Ronaldo Eyes More FIFA Success

Cristiano Ronaldo has set his sights on a "lucky seventh" piece of FIFA silverware after collecting his fifth Men's Player of The Year award on Monday.
Ronaldo's Real Madrid side, which won both La Liga and the Champions League last season, dominated the 2017 Best FIFA soccer awards at a star-studded ceremony in London on Monday.
The Portuguese ace has scored 44 goals in just 48 games for club and country so far this calendar year, including two in a 4-1 Champions League final win over Juventus in Cardiff on June 3.
Ronaldo saw off competition from longstanding Barcelona rival Lionel Messi and Paris St. Germain's Neymar, the world's most expensive player.
But, typical of a soccer player who has enjoyed huge success at both Manchester United and Real, Ronaldo was not satisfied.
"I want seven. Five is good but seven is my lucky number so seven would be great."
Real boss Zinedine Zidane took the corresponding manager of the year award, with the Spanish giants providing five players in the FIFPro team of the year.
Ronaldo won the inaugural Best FIFA men's player of the year award last year following the end of a six-year merger between the FIFA honor and France Football's Ballon d'Or.
The 32-year-old previously won the FIFA World Player of the Year award, the precursor to the Best FIFA award, in 2008.
He has now won the last two FIFA men's trophies as well as three of the last four Ballond'Or awards.
"Thanks a lot for voting for me," said Ronaldo after receiving his trophy from Argentina great Diego Maradona and Brazil's Ronaldo at the London Palladium theatre.
"I mention Leo and Neymar, great to be here. Real Madrid supporters, my team-mates, my coach, they all support me all year.
"We are in England for the first time and I win consecutive awards," he added. "This is a great moment for me. I have fans all over the world."
Zidane won out ahead of Chelsea's Antonio Conte and Juventus' Massimiliano Allegri to be crowned men's coach of the year after becoming the first man to oversee a successful defense of the European Cup in the Champions League era.
"I'd like to thank all of the players for making this possible," said Zidane. "This is a very special prize."
Real's superb campaign was recognized in a FIFPro team that featured Ronaldo and club-mates Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Marcelo and Sergio Ramos.
The XI also included FIFA's goalkeeper of the year, Gianluigi Buffon.
AC Milan's Leonardo Bonucci and PSG's Dani Alves were in the defense, with Barcelona playmaker Andres Iniesta in a side also featuring Messi and Neymar.
Juventus and Italy shot-stopper Buffon topped a three-strong shortlist for the goalkeeper award ahead of Real's Keylor Navas and Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer.
Monday also saw the Puskas Award for the best goal of 2017 to Arsenal's Oliver Giroud.
The France striker received the award named in honor of Hungary great Ferenc Puskas for a spectacular "scorpion kick" against Crystal Palace in January.
The Frenchman's flicked volley with his left foot that went in off the crossbar won ahead of goals from Venezuela's Deyna Castelanos, 18, and South African goalkeeper Oscarine Masuluke.
Meanwhile tournament hosts the Netherland's achievement in winning their first major female soccer title, the 2017 Women's Coach of the Year and Player of the Year awards for Sarina Wiegman and Lieke Martens respectively.
Voting for the bulk of the awards was equally weighted between national team captains and coaches, media and fans.

