London – Ryan Giggs hailed Gareth Bale as the greatest Welsh player he has seen after the Real Madrid star inspired his club’s Champions League final victory over Liverpool.
Bale came off the bench to score twice in the second half of Real’s 3-1 win in Kiev on Saturday.
The Wales forward bagged his first with an overhead kick already being ranked as the greatest goal ever scored in a Champions League final.
That put Madrid 2-1 up and Bale wrapped up his club’s third successive Champions League title when his powerful long-range effort was spilled into the net by Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius.
The 28-year-old now has four Champions League winners’ medal from five seasons in Spain, equalling the British record of former Liverpool defender Phil Neal.
Wales manager Giggs had been regarded as the finest product of his country, but the former Manchester United winger says that honour arguably belongs to Bale now.
“He’s the greatest Welsh player I’ve seen,” Giggs said.
“Obviously I didn’t see John Charles play and many others around that time.
“But great players turn up at the right moments and make the difference, and he’s done it twice now in Champions League finals.
“And to win four, to go to Real Madrid, and be so successful, he’s got to be the best.”
Former Tottenham star Bale said after the final that he would have to consider his future with Real after spending much of the season on the bench.
But Giggs said: “I’ve always maintained he looks happy at Real Madrid.
“It’s a great club and a successful one. It’s Gareth’s choice.
“He’s made the difference in a Champions League final — whether that has any bearing, I don’t know.”
EAGAN, Minn. — After a whirlwind three months that required Kirk Cousins to move his family across the country, learn a new offense and develop relationships with new coaches and teammates after signing a three-year, $84 million contract in free agency, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback can finally exhale.
All of the changes that Cousins experienced came with the territory — moving on to the next chapter of his career after six years with the Washington Redskins. That didn’t mean the transition would always appear seamless.
Cousins felt the spring offseason was “a bit like drinking through a fire hose,” given the amount of new information he had to process and execute in expedited fashion. At the forefront of learning a scheme designed around his strengths, Cousins’ first few months in the Twin Cities centered on building continuity with his offensive line and skill players.
Cementing that connection is a drawn-out process that takes longer to perfect than several weeks of OTAs and minicamp. Finding a common ground between the way his receivers like to run routes and the way Cousins has executed throws to his offensive weapons in the past was where it all started when the quarterback invited Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs down to Atlanta for an impromptu throwing session in early April. Those conversations continued to evolve during the spring as Cousins was able to expand upon that chemistry in full practices and leave feeling all parties were on the same page.
“It’s a process of saying, ‘Hey, this is the way I’ve done if for six years. You’ve done it a different way for five years. Let’s try to talk about why you’ve had success, why I’ve had success. Let’s find some middle ground, let’s decide whether I’m going to learn your way, you’re going to learn my way,'” Cousins said. “That’s the process I’m talking about. Every route, every concept, really we could talk about each individual one. The best part of the whole thing is you know you have a chance when the communication is as healthy as it is.
“[Thielen is] receptive to listening; I can understand what he’s getting at. It’s the same with Stef. That’s where when I say I’m really excited about the locker room and the players I work with, it’s moments like that, where I feel really good about the communication, that they’re hearing you and you’re hearing them.”
During the six weeks until the Vikings report back for training camp at the end of July, Cousins will work to perfect the balance between relaxing and staying mentally prepared. Though he doesn’t have any concrete plans in place to work with his receivers in the summer, he will dedicate his efforts to the areas of the offense he didn’t grasp the first time around.
“I think the more important level of communication will be between me and the coaches, talking about some philosophy things and how I want plays to be designed,” Cousins said. “I’ll have my iPad with me as I go home, and I’ll spend time every day going back.
“All the stuff I didn’t catch, go back through and see that I had starred this, I had checkmarked this as something to go back to when we had time rather than take time when we were so busy.”
“I’m going to go back, I’ll make a list,” he continued, “probably get on the phone with [offensive coordinator] Coach [John] DeFilippo or [quarterbacks] Coach [Kevin] Stefanski and email and just go through it all to get each question answered over the summer.”
Because he feels like he’s “a little behind the eight ball,” Cousins’ summer plans include ample time in the playbook each day to prevent losing the knowledge and muscle memory he has built up in a short amount of time. But if there’s anything his first six years in the NFL have taught him, it’s the importance of pushing back at this time of year to prevent burnout.
