All posts by Carmen Gomaro

Carmen Gomaro - leading international news and investigative reporter. Worked at various media outlets in Spain, Argentina and Colombia, including Diario de Cádiz, CNN+, Telemadrid and EFE.
SPORTS

Nacho's "lack of lucidity", Ancelotti's "surprise" and an entry that "isn't relevant"

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“It caught us a little by surprise,” admitted Míchel before the start of the match.. And he was absolutely right. Carlo Ancelotti surprised everyone by recovering Eduardo Camavinga for the left back. The Frenchman is not convinced by the position, nor is the technical direction of the Santiago Bernabéu and both Ferland Mendy and Fran García were healthy to be able to play the game against Girona, but Carletto was clear about it. After doubts on the left wing during the last few days, the Italian opted for the Frenchman.

The result, beyond 0-3, was an exhibition by Camavinga in the location that he likes so little.. He eliminated Tsygankov and Savinho, won 15 duels, the most in the game, rose to the center of the field to launch the ball and dominated the entire left lane of his team. The best performance by a Madrid full-back this season, something that will put the coaching staff in trouble in the coming weeks. “I wanted to give Mendy a rest and by having Vini so open, we needed a player like Camavinga in that place to put pressure when we lost the ball,” explained the coach.

Without him in the middle, Tchouaméni, Kroos and Valverde divided meters and Bellingham conquered another stadium in Spanish football. He widened the gap with Lewandowski and Morata in the league top scorer and also produced in the pass, with an outstanding exterior for Joselu's 1-0. “I've been seeing Luka every day for months,” Bellingham admitted about his assist, although he also acknowledged his mistakes in finishing: “I could have scored a few more, but the important thing is the victory. “I have freedom of movement and I am enjoying football,” declared the Englishman.

The match left a situation worth highlighting in Madrid. For the second consecutive game, Luka Modric was left without playing a single minute. The Croatian has not stepped foot on the pitch since he was substituted at half-time in the Madrid derby. It didn't even warm up. Pending Ancelotti's lineup in Naples, even Ceballos seems ahead of him.

“We're sorry”

At the press conference, the focus was on Nacho's unpleasant entry about Portu. With the score at 0-3 and one minute left, the defender entered with the iron raised over the forward's right leg and forced him to leave the stadium on a stretcher. Ancelotti did not give credit to the band. «It was a lack of lucidity from Nacho, who is usually a correct player. It could be avoided, we're sorry. “He has apologized and I hope it is nothing serious,” the Italian assessed before the media.. On the other side of the locker room, Míchel thanked the coach for the gesture and admitted that it is an entrance that “isn't relevant.” «Ancelotti is a gentleman. He said that he did not understand Nacho's action and that it had surprised him a lot, that he asked us for forgiveness. “It's a very tough entrance, it's irrelevant and it doesn't look good,” he said.

One of the protagonists of the final tangana was Stuani, who faced Nacho. «These are things that happen on the field, I think Nacho is a great footballer, but it is an action that is unnecessary. “I tried to defend my teammate, because I didn't like it,” the Uruguayan acknowledged.

SPORTS

Alcaraz finishes Musetti with a double 6-2 and is already in the Beijing quarterfinals

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Carlos Alcaraz beat Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 20 minutes to reach the quarterfinals of the China Open held in Beijing.

The transalpine began by endorsing a 40-0 to the current number two in the world ranking and who is seeking on the Chinese circuit to close the gap with the first in the classification, a Novak Djokovic who will not score points in the Asian giant.

Alcaraz returned the perfect play to Musetti in his second return, with which he achieved the first advantage of the afternoon, which he expanded in the fifth game and served to sentence the opening set, leaving behind several exchanges that inflamed the spirits of the spectators on the center court of the Diamond Arena.

The clash resumed with a new break in favor of the Murcian, who knew how to take advantage of his first turn at serve in return for a Musetti who depended excessively on his second serve.