Julian Guyer
Agence France-Presse/ Londres, UK

Stick Or Twist? Relegation Risk Raises The Classic Dilemma

To stick or twist? The fear of relegation from the Premier League - and the risk of losing the income that comes with top-flight status - pushes many club owners towards the classic gambler's dilemma.
Leicester City's Thai owners decided last week that time was up for Craig Shakespeare and pulled the trigger and on Monday Everton said goodbye to Ronald Koeman.
Crystal Palace, bottom of the table, fired Dutch manager Frank de Boer after just five games in charge of the London club.
West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic remains in his position but faces speculation over his future on a daily basis and with Stoke City in 17th place, Mark Hughes will be expecting rumors of his job status to heat up.
But does a change of leadership during a season really increase the likehood of a turnaround in fortunes for a club?
The evidence is mixed but suggests that while a short-term boost can often occur with change, clubs tend to benefit from managerial stability.
A detailed study of the soccer industry by Nottingham University Business School in 2009 concluded: "Some form of 'shock effect' appears to influence the short-term recovery remains poor."
In other words - a club can get a "bounce" from a new face at the top but stability tends to bring better results in the longer term.
But longer term appears not to feature high on the list of priorities for clubs worried about the potential impact of relegation and the trend in England is towards the kind of high turnover thas was once more typical of Italian and Spanish soccer.
Last season Palace replaced Alan Pardew with Sam Allardyce and the experienced manager pulled the team away from the relegation zone and ensured survival.
Likewise Swansea City replaced American Bob Bradley with Paul Clement and they also retained top-flight status.
Hull City fired Mike Phelan and brought in Portuguese boss Marco Silva but despite some improved results they ended up going down.
Most controversially of all, in Februari, Leicester City sacked Claudio Ranieri, the Italian who had guided them to their shock title win the previous season.
The decision was slammed by many pundits as the ultimate lack of loyalty, patience and decency but his replacement, assistant Shakespeare, took them from the drop zone to a final position of 12th in the league.
Loyalty was shown by Sunderland, which stuck with David Moyes in contrast to previous seasons when changes of management had brought late revivals - but the Black Cats went down.
Middlesbrough stuck with Spaniard Aitor Karanka until March and ended up being relegated with his replacement Steve Agnew not providing the necessary "bounce".
That boost that a new manager can bring is often put down to a fresh, optimistic message bringing new enthusiasm from players and a different pair of eyes spotting potential that might have been overlooked.
But the flip-side is that the new manager has to work with a squad he hasn't assembled, wasn't designed for his tactics and which hasn't gone through the pre-season regime that many managers believe is essential for creating the foundation for success.
Another key aspect that the men in charge at West Ham will be considering is - can we really bring in someine better?
One pundid joked that Koeman's support from Everton fans had been boosted by a media report linking the club with its former manager David Moyes.

Simon Evans
Reuters/Manchester

Giggs Interested In Everton, Leicester Jobs

Former Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs has expressed his interest in the vacant managerial position at Premier League sides Leicester City and Everton.
Everton sacked manager Ronald Koeman on Monday after they dropped into the relegation zone following Sunday's humiliating 5-2 home defeat by Arsenal. The Dutchman became the third managerial casualty of the season after Crystal Palace fired his compatriot Frank de Boer four league games into the season and Leicester parted ways with Craig Shakespeare last week.
"For me these are clubs I would be interested in," Giggs told Sky Sports, referring to 18th placed Everton and Leicester. Giggs won 13 Premier League titles and made a record 963 appearances for United before managing them for four games on an interim basis following the sacking of David Moyes in 2014.

Reuters/London

Romancing The Supercar Buyer How Ultra-Luxe Car Dealers Clinch A Sale

Brett David has made nearly $2 million by selling cars through Instagram in the first half of this year alone.
That figure refers to sales sparked directly by specific Instagram posts, the 30-year-old owner of Prestige Imports said this week in Miami. That's not to mention sales that many have been inspired by an Instagram post at first but took some time to percolate before finalizing.
"I can't even begin to tell you how important Instagram is to these guys - it's scary," said David, who says he has sold US$1 billion worth of Lamborghini cars since 2007.
He met his biggest customer, Kris Singh, on Instagram; the collector, who boasts more than 681,000 followers, reached out to David about a Lamborghoni Reventon, ended up buying q Pagani, and has since bought many more six- and seven-figure cars from the dealer as well.
David is in the middle of promoting the soft opening of his new $17 million dealer-ship, which is equipped with a green room and video production team primed specifically to allow clients to make Instagram worthy photos and clips their million dollar toys. For him the room, which cost $140,000 to build, is an essential tool in staying relevant: "You have to know how to connect not through creating customers, but through creating fans," he says.
"I posted a photo of the Koenigsegg One:1 with the simple caption, 'Welcome home,' and we had 100 people here literally the dealership within an hour, just to see the car," David said. "A good dealer today has to understand modern marketing through social media."
As the modern super-luxury market continues to change, automakers and dealers are changing the way they seduce new buyers - and keep the romance alive with longtime clients. Here's how they do it.

