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Adeleke The Face Of Modern Ireland Eyes Olympic Glory

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Rashidat Adeleke (PHOTO BY RFI)

 

Rhasidat Adeleke hopes to become the first Irish female to win an Olympic athletics gold in Paris, an achievement that would provide a fitting riposte to racists who have targeted her for online abuse.

Born and raised in Ireland to Nigerian parents, Adeleke, 21, heads to Paris as the European 400 metres silver medallist — one of three medals she won in Rome in June — and an impressive win at the Monaco Diamond League meet.

 

However, the warm afterglow of her performances at the European Championships — gold in the mixed 4x400m relay and silver in the 4×400 women’s relay — was overshadowed by a wave of racist abuse on social media which questioned her right to represent Ireland.

 

“Irish athletes have trained all their lives just to see opportunities taken away from them by Africans,” said one post on Twitter.

Those close to Adeleke say the abuse affected her deeply.

“I think that’s probably the most pain I’ve seen her have,” Edrick Floreal, her coach at Texas University, revealed.

“She was really in a dark place when she read those things on the Internet.

 

 

“She doesn’t cry ever, so when she cries it’s like, ‘Oh my God’, so that bothered her more than I ever thought and I just let her handle it.”

The abuse prompted Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris into saluting her as an inspiration to “young girls and boys.”

– ‘You are Ireland’ –

“Rhasidat Adeleke is not only a world-class champion, she is a world-class person,” said Harris. “You are class, so please do not let online cowards bring you down.

“You are Ireland and Ireland could not be more proud of you.”

 

 

Adeleke’s mother, Ade, decried the abuse — “she is just a little girl” — while telling her daughter to “look forward to the positivity, not the negativity.”

Indeed there is much to be positive about heading to the Olympics, with her clocking the fourth fastest time of the season thus far of 49.07 seconds in Monaco.

 

Had it not been for her mother, though, Adeleke might not be in the position of dreaming of Olympic gold and bettering the 5,000m silver won by Sonia O’Sullivan at the 2000 Sydney Games, which remains Ireland’s only female Olympic athletics medal.

 

“Her mom, Ade, was very keen that Rhasidat would get the best and education and homework had to align with sport,” her former school head teacher Aine Mulderrig told Buzz.ie in June.

 

“There was a straightforward bus ride from her home in Tallaght (suburb of Dublin) but Ade picked her up every evening past fourth year because there was a tight schedule.

 

“She had training, she had her homework and that all had to be done because mom was extremely determined that she was getting her education.”

Adeleke showed she had taken as much care of her homework as her training as she won a scholarship to Texas despite taking the exams in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.

 

As ever, she had been accompanied by her mother to have a look at the campus — but unlike a legion of tricky relationships between pushy parents and talented athletes — this one seems unbreakable.

 

“My mam comes to every single meet ever since I was growing up. She put me first all the time,” Adeleke told Irish broadcaster RTE after taking European silver.

 

“She would switch out shifts at work. She would take me everywhere, pay for everything.

“To be able to be here, doing what I love, I just feel so grateful to her because I definitely wouldn’t be here without her.”

 

Adeleke, whose sister Latifah is also a promising athlete, feels she owes her mum and there could be no better gift than Olympic gold.

“I wanted gold,” she said in Rome.

“Hopefully moving forward I get my gold.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFP

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Leicester City Put Up For Sale

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General view of a Leicester City sign from the front of King Power StadiumLeicester City are looking to sell the club for more than £200m, with its Thai owners King Power ready to leave after 16 years.

 

The Foxes have had an eight-page sales booklet produced by a leading US investment bank to help offload the one-time Premier League title winners.

Citigroup lists the Foxes, its women’s team, and other major assets – including the 32,000-seat King Power Stadium and its Seagrave training facility which was opened in 2020 and is valued at £121m – as well as OH Leuven, Leicester’s Belgian sister club, as up for sale in a brochure titled ‘Project Lineup’.

The document, seen by BBC Sport, values the club’s physical assets at more than £200m, though no specific sum has been attributed to the sale of its struggling teams.

The brochure speaks of “a rare opportunity to acquire a club with an excellent track record of winning promotions to higher divisions”.

