Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes Pep Guardiola did not need to lead his side to an historic treble to put himself in contention for “the greatest” football manager of all time. Rodri’s 68th-minute strike in Saturday’s 1-0 Champions League final victory over Inter Milan was enough to secure the Spanish manager a 12th major trophy with City and anoint him as the first manager to secure two European trebles, having also accomplished the feat with Barcelona in 2009. Champions League winner Ferdinand heaped praise on the City boss using an unlikely artistic analogy to describe what he feels is Guardiola’s unmatched vision. He told BT Sport: “Does he need this game to be recognised as one of the greatest, if not the greatest? We’re all I think in agreeance, he doesn’t even need it because of the way he sees the games. He has his teams painting pictures like we’ve never seen in my lifetime. “(Like Picasso), Michaelangelo, however you want to do it.” Ferdinand was equally certain Guardiola’s men, who needed several spectacular stops from Ederson to secure the European title, would never be forgotten, adding they were now: “Immortal. Statues galore. “Listen, this team have played a brand of football that around the world is looked at, is admired. This has been a project and a process for a long time, for many years now, Pep Guardiola coming in. But these players have produced some football that is out of this world. Individually but as a collective this team will go down in history obviously. A fantastic team and they’ve dug deep when they needed to, and they’ve been able to play both sides of the game. I think that’s been the difference between this Manchester City team to past ones. Rio Ferdinand “They deserve to. A fantastic team and they’ve dug deep when they needed to, and they’ve been able to play both sides of the game. I think that’s been the difference between this Manchester City team to past ones. They can pass, they can play the fairytale football but also when need be they can dig in, roll their sleeves up and fight through games as well. Balance is everything in this team.” Ferdinand’s fellow pundit Joleon Lescott was part of the Manchester City side under Roberto Mancini that secured a club-first Champions League berth in 2011. He observed a change in Guardiola over the course of a Premier League season that saw City looking up at Arsenal in the table before securing a third consecutive title and the FA Cup at the campaign’s close. He told BT Sport: ” I think he’s been the most open and honest this season. I think it was the Spurs game when he came out and said he doesn’t recognise the team. No one’s seeing this outcome in the first half of the season. No one’s seeing a treble. “Then he outed Kevin De Bruyne and wanted more, he did the same thing with Kyle Walker. So the relationship you have with a group of players, you can only do that if you are so close and you are genuine about your connection with a group of players.” Cesc Fabregas, who played under Guardiola at Barcelona, recalled the days the City boss was untested in England, even drawing doubters who wondered if he could recreate his success in the English game. Since joining City in 2016 Guardiola has led the side to five Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups and a Champions League. Fabregas told the broadcaster: “He’s a very tough manager to play for because he demands the absolute best, but the day-to-day you have fun because he has a philosophy that every player dreams of. “We first thought, not me because I knew the way he worked first-hand, but that when he came to England he would find it difficult. Can he bring this type of play to the country? “And everyone doubted him. But he’s a very special man, a very special person, a very special manager and I am delighted for him.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Pep Guardiola emotional as Manchester City win Champions League to seal treble The key performers in Manchester City’s trophy treble I’ll never doubt my strength again – French Open champion Iga Swiatek

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Denver will pay $4.7 million to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged that protesters were unjustly targeted for violating the city's curfew during demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. City councilors unanimously agreed to the deal Monday without any debate. The lawsuit alleged that the city directed police to only enforce the emergency 8 p.m. curfew against protesters, violating their free speech rights, even though the curfew applied to all people in any public place. It also said that over 300 protesters were taken to jail in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic rather than just being issued tickets for violating the curfew. “The First Amendment does not allow police to clear the streets of protestors simply because they do not agree with their message,” the lead attorney for the protesters, Elizabeth Wang, said in a statement. The city denied having an official policy of using the curfew against protesters but decided that continuing the lawsuit and going to a trial would be “burdensome and expensive," according to the settlement. Last year, a federal jury ordered Denver to pay a total of $14 million in damages to a group of 12 protesters who claimed police used excessive force against them, violating their constitutional rights, during the demonstrations. The curfew deal is the latest in a series of settlements related to the 2020 protests over police killings of Floyd and other Black people. In March, the city council approved a total of $1.6 million in settlements to settle lawsuits brought by seven protesters who were injured, The Denver Post reported.

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Senior officials from some 40 countries including the United States, China and India have begun talks in Saudi Arabia that Kyiv and its allies hope will lead to agreement on key principles for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The two-day meeting is part of a diplomatic push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers by reaching out to Global South countries that have been reluctant to take sides in a conflict that has hit the global economy. Russia is not attending, though the Kremlin has said it will keep an eye on the talks. It comes after a Russian oil tanker attacked in the Black Sea overnight was hit by a Ukrainian maritime drone carrying 450 kg of explosives, it is claimed. The attack briefly halted traffic on the Kerch, the 12-mile bridge linking Moscow-annexed Crimea to Russia, as well as ferry transport. Friday night’s attack was the second sea attack involving drones in one day. Ukraine said its sea drones also struck a major Russian port Friday and damaged a warship in an attack that underlined Kyiv’s growing naval capabilities as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war. Read More ‘Extremely dangerous’ Wagner fighters seeking to destabilise Nato, Poland warns EU imposes sanctions on dozens in Belarus over protest crackdown and support for Russia What Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know ‘With you until the end’: Defence secretary Ben Wallace’s dramatic pledge to Ukraine after first lady’s plea