Understand The New Young Market
At Bugatti's showroom in Greenwich, Conn., dealers have long known that the typical individual who places an order for the $2.5 million Chiron (wait list: six months) already owns Bugatti's previous multimillion-dollar stunner, the Veyron. Those owners are also acutely attuned to social media and are well under the age of 50.
Three thousand miles west, at the opening of the Newport Beach Pagani dealership last month in California, company founder Horacio Pagani himself told me the average age of his customers is "more toward 30 or 35 years old - even in the 1920s, in some cases."
"Our customer has changed," he said simply.
"We have to understand the idea that the people who are buying these vehicle are very disperse across the globe," said Rebecca Lindland, the executive analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "We have to think about, 'What does that Chinese billionaire want?' Or the wealthy daughter of a Chinese billionaire."

Follow The Fashion World
Smart dealers see their business as pure luxury retail, closer to selling a brand identity than a device - like hawking a Birkin bag or Gucci shoes.
"You're dealing with wealthy people, and they're rich for a good reason: They understand that, like clothing, by and large the car is a depreciating asset," said Tom O'Gara, Bentley's dealer in Beverly Hills, Calif. So, automotive brands must sell the story behind the asset and the lifestyle that goes with it. The best place to do that is on social media.
The most exclusive fashion brands - Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Celine - post avidly on social media. If they can do it, so can the fellas down at the dealership. They just have to retain their focus.
"Where the Bible for us has been historically been Automotive News, the Bible now is (LVMH head Bernard) Arnault's luxury strategy book," said O'Gara. "It's the rules for anti-marketing. We are now in a completely different world."

Bring The Car To The Client - Or The Client To The Car
Aston Martin takes its atelier, as it were, directly to the customers, with personal exclusive "fittings" of its $3million Valkyrie for the 150 individuals who merit the right to purchase one.
Pagani will do the same but in reverse, flying customers to company headquarters over the two- to three-years it takes to develop a car that it tailors the vehicle to the owner like a suit, down to sizing the car for torso lenght and shoulder width.
"You can't go sell cars - you have to offer an experience," O'Gara said. "Especially with the young millennials, that is what everyone is looking for."

Foster Community In Real Life
O'Gara’s team hosts meet-ups every Sunday on Sunset Boulevard. More than 350 supercars of all varieties attend, with owners parking them on display in California's morning sunshine. The time is one for selfies, glad-handling and bro-ing out with like-minded car lovers.
"Showing that (event) on Instagram is how people like to shop - that's way better than peoplw getting a picture of a car in the mai," O'Gara said. "Instead, it's like, here's a fun thing to go do and see. That really brings people out. They can look at the cara in real life and get to talk to owners."

Be Fast And Easy - And Let The Customer Lead The Conversation
These days, most of the people who come into dealerships have alredy done hours of research online and on social media and talked with friends who share their tax bracket about exactly what brand, model, and color scheme of car they want.
Any good dealer knows he won't be able to surprise the customer who already owns 10 supercars. Many clients know more about the car they want than the salesman at the shop does - and that's OK. The job here is to deliver.
McLaren's lower-priced Sport Series cars (around $180,000 or more) make the most money for the brand, but its higher-performance models, such as the 720s, which costs around $280,000, and the famous $1 million-plus P1, keep the brand exclusive and alluring. Photographer: Devin Christopher/Bloomberg.
"It's not about the guy who wants to do a zero-to-60-mph time," David said. "We have guys who have the cars for four months, five months, then want something else. It's not that they need the latest and greatest. It's that they now want something they didn't previously know existed."
What's more, whike many high-end buyers actually do drive their cars on a daily basis, at least down the driveway - after all, they've got to get their Instagram shot for the day - others barely touch them. In this day and age, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is speed: Dealers must be able to source the chosen car quickly, even offering to wrap it in a new color if the existing one isn't right. If they can't get an exact match, they'd better have aomething close.

