SOCCER
Karim Benzema won the men’s Ballon d’Or for the first time on Monday after a brilliant season with Real Madrid capped by the Champions League and Spanish league titles.
Spanish player Alexia Putellas won the women’s trophy for the second straight year following another standout season with Barcelona.
Benzema had his best season ever at Madrid, being the top scorer in both leagues. He scored 44 times with Madrid, including 15 in Europe’s top competition, and equaled Raul Gonzalez as the club’s second-highest scorer behind Cristiano Ronaldo.
Benzema, at 34, became the oldest winner since the first recipient in 1956, Stanley Matthews.
Benzema won ahead of Sadio Mane and Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne. Mane played for Liverpool last season and joined Bayern Munich in the summer.
For the first time this year, the Ballon d’Or was based on achievements from the past season. It had previously been awarded based on performances throughout calendar years.
Awarded by France Football magazine, the Ballon d’Or has been given out to men for 66 years. The women’s trophy was created in 2018, and both were canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Benzema became the fifth Frenchman to win it after Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin and Zinedine Zidane, who was crowned in 1998, the year France won its first World Cup.
MLS: Gabriel Pereira, Maxi Moralez and Heber had second-half goals and New York City FC beat Miami 3-0 at Citi Field.
NYCFC, the reigning MLS champions, advances to play at Montreal on Sunday in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Pereira opened the scoring in the 63rd minute and Moralez made it 2-0 six minutes later. Pereira was left wide open on a breakaway and Santiago Rodriguez found him for a calm finish off the crossbar. Rodriguez also had a back-heel assist on the goal by Moralez.
Heber took advantage of a poor back pass in second-half stoppage time and scored into an empty net.
The game originally had been set for Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, home of NYC’s MLS rival. But Citi Field became available when the Mets lost their wild card series to San Diego.
FRENCH LEAGUE: Montpellier fired Coach Olivier Dall’Oglio following its seventh defeat this season.
Montpellier lost to Lens 1-0 on Saturday to lag 17 points behind leader Paris Saint-Germain after four wins in 11 league matches.
Montpellier said deputy coach Romain Piteau will serve as caretaker at least until the international break starting on Nov. 14 because of the World Cup in Qatar.
Dall’Oglio joined Montpellier in 2021 as a replacement for Michel der Zakarian. He enjoyed a good start with the southern club but results nosedived in the second half of the season and the former Brest coach has not managed to find consistency this season.
Dall’Oglio became the fifth French league coach to be fired this season after Reims’ Oscar Garcia, Lyon’s Peter Bosz, Brest’s Der Zakarian and Auxerre’s Jean-Marc Furlan.
WORLD CUP: Nearly 2.9 million tickets have been sold for the World Cup in Qatar, FIFA and organizers said, leaving about 7% of seats still available.
People living in the United States, Saudi Arabia and England topped the list of international ticket buyers, while Mexico was the biggest market outside Qatar for corporate hospitality sales.
More tickets will become available before the tournament starts on Nov. 20, FIFA’s tournament director Colin Smith said at a news conference in Doha held with Qatari organizers.
MBAPPE STAYING: PSG forward Kylian Mbappé has denied reports that he wants to leave the French league club during the January transfer window.
A series of articles published in France and Spain said that Mbappé is frustrated in Paris and is looking for a way out. The World Cup winner said he was stunned by the rumors when they surfaced last week ahead of a Champions League game.
“I’m very happy, I have never asked to leave in January,” Mbappé told reporters at the Parc des Princes stadium after PSG defeated Marseille 1-0 on Sunday. “Some people might think I was involved in this, but I was not at all. I was as shocked as anyone else … I just wanted to say that it’s completely untrue.”
BASKETBALL
NBA: The Houston Rockets announced a multiyear contract extension with Kevin Porter Jr. on Monday that could be worth as much as $82 million.
The team did not reveal details, but a person with knowledge of the move told The Associated Press it was a four-year extension with only the first season, in 2023-24, guaranteed at about $16 million.
The deal was reached Monday, the deadline for players out of the rookie draft class of 2019 to agree to extensions. The 22-year-old Porter will make $3.2 million this season in the last year of his current deal which remains in place, according to the person who spoke with AP on condition of anonymity because details were not released.
Porter is one of the young players the rebuilding Rockets hope will help them return to contention. He has played in 87 games with 84 starts over two seasons, averating 15.6 points, 6.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds last season.
• Charlotte Hornets guard James Bouknight has been arrested for driving while impaired just days before the team was set to open the regular season.
Bouknight was arrested at 1:51 a.m. Sunday by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Police Department, according to a police report. Bond was set at $2,500. The 22-year-old Bouknight, the team’s first-round draft pick in 2021, practiced on Monday but did not speak to reporters.
• Los Angeles Lakers guard Dennis Schroder will be sidelined for several weeks after undergoing surgery on his right thumb.
• The Atlanta Hawks have committed to De’Andre Hunter as one of the key players on a team looking to return to championship contention, signing the small forward to a $95 million, four-year extension.
TENNIS
SAN DIEGO OPEN: Top-ranked Iga Swiatek overcame a challenge from qualifier Donna Vekic late Sunday night to win the San Diego Open title with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 victory.
Swiatek earned her tour-leading 64th victory of the season heading into the WTA Finals that begin Friday in Fort Worth, Texas. The event features the tour’s top eight singles and doubles teams. The 21-year-old won the French Open and U.S. Open earlier this year.
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