Section:GDN 1N PaGe:41 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 20:39 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Guardian •
41Teenager Kean looking forward
to having greater responsibility
Andy HunterEverton fans have raised more than
£2,700 for a banner that will proclaim
they stand side-by-side with Moise
Kean in his fi ght against racism. It
represents a show of unity that was
sorely lacking in April when the
19-year-old faced down his abusers
while playing for Juventus against
Cagliari , although the £29m striker
insists that sorry episode is not why
Italian football has lost one of its fi nest
young talents.
“No, absolutely not,” the teenager
says when asked whether the racist
abuse he suff ered at Cagliari, and the
fall-out from it, is why he swapped
the Old Lady of Turin for the Grand
Old Lady of Goodison Park. “I like
Everton. This is the reason I came
here. I recognise myself in this team.
Everton are looking ahead to the future
and so am I.”
Kean’s determination to look aheadmy side, they helped me,” he says. “We
have to fi ght against racism, everybody
knows that, and the club was very
helpful to me in that situation.”
But what of Bonucci, his senior
colleague for club and country?
“I didn’t pay any attention to that
comment. I was concentrating
strongly on playing to the best of my
ability so that I could repay Juventus
for the support they gave me. I spoke
with him later and he apologised.
He told me he was wrong and that
he didn’t know what he was talking
about.”
Kean repaid Juventus with six goals
in 13 league appearances last season
as they took the Italian title for an
eighth year in a row. He scored eight
goals in 21 games in total for Juventus,
was the club’s youngest debutant at
16 years and 23 days, yet was allowed
to leave an ageing side despite long
being heralded as their future. The
teenager, who comes across as a
thoughtful and determined character,
explains it was his decision to leave a
Champions League contender, a Serie
A winning regular, in search of greater
responsibility with Everton.
“I feel ready,” he says. “I have always
had to take big responsibility because
of my age. I met Marcel [Brands,
Everton’s director of football] fi rst. I
like his ideas, his objectives.
“I like the Premier League and I
followed it a lot. I also spoke to my
companions at Juventus. I spoke to
Cristiano [Ronaldo]. And they told me
things but I knew enough on my own.”
Ronaldo’s message was succinct. “He
told me to follow my dreams and work
hard.”
Kean claims he has not turned his
back on Champions League football
by joining a team that fi nished eighth
last season. “It is part of the ambition
of any player to help bring his team
to the Champions League,” he says.
“What I want is to bring Everton into
the Champions League.”
Evertonians launched a JustGiving
campaign on the day Kean signed to
raise £1,000 for a banner that will be
unveiled at his home debut against
Watford on Saturday week. The target
was surpassed in 24 hours and the
extra money raised will be split equally
between Kick It Out and Everton In The
Community.
“I t’s beautiful because racism is
horrendous and we have to fight
against it,” Kean says. “I’m going to
repay the fans for all they do for me. ”FA to launch
streaming
platform for
women’s game
The Football Association is launching
a streaming platform dedicated to
women’s football from the start of the
2019-20 season.
The FA Player will provide live
access to more than 150 domestic
games throughout the forthcoming
campaign, including all the Women’s
Super League (WSL) matches and
a fixture from each round of the
Championship.
The platform, which will be free to
use and available online and via an
app, will also have selected England,
FA Cup and Continental League Cup
highlights, plus archive footage and
features.
The FA said in its announcement
yesterday that BT Sport and the BBC
will continue their regular coverage,
with more than 30 live games televised
across the season.
The FA’s director of the women’s
professional game, Kelly Simmons,
said: “This announcement is a pivotal
and signifi cant step in the FA’s journey
to grow the women’s game and attract
new audiences.
“We know people want to watch
football in diff erent ways, with content
that’s quickly and easily accessible.
This live streaming service will give
them unique access to over 150 live
fi xtures in all competitions, all avail-
able at the click of a button.
“This will help build on the fantastic
coverage BBC and BT Sport give the
women’s game on their channels so
that fans can enjoy the best of women’s
football when and how they wish,”
added Simmons.
The platform will be launched
before the WSL season, which starts
on 7 September when Manchester
City face Manchester United at the
Etihad Stadium.
England’s 2-1 semi-fi nal defeat by
the USA at the Women’s World Cup
in France earlier this summer was,
according to the BBC, watched by a
peak TV audience of 11.7 million – a
UK record fi gure for women’s football.
PA Media
to a new start in a new country should
not, however, be seen as an attempt to
draw a veil over the recent past. The
Italy international is quite willing to
discuss his stand against racism and
what occurred in the seconds, hours
and weeks after his goal against
Cagliari last season.
Kean celebrated that close-range
strike with a defi ant stare, arms aloft, in
front of the home fans who had jeered
his every touch. Instead of support he
was rebuked for the celebration by the
then Juventus coach, Massimiliano
Allegri. His team-mate Leonardo
Bonucci went further, claiming “the
blame is 50-50” for the abuse that
intensifi ed after Kean’s goal.
Bonucci later back tracked and was
condemned by Allegri. Serie A offi cials
described the chants as “certainly
reprehensible”, but took no action
against Cagliari on the grounds they
“had an objectively limited relevance
to race”.
Kean insists he was not left isolated
by his former club. “Juventus were onEverton are close to signing the
France full-back Djibril Sidibé
but are facing frustration in
their attempts to land Watford’s
Abdoulaye Doucouré and Crystal
Palace’s Wilfried Zaha. Sidibé, part
of France’s World Cup-winning
squad last summer, will undergo a
medical on Merseyside today for a
proposed loan move from Monaco.
The Everton manager would
meanwhile relish a reunion with
Doucouré plus the addition of
Zaha. Watford, however, have
rejected a second off er of €40m
(£37m) for the midfi elder and are
adamant the 26-year-old will not
be sold so close to tomorrow’s
transfer deadline. Palace’s stance
on Zaha i s the same as Watford’s
on Doucouré, although they are
in discussions with Everton over
James McCarthy. Andy HunterSidibé set for loan move
Moise Kean
left Juventus
after consulting
his teammate
Cristiano
Ronaldo
about the
Premier League
TONY McARDLE/
EVERTON FC VIA GETTY‘What I want is to
bring Everton into
the Champions
League’
Moise KeanРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS