Ex Red Riise has Champions League winner's medal stolen

Roma full-back and ex Liverpool FC player John Arne Riise has had all his medals stolen, including his Champions League winner's medal, reports Goal. The player earned the medal in 2005 after a legendary Champions League final against AC Milan in Istanbul.

Riise was away with Norway on international duty when his apartment in Oslo was broken into, but the player hopes the stolen awards, which also include an FA Cup winner's medal, will eventually be returned.

"I am truly sorry," he explained to Aftenposten. "That medal is the most important of my career, I struggled and worked all my life for it, and now it is no more. I'd rather it had been my TV. I don't think a medal like that is easy to sell on the market. I hope they decide to return the stolen property."

We were watching

Echo journalist Tony Barrett wrote an amusing article at the weekend entitled: “Were we watching Man Utd's thrashing by Barcelona? How could we miss it!” It goes on to say: Barcelona played United the team, not United the reputation and won with ease, just as Liverpool did at Old Trafford”, and “For the first time in recent weeks, the United fans did not sing Are You Watching Merseyside? Funny that because Merseyside was watching” and he suggests “If £6m Brazilian Lucas ever performed as badly in a major game as £18m Brazilian Anderson he would have been hounded all the way back to Brazil.”

The piece also asks a rather interesting question: “Why did the British media not ask Alex Ferguson to congratulate his opposing and victorious manager? Do such forced niceties only apply to Rafa Benitez?”