London, Nov. 18: Liverpool's Fernando Torres has been named Barclays Premier League player of the year at the Northwest Football Awards.

Torres scored 33 goals in his first season at Anfield before helping Spain to European Championship glory, reports the Daily Express.

Ryan Giggs was named footballer of the year while his manager Sir Alex Ferguson won an outstanding achievement award following Manchester United's league and Champions League double.

London, Nov 18: Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who single-handedly won the first two ODIs for his team against England, is giving sleepless nights to the tourists, even as skipper Kevin Pietersen jokingly said that he would like to lock him up in room, making sure that he won’t play in the third ODI scheduled for Kanpur.

KP said that Yuvraj was a match winner for India and it’s very difficult for his side to get him out.

Johannesburg  - When South Africa was awarded the right to host the 2010 World Cup football officials in the country embarked on an ambitious plan.

Not only did they want to ensure that the World Cup itself would be a huge success, they also wanted to make sure that they would be able to field a strong team at the showpiece of international football.

To facilitate the latter, the South African Football Association (SAFA) spared neither effort nor money and in 2006 they proudly announced that Carlos Alberto Parreira had signed a contract to coach the team.

The arrival of the Brazilian World Cup-winning coach had South African football fans dreaming of World Cup glory.

Madrid  - Spain are keen to show the world that their triumph at Euro 2008 was no flash in the pan.

That's why they are desperate to do well in next June's Confederations Cup, the draw for which will be held on 22 November in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This will be Spain's first participation in the elite tournament, now in its eighth edition.

Spain will go to the tournament as one of the favourites, as European champions and as number one in the FIFA world rankings.

"La Seleccion", as it is known, has never before flown so high - or so elegantly. And it has never before been so highly regarded across Planet Football.

Washington  - At the 2009 Confederations Cup, the United States will be anxious to test their progress on the international stage along the way to the 2010 World Cup.

Getting to the world's showpiece event shouldn't be a problem - the US are champions of their region and figure to make their sixth consecutive finals appearance in South Africa - but the ambitious Americans would like nothing more than a promising performance the summer before the big show against heavyweights like Spain, Italy or Brazil.

Having finished third before (in 1992 and 1999), football fans are hoping that the team will go one better and qualify for the final.