Bordeaux midfielder Yoann Gourcuff was named by his fellow professionals on Sunday as France’s Player of the Year.

The 22-year-old, whose play has drawn comparisons with the great Zinedine Zidane, has been instrumental in the Girondins’ excellent season which currently sees them top of the French first division and needing just one point from next weekend’s final round of games to lift the title.

He has contributed 12 goals and laid on seven others in 26 matches played and also taken on an increasingly key role in the French national side who are in a period of transition under coach Raymond Domenech.

Gourcuff started his career at Rennes, but moved to Italy to play for AC Milan in 2006.

He failed to make his mark there though and joined Bordeaux on loan at the start of this season. He has yet to decided where he will play next season.

Liverpool signed off the season on a winning note as Rafa Benitez’s side clinched runners-up spot in the Premier League on Sunday.

Fernando Torres and Yossi Benayoun found the net while Alan Hutton scored an own goal as Liverpool defeated Tottenham 3-1 to give veteran Finland defender Sami Hyypia a fitting send-off at Anfield.

Hyypia, who is joining German side Bayer Leverkusen in July, was given a rousing reception by the fans when he made an 83rd-minute appearance as a substitute before breaking down in tears after the final whistle.

Former Liverpool striker Robbie Keane marked his return with Tottenham’s goal but it was not enough to prevent Benitez’s side, who finish four points behind champions Manchester United, from signing off with a fifth successive win.

This is the third successive season Liverpool have finished without any major silverware. But the crushing disappointment of missing out to bitter rivals Manchester United after leading the table for long spells has been cushioned by overwhelming evidence that their league form under Benitez is improving.

Not only did this result secure Liverpool’s highest finish since the 2001-02 campaign, their final tally of points is their best Premier League return. They finished the season with nine wins in the last ten games and with an unbeaten home record, the first time they have achieved that for 21 years when Liverpool were in their pomp.

Hyypia Ends Liverpool Career on Winning Note … read more »

Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo has failed to receive the Portuguese ‘Personality of the year 2008′ award, becoming the first recipient in 20 years to ignore the honor all-together.

“We are not going to hand over the award as [Ronaldo] hasn’t replied in any way to the invitation to receive it,” said organisation president Belen Rodrigo.

“It is a shame not having received even a few words of gratitude from his part. Previous winners always received it with great pride. Ronaldo doesn’t value the award with which he represents his country,” she added.

In the past, the award has been received by well known personalities as Luis Figo and European Commission President Jose Barroso.

“A dream has come true,” enthused Felix Magath as his VfL Wolfsburg players began celebrating a Bundesliga title that few expected them to even challenge for at the start of the season. Only a top-flight presence since 1997, the German champions were able to crack open the champagne after downing Werder Bremen 5-1 on the final day of the campaign.

Slow start
“I knew we were good but I didn’t think we had a chance to win the title,” explained Magath, whose side were still as low as ninth during the winter break, nine points shy of then joint-leaders TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and FC Bayern München. Due to take over at FC Schalke 04 next term, the 55-year-old nonetheless feels his charges were worthy winners in the end. “We’ve put in strong performances all season and I believe we deserved to win the championship.”

Bayern congratulations
While Hoffenheim faded without injured striker Vedad Ibišević after the turn of the year and Bayern never settled into a consistent rhythm, Wolfsburg surged up the standings courtesy of 14 victories in 17 games, losing just twice. Perhaps none of those wins was more meaningful than the 5-1 demolition of runners-up Bayern on 4 April. “I explicitly want to congratulate Wolfsburg for winning the German championship – they deserve it,” said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, while caretaker coach Jupp Heynckes added: “VfL deservedly won the title. They’ve played the best football, especially in the second half of the season.”

Zwanziger surprise
“Before the season started, I did not count on Wolfsburg finishing in the top five,” admitted the German Football Association (DFB) president, Theo Zwanziger. “For me, this is an incredible achievement which will always be associated with the name Felix Magath. He has managed to build a strong team full of stars and talents and in the end achieved one of the biggest upsets in the Bundesliga in the past few years.”

Team reaction
“At the moment, it’s difficult to realise what’s happening here, but it’s absolutely merited,” explained Wolfsburg midfielder Christian Gentner, who celebrated another surprise Bundesliga title with VfB Stuttgart in 2007. His colleague Sascha Riether was of much the same opinion, saying: “This title is the icing on the cake of a great season, at the end of which we’ve deservedly finished on top.”

Strike duo
The newly-crowned champions made it 15 home victories in succession by overcoming Bremen, having remained unbeaten in their back yard all season. Essential to their success was the incredible form of strike duo Grafite and Edin Džeko, the former topping the Bundesliga scoring charts with 28 efforts and his team-mate only two behind. “Today, there will be the biggest party Wolfsburg has ever seen,” promised Džeko.

An extra-time goal from Brazilian midfielder Jadson earned Shakhtar Donetsk a 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup final here on Wednesday to clinch the Ukrainian side’s first European title.

Jadson’s 15-yard shot slipped through the grasp of Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese in the 97th minute after the teams had been locked 1-1 at the end of normal time.

The Germans thought they had snatched an equaliser in the last minute of the additional period, only for on-loan Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro’s bundled effort to be ruled out for a foul on Dmytro Chygrynskiy.

Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano had finished coolly to give Shakhtar the lead in the first half, before an error by goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov allowed Werder centre-back Naldo to level.

Shakhtar become the first team from Ukraine to lift a European trophy since the break-up of the Soviet Union, while they will also be the last team to lift the UEFA Cup before its re-launch as the Europa League next season.

“We weren’t able to play our usual football, we didn’t put enough pressure on our opponents,” said Werder coach Thomas Schaaf.

“We gave them too much space and lost too many balls. I congratulate Shakhtar, they were the best team on the night.”

Mircea Lucescu’s side settled first at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium and spurned the game’s first clear opening when Adriano shot wide after being cleverly picked out on the cusp of the Werder area by Jadson.

The Ukrainians, inspired by the inter-play of their five-man Brazilian contingent, then went ahead in the 25th minute when Adriano ran onto a loose pass and delicately lifted the ball over the advancing Wiese.

Werder had overturned deficits against pre-tournament favourites AC Milan and local German rivals Hamburg earlier in the competition, and 10 minutes before half-time they drew level when Naldo’s thumping 30-yard free-kick was tamely palmed into the net by Ukraine international Pyatov.

Wiese proved to be made of sterner stuff when he superbly touched away a stinging drive from Mariusz Lewandowski at full-stretch just before the interval.

The German shot-stopper kept out a Jadson free-kick early in the second period as Shakhtar resumed their occupation of the Werder defensive third, the orange-shirted players zipping passes across the pitch with beguiling ease.

Werder missed the promptings of their suspended Brazilian playmaker Diego, but they were inches away from going in front when Pizarro’s glanced header was repelled by a sprawling Pyatov.

Wiese pushed away a long-range effort from Darijo Srna as Shakhtar began extra-time on the front foot and moments later they took a decisive lead when Jadson met Srna’s centre with a low drive that crept beneath Wiese into the bottom-left corner.