Leicester’s successes, including the 5,000-1 Premier League title win of 2016 and the FA Cup triumph five years later, are well promoted in the brochure, while their place in League One, after back-to-back relegations from the top flight and the Championship, fail to get a mention.

The club’s turnover, which Citigroup forecast to be more than £97m for the 2026 financial year are also part of the pitch, but the years of financial losses and the club’s debts – which, as outlined in its 2025 accounts, include £103.6m in bank loans – are omitted.

In the years that the club yo-yoed between the Premier League and Championship, with two relegations from the top flight in three years between 2023 and 2025, the club lost more than £180m.

King Power, run by the Srivaddhanaprabha family, bought Leicester for £35m from Milan Mandaric in 2010.

Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha is currently chairman after his father Khun Vichai died in a helicopter crash outside the stadium in 2019.

Efforts to put the third-tier club up for sale were first reported in the Financial Times, external in July, but the product brochure now being circulated to prospective buyers is public confirmation that new investors are being sought.

The sale process comes just eight months on from Khun Top saying he is shouldering the blame for the club’s drastic recent demise.

There have been growing calls from disgruntled fans for the club to be sold, with the most vocal showing coming outside King Power Stadium after relegation from the Championship was confirmed last season.

Leicester’s struggles in recent years have come at a time when the King Power duty-free business in Thailand, which has been intrinsically linked to the club since the Srivaddhanaprabha family bought the Foxes, has also endured financial difficulties.

Despite the club’s issues, Leicester City is being positioned for sale as one of only five clubs to have won all three major English trophies – the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup – since 2000.

The document also outlines the potential of the club’s academy, stating the Foxes have a “strong talent pipeline backed by leading scouting infrastructure, active transfer management and highly developed academy system consistently producing top players”.

Leicester sold academy graduate Jeremy Monga to Manchester City for £10m last month.

Leicester, relegated to League One for just the second time in their history last season, will start their latest campaign in the third tier under head coach Russell Martin at Notts County on Saturday.

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Amorim Wants Tomori, Nkunku 6 Other AC Milan Stars Out Of Club

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AC Milan coach Ruben Amorim has decided Fikayo Tomori and Christopher Nkunku do not figure in his plans this season.

 

David Odogu, Pervis Estupinan, Santiago Gimenez and Philip Terracciano are also expected to leave after Amorim held a crunch meeting with club bosses on Thursday.

The Portuguese, who was dismissed by United in January following a dismal 14 months in charge, accepted the task of transforming Milan’s fortunes – with the Italian giants finishing fifth last season.

He is set for a reunion with his old side this weekend in Poland, where he will search for his first win in charge of his new club having failed to register a victory in pre-season.

A 2-2 draw with Scottish champions Celtic was followed by a 1-1 tie with fierce rivals Inter Milan, before Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea put three goals past the Portuguese’s side in a woeful result in Jakarta.

But Amorim is ready to embrace the challenge, and suggested that his task at the San Siro is even greater than his job at Old Trafford.

‘I’m really very happy to be here, it’s an honour to be the coach of Milan,’ he said.

‘Why did I choose Milan? If you read an old interview of mine you will understand it, for me a special club.

‘It’s a very big challenge that I accepted even if after the last one [at Manchester United] I told myself to accept a smaller one.

‘Perhaps it is a greater challenge than the last. I’m proud to be here, we all are, me and my staff.

‘I’m at Milan to win, if you’re Milan coach you have to have this mentality,’ he added.

‘I’m not naive, I know there’s a lot of work to do, but if you’re the Milan coach you have to play to win.’

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Transfer: Man Utd Name 6 Clubs Rashford Can’t Join

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Manchester United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has blocked Marcus Rashford from joining any direct Premier League rival.

 

According to the UK Mirror, the Red Devils are determined to avoid a scenario where Rashford shines at a domestic competitor.

The 28-year-old is back at Carrington for pre-season training following a loan spell at Barcelona, but his long-term future at Old Trafford remains uncertain.

Ratcliffe wants to remove Rashford from United’s wage bill, but he won’t sanction a move to the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City or Liverpool

The restrictions extend to loan inquiries, as Chelsea, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur have been rebuffed.

There is fear among United senior officials that Rashford could prove instrumental in helping a rival secure a Champions League spot, a scenario that would be viewed as ’embarrassing’ by the club’s top brass.

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