Footballers

The drabbing by Italy last Saturday and above all Tuesday's 3-2 home loss to Armenia has split the Greece camp into two, as the coaching setup refuses to see reality and targeted captain Sokratis Papastathopoulos who stated the obvious, that the Euro 2020 campaign is all but over and extensive changes are needed in the national team.

Romania defeated Malta 4-0 (3-0) on Monday night at the Ta'Qali National Stadium in a Group F EURO 2020 qualifier. The Romanian side won their first ever match against the Maltese side thanks to the goals scored by George Puscas (7, 29), Alexandru Chipciu (34) and Dennis Man (90 + 1). Romania will play their next qualifier against Spain, on the National Arena in Bucharest on September 5.

Turkish-–German striker Mesut Özil tied the knot with Amine Gülşe on June 7 in Istanbul.

Gica Hagi's academy for young, talented players has proved an absolute game-changer for a football scene that has gone from one crisis to another since the Communist regime fell and private investors moved in.

A rather experimental Greece team lost 2-1 to Turkey on Thursday at a friendly game in Antalya, showing manager Angelos Anastasiadis has plenty of work to do to gear the national team up for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Italy and Armenia at home.

Bulgaria's record goal-scorer, Dimitar Berbatov, is fondly remembered by Manchester United fans. He scored 56 times for the club across four seasons, including 20 league goals in a Golden Boot-winning season when United secured the Premier League title in 2011.

Ludogorets comfortably beat Cherno More Varna 4-1 at home on Friday to win the Bulgarian league title for an eighth season in a row but their final-day win was overshadowed by the visitors' decision to field a weakened team.

OFI managed to stay in the Super League after a memorable play-off on Wednesday in which it was spared relegation one minute from the end of its game with Platanias in Iraklio, in a particularly memorable Cretan derby.

PAOK completed on Saturday the first double in its history, as in the Greek Cup final played behind closed doors at the Olympic Stadium of Athens it beat AEK 1-0 with a wonderful goal by Chuba Akpom.

The former Arsenal striker scored at the end of the first half to seal PAOK's third consecutive Cup triumph and seventh overall, that completes the club's best ever season.

On 11 and 12 May, residents of five cities will be able to take a new book if they hand over one or more kilograms of recyclable plastic.

The seventh edition of the Waste Books initiative will take place in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Veliko Tarnovo and Stara Zagora. The idea of ​​the organizers is to stimulate the decrease of the use of plastic in Bulgaria.