World Cup – Side Line

O···The World’s most expensive soccer player, the French national team’s midfielder Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid), is also said to be No.1 in the annual income.

Football special-site `Daily Soccer` quoted Spain’s EFE press to report on the 1st that Zidane is earning the highest annual income of 13.6 million Euro (15.9 billion won) among soccer players.

Zidane’s income details include salary of 6.4 million Euro, bonus of 400,000 Euro, and advertisement contract worth 6.8 million Euro.

England’s David Beckham (Manchester United) came second with 10.3 million Euro, and Argentina’s Gabriel Omar Batistuta (AS Roma) ranked third, recording 10.1 million Euro.

Japan’s Nakata Hidetoshi (Parma) gained attention by outrunning Brazil’s Ronaldo (9.22 Euro. Inter Milan) in the 4th place with 9.45 million Euro.

O···Most of the European-based players, who are the core of the U.S. national soccer team, are to join the training that will start from the 2nd. Among the 7 European players, who seemed difficult to join the 10 day-training at North Carolina’s Cary, only 2 players, John O’Brien (Ajax) and David Regis (FC Metz), are remaining in their own teams.

The other 5, including captain Claudio Reyna (Sunderland), either already joined the national team or are to arrive soon. U.S.A. will have evaluation matches with Uruguay (13th), Jamaica (17th), and Netherlands (20th) before traveling to Korea.

New York AP Association

O···International Football Association (FIFA) dismissed the demand to change the match schedule of Denmark, which belongs to Group A of the 2002 World Cup. General secretary Zen-Ruffinen said, “Please understand this, since South Africa, Slovenia, and Russia are playing their games in the same time slot too.”

Denmark requested schedule change, as it is to play the Senegalese match (June 6. Daegu) and the French match (June 11. Inchon) at 3:30 in the afternoon, except for the Uruguayan match (June 1, 6 p.m. Ulsan).

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com