SOCCER
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric won the Ballon d’Or award for the first time Monday as the world’s top player in the previous year, ending the 10-year dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Modric won the Champions League with Madrid, then guided Croatia to the World Cup final in July. He was voted player of the tournament.
Also, Norwegian forward Ada Hegerberg won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or.
• Martin Solveig, who presented the awards, apologized on Twitter after asking Hegerberg, the women’s winner, immediately after the announcement, and on stage, if she could twerk. Hegerberg said no and walked off.
PREMIER LEAGUE: Liverpool Manager Juergen Klopp’s wild celebrations Sunday after his team’s injury-time winner against Everton in their rivalry game earned him a reprimand from the English Football Association.
• Liverpool was drawn away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in one of two all-English Premier League matchups in the draw for the third round of the FA Cup.
• Mark Hughes was fired after eight months as manager of struggling Southampton.
OLYMPICS
WOMEN’S WEIGHTLIFTING: Canadian weightlifter Christine Girard received a 2012 London Olympic gold and 2008 Beijing Olympic bronze medal in a ceremony at Ottawa, Ontario.
Girard became the first Canadian Olympic champion in weightlifting and the first Canadian to win two Olympic medals in the sport thanks to failed doping tests by her opponents.
She won the bronze medal in London in the 63-kilogram event. Girard was upgraded to gold after Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan and Svetlana Tsarukaeva of Russia were stripped of their medals after retests of urine samples were positive for a banned substance.
Girard was awarded the bronze medal from Beijing after Irina Nekrassova of Kazakhstan tested positive for a banned substance.
SWIMMING
U.S. COACHES: Dave Durden of California and Greg Meehan of Stanford will oversee the U.S. Olympic swimming team in 2020, with both serving as head coaches for the first time.
Durden will be in charge of the men’s team and Meehan will coach the women.
The U.S. swim team won 16 gold medals and 33 total medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, the best showing by the Americans in any sport. Bob Bowman coached the men in Rio and David Marsh guided the women.
“We are joining a list of coaching legends. It’s not lost on either one of us,” Meehan said. “It’s the greatest honor of my professional career.”
HIGH SCHOOLS
NORTH YARMOUTH ACADEMY: Terry Meagher, who retired in 2016 after 33 years as the Bowdoin College men’s hockey coach, has joined the boys’ hockey staff as an assistant under Mike Warde.
Meagher ranks sixth all time in NCAA Division III victories with a 529-245-54 (.671) record, including two NESCAC and two ECAC titles.
– From staff and news services
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