. Messi will miss up to seven matches, including next Sunday's crucial title duel with Real Madrid, a huge blow for Barcelona with Messi having scored eight goals already this season. Messi also scored a sensational hat-trick in the corresponding fixture, which finished 3-3 last season.

Portuguese international Ronaldo emerged as Manchester United's star player after inspiring the club to the Premiership title last season. His 23-goal haul saw him voted as the league's player of the year. His club boss Sir Alex Ferguson insisted that Ronaldo is already one of the world's elite players.

"I don't think Cristiano needs any endorsement from me. He gets all the endorsements he needs with his performances on the pitch, but I have said time and time again that I think the boy is a marvellous player," said Ferguson. "He is definitely one of the best players in the world. There is no question of that and his scoring record for Portugal is phenomenal. It is almost one in two games for them which is an amazing record for a young player."

Athlete Jones stripped of Olympic medals

The International Olympic committee today formally stripped the US athlete Marion Jones of the five medals she won at the Sydney games in 2000 and wiped her name from the record books.

She was also barred from next year's games in Beijing, and faces a lifetime ban from all future Olympics. Jones - who in October admitted to using steroids before she won three gold and two bronze medals at Sydney - had already handed back the medals prior to today's announcement by the IOC president, Jacques Rogge.

Last month, the International Association of Athletics Federations erased all her results dating to September 2000, but it was up to the IOC to formally disqualify her and wipe out her Olympic medals. Jones won gold medals in the 100 metres, 200 metres and the 4x400 metre relay in Sydney, taking bronze in the long jump and the 4x100 metre relay. She was the first female track and field athlete to win five medals at a single Olympics. In addition to those medals, the IOC also disqualified Jones from her seventh placed finish in the long jump at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The move could affect the medal status of more than three dozen other athletes. However, the IOC has postponed a decision on how the medals should be redistributed, including whether to strip her US relay team-mates of their gold medals and whether to upgrade the Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou to gold in the 100 metres. Thanou was later banned for two years for failing to attend drug testing before the Athens games. After years of denials, Jones finally admitted taking steroids in a tearful confession in a New York courtroom in October.

"It's with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust," she said. "I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let my family down, I have let my country down, and I have let myself down." Jones becomes the fourth US athlete in Olympic history to have a medal taken away by the IOC, and the third to have the punishment imposed for a doping offence.

Jerome Young was stripped of his 1,600 metre relay Sydney gold for an earlier doping violation, the swimmer Rick DeMont lost his 400 metre freestyle gold from the 1972 Munich games after testing positive for a banned substance in his asthma medication, and Jim Thorpe was stripped of his pentathlon and decathlon gold medals in 1912 when it was revealed he earned $25 a week playing minor league baseball. The IOC reinstated Thorpe in 1982, returning his medals to his children the following year.

IOC officials said they needed more details from the ongoing investigation into steroids in the US to determine whether any other Olympic athletes were linked to the scandal. Jones faces a US jail sentence of between three and six months after a federal investigation into a steroid distribution ring at the Balco sports nutrition centre, in California. She will be sentenced on January 11.
(Source: Guardian Unlimited)