Rami: I want to stay at AC Milan

The defender is eager to make a permanent move to the Rossoneri and has thanked his team-mates for their support

Valencia loanee Adil Rami is desperate to prolong his stay at AC Milan beyond his current loan spell after rediscovering his confidence at San Siro.

The 28-year-old made the temporary switch to the Serie A outfit in January after falling out of favour at los Che because of an argument with then head coach Miroslav Djukic.

Rami has since made six league appearances for Milan and has paid tribute to head coach Clarence Seedorf and his team-mates for helping him make the transition.

"I went four months without playing and that was a tough period for me," he told the club's official website. "I've worked hard to be ready and I have a strong character.

"Credit as well to my team-mates who always gave me confidence and the coach too. It's very important for a player.

"My dream is to stay here and do all I can for the team. I think it's a dream for any player to be here."

The France international was among the scorers as Milan triumphed 2-0 at Sampdoria on Sunday, but he insists his main focus is keeping the opposition at bay.

"The priority for me is to defend at the back rather than score," he continued.

"Of course, I'm also big and strong which helps to get the ball in the back of the net as well. I want and I have to continue to do well for this club. I want to give 100 per cent."

Hulk wants Dortmund move, says Kehl

The veteran BVB skipper joked his side would not be able to afford to pay the Brazilian and is delighted with his side's win over Zenit

Sebastian Kehl has claimed that Hulk asked if he could join Borussia Dortmund in the summer during his side's Champions League meeting with Zenit St Petersburg.

The German outfit will be in the market for a new star forward when Robert Lewandowski leaves the club for Bayern Munich at the season's end.

However, the veteran midfielder has joked that his club could scarcely afford the Brazilian's wages were he to move to Signal Iduna Park.

"Hulk asked me if could play in Dortmund from the summer, but I don't know if we could afford him!" he told reporters.

Reflecting on the match, Kehl said that his side cannot afford to start thinking about the last eight, despite their 4-2 win in Russia, adding that the victory was entirely different to Saturday's 3-0 loss to Hamburg.

"It would be silly to say that the quarter-final place has been booked, because we still have a game to play yet," he said.

"Anything can happen in football, but we have taken a giant step forward. We've done a lot and scored four away goals. If we aren't stupid and work well, we should be able to get through after the home game.

"It was a completely different game [to Hamburg]. We were compact and used Zenit's errors to take our chances. In Hamburg, it was the other way around."

Debate: Is Drogba or Eto'o the greatest African player of all time?

Two of the best forwards of their generation go head to head on Wednesday as Galatasaray host Chelsea. But who deserves to be remembered as their continent's finest?

DEBATE
By Paul Macdonald and Carlo Garganese

When Galatasaray and Chelsea take to the field at the Turk Telekom Arena on Wednesday night, there will be a lot more at stake than just a place in the Champions League quarter finals.

Two unequivocal legends of the sport - Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto'o - will battle it out for individual bragging rights.

Africa has produced some magnificent players over the years; the likes of Rabah Madjer, Kalusha Bwalya, Roger Milla, Abedi Pele, George Weah, Jay-Jay Okocha, Yaya Toure and Michael Essien. But perhaps none of these icons have consistently reached the levels of brilliance that Drogba and Eto'o have whilst inspiring their sides to numerous major honours.

But who out of Drogba and Eto'o is the greatest African player of all time?

Goal's Paul Macdonald and Carlo Garganese go head-to-head over the issue …

"DROGBA HAD DEFENCES PSYCHOLOGICALLY BEATEN"

 
By Paul Macdonald

To judge a player like Didier Drogba merely on statistics is to utterly miss the point of why Chelsea were so successful with him as the fulcrum of their attack. Discounting that, at his peak, he was one of the most fearsome strikers of the modern era (with a wholly impressive strike rate of just under 1 in 2 over eight seasons at Stamford Bridge), it's more the psychological impact of facing down a sheer brute that made many defences fold before battle had commenced. 

Arsenal were such a routine scalp by the end of his spell in London that the Gunners' inability to shackle him had almost become accepted by all, including Arsene Wenger. He was a force of nature. He intimidated and exasperated opponents in equal measure, but with the physicality came examplary poise and a devastating finishing power that few defenders ever truly overcame.

Also Samuel Eto'o doesn't monopolise the big-mentality. Drogba featured in nine major cup finals for Chelsea. He scored in eight of them. And that's before we delve deeper into semi-final performances where he again shone (Barcelona & Tottenham in 2012 are particular examples). Calling him 'unplayable', as Jose Mourinho, Frank Lampard and others regularly have, still seems to be the only appropriate adjective.