There are barely 100 miles between Doha and Dammam. One city in the Persian Gulf which, until recent years, relatively few football fans elsewhere had to consider, brought arguably the culmination of Jordan Henderson’s Liverpool career, the other a conclusion that feels both sudden and premature and yet comes 11 years after Brendan Rodgers infamously tried to offload him to Fulham to get Clint Dempsey. Three years before Doha hosted the World Cup final, it staged the Club World Cup final. Henderson, the fifth Liverpool captain to lift the European Cup, became the first to raise the trophy that gave them the mantle of world champions. The ‘Hendo lift’, a trademark shuffle before picking up the silverware, capped their rise from the doldrums and his own ascent. Henderson was the misfit who became the only Liverpool skipper to win the lot: Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, European Super Cup, FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield. And now he has joined the retirement home for Liverpool captains in Saudi Arabia, reunited with Steven Gerrard at Al Ettifaq in Damman. Robbie Fowler is in the neighbouring city of Al Khobar. Perhaps Phil Thompson and Phil Neal, Alan Hansen and Ian Rush will pop up there too, though presumably not Graeme Souness, who has criticised Henderson’s decision. That Gerrard, the mentor who groomed Henderson as his successor, has now disrupted Jurgen Klopp’s plans to transition between generations may irritate: Liverpool’s history has been a burden before but two men who have made the right sort have now posed a problem in the present. For Henderson, a departure comes with less fanfare than his old sidekick James Milner’s move to Brighton and more questions if he has tarnished what otherwise looked a wonderful legacy. Contrasting statements can both be true. The midfielder has earnt the right to take whichever decision he chooses; his band of admirers can nevertheless be disappointed with the one he has made. Liverpool LGBTQ+ fan group Kop Out said they were “appalled and concerned”; Henderson had appeared an ally to them, and to many other communities, offering vocal leadership on the field and moral leadership off the field. Saudi Arabia is not the logical destination for a man who had taken principled stands. If nothing came easily to Henderson at Anfield, now there is the sense he is giving up something he worked so hard for. When the Wearsider signed his penultimate Liverpool contract, in 2018, he said: “There is no other place in the world I would rather play football. I want to be here for as long as I can be.” Times change, along with circumstances, opinions and priorities but a slogan Liverpool adopted – “this means more” – felt particularly true for Henderson; the tearful pitchside embrace with his father, Brian, after the 2019 Champions League final moved many who knew neither in person. Henderson represented a great feelgood story; he was the ugly duckling who became a swan at Anfield, part of the seemingly gruesome foursome of expensive British buys in 2011, with Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing. If none appeared good enough for Liverpool, Rodgers shared those doubts upon his appointment the following year; he was willing to let Henderson leave. Instead, the midfielder won him over to such an extent that he became captain. There was a sense, too, that Klopp was initially unconvinced by Henderson. In later years, he was happy to call him Liverpool’s “General”. Henderson, he reflected in 2021, was “essential to all the things we achieved in the last few years”. His Liverpool career was a triumph of character even as he could remain curiously underestimated or damned with faint praise. “If anybody does not see the quality of Jordan Henderson, then I cannot help them,” Klopp said in 2020; many remained blinded to it but Henderson was voted Footballer of the Year that year as the driving force in a team who won 26 of their first 27 league games and who ended Liverpool’s three-decade wait to become champions of England. Without ever oozing class, he proved a top-quality performer in two roles for Klopp: first, in the manager’s vernacular, as a No. 6 and then, after Fabinho’s arrival, as a No. 8 as well. He was an eager gegenpresser but that sometimes camouflaged his other qualities: he has often been a fine crosser, including from infield positions; many of his 33 Liverpool goals were spectacular. He had the tactical awareness to cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold in a way that meant the attack-minded right-back was rarely exposed for years. He was a valiant makeshift centre-back, including in the Club World Cup semi-final. He made 57 appearances as they came agonisingly close to the quadruple in 2021-22; perhaps that represented a last hurrah before the troubled 2022-23, the arrival of fellow midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, the reinvention of Alexander-Arnold, the prospect of a diminished role and, maybe, the passing of time persuaded him to move on when he had two years left on his contract and enduring importance. Or, alternatively, it was simply the Saudi millions. Henderson leaves with 492 appearances, level with Roger Hunt, one behind Ronnie Whelan, and eight years as captain, topped only by Gerrard, Ron Yeats and Alex Raisbeck. From unpromising beginnings, he became an all-time Liverpool great. But it is a shame he decided it had to end this way. Read More Liverpool agree £12m deal to sell Jordan Henderson to Saudi club Al Ettifaq Who could replace Fabinho? Liverpool transfer options analysed Liverpool transfer news: Latest Romeo Lavia and Federico Valverde updates as Dominik Szoboszlai signs

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