Ruud in quarters

A new break by Alcaraz in the fifth game was enough to repeat the result of the first set in the second, and allow the Spaniard to break the tie in his favor in the individual matches between the two on the ATP circuit after this third duel in which they are involved.

Alcaraz will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud, seventh seed, in the quarterfinals of the China Open, who beat the Argentine Tomás Martín Etcheverry 6-1, 5-7 and 6-7(7) in 2 hours and 57 minutes on the Lotus track of the capital complex where this ATP 500 tournament is held.

The controversy of the balls

“Today (Ruud) had a really difficult game. I'll take that as an advantage for my match tomorrow. “He's probably a little tired,” said the Murcian at the conclusion of his duel.

Even so, Alcaraz clarified that his future rival “is a really tough player”, so he defended that he will have to show his “best level” and will try not to let the Norwegian dominate.

The Spaniard also wanted to assess the controversy surrounding the tournament's balls, and declared that he actually felt the difference “from the first training session in Beijing”, although he stressed that it is something that tennis players “have to get used to” by changing them each time. tournament.

INTERNATIONAL

Robert Fico wins the general elections in Slovakia

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Former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's populist social democratic SMER party has won the parliamentary elections in Slovakia, contrary to initial exit polls.. Fico has collected 23.3% of the votes, while its closest rival, whom the exit polls declared the winner, the liberal Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, stagnated at 17%.. In the first exit polls he was leading.

Fico's victory is bad news for the European Union and for Ukraine. In his previous stages as Prime Minister Fico proved to be a pragmatic player on the European and transatlantic stages, without questioning the country's obligations with the EU or NATO.. Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused its rethinking. Fico's newfound Russophilia has resonated in a country where many voters were socialized during the Soviet era and whose cybersphere is regularly bombarded by Moscow's sulphurous propaganda.

The third party with the most votes was the moderate social democrat La Voz (Hlas), of former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, a former ally of Fico, with 14.9%.

The Smer was the dominant political force in the country until 2018, when the murder of an investigative journalist, who had denounced the relations between organized crime and the upper echelons of power, caused a wave of indignation, which ended up forcing Fico's resignation. .

Despite his victory at the polls, it will not be easy for Fico to form a coalition with enough majority to control a Parliament with 150 seats. It will need two partners to form a Government and ensure a stable parliamentary majority, precisely what the country has not had in the last five years..

Thus Slovakia remains on the precipice of ungovernability. After four prime ministers in five years, yesterday's elections do not guarantee the stable legislature that the country needs at a crucial moment for the European Union.

The resulting government will replace the center-right coalition cabinet in power since 2020, which changed three times in three years.

The electoral poster of the presidential candidate and former prime minister Robert Fico. TOMAS TKACIK SOUP IMAGES

“If this neo-fascist party becomes part of the next government, we will find ourselves in a situation similar to that of Finland, where a far-right party is a member of the coalition, or of Sweden, with a fascist party supporting the government from the Parliament,” says Slovak analyst Zuzana Kepplová.

Slovakia abandoned the two-party system years ago. And it is expected that this time nine parties will enter Parliament. The polarization in this small country, with only 4.4 million voters, is such that “one of the most important tasks of the future Executive will be reconciliation in society, since harmony and social cohesion transcend the horizon of elections,” declared the Slovak president, Zuzana Caputova, yesterday after casting her vote.

TWO SCENARIOS

Analysts foresee two scenarios and both dangerous. If Fico, as the winner, manages to form a parliamentary majority, Slovakia will experience a process of orbanization, given that Smer has adopted the ideology of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.. The transformation will not happen overnight and, according to Kepplová, it would face resistance from a vibrant and critical civil society.

There is a second, more hopeful short- and medium-term scenario for liberal democracy and that is if it is the leader of the Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, Michal Simecka, who manages to gather a parliamentary majority.. The question here would be for how long.

Simecka, a former journalist for the Slovak progressive newspaper SME and the British Financial Times, is a politician without scandals but also without experience; Hence, in his first words, Fico, after exercising his right to vote, warned against a Slovakia governed by “amateurs and rioters.”

