Leicester City coach Claudio Ranieri said on Tuesday that he believed at Christmas his team would win the Premier League, even as he continued to tell the media his only goal was avoiding relegation. "Now I can say it, I always knew we'd win," Ranieri told Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano the day after Leicester's triumph. He said he had always denied any championship ambitions until almost the end of the season because "that's the way I am made, I have always preferred doing things rather than talking about them". Asked to pinpoint when he really became convinced Leicester could win, he said: "It was at Christmas. Relegation had been avoided and we gathered together to talk in the changing rooms and we said to each other, 'Let's go for it, we've got nothing to lose'." Ranieri played down his own role in the achievement, saying that teamwork was key to the club's success and his players had no shortage of ability.
A decade on from their last driver's title, courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, Ferrari emerged from eight days of testing in Spain with the fastest lap times coupled with impressive reliability.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton saw off a strong Ferrari challenge at the Italian team's home Grand Prix to seal his seventh pole position in a row and 11th in 12 races on Saturday.
It was the first time this season that Mercedes had failed to take pole and Sunday's race will be Williams's first start from the front of the grid since Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado in Spain in 2012.
Once the immediate euphoria of winning Wimbledon for a second time had subsided, the tears flowing down Andy Murray's face bore testament to the sheer relief surging through his body.
Lewis Hamilton feels he faces "pretty impossible odds" going into Formula One's Abu Dhabi title-decider while Mercedes team mate and rival Nico Rosberg says he will treat Sunday's race like any other. Both are being disingenuous, of course. Hamilton knows he still has a real chance and Rosberg is well aware just how much is at stake. While Rosberg is the favourite to win the 'Duel in the Desert', needing only to finish on the Yas Marina podium to become Germany's third world champion after Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, he will still be on tenterhooks.
More clubs should follow the Ajax Amsterdam model of promoting former players to executive roles, according to the Dutch side's assistant manager Dennis Bergkamp.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Psychologists have become a more established presence on the tennis tour, with top players like Andy Murray and Petra Kvitova espousing the benefits.
German Andre Greipel was again far too strong for the opposition as he claimed his second win in this year's Tour de France.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Frisday.
England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow said the tourists were "content, relaxed, excited" as they arrived in Brisbane on Sunday ahead of this week's opening Ashes Test.
Allyson Felix became the first woman to collect five athletics gold medals.
The Thailand team for the 17th Asian Games includes a real-life princess with a down-to-earth approach to life and a heart set on winning gold.
The Thailand team for the 17th Asian Games includes a real-life princess with a down-to-earth approach to life and a heart set on winning gold.
Formula One rookie George Russell's earliest motorsport memory is of pedalling a toy tractor around Britain's go-kart paddocks.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
The British Grand Prix is set for a record 150,000-strong crowd in July with home hero Lewis Hamilton an even bigger draw after recent setbacks, Silverstone circuit managing director Patrick Allen said on Thursday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Football world has been left so shocked by the news of the serious illness to Alex Ferguson
Sports events produce a multitude of highly amusing and crazy celebrations. Individual and team players have various way of celebrating victory, a goal or point. Some do it with a high-five, blow a kiss, cartwheel or dance. And on the soccer field, it's a soccer ball baby!
Lewis Hamilton was 'shocked' with the pace of Mercedes after notching a record-extending eighth pole position at the Australian Grand Prix ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas as they thrashed their Formula One rivals in qualifying on Saturday.
A round-up of results from the final day of the World Athletics Championships in Doha on Sunday
Formula One leader Nico Rosberg put Mercedes on pole position for his home German Grand Prix on Saturday after a brake failure dumped title rival and team mate Lewis Hamilton out of qualifying.
Italian MotoGP great Valentino Rossi plans to keep on racing until he is nearly 40 after signing a new contract for the 2017 and 2018 seasons with Yamaha that should see out his career at the Japanese manufacturer.
France will meet Serbia in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup after both finished off their last-eight ties inside two days on Saturday but Australia and Belgium were made to sweat.
Germany's Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday to end team mate Lewis Hamilton's run of five successive victories and cut the Briton's championship lead to 17 points with one race remaining.
TripAdvisor published a list of the world's Top 10 fine dining restaurants as part of their 2016 Travellers' Choice Awards series.
Brighton and Hove Albion scored late to earn a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace. Sheffield United and Fulham also drew 1-1 as both teams picked up their first points.
Seven-time grand slam champion Venus Williams advanced to the third round at Melbourne Park on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Stefanie Voegele but conceded she was still troubled by an elbow injury that forced her to pull out of the women's doubles.
Rafael Nadal weathered an early serving storm from Kevin Anderson before dismantling the South African giant with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 masterclass to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
As we prepare to cruise into the New Year, Rediff.com gives you a glance back, through photos, into all the sporting moments that made the last 12 months memorable.
Qatar has tried to make itself more attractive to tourists and launched a "Summer in Qatar" initiative this year to try to attract visitors during the brutally hot months of June, July and August.
Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo took the overseas personality of the year prize.
FIFA slapped the Mexicans with a CHF 10,000 fine for what it called "discriminatory and insulting chants" during their surprise 1-0 win over Germany on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday address Members of the British Parliament in London where he promised to open more doors of cooperation between the two countries and delved on issues like terrorism and United Nations reforms.
'Speaking this year from the ramparts of the Red Fort, he excelled himself in content, diction and delivery -- all extemporaneously flowing, replete with felicitous expressions and captivating word play. 'The only other Indian prime minister with whom he stands comparison is Jawaharlal Nehru who too shunned prepared speeches and established instant rapport with his audiences,' says B S Raghavan.
