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VALENCIA, Spain (AP)—Valencia goalkeeper Vicente Guaita has signed a three-year contract extension that ties him to the Spanish club until 2015.

The 24-year-old Guaita never relinquished his starting position after getting the nod in November following injuries to Cesar Sanchez and Miguel Angel Moya.

Valencia's goalkeeper Cesa…
Getty Images - May 21, 4:40 pm EDT

Guaita came up through Valencia’s youth ranks and helped the club to a third-place finish in the league standings this season. He allowed 26 goals in 21 appearances.

Guaita’s spot as starting keeper is not definite, however, with Valencia having signed Brazil goalkeeper Diego Alves from Almeria. Moya is also signed through the 2012-13 season.

Guaita says, “I’ve got to keep working so I don’t lose my starting spot.”

Agences de presses

Labels: contract, goalkeeper, Guaita, signs, Valencia

MOSCOW (AP)—A Montenegrin striker who fell out of favor with his Russian Premier League club Kuban Krasnodar says he was beaten into terminating his contract.

Nikola Nikezic has written to UEFA and FIFA claiming he was beaten on March 7 by two men in an office at the club’s headquarters in Krasnodar in southern Russia.

A copy of the letter was posted on Tuesday on the website of the union of Russian footballers and coaches, along with a video message by Nikezic, who says the two men who beat him had guns and threatened to “make an invalid” out of him.

He says he signed a contract termination out of fear for his life.

The 29-year-old forward says he has been told he’s not wanted at Kuban, which began its league season on Sunday with a 2-0 home loss to Rubin Kazan.

Agences de presses

Labels: beaten, breaking, contract, player, Russian

{ DERMOT Desmond tends to be highly selective about his visits to Celtic Park. The Irish billionaire has a busy schedule, one which prevents his regular attendance at the club in which he is the major shareholder.So the mustachioed Dubliner's presence in the directors' box yesterday, seated between chairman John Reid and chief executive Peter Lawwell, was confirmation, if any was needed, that even by Old Firm standards, this was a highly significant game. After witnessing Celtic's comprehensive 3-0 dismantling of Rangers, it would be a huge surprise if the boardroom chit-chat among the three men was not dominated by the issue of Neil Lennon's contract at the club.

Lennon, of course, has won nothing yet as Celtic manager and has all along accepted that his prospects of having his initial 12-month contract extended would be dependent on bringing the Scottish Premier League title back to the club for the first time in three years. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the sense that Lennon has already made a compelling case that he is the right man for the job on a longer-term basis. A straw poll of the jubilant home support yesterday would certainly have returned a powerful mandate for the man from Lurgan.

His Celtic team stretched their current unbeaten run to 17 matches with a performance brimful of confidence and conviction. Now eight points clear of Rangers at the top of the table, albeit having played two games more, Lennon's players have put their early season inconsistencies behind them and are responding effectively to both the methods and the motivation of their boss.

There was vindication all over the pitch for Lennon yesterday, from another clean sheet for his defence, through the midfield dominance orchestrated by Beram Kayal and the attacking pace and finishing power of Gary Hooper and Kris Commons. His key signings are coming good at the business end of the season and his team simply looked fresher, livelier and more mobile than Walter Smith's often labouring side.

While Celtic did not have a failure in their ranks, there were few in light blue who mustered pass marks. Ironically, it was the man around whom many anticipated an explosive contest to centre who was perhaps the only exception.

El Hadji Diouf, jeered to the echo by the Celtic supporters from the first moment he appeared, was the only player who looked to possess genuine belief that this could be Rangers' day. The Senegalese international, for all of the contentious baggage he carries with him, clearly has a level of ability which lifts him above the average SPL player.

Agences de presses

Labels: agenda, Celtic, contract, Lennon, Scotsman, thunder

(Fixes typo in headline, no changes to text)

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Adnan Hamad will be rewarded for guiding Jordan to the quarter-finals of last month’s Asian Cup with a new contract, the Jordan Football Association have said.

Jordan want the 50-year-old to stay on as national coach through the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

Jordan were the surprise package at the Asian Cup in Qatar, finishing second behind eventual champions Japan in their group in only their second appearance in the tournament.

They were beaten 2-1 by Uzbekistan in the last eight.

“We will finalise all the details for the new contract in the coming days,” Hamad, the 2004 Asian coach of the year, told the Asian Football Confederation.

Hamad led his native Iraq on a fairytale run to the semi-finals at the 2004 Athens Olympics against the backdrop of escalating violence in their war-torn country. (Reporting by Alastair Himmer in Tokyo; Editing by Greg Stutchbury; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com) Double-click on the newslinks: for more soccer stories

Agences de presses

Labels: coach, contract, Hamad, Jordan, offered, Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Adnan Hamad will be rewarded for guiding Jordan to the quarter-finals of last month’s Asian Cup with a new contract, the Jordan Football Association have said.

Jordan want the 50-year-old to stay on as national coach through the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

Jordan were the surprise package at the Asian Cup in Qatar, finishing second behind eventual champions Japan in their group in only their second appearance in the tournament.

They were beaten 2-1 by Uzbekistan in the last eight.

“We will finalise all the details for the new contract in the coming days,” Hamad, the 2004 Asian coach of the year, told the Asian Football Confederation.

Hamad led his native Iraq on a fairytale run to the semi-finals at the 2004 Athens Olympics against the backdrop of escalating violence in their war-torn country. (Reporting by Alastair Himmer in Tokyo; Editing by Greg Stutchbury; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com) Double-click on the newslinks: for more soccer stories

Agences de presses

Labels: coach, contract, Hamad, Jordan, offfered, Reuters