Slovakia yesterday held early elections with an Executive of technocrats at the head of the country, formed by the President of the Republic, after the center-right coalition of conservative Eduard Heger fell in a motion of no confidence in December.

The ungovernability in this country exceeds that of Bulgaria, since last June in the hands of a technocratic Cabinet after five elections. If this dynamic continues, the alternative to the risk of organization is the vulgarization of governability and politics.

INTERNATIONAL

The US avoids in extremis the closure of its Public Administration

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There were two hours and 58 minutes left for the United States Public Administration to close when the Senate finished voting on the bill under which the closure would not occur, since the State will have funds to continue operating until November 16.

The result of the vote: one hundred votes in favor and zero against. It was not so much enthusiastic unanimity as forced. If a single senator had opposed the measure, the bill would have failed and the closure would have come into force at one minute past twelve today (one minute past six Spanish peninsular time).

Thus, the United States has avoided an extremis, a closure of the Administration that would have suspended employment and salaries of hundreds of thousands of officials, contracted personnel and State contractors.. Of course: the same members of Congress who wanted to close the Administration would have continued to be paid punctually, while the country would have been paralyzed with the progressive reduction of public services at all levels.

The Law that prevents this closure, and that President Joe Biden sanctioned shortly after, establishes a truce in the political battle. But the uncertainties remain. That the Administration has not closed is an unmitigated failure for the most 'Trumpist' wing of the Republican Party, which has opposed the Budget Law to the point of voting against it. In fact, the Act had been approved in the House of Representatives just six hours earlier with the support of 209 Democrats and only 126 Republicans.

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has gone with the Democrats to avoid the closure of the Public Administration until November 15. Given the impossibility of the extreme right of his party approving a law that would allow the State to continue carrying out its functions, McCarthy has had to give in on some points to achieve the support of Joe Biden's party.

The result is that the law has passed with the support of 209 Democrats and only 126 Republicans.. With this measure, the Republican ultras are going to toughen their opposition to McCarthy. However, the fact that they do not have the votes to carry out a coup in the House and replace the president limits their ability to act.. In any case, the Republican fracture is brutal, with the most Trumpist wing of the party clearly lining up against its own leaders.. Donald Trump himself had intervened in the debate. First, he asked Republicans to specifically defund the lawsuits against him.. Afterwards, he posted a message on his social network, Truth Social, in which he said: UNTIL YOU ACHIEVE IT ALL, CLOSE IT!

The law must now be approved by the Senate. In principle, that shouldn't be a problem.. There remains, however, a point of contention. The Senate has approved, with the support of both parties – Democrats and Republicans – a similar project but with 6 billion dollars (5.67 billion euros) of military aid to Ukraine.. The bill approved by the House does not include anything so that that country can continue defending itself from Russia, in a concession to the far-right wing of the Republican Party, which openly sympathizes with Vladimir Putin.

Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Doesn't Want to Keep Aid to kyiv. But it seems unlikely that he will be exposed to the political consequences of the closure of the Public Administration for this reason.. It is the same thing that happened to the moderate wing and the Democrats of the House of Representatives, when they decided to leave Ukraine out in the vote. After the budget agreement, Joe Biden asked Congress to approve aid to Ukraine, which was left out of the agreement.

Double reason

The reason is twofold. On the one hand, the ultras' argument that their rivals are prioritizing Ukraine over the United States, although totally false – those same ultras have voted against this law that does not include money for Kiev – is very effective among voters.. On the other hand, if the State can operate for at least 45 days, there is time to carry out another law with help to Ukraine.. Otherwise, the entire legislative agenda would be blocked by the closure of the Administration. So the tension continues, although the general feeling is that there will be agreement.

The law passed by the House includes some important modifications for Democrats. Among them is the continuation of the federal State's food stamp program, on which a whopping 42 million Americans depend to feed themselves.. Also included is the maintenance of emergency disaster relief, which is being used in countless areas affected by natural disasters or, simply, droughts.. Finally, it does not include a reinforcement of the fight against illegal immigration.

