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Ronaldo’s Coca Cola story a load of pop
That story about Cristiano Ronaldo wiping $4 billion off Coca Cola’s value by removing two of their bottles at a press conference and urging people to drink water instead? Tremendous, but, alas, untrue, according to Richard Farnworth, a data scientist in the world of finance.
“Lies, damned lies and Ronaldo’s Coca Cola snub,” as the headline on his piece put it, Farnworth pointing out that the incident happened 15 minutes after the opening of the New York stock exchange “when the greatest falls were recorded” - so, “unless traders can see through time, the fall in the share price and Ronaldo’s gesture were completely unrelated”.
The fall was, in fact, due to Monday being the day Coca Cola paid a dividend of 42c to its shareholders. The added tumble in its value wasn’t unusual, he added, “similar or greater falls have occurred to their share price on 10 other occasions over the last 12 months …. and by the end of the same day, the price had recovered by 34c”. His conclusion? “An entirely predictable, quantifiable and routine event occurred that could explain the whole thing.” Fake news, then.
Quote of the day
“I understood almost nothing. When Carragher and Gerrard talked, I asked them to repeat it in English.” Ukraine’s assistant manager Andriy Voronin reminiscing about his three years with Liverpool, during which Jamie and Stevie’s Scouse remained impenetrable.
Number of the day
1.9 - That’s how many billion people will be tuning in to Euro 2020, according to Uefa. The eternal question, of course, is how on earth do they come up with these numbers?
Best exchange of Euro 2020 so far?
We’ll go with the one between Jens Kleinefeld and Christian Eriksen after the doctor restarted the player’s heart following his collapse during Denmark’s game against Finland.
“About 30 seconds later, he opened his eyes and I could talk to him directly,” Kleinefeld told Fox Sports. “That was a very moving moment, because in such medical emergencies in everyday life, the chances of success are much lower.” Then the exchange between the pair:
Kleinefeld: “Well, are you back with us?”
Eriksen: “Yes, I am back with you. For **** sake, I’m only 29 years old.”
Donny’s claim to fame
Donny van de Beek might have had a thoroughly miserable time of it in his first season with Manchester United, but the fella at least has one claim to fame that might raise his spirits a bit - he’s the last player to score against Italy…. back in October 2020.
Italy’s 3-0 win over Switzerland on Wednesday brought their unbeaten run to 29 games, Portugal the last team to defeat them in September 2018. They’ve kept 10 clean sheets in a row, scoring 30 goals since they last conceded - that was van de Beek’s equaliser in their Nations League draw. In all, it’s been 965 minutes since Gianluigi Donnarumma’s net rippled.

Harry Maguire’s new hairdo will never leave you.


Harry’s new hairdo
People in glasshouses are in no position to slag The Sun’s efforts at producing funtastic Euro 2020 snippets, but “Here’s what our Euro 2020 heroes look like with iconic hairdos” was, to be honest, a stretch.
“Have you ever wondered what Harry Maguire would look like with a Bobby Charlton comb over,” they asked us, our response a resounding ‘NO’.
File it in the ‘Images That Will Never Leave You’ category.