When someone tweets something a touch contentious they are often told to ‘delete your account’. And that’s precisely what James McClean did after giving his take on Brexit.
Powerlifter gives it to Ronaldo
Angriest former World’s Strongest Man? That’d be Iceland’s Magnus Ver Magnusson who posted a message to a certain Portuguese player on Facebook.
"Dear Cristiano Ronaldo. When you said Iceland will never win anything I bet you weren't expecting this as the final results of the qualifying group. Have a good look you self centred egotistical ******."
And the stars don’t represent ‘footballing genius’ either.
Word of mouth I
“I can’t win, I’m either too angry or too happy. I can’t find the line in between … I’m always hugging people but usually people don’t see that, whether it’s my dogs, my family or my friends. That’s what you do when you’re happy.” – Roy Keane on the universal shocked reaction to him being so smiley after the Italian win.
Word of mouth II
“How long ago was it? Seven years. ****ing hell, move on.” – Robbie Keane on you know what. (Hint: Thierry).
How Ibrahimovic conquered Sweden
Farewell of the week: Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s adieu after playing his final game for Sweden
“I came from this place people call ‘ghetto Rosengard’, conquered Sweden and made it my country. My way. I am Sweden. A huge thank you to the Swedish people - without you I would never have been able to fulfill my dreams. You will always be in my blue and yellow heart. I love you.’
Sniff.
Groin injury helps Delph avoid terrifying encounter
It was back in April that Manchester City midfielder Fabian Delph shared the rather startling news that “I see ghosts all the time”, the woman interviewing him for the club’s YouTube channel initially assuming he was jesting…. until he elaborated.
“Genuinely. I think I’ve seen four. I stayed in a hotel and there were a lot of things moving in the room. A lot of bangs - it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. And about four months ago in my house I saw two ghosts in the bedroom. The one four months ago, that was actually carrying a body and it went out on to my balcony and disappeared.”
You'd guess, then, that Delph is really rather relieved that he was ruled out of England's Euro 2016 squad with a groin injury because The Sun has exclusively revealed that the hotel the players are currently staying in is haunted by a chef who died in 1617.
“Francois Vatel was a celebrated cook who killed himself during a banquet for the French king in 1617 at the Chateau du Chantilly,” they told us, the lateness of a seafood delivery pushing him over the edge. His body was discovered when one of the hotel staff went to give him the good news, the seafood had finally arrived, but, alas, Vatel had already done himself in.
If Delph was staying in the hotel he’d most probably see the chef carrying prawns about the place before disappearing over the balcony. It’s hard to imagine any player wanting to room with the fella.
Ireland look after their own
The Irish Embassy in Paris set up a temporary consulate in Lille for the game against Italy, and hats off to them, they were handing out essentials to the fans - Tayto before the game, Strepsils after.
England may yet have a whale of a time
Most generous offer of Euro 2016: It has to be this one, from Icelandic company North Sailing to the English squad ahead of Monday’s meeting between the nations.
“The poor English players will anyways not be able to return immediately to England after the match on Monday, as 60 million English football fans will be furious when losing to a small island state with only 300,000 inhabitants. Therefore we offer a peaceful day with whale-watching in a small town in Northern Iceland with beautiful nature and nice people. That should be the perfect compensation.”
The trip, they said, would be “a bandage for wounded pride” after losing. And North Sailing manager Gudbjartur Jonsson even has 23 free tickets prepared for Roy’s boys. Too kind.
By the numbers (I)
4,604: That’s the official allocation of tickets to Irish supporters for the game against France, in a stadium with a capacity of 59,286. We trust, though, that they’ll have got their hands on 59,000 of them by kick-off.
By the numbers (II)
1800: That’s the percentage increase in sales of Iceland shirts with Unisport, Scandinavia’s biggest football gear retailer. Surge.