ECONOMY

Almost 4,800 people lost their jobs due to collective dismissal in July, a record since 2013

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A total of 4,778 workers lost their jobs in July due to a collective dismissal, 78% more than in the same period of the previous year and the highest figure for this month since 2013, in the midst of the economic crisis, when they went to work. street for this reason 7,048 employees.

This is reflected in the Employment Regulation Statistics published by the Ministry of Labor this week, according to which 22,854 people have lost their jobs so far this year due to a collective dismissal, compared to the 16,000 to whom the same thing happened in the same period last year.

Transportation and storage have been the areas of activity in which there has been the most destruction of jobs (1,699 in July), possibly due to its connection with industry, the sector that has suffered the most in the last quarter and where the most has been noted the drop in international orders; followed by financial and insurance activities (with 736 casualties), trade and repair of motor vehicles (597) and professional, scientific and technical activities (with 397).

The Community of Madrid is the region in which there were the most layoffs (1,662), followed by Catalonia (1,043), Andalusia (729) and the Valencian Community (559).

Almost half of the employees who were affected by this type of restructuring work in large companies, with more than a thousand workers; 37% are part of companies with between 250 and a thousand employees; 291 were from medium-sized companies – with between 50 and 250 workers – and 849 belonged to companies with staff of less than 50 employees.

Regarding the reasons why the company resorted to a collective dismissal, in half of the cases it was because it was suffering losses at the time of the dismissal, while the next most common cause was the dynamics of production itself: Given the drop in orders, less staff is needed.

Along with the 4,778 workers who were victims of an ERE, there were also 7,271 in the month of July whose contracts were temporarily suspended and who were sent to unemployment within the framework of an ERTE (32.2% more than in the same month of the previous year) and 566 whose working hours were reduced.

In total, 12,615 employees suffered a restructuring, of which half (6,603) belong to the industrial sector – and, in particular, the manufacturing industry – where the number of people affected has grown by 1,745 people.. Services are the second sector with the most impact (5,706 workers, 1,516 more than in July 2022), while in construction there have only been 215 employees affected and in the field, 94.

Valencia leads the restructuring

If all types of restructuring are taken into account, the Valencian Community is the one with the most affected workers (3,256 in July), among other things due to the impact that the drop in activity at the Ford plant has had on the region. in Almussafes (Valencia) or the crisis of the ceramic and tile industry in Castellón; followed by the Community of Madrid (1,985) and Catalonia (1,672). In August, 185,385 jobs were lost in the country, as is usual, with education, construction and industry being the darkest sectors; while in the first fifteen days of September 59,000 jobs were lost.

This month is usually positive for the labor market; In fact, since 2013 there has not been a September in which jobs have been lost, not even in 2020, but the behavior of the first fortnight and the slowdown in activity predicted by the PMI indices cast doubt on the behavior of employment, which will be known next Tuesday.

“The new reductions in activity were accompanied by a new slowdown in employment growth, since the rate of job creation in services was the weakest since last January,” warned the latest PMIs, while in industry ” “employment levels rose for the first time in three months, although only slightly.”

ECONOMY

Unicaja approves the appointment of Isidro Rubiales as the bank's new CEO

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Unicaja continues trying to sew the seams opened by its latest governance crisis and has taken another step this Friday by making official the appointment of Isidro Rubiales as the entity's new CEO, replacing Manuel Menéndez and once the authorization has been received. of the European Central Bank (ECB). The appointment entails another profound change in the entity and that is that its president, Manuel Azuaga, loses his executive functions.

The board of directors of the entity – the sixth by market capitalization -, after a meeting held this Friday, has supported the election. “The Board of Directors has agreed to appoint Isidro Rubiales Gil as CEO of the Company and to delegate to him all the powers of the Board of Directors, except those that cannot be delegated,” states the communication sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).. The board has also approved the change in Azuaga's category, in such a way that he loses his executive functions, remaining as non-executive president, and now has the category of “other external” director.. In this way, Rubiales remains the sole executive director of the entity and assumes command of the bank as agreed at the end of July.

