Ballon d’Or winner, Modric criticises Ronaldo, Messi over gala snub

punchng.com

Dec 15, 2018 10:59 PM

Real Madrid's Croatian midfielder Luka Modric kisses the trophy after receiving the 2018 FIFA Men's Ballon d'Or award for best player of the year. Photo: AFP

Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric has criticised Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for choosing not to attend this month’s ceremony where he was given the award.

He said their decision was unfair to fellow players and voters.

Croatian captain Modric broke Messi and Ronaldo’s decade-long stranglehold on the prestigious prize last month.

He said in a newspaper interview on Saturday the pair’s absence from the gala in Paris on Dec. 3 did not make sense.

“I cannot speak about why someone didn’t turn up at an award ceremony, it’s their choice. It doesn’t make sense, does it?

“It seems these votes and awards are only significant when they win,” the Real Madrid midfielder told Croatian newspaper Sportske Novosti.

“It’s unfair to fellow players and voters who have nominated them in the past 10 years, as well as to football and the fans. However, people will act the way they think they should.”

Juventus forward Ronaldo came second in the 2018 Ballon d’Or vote behind his old Real team-mate Modric, while Messi was fifth.

It was a ranking which met with some consternation at both the Argentine’s club FC Barcelona and in the Catalan media.

Modric lifted a third successive UEFA Champions League title with Real last season and led Croatia to a first-ever FIFA World Cup final.

But he said Ronaldo and Messi were still the best two players around, even as he added that it did not mean they should always be named best player each season.

“In my opinion, things are very simple: Ronaldo and Messi are phenomenons who have been dominant in the past 10 years or so. They’ve been in a league of their own,” Modric said.

“But we are talking about a season’s accomplishments here and I guess it means something that votes by national team coaches, managers, football legends, journalists and fellow players have produced the same results.”

The Croatian also offered the sarcastic suggestion: “If the debate is going to be about how good a particular player is, the only course of action is to award all trophies to Messi and Ronaldo until they retire and scrap the voting.”

(Reuters/NAN)

Scooper Spirituality: Did God Approve For Solomon To Marry Many?

Scooper Spirituality

This week this photograph of a pastor promoting polygamy trended. This is not the first time many preachers have endorsed polygamy. 

They insist that because God allowed Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon to marry many wives, he doesn't have any problem with it.

One says, "The Bible I have read cover to cover is silent in judgement against polygamy.  There's no one that will lose heaven because they married more than one wife. 

You could advise a person not to marry more wives due to the economy or for the fact that his wife may be sad."

Many have also insisted that it is a white's man belief.

This is not only wrong, it is unscriptural. 

Using Solomon as a case study. The fact that  God allowed Solomon to make the choice to many wives doesn't mean that God approved. Permission is definitely NOT approval and indeed Solomon’s choices brought inevitable consequences.

This was God's command long before Solomon came to being or even became King. After the children of Israel had left Egypt, God gave them this command.

Deuteronomy 17:14‭-‬17

"When you come to the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live there, and then say, We will set a king over us like all the nations that are about us, You shall surely set as king over you him whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner, who is not your brother, over you. But he shall not multiply horses to himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, since the Lord said to you, You shall never return that way. And he shall not multiply wives to himself, that his [mind and] heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold."

However during Solomon's reign he flaunted those laws.

1Kings 11

Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon. 2 He married them even though the Lord had commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with these people, because they would cause the Israelites to give their loyalty to other gods. 3 Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. 

Verse 11

Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you are doing this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant!

Solomon was not a puppet king. God did not force him to do what was right. Rather, God laid out His will, blessed Solomon with wisdom, and expected the king to obey. In his later years, Solomon chose to disobey, and he was held accountable for his decisions.

It is instructive to note that  toward the end of Solomon’s life in The book of Ecclesiastes, God used him to write the rest of the story. 

Throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us everything he tried in order to find fulfillment apart from God in this world, or “under the sun.” 

He says in Ecclesiastes 2:8 “I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired . . . a harem as well–the delights of the heart of man 

But his harem did not bring happiness. Instead, “Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (verse 11).

“Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man” (12:13).”

By Esem

Scooper Grammar Tips: Why You Find It Hard To Spell Some Words

Scooper Grammar Tips | Dec. 03, 2018

Not everyone find a set of words hard to spell but lots of people do! We are here to tackle some words that make us feel like we missed out on our English classes. This week for instance, I struggled with "Schedule" As crazy as that sounds. I would always seek auto correct to help me.

Why? 

The English language has many combinations of letters that you see often. For example, CH, EI, IE and others can be particularly confusing for English learners. This is because these combinations may be pronounced differently in different words or not pronounced at all! E.g. Achieve (to accomplish, get something done) 

Common misspellings of “achieve” include acheive, acheve, archieve and even achiev. 

Another reason is ‘Double Consonants’. These can be even more challenging. With words in these group, the difficult thing to spell are the double consonants.

Thirdly, word may change its meaning depending on how you spell it.

These words sound absolutely the same, but are spelled differently depending on their meaning.

And finally, some words are just difficult.

You may have trouble spelling the examples above, but the words below are just hard, period. Even native English speakers have a problem spelling some words

Below are words that can be hard too.

Liaison (liason)

Both liaison and liaise boast that tricky triple vowel, a gift from French.

Convalesce (convalece)

The -sce ending in convalesce is a spelling difficulty that crops in several English words that have a Latin origin, including acquiesce, coalesce, and incandesce.

Supersede (supercede)

Derived from the Latin word “supersedere” this word is frequently misspelled as supercede thanks to the influence of words like accede and intercede.

Ecstasy (ecstacy)

Ecstasy may turn to despair when you realize that you’ve assumed that the ‘c’ at the start of ecstasy makes a later reappearance.

Caribbean (Carribean, Caribean)

The Caribbean tropics may seem slightly less alluring once you realize how much trouble you have spelling this name.

Harass (harrass)

While harass may have two different pronunciations, it doesn’t have two r’s!

Maintenance (maintainence)

Although maintenance often implies the maintaining of something, the word does not have maintain in it.

Pronunciation (pronounciation)

Even though the verb form of this word is pronounce, the noun – pronunciation – does not have that ‘o’ in the middle. Before writing the word out, you might try saying both pronunciation and pronounce out loud and hear the difference yourself.

Arctic (Artic)

Although the pronunciation without the ‘c’ sound is considered acceptable, the spelling still requires that the ‘c’ be present. (The same goes for Antarctica.)

Occurred (ocurred, occured)

Make sure that you double both the ‘c’ and the ‘r’ when you use the past tense of occur! Many verbs ending in a single ‘r’ will take a double ‘r’ in the past tense, such as recur, blur, and refer.

Share with us words that are problematic for you to spell.

By Etim

Romance: This Old Couple Show Us How It Is Done

Lifestyle

Share your thoughts. Is this going to be you?