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Mali too good for Lithuania in Paris

Mali beat Lithuania 3-1 in a soccer international friendly played in the outskirts of Paris on Tuesday with all four goals coming in the first half.
Midfielder Adam Tamboura opened the scoring for the African side after 21 minutes in the tiny stadium of La Courneuve, only for Edgaras Jankauskas to level the tie seven minutes later.
Mali wrapped up the win before the interval with Real Madrid midfielder Mahamadou Diarra and striker Mamadou Diallo netting in the 30th and 43rd minutes respectively.
Lithuania are to play FIFA World Cup finalists France in a UEFA EURO 2008 qualifier next month in Vilni

CULLED from FIFA.com

Kanouté in pole position

Frédéric Kanouté has moved to the top of ESM Golden Shoe standings after Maksim Gruznov was finally dislodged from top spot.
Afonso pursuit
The Sevilla FC striker made it 16 goals for the season, or 32 points under the ESM system, with his strike in the 4-2 victory at Levante UD on Sunday. In close pursuit is Afonso Alves, the SC Heerenveen forward who has lit up Dutch football with 21 goals this season, enough for 31.5 points. Gruznov scored 31 times for JK Trans Narva during the 2006 Estonian campaign with each goal worth one point, but he can no longer add to his tally.
Lucky thirteen
Two more Primera División players also rose up the rankings at the weekend, with FC Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho and Diego Milito of Real Zaragoza both scoring their 13th league goals of the campaign to move on to 26 points. RSC Anderlecht forward Mohamed Tchité, meanwhile, struck twice in his side's 3-1 win at KFC Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen on Sunday to take his tally for the season to 15 goals, enough for a share of 18th position on the leaderboard.

Pos.	Name	Club (Country)	Gls	Val	Pts
1	Frédéric Kanouté	Sevilla FC (ESP)	16	2	32
2	Afonso Alves	SC Heerenveen (NED)	21	1.5	31.5
3	Maksim Gruznov*	JK Trans Narva (EST)	31	1	31
4	Daniel Nannskog*	Stabæk IF (NOR)	19	1.5	28.5
5	Didier Drogba	Chelsea FC (ENG)	14	2	28
6	Roman Pavlyuchenko*	FC Spartak Moskva (RUS)	18	1.5	27
6	Veigar Páll Gunnarsson*	Stabæk IF (NOR)	18	1.5	27
6	Dmitri Lipartov*	JK Trans Narva (EST)	27	1	27
9	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United FC (ENG)	13	2	26
9	Francesco Totti	AS Roma (ITA)	13	2	26
9	Ronaldinho	FC Barcelona (ESP)	13	2	26
9	Diego Milito	Real Zaragoza (ESP)	13	2	26
13	Steffen Iversen*	Rosenborg BK (NOR)	17	1.5	25.5
14	Aram Hakobyan*	FC Banants (ARM)	25	1	25
14	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko*	FC Flora (EST)	25	1	25
16	Alexander Zickler	FC Salzburg (AUT)	16	1.5	24
16	Blaise N'Kufo	FC Twente (NED)	16	1.5	24
18	Danny Koevermans	AZ Alkmaar (NED)	15	1.5	22.5
18	Danko Lazović	SBV Vitesse (NED)	15	1.5	22.5
18	Mohamed Tchité	RSC Anderlecht (BEL)	15	1.5	22.5

Last updated: 29 January 2007
*Season finished
A player cannot first play in a summer league (eg. Norway) and then in a winter league (eg. Spain) and combine the points total for each season.
Figures from Voetbal International
CULLED from UEFA.com

Sissoko completes amazing comeback

Mohamed Sissoko has completed a remarkable comeback after helping Liverpool into the FA Cup semi-finals just one month after being temporarily blinded in his right eye.
Sissoko played the full 90 minutes of Liverpool's 7-0 thrashing of Birmingham on Tuesday evening and finished the match without the Edgar Davids-style protective goggles he has been advised to wear for the rest of this season.
The Mali-born midfielder, who also has French nationality, had a hand in his side's first and third goals as he confounded fears that his career could be over.
Sissoko, 21, revealed this week he had been unable to see from his right eye for 36 hours after being caught by the high boot of Benfica midfielder Beto during a 50-50 challenge in Liverpool's UEFA Champions League defeat in Lisbon on 21 February.
Sissoko was stretchered off and taken to a Lisbon hospital, where a specialist pronounced that he had only a 20 percent chance of seeing again.
That prognosis proved incorrect but there were some agonising days before Sissoko was sure that a more encouraging second opinion was accurate.
"There were lots of lonely hours at home when I was very worried and very scared about what was going to happen," he told Liverpool's website, www.liverpoolfc.tv, before the Birmingham match.
"It was such a bad injury. I don't mind admitting I cried a lot. I thought 'this can't be happening to me'. It didn't seem possible that I could be in this situation. I just had to lie there and rest and hope that my vision would get better. It was only a couple of weeks but it felt much, much longer."
Sissoko has only recovered about 80 percent of his vision in the eye and is not sure if his sight will be fully restored.
But he is confident he can resume his career and put the trauma of the last month behind him.
"Three weeks ago I had zero vision in my right eye, now it's about eighty per cent so that is a quick recovery," he added.
"It's hard to say if it'll ever be perfect. There's a chance it might but also a chance it might not. Only time will tell. The big thing for me is I can play football again. That's all I want to do."

SOURCE: AFP

Sissoko more than happy
to choose Mali over France

Liverpool's all-action midfielder Mohamed Sissoko insists he is proud to represent Mali despite admitting any player would 'love' to play for France. The 21-year-old star was born near Rouen but was unwilling to wait and see if Les Bleus came calling after he moved to Valencia from Auxerre in 2003.
Sissoko has since represented Mali, but, pressed on the issue of his nationality by the French media, has now admitted he would have been pleased to play for Raymond Domenech's World Cup finalists.
However, the athletic midfielder says he is more than happy representing the African nation and that Mali can stake a real claim for qualification for the 2010 World Cup.
"Anyone would love to play for the French team," Sissoko told L'Equipe.
"But I made my choice and it is impossible to go back.
"I am proud to play for Mali.
"With Mahamadou Diarra, Kanoute, Seydou Keita, Djimi Traore, Adama Coulibaly, Kante and Eric Chelle we have a big team to, capable of qualifying for 2010 World Cup."
The Reds star also explained how his family is a strong motivation for his on-going success in the world of professional football.
"Every morning my father woke up at 5am to go to the factory," Sissoko revealed.
"Getting out of my condition to improve my parents' lives has always been an additional motivation.
"It is not because I am playing at Liverpool that I believe I've made it.
"Football gave me an opportunity but I have worked hard to seize it and I wont give up and not go on."
SOURCE: skysports.com