In fact, the process of transferring power in Unicaja Banco was planned more than two years ago following the merger with Liberbank, when it was established that Manuel Azuaga had to leave his executive functions before July 30, which would pass to the CEO.

The entity officially elected Rubiales, who was in charge of the bank's Control division, on July 31, thus settling one of the unknowns that the crisis that opened on the board after the merger with Liberbank in July had left behind. 2021 and the reorganization process undertaken after the operation. It has not been an easy process. The merger agreement established that, within two years of the operation, the board of directors had to modify Unicaja's governance model, in such a way that the president of the board, Manuel Azuaga, would leave his executive functions and the board would be reassessed. CEO, Manuel Menéndez, who was finally dismissed on June 1.

His dismissal was the result of a split in two of the group's own board of directors.. The exchange ratio for the merger granted 60% of the capital to Unicaja and four seats on the board of directors, compared to 40% and three seats for Liberbank.. However, the president of the Unicaja Foundation, Braulio Medel, opted for the Asturian side and thus began a power battle in the organization that ended with the departure of more than a dozen Unicaja directors in just two years.

Medel ended up leaving the Foundation and his place was taken by José Manuel Domínguez, who took on a process that finally ended up tipping the balance towards the Andalusian side of the group.. This rebalancing facilitated the dismissal of Menéndez and the subsequent appointment of Rubiales, which was made fully yesterday.

Challenges

Born in 1964 in Cortes de la Frontera (Málaga), Rubiales has a degree in Economics and Business Sciences from the University of Málaga, specializing in Public Finance, and according to the Efe agency, he has played a relevant role in the different integration processes carried out by Unicaja Banco (Banco Ceiss and Liberbank).

With more than 30 years of experience in the financial sector, Rubiales will be in charge of giving impetus and continuity to the entity's strategic plan, after a turbulent period. That will also be another of the challenges ahead, healing the open wounds between the old Unicaja and Liberbank.

On September 20, Unicaja reported the authorization received from the European Central Bank (ECB) to incorporate Rubiales as CEO and also to appoint Antonio Carrascosa, Rocío Fernández and Inés Guzmán as independent directors. In yesterday's session, the council appointed Fernández as coordinating advisor, replacing Carolina Martínez.

The entity is still pending the appointment of a new director to replace David Vaamonde, who left his proprietary position in August after the fund he represented on the board, Oceanwood, reduced its participation from 7% to 0.35%.

SPAIN

Yolanda Díaz pays the bill for the investiture: "she was dying to intervene" and her chosen one is not convincing

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The investiture session has consolidated the two great poles of opposition to the future Government. The first one is not surprising. Pedro Sánchez will have Alberto Núñez Feijóo on top. And the second almost doesn't do it anymore either.. Yolanda Díaz will have to deal with the tandem Ione Belarra and Irene Montero. And one of the consequences of this week's debate is that it has only worsened the very tense relationship between Sumar and Podemos after the purple ones have not been able to intervene in the plenary session.. The grievances pile up and the tear begins to be unbridgeable.

Podemos leaves this investiture like a wounded animal and with a new confirmation that it has been completely “invisibilized” in Congress. The party that until May led the space of the alternative left to the PSOE has been erased from the map, without any prominence and closed in on itself on Pablo Iglesias's YouTube and website. It has been the first major political milestone where his voice was not heard since December 2015, when he won 69 deputies in his first general elections.. And before, he was already competing for attention with the PSOE in top-level debates in which he could not participate, such as the one on the state of the nation in which he put on his own show outside the Chamber to challenge Sánchez's opposition to Mariano Rajoy.. Instead, Tuesday, the big day, saw Sumar, first, and then figures from IU and the commons take the floor. But they have nothing at all.

