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Premier League player who grabbed Jesus’s bum ruled out for rest of season

Our Reporters6 months ago6 months ago04 mins

The player who shocked fans by grabbing an opponent’s bum during a Premier League game has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury. Wolves defender Yerson Mosquera bizarrely grabbed Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus’ bum during their Premier League opener at the Emirates Stadium last month. Jesus, who was bending down to put his boot back on, was understandably surprised and annoyed by the act and reacted by pushing Mosquera to the ground before complaining to referee Jarred Gillett. But while Jesus was then shown a yellow card for the shove, Mosquera escaped punishment for the bizarre incident in the 2-0 home win. Mosquera has featured heavily for Wolves this season, starting all five of the club’s Premier League games after spending last year on loan at La Liga club Villarreal. But the 23-year-old is now set to miss the rest of the 2024-25 campaign after suffering a serious knee injury in Saturday’s defeat to Aston Villa. Mosquera had to be carried off on a stretcher after twisting his knee following a challenge by Villa’s Morgan Rogers. Scans showed damage to his ‘medial collateral ligament and anterior cruciate ligament’, with an operation required that will sideline the player for many months. Wolves head of high performance Phil Hayward said: ‘Yerson has now had all of the various assessments and scans which unfortunately confirm injuries to the medial collateral ligament (MCL) and the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). ‘We will be visiting specialists in the coming days to finalise the plan for surgery; this will take place in the next two weeks. ‘Clearly there is a long recovery period ahead for Yerson, and the club will be providing all the support he needs to ensure a successful rehabilitation and a return to competition in due course. ‘Timescales are difficult to state prior to surgery but it is highly unlikely he will feature again this season.’ Wolves have endured a dismal start to the season, taking just one point from their first five matches to sit bottom of the Premier League at this early stage. The games do not get any easier for Gary O’Neil’s side, who face in-form Liverpool this weekend.

I’m no longer interested in buying Arsenal -Dangote

Our Reporters6 months ago6 months ago03 mins

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has given up hope of buying Premier League football club Arsenal after its value shot up while he was building the continent’s largest oil refinery. The billionaire, an ardent fan of the London team, said in 2019 that he would consider buying Arsenal after completing his 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery outside Lagos, Nigeria. This year, the $20 billion plant has started producing diesel and jet fuel and refining gasoline. “I regret not buying it before but my money was needed in completing my project then,” the tycoon said in an interview on Bloomberg Television in New York on Monday. “I don’t have that kind of excess liquidity to go and buy a club for $4 billion,” which he suggested was about Arsenal’s current valuation, adding that he would have bought it for $2 billion a few years ago. Arsenal is owned by American billionaire Stan Kroenke, whose son Josh takes an active role in the club. There is no suggestion that Kroenke would sell the club. In 2021, Spotify founder Daniel Ek — also an Arsenal fan — said he had an offer rejected. Either way, Dangote believes completing the refinery was a good decision considering the value of the petroleum project to Nigeria — even if it affected his sporting ambition. The billionaire and the government have long said the project will finally wean Africa’s largest crude producer off imported fuel and help it end a subsidy that costs billions of dollars annually. Dangote believes the dollars saved from importing gasoline will boost supply and support the West African nation’s currency. The naira has come under pressure, losing about 70% of its value since reforms last year, intended to attract inflows, enabled it to trade freely. “I think the best decision was for us to go and complete our refinery,” Dangote said. “I will remain a major supporter of Arsenal.” The Gunners finished second behind Manchester City for the last two seasons, with manager Mikel Arteta vying to win its first Premier League title since 2004.