Ajax miss Kluivert edge

European Round-up

Michael Briggs
Saturday 05 April 1997 17:02 EST
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The Ajax striker Patrick Kluivert will miss next Wednesday's Champions' League semi-final against Juventus to undergo an operation on his right knee, according to reports yesterday.

Despite the injury, Kluivert still wants to play in the match, which will be a replay of last year's Champions' Cup final, but the team physician, Piet van Bon, has strongly advised against it. Kluivert received the injury this week during a World Cup qualifying game between Turkey and the Netherlands.

George Weah, Milan's Liberian striker, will be appointed special representative for sport by Unicef at a ceremony in Milan tomorrow. Weah, the 1996 World Footballer of the Year, said he would concentrate on raising awareness in two main areas: children with the Aids virus and child victims of war.

Argentina's 1978 World Cup-winning coach, Cesar Luis Menotti, could be at Sampdoria next season while Napoli have chosen Piacenza's Bortolo Mutti as their new boss.

The Italian sports daily Gazzetta Dello Sport reported Menotti, the 59- year-old chain-smoking Independiente coach who has been a coach in Spain with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, has been increasingly mentioned as the man most likely to replace Sweden's Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Eriksson, who accepted and then turned down a hefty offer from Blackburn Rovers, has said he is leaving Sampdoria and is assumed to be joining Lazio, although neither he nor the Rome club has confirmed the move.

The Napoli coach Luigi Simone is expected to take over at Internazionale at the end of the season. The present coach Roy Hodgson has accepted the job at Blackburn after Eriksson had backed out of it.

The German international striker Oliver Bierhoff said yesterday that he doubted he would play in Germany again because not many clubs wanted him there. Bierhoff has not played in the Bundesliga since 1990, when he left Borussia Monchengladbach for the Austrian club Casino Salzburg. He has been in Italy since 1991, first at Ascoli and then Udinese.

"There are not many clubs that want me there and for a national team player life in Germany is not easy. Jurgen Klinsmann scored 16 league goals and 14 Uefa Cup goals last season and yet now he is being slaughtered," Bierhoff said.

Bierhoff, who scored the two goals in the European Championship final last summer to give Germany victory over the Czech Republic, has suffered this season with injuries. He was out until mid-February when he returned to play against Cagliari and scored the winner, but the goals have dried up ever since .

The French title leaders Monaco made hard work of beating fourth-from- bottom Lille on Friday, but two goals in the second half left them 13 points ahead.

Despite Lille being depleted by injuries and suspensions, the Monegasques failed to take hold of the game in the first half, with Sonny Anderson's missed penalty just before half-time summing up their performance.

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