Podemos's anger with Díaz is gigantic and they do not want to hide it in the slightest. That is why what is said in public has more value than what is said in private.. Because the qualifiers are equally harsh and they want to be aired. Belarra herself accuses Sumar of being embarked on an “erroneous strategy” to “silence” Podemos and an official spokesperson, Javier Sánchez Serna, reproached Sumar for being a “mere two-party parade” in the debate.

OPINION
Cold considering. The power of the dwarf
  • Editor: JORGE BUSTOS

The power of the dwarf

The criticism is especially hurtful after the blurred role that Sumar had in the face to face with Feijóo and the sarcasm with which the PP candidate indulged in his sharp responses – “humiliation” for purple sources -. The strategy coordinated with the PSOE of not bringing the leaders out to confront them to make them look down on them was above all detrimental to the left-wing coalition.. Díaz lost a golden opportunity although “he was dying to go out” to debate with Feijóo and Sumar was left naked with Marta Lois, who has lost Podemos's ability to strike. The performance of the debutant spokesperson is being strongly questioned from the purple ranks, although it is also recognized as “weak” from the ranks themselves.. Because Pablo Iglesias is dedicated body and soul to that strategy, and from his loudspeakers he daily attacks the leader of Sumar between revenge and the accusation that she is a leader who is an enemy of Podemos, docile and tied up by the PSOE and that she has resigned to a role “in which the socialists seem more left-wing” than Sumar's.

Podemos's offensive is going to be even more suffocating. Because now it's Sánchez's turn and we have to finish both the government program and the distribution of the ministries. Two more focuses where you can distance yourself from Sumar and set your own profile. The purple party has been questioning the “ambition” and “bravery” of this future coalition cabinet, since they are qualities that, they warn, only they contribute and not Add. Iglesias is presenting the coalition as a force that would leave the PSOE “hands free to do things” and that would avoid “ideological combat.”. Hence, the “proposals” announced a few weeks ago by Belarra seem more aimed at anticipating what Sumar will not be able to achieve.

Irene Montero

The section on ministries deserves express mention.. Podemos demands that Irene Montero repeat as Minister of Equality and is already saying that anything other than that will mean a defeat of “feminism”. The matter is even more poisoned, because the purple ones, who know that Sánchez has sentenced Montero regardless of what Sumar thinks, demand total autonomy to determine which person in the party holds a portfolio. They rule out that it is Díaz who appoints someone with a purple card. “We can choose Podemos ministers,” say purple sources. If you do not consider that it will be Díaz's “quota” and not yours.

Therefore, given the hypothesis that Sumar's negotiator with the PSOE, Nacho Álvarez, could occupy a ministry, from the Iglesias website they have started a dirty campaign to discredit the “still member of Podemos” before the militancy.. For, they say, willing to assume that position “to exclude Irene Montero” from the Government and for participating in a kind of masquerade in which Díaz would claim that he does have someone from that party.. The horizon of the breakup is not verbalized but at the same time the question of whether the 2024 European elections are a good option to run separately from Díaz hovers over the party.

SPORTS

Europe pays tribute to Ballesteros and savors victory at the Ryder in Rome

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Europe needs to add three and a half points in the singles this Sunday to retain the Ryder Cup. Of the 12 games in play, they need to win at least three and draw one. The hosts managed to maintain their five-point lead after the second day of competition, which turned out to be hotter than expected.

The differences could have been definitive, but the United States miraculously managed to lift the afternoon fourballs with a partial 3-1 to provide a tiny light that could produce a miracle. It would be a comeback never before produced in the history of the competition.. The day ended 10.5 points compared to 5.5 in favor of the European team.

The morning began with a beautiful tribute on the first tee to Severiano Ballesteros, displaying a giant cloth with the figure of the Spanish legend that said “Always in our hearts.”. The emotional moment presided over by Kuke Donald, José María Olazábal and Javier Ballesteros, son of Seve, was followed by the European beating, with three victories, one of them with the historic result of 9 and 7 from Hovland and Aberg to Scheffler and Koepka.