Play Hard To Get
The other facet of cultivating the modern luxury buyer is fostering a sense of ultra exclusivity, both on the automaker level and on the dealer level. Production mumbers must remain low -one-off models, ideally. Like red-carpet starlets in haute couture, the modern wealthy car enthusiast would never be so crude as to be seen in the same car as someone else.
"These cars are always instantly judged by their performance credentials, price tag, and ultimately, exclusivity," explained Jonathan Klinger, the spokesman for Hagerty, which insures blue-chip collectible cars. "These exotic brands are basically sold and spoken for before the first production one is even ready, so that you have instant pent-up demand."

Hannah Elliott
Bloomberg/New York

Green And Clean But Is Your Electric Car Free Of Slavery?

Electric vehicles are often labeled the "green cars" of the future but rising demand for the raw materials needed to get them on the road could increase the risk of slavery in their production, according to a risk analysis report on Tuesday.
British risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft said electric vehicle makers would need to be careful as they cast a wider net to source raw materials ranging from rubber to aluminium and mica needed for the 30,000 or so components in each car.
But tracing the raw materials was only one problem in the complex supply chain with an elaborate network of suppliers and transporters involved, adding risks at every stage.
"Increased exposure to human righta abuses, environmental degradation and less-than-savory governments is therefore going to be inevitable as the industry's growth accelerates," Maplecroft researcher Stefan Sabo-Walsh said in the report.
The report, based on data from the firm's commodity risk service, said China was now the top producing country for about 86 percent of the key commodities in lithium-ion batteries but this was likely to change as production picks up speed.
Demand for eco-friendly electric vehicles is on the rise.
Car buyers had shunned electric vehicles because of their high cost and limited operating range until Tesla unveiled a model in 2012 that cracked 322 kilometers on one charge.
Since then, big advances in battery technology and a global crackdown on pollution in the wake of Volkswagen's diesel scandal have raised pressure on carmakers to speed up development of zero-emission alternatives.
Paris authorities this month unveiled plans to banish all petrol- and diesel-fuelled  cars by 2030 while the British government earlier this year said it would ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040.
Sabo-Walsh said this meant businesses would seek new source countries with reserves of key materials such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, the Phillippines and Soutg Africa.
But in some countries it was hard to trace if their raw materials came from legal, commercial mines or from illegal smallholder mines where forced and child labour are rife.
The risks associated with lithium-ion batteries were of particular concern. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the leading global producer of cobalt used in these batteries, but has faced global criticism for human rights abuses.
The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) estimates 40,000 children work in the warn-torn central African nation's cobalt mines in dire conditions.
"This should provide an instant red flag for the industry operators who will increasingly face brand damage or regulatory penalties from the slew of emerging legislation addressing supply chain issuea," Sabo-Walsh said.
As well potential slavery, other risks range from corruption associated with overland transport to east African ports to potential natural hazarda disrupting smelting in Indonesia.
Sabo-Walsh said a big problem for the industry and electric vehicle companies is that no laws or significant initiatives exist for the majority of the raw materials they use.
"To maintain their clean, green image, they will need to ensure every individual component required for the manufacture of their vehicles is ethically sourced and as untarnished as a new vehicle rolling off the production line," he said.

Belinda Goldsmith
Reuters/London

Say Your Goodbyes To The Boeing 747

The aviation world is currently in the throes of nostalgia, as one of its most iconic aircrafts - the double-decker Boeing 747 - approaches its industry-wide retirement.
After Eva Air, Singapore Airlines and Qantas, US carrier United Airlines has revealed details on the retirement party they will be throwing to mark the end of an era for the Boeing 747's service.
For its final send-off today, United Airlines will transport passengers back in time with a farewell flight that recreatew its inaugural 747 trip from San Francisco to Honolulu made in 1970.
Guests will be greeted by flight attendants in retro uniforms and tuck into a 1970s-inspired in-flight menu. In-flight entertainment will likewise rewind back to the era of bell-bottoms, variety shows, soap operas and disco music.
Seats on the jumbo jet's signature upper deck will not be sold, so that all guests can spend time in the iconic space.
After a gate celebration, the flight left San Francisco at 11 a.m. local time and land at Honolulu flight route last month.
The carrier sent two 747s to Orlando recently to help assist with Hurricane Irma evacuation efforts.
Delta expects to retire the remaining 747s in its fleet by the end of the year.
Boeing 747s are being retired to the boneyard as obsolete relics of a fast-changing industry, as they get replaced by modernized, more fuel-efficient models like the Dreamliner and Airbus A350.