And at international level, Eto'o has been so clearly indifferent to his Cameroon captaincy that infighting and dissidence have defined his tenure. Drogba, however, values playing for his country, scoring goals, and continues to do so with distinction. His career with Ivory Coast, though fraught with disappointment, has propelled a nation to prominence. Eto'o's Cameroon meanwhile have regressed in relevance to pre-1990 levels. 

Figures and trophy hauls cannot completely contextualise this comparison. Years from now goal stats may be used to sway the argument in Eto'o's favour, but there's no numerical value for personality, no percentage ratio to define influence. He was, is, an ambassador for African football, and his legacy in his homeland and beyond will resonate for years to come.

Follow Paul Macdonald on 

"ETO'O DEFEATS DROGBA IN ALMOST EVERY CATEGORY"

By Carlo Garganese

In almost every category that you compare Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba, the Cameroonian comes out on top. 

Eto’o has won more trophies and has captured three Champions League crowns with two different clubs. Drogba has lifted the one European Cup. Eto’o is also on course to become the first person in history to win all of Europe’s three most prestigious championships; the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga.

Internationally, Eto’o has bagged two Africa Cup of Nations and an Olympic title. Despite being a key member of the Ivory Coast ‘Golden Generation’, together with the Toure brothers, Drogba is trophyless with The Elephants.

Eto’o has played a decisive role in all of his team's triumphs and has proven throughout his career to be a player for the big occasion. He has found the back of the net in so many showpiece games that it is impossible to list all of them. The highlights include scoring in two Champions League finals, the Gold medal match at the 2000 Summer Olympics, an AFCON decider, as well as for Mallorca and Inter respectively in the finals of the Copa del Rey and Coppa Italia. 

Technically, physically and tactically, Eto’o has shown himself to be far more adaptable and complete than Drogba. In addition to proving himself in Spain, Italy and England, the 32-year-old has shone in many different systems – in a trident, a two-man attack, as a lone frontman, a support striker and even as a left winger for Jose Mourinho’s Inter treble winners. Drogba lacks this tactical flexibility and has always needed to be the physical target man, usually as the only striker.

Drogba’s longevity in the sport also pales in comparison. The Ivorian was a late bloomer and didn’t emerge at Marseille until he was nearly 26. Eto’o has been a star for the best part of 15 years and debuted for Cameroon way back in 1997 as a 15-year-old.
 
It is no coincidence that he has been named African Player of the Year on a record four occasions, double the number of Drogba triumphs. This is the final proof that Samuel Eto’o is the greatest African of all time

Ibrahimovic move to Chelsea 'impossible', but Falcao can't stay at Monaco - Mourinho

The Stamford Bridge boss has indicated the club is looking for a striker, but ruled out the possibility of swapping Belgian sensation Eden Hazard for Edinson Cavani

Jose Mourinho believes it would be "impossible" for Chelsea to prise Zlatan Ibrahimovic away from Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain.

The Sweden international has been in sensational form for PSG, most recently scoring a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Toulouse on Sunday.

Mourinho freely admits that he remains in contact with Ibrahimovic, whom he coached at Inter, but says there is little chance of a reunion at Stamford Bridge.

"Zlatan to Chelsea? It’s impossible," Mourinho told Canal Football Club. "He’s happy at Paris. I know because he is my friend and we are in touch. 

"PSG, with all its wealth, would never open the door. That’s mission impossible."

However, Mourinho did suggest a move for Monaco striker Falcao could be a possibility in the future.

He said: "I have a team, but no striker. Falcao does not have a team. A player like him can't play in front of 3,000 people. Monaco is a club to end [your career with]."

The Stamford Bridge boss also ruled out the possibility of a swap deal involving Edinson Cavani and Eden Hazard.

"Eden is our boy," he added. "We want him to stay for 10 years. We want to build the team around him. He’s a player with the style of football that we want to have in our team."

Muller unaware of Barcelona offer

The versatile Bayern Munich attacker has been linked with a transfer to the Spanish champions, but he has stated no formal bid has been made

Bayern Munich attacker Thomas Muller has made it clear that he is unaware of any potential offers for him amid rumours linking the 24-year-old with a move to Barcelona at the end of the season.

The Spanish champions allegedly see Muller as the ideal addition to their squad, with club president Josep Bartomeu already having sanctioned a summer transfer.

Nevertheless, Muller has insisted no official bid has been made for his services.

"Has an offer been made for me? I don't think Bayern would be able to confirm an offer came in and I cannot add anything about it either," Muller told TZ.

"I heard about the article saying Barcelona want me. I can imagine that my agent has received a few approaches for me over the past few years, but that does not automatically mean there's serious interest."