In the afternoon, Patrick Cantlay and Whyndam Clark were the architects of generating that focus of hope. They came losing one hole down on the 16th hole against Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy and managed to win two consecutive holes to achieve a key final final point that closed the fourball day, an outcome where more than just sparks flew.

Apparently, according to what the North American press leaked, Patrick Cantlay is hot in this Ryder Cup and decided to express his protests about the fact that no player is paid in this competition. His tantrum materialized in the fact that he did not pose with the team cap in the official photos. The public in Rome spent the entire day reminding the American of the incident.. In the 18th it was his caddie, Joey Lacava, who faced the European public after his boss's victory. Shane Lowry came out like a spring to reproach him for his attitude and they had to separate Rory Mcilroy so that things wouldn't get any worse. This would not be the only controversy of the day.

Luke Donald decided to rest Jon Rahm in the afternoon after another splendid morning where he once again together with Tyrrel Hatton won their point against Xander Schauffelele and Cantley.

Yesterday, Rahm received unjustified criticism from the American Brooks Koepka, who called the Spaniard a brat and “pouting” when he got angry. Rahm responded on the field with a new victory and in front of the media he wanted to make light of the matter. American captain Zach Johnson hinted that his team had suffered a health problem. “I feel grateful to have a doctor on the team,” he said.

SPORTS

Roglic, exhibition and goodbye: "I will leave the Jumbo"

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The data is overwhelming. Primoz Roglic has won all the races he has participated in in 2023. From March to September. From the Tirreno Adriatico to the Giro dell'Emilia conquered this Saturday before Tadej Pogacar himself. Everything (Volta a Catalunya, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Burgos…) except the Vuelta a España in which he did not win but his team did: his teammate Sepp Kuss was first, Jonas Vingegaard second and he completed a historic podium adding also two stages, including Angliru.

To know more
Back to Spain. The secret of Jumbo Visma's never-before-seen success: “It's not just money”
  • Editor: LUCAS SÁEZ-BRAVO Madrid

The secret of Jumbo Visma's never-before-seen success: “It's not just money”

A brutal year, another one, for the Slovenian, who hopes to round off in a few days in Lombardy. A year to remember, although what he may never forget is what happened in the Vuelta, which has made him definitively break his bond with Jumbo Visma after eight seasons in yellow and black. Because, a while before raising his arms in San Luca, Roglic confirmed what had seemed like a long time ago. Next year he will wear other colors.

“I don't want to say anything, I can simply confirm definitively that yes. I will leave the team, but we want to tell all the details after the race. I want to be focused and then we will see the next movements,” explained the Slovenian at the start of Carpi.. An announcement shortly ratified by the Dutch squad on social networks. “After a memorable journey together, the Jumbo-Visma team gives Primoz Roglic the opportunity to pursue his ambitions elsewhere in the future. First of all, all attention will be focused on the upcoming Italian races.”

Roglic's departure is a small earthquake in the cycling scene already convulsed by the rumors – which are already confirmed negotiations – of a merger between Jumbo and Soudal Quick-Step. About to turn 34, the Slovenian wants one last dance to try to finally win the Tour de France. And it seems that there are two structures well positioned to give him that opportunity, to crash the Vingegaard and Pogacar party. The best placed could be Ineos Grenadiers, who have a budget and lack of a clear leader, although Carlos Rodríguez is their man of the future. Lidl Trek also sounds strong. There was even some rumor that Movistar could position itself.

As if finally released, Primoz was exhibited at the centenary Giro dell'Emilia. In the prelude to Lombardy, with a line-up of first swords and a final group in the double climb to the Sanctuary of San Luca de carats (Caparaz, Vlasov, the Yates brothers, Michael Woods, Giulio Ciccone, as well as Pogacar, Mas and himself Roglic, again the punch of the triple winner of the Vuelta was deadly. First, he overcame the gap with more than a kilometer to go from Pogacar and then finished off the small group in the final sprint, succeeding Enric Mas in the list of winners and adding his third victory in the Italian event. The Spanish from Movistar was fourth.