...Catalonia, Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero surprisingly came out of retirement – dressed as a clown
WEIRD WORLD OF FOOTBALL
1 PLAYING THEIR JOKER
No pipe and slippers for Sergio Aguero in retirement – after gatecrashing the World Cup final, he made a bizarre return to the pitch in Barcelona.
Labelled a clown for going full John Terry in Doha – heading on to the pitch in an Argentina shirt to join his country’s celebrations, a year after his last game for his country – he took the circus show even further in Gerard Pique’s new Kings League, walking out in a ‘Joker’ costume before revealing his true identity.
After launching the Balloon World Cup, Pique’s latest mad venture is the indoor league. Games start with players racing from the goal-line to the ball in the centre circle, and each side gets one golden card per game, which can be played to receive a penalty, remove an opponent for two minutes, ensure goals count double for 60 seconds, or rob the other team’s card. As well as Aguero, Javier Hernandez, Javier Saviola and Joan Capdevila also took to the field.
A mystery man in a mask played, too – Pique said it was a La Liga star who had to remain secret, so fans guessed Isco or Denis Suarez, until it was revealed to be ex-Cadiz man Nano Mesa. Nah, us neither...
2 HAUNTING HIS OLD CLUB FOREVER
A club calendar is a staple Christmas present for many Manchester United fans – this year, they got a bit of a shock when they opened it up.
Yes, there he was, staring back at them – Mr January himself, Cristiano Ronaldo, fully six weeks after his contract had been terminated and he’d left Old Trafford in ignominy.
To be fair to the makers, imagine how angry CR7 would have been if he’d stayed and they’d left him off it, but we can only imagine their horror after his exit was announced when it was too late to be changed. After his Piers Morgan interview, they were probably the only people left who wanted him to stay…
3 MRI-MAN SAM
When Cameroon FA chief Samuel Eto’o opted to check the ages of his country’s entire Under-17 squad, he got more than he bargained for.
Aware of age fraud allegations in the recent past, Eto’o made players take MRI tests to calculate their real age – 21 of 30 failed, as did 11 players called up as replacements, leaving Cameroon scrabbling around to get a full team together for the U17 AFCON qualifiers.
DR Congo withdrew after 25 players failed, while Chad were thrown out when just one did, because the event had already started. It was the end of some promising youth careers – on the plus side though, they’ll be eligible for th