However, the Germany international hinted that he is happy to stay at Bayern even if an offer from abroad came in as he is keen to win more silverware with the Allianz Arena side.

He added: "Right now, Bayern are the team holding all the titles. There are a few clubs out there that are on par with Bayern. But we are the team to beat at this point. And we are determined to keep it that way."

Muller has a contract with Bayern until the summer of 2017

Tackling energy crisis: Nawaz inaugurates Tarbela-IV project

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offering dua after inaugurating the Tarbela-IV extension on February 26, 2014. PHOTO: PID

Tarbela extension project heralds the beginning of a new era of socio economic development in the country, said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as he performed the ground breaking ceremony of Tarbela-IV extension Hydropower project at Tarbela on Wednesday.

The project shows the resolve of the government to provide relief to the general public and boost economic development by adding low-cost electricity into the national grid, said Nawaz.

The premier said that people had to face the worst energy outages due to the sustained policy of neglect of previous governments. He added that successive governments did not address power generation in view of escalating needs of economy and population growth.

Nawaz added that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz led government should be credited for formulating the first ever holistic National Power Policy.

He added that the government knows that efficient and consumer-centric low-cost power generation is necessary to put the country on the trajectory of socio-economic development.

The Prime Minister highlighted projects being undertaken by the ministry of water and power which aims to provide substantial relief from load shedding with a view to reduce dependency on costly thermal power.

Talking about increasing the power generation, Nawaz said that he has already directed the Ministry of Water and Power and other concerned organisations to accelerate work on Diamer-Basha Dam, Dasu Dam and Bunji Dam projects.

Earlier wapda Chairman Syed Raghib Ali Shah gave a detailed briefing on the project including plans for increasing the existing capacity of Tarbela Hydel Power Station from 3,478 MW to 4,888 MW in the 4th Extension. The project, thus, aims to add 1,410 MW of cheap hydel electricity into the national grid in a period of three and a half years.

The wapda chairman appreciated the World Bank for financial assistance of $840 million for construction of the project.

The Tarbela 4th Extension Project, once complete, aims to add about 4 billion units of low-cost and environment-friendly electricity to the national power grid. Annual monetary benefit of the project has been estimated to be Rs30 billion and it would pay back the cost incurred on its construction in a span of three years.

The Premier warned that the delays, over costing and escalations would not be tolerated in the project.

Tarbela- V Extension Project

The Prime Minister was informed that as per initial study, Tarbela- V Extension Project would generate 1,320 MW electricity and Austrian Government has shown its keen interest to finance the project.

He directed the Ministry of Water & Power to take up feasibility of Tarbela- V Extension Project. The ministry was also directed to start the Tarbela IV & V projects simultaneously.

Tourist spot at Tarbela

Secretary Interprovincial Coordination Ijaz Chaudhry also gave a briefing to Prime Minister on development of Tourist site in Tarbela.

The PM was informed that 3 sites have been identified for development of water sports, theme park, restaurant and Water jetty

Zuckerberg promises Facebook won’t ruin WhatsApp

Zuckerberg shares his views on his latest acquisition at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. PHOTO: FILE

Facebook’s approach to our personal information couldn’t be more at odds with Mark Zuckerberg’s newly acquired company, WhatsApp. While Facebook wants to catalogue as much data on its users as it can, WhatsApp wants to know the bare minimum.

The new owner of WhatsApp has promised to keep it that way. In an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Zuckerberg promised that he won’t change WhatsApp’s data policy.

“The vision is to keep the service exactly the same,” he said. He reiterated that WhatsApp neither uses nor stores any of the photos and chats exchanged on the app. “The content is deleted almost instantly, which is what people want. We would be pretty silly to get in the way of that,” he added.

Under the influence of his own upbringing in Ukraine, where the government monitored personal communications, Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s co-founder and CEO, made privacy a core feature of his application. “I grew up in a society where everything you did was eavesdropped on, recorded, snitched on,” Koum recently told Wired magazine. “People need to differentiate us from companies like Yahoo! and Facebook that collect your data and have it sitting on their servers. We want to know as little about our users as possible. We don’t know your name, your gender… We designed our system to be as anonymous as possible.”

Though Zuckerberg said the acquisition gives WhatsApp time to focus on growing its user base rather than making money off its members, the company will eventually be expected to extract money out of the millions of people using the popular messaging service. Koum and his co-founder had been against the idea of advertising, which happens to be the core of Facebook’s money-making strategy.

Whatsapp currently charges a dollar annually for the use of its services after the first year. Facebook, however, is expected to charge much more to justify the most expensive acquisitions in over a decade. The deal has cost Facebook about $42 per WhatsApp user, reports the Huffington Post.