Conte Calls Richarlison ‘Selfish,’ Tottenham Players ‘Soft’

Football - Champions League - Round of 16 - Second Leg - Tottenham Hotspur v AC Milan - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - March 8, 2023 Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte. (Reuters)
Football - Champions League - Round of 16 - Second Leg - Tottenham Hotspur v AC Milan - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - March 8, 2023 Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte. (Reuters)
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Conte Calls Richarlison ‘Selfish,’ Tottenham Players ‘Soft’

Football - Champions League - Round of 16 - Second Leg - Tottenham Hotspur v AC Milan - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - March 8, 2023 Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte. (Reuters)
Football - Champions League - Round of 16 - Second Leg - Tottenham Hotspur v AC Milan - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, Britain - March 8, 2023 Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte. (Reuters)

Tottenham manager Antonio Conte described Richarlison as “selfish” for complaining about his lack of playing time and said Friday the Brazil striker was correct to assess his season so far as “not good.”

In his first year at the London club, Richarlison has played just 661 minutes in the Premier League — starting seven of Tottenham's 26 games — and has yet to score in the competition.

His only goals have come in the Champions League, which Tottenham exited on Wednesday after a meek 0-0 home draw with AC Milan that earned the Italian team a 1-0 win on aggregate in the round of 16.

After that game, Richarlison — Brazil's starting striker at the World Cup — gave an interview in which he used an expletive to describe his season and hit out at Conte’s selection policy, saying “there hasn’t been enough minutes given to me.”

“He scored zero goals with us — only two in the Champions League,” Conte said at a news conference ahead of a Premier League match against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. “I think the guy was really honest to tell his season is not good.

“Our season is still not finished. He has the time to recover. If he deserves to play, I give him the opportunity. Otherwise we play another player.”

Conte said he watched the interview involving Richarlison and was struck by how often the striker spoke about himself and not about the team.

“When u speak with ‘I,’ ‘I,’ ‘I,’ and not with ‘us,’ it means you are thinking only for yourself and that you are selfish,” Conte said.

“I repeat to my players, if you want to win something important, if you want to try to fight for something important, be competitive and win a trophy, you need to speak with ‘we’ and not ‘I.’”

Conte was in a feisty mood, two days after Tottenham’s chances of winning a trophy this season effectively came to an end because of the team’s Champions League elimination.

Tottenham was ousted from the FA Cup last week and is looking vulnerable in fourth place in the Premier League after a 1-0 loss at Wolverhampton on Saturday. Fifth-place Liverpool, which has collected 13 points from a possible 15 in its last five league matches, is three points behind and has a game in hand.

Conte has yet to commit to staying at Tottenham beyond this season, with his contract expiring in June, and spoke Friday of supporters appearing to lose patience with a club whose last trophy was in 2008.

“We are far from aspiring to be competitive and to fight to win,” he said. “We need time, we need patience. I see here the environment has no patience. Or maybe the environment doesn’t want to understand the reality.

“No one wants to understand this, and for sure I don’t speak about my future because the club knows very well what my situation is, what my thoughts are.”

Conte also criticized his players’ mentality.

“I have good guys but sometimes it is not enough to be a good guy,” he said. “You have to show the right desire, to sacrifice yourself, to fight to win the game, to win the duels, to be nasty.

“Sometimes, we are a bit soft.”



Japan’s King Kazu Wants More After First Appearance of 40th Season 

Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)
Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)
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Japan’s King Kazu Wants More After First Appearance of 40th Season 

Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)
Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe talk with Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer legend and Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters player, during a news conference upon their team's arrival in Tokyo for their team's tour of Japan in Tokyo, Japan July 17, 2022. (Reuters)

Japan's Kazuyoshi "King Kazu" Miura made his first appearance of his 40th season as a professional footballer at the weekend and shows no sign of wanting to hang up his boots any time soon.

The former international forward, who turned 58 in February, came on as a late substitute in Atletico Suzuka's 2-1 win over YSCC Yokohama in the fourth tier of the Japanese pyramid on Sunday.

The popular striker signed an 18-month loan deal with Suzuka last June but a leg injury sustained in January had kept him on the sidelines from the start of this Japan Football League season.

"I hope to play again showing my character," Miura told Kyodo news agency after the match.

"I managed to play thanks to the support from everyone. I'm looking to stepping up a gear from here."

Miura made his first two appearances for Santos in the 1986 Brazilian Championship, having headed alone to South America to pursue his football dream as a 15-year-old.

He returned to Japan as an established international to join Verdy Kawasaki and helped them win the first two J.League titles in 1993 and 1994. He scored 55 goals in 89 appearances for Japan, the last of which came in 2000.

Miura, whose long club career has also included spells in Italy, Croatia, Australia and Portugal, still has a way to go to match Egyptian Ezzeldin Bahader's record of turning out for a professional team at the age of 74.

Given his commitment to the game, however, it might be foolish to write him off.

"When I was around 35 or 40, I did start saying to myself, 'I can't keep playing this way'," he told FIFA.com in April.

"Rather than giving any thought to quitting, it was more about pushing myself to give more. It's not so much that the word 'retire' isn't in my vocabulary, but more that I've never felt any desire to do it."