Global Sport

Johan Cruyff might take over as Holland coachAMSTERDAM: Johan Cruyff is the public's favourite to succeed Guus Hiddink as coach of the Du...

Johan Cruyff might take over as Holland coach
AMSTERDAM: Johan Cruyff is the public8217;s favourite to succeed Guus Hiddink as coach of the Dutch national soccer team, according to a survey by Dutch market research company NIPO.

One in three questioned said Cruyff should get the job.

The survey also reveals that the Dutch public give Hiddink a 90 percent approval rating for leading Holland to the semifinals of the World Cup in France. Some 60 percent described Hiddink8217;s performance as very good and 30 percent as good. Less than 0.5 percent said he had been bad.

Hiddink has since become coach at Real Madrid and the race is on to find a successor.

Jansen comes in second-place in the Nipo survey with 12 percent of the vote, followed by barcelona coach Louis Van Gaal seven percent, assistant coaching duo Johan Neeskens six and Ronald Koeman five, Hiddink again four and former Chelsea coach Ruud Gullit two. Some 29 percent of the 1,037 surveyed had no opinion.

Desailly aims to emulateCantona
LONDON: French World Cup star Marcel Desailly is aiming to have the same galvanising effect on Chelsea that his fellow countryman Eric Cantona had on Manchester United.

The 29-year-old centre-half, a candidate for player of France8217;98 following the hosts8217; triumph, knows all about the inspirational impact Cantona had when he moved to Old Trafford from English premiership rivals Leeds in 1992.

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The arrival of the talismanic Cantona had an immediate effect as he helped Alex Ferguson8217;s side end the English giants8217; 26-year championship drought.And Desailly says he is determined to turn Gianluca Vialli8217;s star-studded side into serious title contenders following his 4.6 million pound 322 million rupees move from Italian giants AC Milan. 8220;Eric Cantona transformed Manchester United when he joined them, so it would be nice to think I could have the same effect at Chelsea,8221; he said.

Daum likely to be Vogts8217; successor
BONN: German national soccer coach Berti Vogts has said BayerLeverkusen8217;s Christophe Daum is his likely successor but not for a while.

8220;Otto Rehhagel and Ottmar Hitzfeld have no chance of becoming national coach. The German Soccer Federation DFB is of the opinion that Daum should be my successor,8221; Vogts said in Bild newspaper. Previous media reports had tipped both Kaiserslautern coach Rehhagel and Borussia Dortmund sports director Hitzfeld as potential successors to Vogts.

Redknapp out for another three weeks
LIVERPOOL: England midfielder Jamie Redknapp has undergone further surgery on the knee that ruled him out of the World Cup and may miss the start of the new season.

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The Liverpool player went under the knife yesterday in a bid to sort out a cartilage tear in his left knee and is expected to be out of action for three weeks.

Indoor tennis in Croatia winds up
ZAGREB: The Croatian indoor tennis tournament is to be wound up after only three years, tournament director Srdjan Ivanisevic has said.

8220;I announce with regret thatthe ATP tour tournament Croatian indoors will not be organised in Croatia any more,8221; the father of 14th-ranked ATP tour player Goran Ivanisevic said on Thursday. The tournament found itself in a hopeless situation, because of the unexpected resistance from certain circles and for constant financial losses, Ivanisevic added.