AFP Relaxnews

Lisbon's First Syrian Restaurant a Welcome Sign For Refugees

The queue outside Lisbon's first Syrian restaurant on its opening day showed an appetite not just for Syrian food but for integration in one of the few European countries trying to welcome more refugees.
Syrian refugees run Mezze restaurant after money was raised to renovate a former butcher's shop on a market in the Portuguese capital's popular Arroios neighborhood.
Leonor Rodrigues was one of the customers immediately won over when Mezze opened in September.
"The chicken kebabs, the hummus, everything was exquisite. Next week I will be back, that's for sure," the translator said.
"The place is really good and it's great to integrate the refugees this way."
The restaurant is the result of a fundraising drive, which raised 23,000 euros (US$27,000), initiated by former journalist Francisca Gorjao Henriques, who founded the association "Pao a Pao" ("Bread to Bread") in 2016 to help refugees.
"As soon as I announced the restaurant project and said that it was intended for Syrian families, people immedigastronomy.
edededed "the campaign to collect money to renovate and equip the building, the 45-year-old said.
Inside it is impossible to ignore the delicious aromas coming from the kitchen, where a dozen Syrians work, with some of their stories told on the menus.
One of the staff, Rafat, admits that Lisbon was not his dream destination when he fled Syria nearly three years ago, living first in Egypt before moving to Portugal a year ago.
The 21-year-old now lives in Lisbon's northern suburbs with his mother, Fatima, and two siaters, Rana and Reem, who also work at Mezze. Rafat's father, who ran a traditional reataurant in Damascus, died in the civil war that has killed more than 330,000 people since 2011.
"All I knew about Portugal was the footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani. I thought it was a rather poor country. My priority was Germany," Rafat, who did not want to give his last name, told AFP.
But he said he is "very happy" to have finished his journey in Portugal, where he hopes to be joined by his older brother, who lives in Turkey with his wife and their small boy.
"We feel good here. The Portuguese are very tolerant and we have never had a problem. My sisters can go to the beach wearing a hijab without feeling judged," Rafat said, in hesitant but already very good Portuguese.
Many European countries have been resistant to taking in more refugeees in the wake of the migrant crisis that hit the continent in 2015, but Portugal has gone in the opposition direction.
The European Commission asked Portugal to take in 5,000 migrants - the majority from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan - under a plan to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from overstretched Greece and Italy to most of the other 28 European Union member states.
While the quotas have proved unpopular with some former communist eastern European governments, the Portuguese government offered in February last year to double its quota to 10,000.
But the country has only received 1,400 so far. And of those, more than half have already left Portugal, according to the latest official estimates.
Portuguese authorities say the refugees left due to the appeal of countries with better economic prospects, such as Germany or Britain.
Of those who stayed in Portugal, only a third have entered the job market, the government said, acknowledging too many remain unemployed.
Rafat says "Pao a Pao," which helps refugees find jobs and integrate, has helped his mother and sister feet at home, it was more difficult," he said.
But he said he could not understand why other Syrian refugees left Portugal.
"I have Syrian friends who left without understanding that language is the key to a country. They did not try to learn it and that's why they could not integrate," he said.
Mezze serves up traditional Syrian dishes such as yalanji, fattoush salad, kibbeh and baklava that the staff have been cooking for a long time, but they still had to learn how to work under the conditions required for restaurants in Pertugal.
The country's welcoming spirit again came to the rescue, with a hospitality school in Lisbonoffering ro train them and, at the same time, give the reevugee the opportunity to learnt some of the secrets of European gastronomy.

Bruno Carvo
Agence France-Presse/Lisbon, Portugal