“Last year, we got to like Week 2 and because of how much I was grinding all camp and even in the summer, I felt like we were in Week 12,” Cousins said. “I couldn’t believe that we were only in Week 2 because I had treated July and August like it was game day.”
A change of scenery is part of that plan. Cousins is scheduled to be in his hometown of Holland, Michigan, for his two-day youth football camp June 29-30. Last year, Cousins broke ground on a beach house on Lake Michigan that he told MLive.com he was looking “forward to it being a family gathering spot for many years.” The backdrop of the water and serene western Michigan beaches might provide the perfect space for Cousins to unwind at points over the next two months while poring over the concepts he hopes will have him ready to go when training camp arrives.
“Just keep stacking a brick up every day and believe that by the end of August or early September we’ll be where we need to be,” he said.
Serbia midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic would thrive at Juventus and could even contend for a Ballon d’Or at the club. At least, that’s what his father thinks.
The 23-year-old has been tipped by many to leave Lazio this summer to join a veritable giant of European football on the back of his titanic displays for the Rome-based club.
He’s been linked with teams such as Manchester United, but his father believes there’s only one immediate destination that could see him fulfill his potential.
“(He would be) great there (at Juventus), and I’ve told him this many times,” Nikola Milinkovic told Tuttosport as translated by ESPN. “They would be the perfect club for my son. In Turin, at a prestigious club like the Bianconeri, who have won many titles and have been dominating for years, he would have the opportunity to grow and improve to reach his full maturity.
“After three years with Lazio, Sergej knows perfectly the Italian league and he’s settled in really well. With players of the highest level, such as (Paulo) Dybala, Douglas Costa, and Co., he could win the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia, and make a big contribution towards winning the Champions League – why not?
“Juve always go very far in this competitions and, if they were to win the most prestigious cup of them all, Sergej could even aim for the Ballon d’Or. Only if you play at one of the big clubs in football can you be among the candidates for the Ballon d’Or.”
Milinkov-Savic is one of Serie A’s hottest prospects after his most successful season to date at Lazio. The central midfielder scored 12 goals in 35 league games, which tripled his previous single-season high.
He played all 90 minutes on Sunday as Serbia beat Costa Rica 1-0 in its World Cup opener.
PITTSBURGH — Two years from free agency in a robust quarterback market, Ben Roethlisberger isn’t concerned with landing a record-breaking contract.
“I care about record-breaking Super Bowl wins and things like that — that’s more important to me,” the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback told ESPN from his football pro camp Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger taught youth players teamwork for about four hours on Father’s Day, and he didn’t sway from that message when discussing his future.
Entering a 15th season together, Roethlisberger, 36, and the Steelers are poised for one last extension with the franchise he has helped win two Super Bowls. But Roethlisberger is content discussing those matters after the 2018 season.
Roethlisberger’s five-year contract, signed in 2015, averages about $20 million per year, which was the market for top quarterbacks at the time. But several quarterbacks have dwarfed that number, with Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan hitting the $30 million mark and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to follow.
“It’s important, too, to understand as quarterback of this team, sometimes you almost have to leave a little bit of money behind for other guys,” Ben Roethlisberger said, pointing to members of his offensive line he hopes “get taken care of” in two years. Larry W. Smith/EPA
“I have two years on my contract. I’m not going to be one to sit here and worry about my contract,” said Roethlisberger, who ranks eighth in NFL history with 51,065 passing yards. “That’s not my job. My job is to play football. I’ll let my representation, the Steelers worry about all that stuff. To me, it’s all about going out and playing now. I think there are a lot more, maybe a lot more important people who need to get their deals done now. For me to do it two years out, if it doesn’t make sense for the team, I’m not going to sit here and worry about it.”
And Roethlisberger wants to leave room for teammates to get paid, too.
Asked about the challenges for NFL teams to pay several stars while facing salary-cap hurdles, Roethlisberger said he understands teams are limited and seems willing to help.
“It’s important, too, to understand as quarterback of this team, sometimes you almost have to leave a little bit of money behind for other guys,” Roethlisberger said. “That’s not my job, that’s not my thing to worry about. That’s why I have agents.”
Roethlisberger does have a few ideas for how the Steelers can spend after 2018, though: on his coveted line, which has helped cut Roethlisberger’s sacks in half from his late-2000s pace. Roethlisberger once took 50 sacks in a season but has 58 over the past three seasons.
