Sport-Motors

(ANSA) - Milan, October 30 - Mario Balotelli was fantastic in Inter Milan's 4-3 win over Palermo Thursday night that put them back on top of Serie A, coach Jose' Mourinho said.

''Mario had a fantastic game,'' said the Portuguese coach, who earlier in the week had criticised 'SuperMario' for his reported interest in fast cars.

Balotelli scored twice to help put Inter four points clear of Juventus and five ahead of Sampdoria.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 29 - Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo on Thursday publicly thanked Kimi Raikkonen for the three years he has driven for the Scuderia and which saw the Finn win the 2007 Formula One world championship in his first season.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 29 - AS Roma midfield duo Simone Perrotta and David Pizarro on Thursday extended their contracts until 2011 and 2013 respectively, the Serie A club said.

Italy World Cup winner Perrotta, 32, will get 3.1 million euros for his extra year while Chilean midfielder Pizarro, 30, will receive 3.2 million euros for each of the two years.

The duo were recently linked to Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg amid rising speculation ex-Giallorossi boss Luciano Spalletti is set to go there.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 29 - Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on Thursday compared Juve's 5-1 win over Sampdoria to ''a nuclear explosion''.

The Italy keeper was asked if the surprisingly convincing win over high-flying Samp was the ''spark'' that would fire Juve's sometimes spluttering engine into powering a more consistent drive against Inter Milan's dominance.

''No, it wasn't a spark. It was a nuclear explosion,'' he told Sky TV.

(ANSA) - Siena, October 29 - Siena on Thursday sacked coach Marco Giampaolo after a 2-1 defeat at fellow strugglers Bologna left the Tuscans bottom of Serie A with seven losses in ten games.

Youth team manager Marco Baroni, a former defender who won a scudetto with Diego Maradona's Napoli in 1990, was picked to replace Giampaolo.

Siena Chairman Giovanni Lombardi Stronati said Baroni, 46, ''had a great career on the field and will be able to handle this tense situation''.

Former Cagliari coach Giampaolo, 42, is the sixth Serie A manager to be sacked so far this season.

(Corrects 'CIO' to 'CONI', 1st 'graf). (ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - Italy is hurting its chances of landing the 2020 Olympics because too many cities are unveiling individual bids to host the event, the head of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said Wednesday.

''Rome and Venice are the only serious bidders, all the rest is so much talk,'' Gianni Petrucci said.

After the 2016 Games were awarded to Rio on October 2, Rome and Venice immediately come forward and said they would like to host the following edition.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - Italy is hurting its chances of landing the 2020 Olympics because too many cities are unveiling individual bids to host the event, the head of the Italian Olympic Committee (CIO) said Wednesday.

''Rome and Venice are the only serious bidders, all the rest is so much talk,'' Gianni Petrucci said.

After the 2016 Games were awarded to Rio on October 2, Rome and Venice immediately come forward and said they would like to host the following edition.

Since then, Milan, Bari and Palermo have expressed the same ambition.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - Boxing legend Muhammad Ali topped an Italian survey of 20th-century sports greats ahead of Maradona and Pele'.

Michael Jordan, Jesse Owens, Nadia Comaneci and Ayrton Senna also made the top ten in the Focus Storia magazine poll.

Twenty stars were suggested. One of them, Boris Becker, did not get a vote. photo: Ali reclaims throne from George Foreman in Zaire, October 30, 1974

(ANSA) - Agrigento, October 27 - A Sicilian soccer club chairman who last month dedicated a victory to a Mafia suspect has been banned for five years.

The Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) said Gioacchino Sferrazza, owner of the Agrigento team Akragas Calcio, had been found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute.

On September 27 Sferrazza told local radio he was dedicating his team's 5-0 win to ''(his) close friend Nicola Ribisi''.

Ribisi, 29, a supermarket owner, was taken into custody in a Mafia probe earlier in February.

(ANSA) - Turin, October 27 - Juventus striker Vincenzo Iaquinta had an operation on the meniscus of his left knee Tuesday, the Turin club said.

The in-form Italy striker, 29, will be out of action for about 40 days, the club said.

Iaquinta tore the meniscus during training ahead of Sunday's 1-0 win at Siena that kept Juve in third place, two points behind Sampdoria and four behind leaders Inter Milan.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - Wednesday night's top-billed clash between Juventus and Sampdoria in Turin will be a key test of both team's ambitions, Samp CEO Beppe Marotta said Monday.

Season surprise Samp are two points behind leaders Inter Milan in second while Juve are third, a further two points back.

''The Juve match is a hurdle that has come round just at the right time,'' Marotta said.

''If we get over it our identity would change,'' he said.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - Francesco Totti will have a new operation on his troubled right knee Monday, AS Roma said after the skipper pulled up in training.

Totti, who has struggled with pain in the knee recently, had a scan which revealed the need for the op, doctors said.

The ex-Italy striker had ligament surgery on the same knee a year ago and a cruciate op on it 18 months ago.

With Totti struggling recently Roma have dropped back into the lower half of Serie A, negating a strong run under new coach Claudio Ranieri.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - Los Angeles Galaxy and England midfielder David Beckham is certain to return to AC Milan in January on another loan until the end of the Serie A season, Milan CEO Adriano Galliani said Monday.

''It's 100% certain. The only things missing are the signatures but there is total agreement,'' Galliani told Sky TV Italia.

The England star, 34, is eager to boost his chances of staying in the England squad for next year's World Cup.

(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - In winning his ninth world championship, MotoGP ace Valentino has become ''a Martian'' a rider from another planet, his father Graziano Rossi said on Monday.

Speaking on Italian radio a day after his son clinched his seventh title in motorcycling's premier class, Graziano Rossi said that ''the only thing he inherited from me is my last name, because on a sporting level he is not like me at all''.

According to the elder Rossi, this year's title was the most difficult in his son's career.

(ANSA) - Turin, October 26 - Juventus striker Vincenzo Iaquinta had a scan Monday that showed he required an operation on the meniscus of his left knee, the Turin club said.

The in-form Italy striker, 29, will have the operation on Tuesday, when the club will say how long he will be out.

Iaquinta tore the meniscus during training ahead of Sunday's 1-0 win at Siena that kept Juve in third place, two points behind Sampdoria and four behind leaders Inter Milan.