ANTHONY JOSHUA has been giving out food to homeless people – but insists he will not be so charitable in the ring.

The super-heavyweight gold medallist from London 2012 makes his professional debut at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday.

Joshua faces unbeaten Italian Emanuele Leo, 32, with the ultimate aim of winning the world title after deciding not to stay on as an amateur and box at Rio 2016.

Londoner Joshua has taken ­inspiration for his first pro bout from meeting and feeding two homeless people recently.

He said: “I was in Watford and because I grew up there, I know everyone.

“I was walking to my car and saw a homeless guy I recognised from years ago and he was walking into a chicken shop.

“I saw the guy behind the counter say, ‘No free chicken’, so I walked in and said, ‘What do you want?’

“I was walking further down the street and I saw another homeless guy, so I asked him, ‘How did you end up here?’

   
DAVID MOYES snubbed Sir Alex Ferguson's advice to keep his trusted backroom staff. 

Fergie held talks with Moyes and told him NOT to axe his men.
But Moyes did exactly that.
Out went Ferguson's assistant Mike Phelan, coach Rene Meulensteen and goalkeeping coach Eric Steele.

Moyes appointed Steve Round as his No.2, Phil Neville and Jimmy Lumsden came in as coaches and Chris Woods took charge of the keepers.
However, the move has spectacularly backfired.
United have got off to their worse start to a season in 24 years.

   
CHELSEA have announced Kevin de Bruyne hasn't been included in the team for the club's all important clash against Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday night.

Having failed to impress manager Jose Mourinho in the Capital One Cup match at Swindon, De Bruyne was not selected in a 20-man squad which travelled to the Romanian capital.
Eden Hazard will also take no part in the Blues' battle in Romania, after confirming he's suffered an injury.
A statement on the official website read: "Eden Hazard, Marco van Ginkel and Kevin De Bruyne are the three players missing from the squad list for the competition announced at the beginning of the month.
"Hazard joins Van Ginkel on the injured list while De Bruyne is not selected."

Arsène Wenger has predicted that talks over a new contract should be quick and “straightforward” after Stan Kroenke, the club’s majority owner, gave his full endorsement to the Frenchman remaining manager in “the long-term”.

Premier League

It seems Barcelona forward Lionel Messi's talents know no bounds. A day after scoring his 50th goal for the Catalan club this season, the 24-year-old showed off his skills between the posts during a training session yesterday.

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father Jorge testified separately in court on Friday to answer charges of tax evasion on income earned from the sale of the player's image rights.

Venus Williams has been denied a new record for the world's fastest serve after tennis chiefs said a bullet delivery clocked at 209kph (129.9mph) was not measured by the right equipment.

 

Serena Williams says she is not the greatest ever women's tennis player despite securing the year-end world number one ranking for the third time in her glittering career.

    

Not since the Mayflower has the English seafaring community made such a big claim in America. Possibly in retaliation for Uncle Sam’s boast about winning the last war in Europe, Sir Ben Ainslie is portrayed as master and commander, sent across the Atlantic to bail those Yankees out.

The humbling 4-1 derby humiliation against Manchester City has made it clear that the Premier League champions have many problems to address quickly if they want to successfully defend their title.

Read a full match preview of the Premier League game between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at White Hart Lane on Saturday Sep 28, 2013, kick-off 12.45 (BST).

    
GARETH ELLIS has dealt England a World Cup blow by quitting as an international.

   
JORGE LORENZO believes he has the bike and the fitness to take another chunk out of Marc Marquez’s MotoGP World Championship lead in Aragon, Spain, on Sunday.
Lorenzo trails Honda rookie Marquez by 34 points with five races to go.Marquez made the most of shoulder injuries suffered by Lorenzo and his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to win four midseason races in a row and open up a comfortable lead in the standings.

   
ENGLAND International Andy Carroll was celebrating after Ninety Minutes carried his colours to victory at Kempton yesterday.

    
SLICK SEMIRA (9.24) can live up to her name and scamper clear in the Coral On TV Bitches final at Romford tonight – live on RPGTV.

    
THERE are a million cliches about chasing the dream which, for all the Americans out there, does not count as exercise by the way.

    
 ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS will rush off after his showdown with mentor Jose Mourinho tomorrow with no prospect of them enjoying a glass of wine.

ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger has backed 17-year-old starlet Serge Gnabry to be able to cope with the trials of the Premier League.

    

    
WIMBLEDON champion Andy Murray gave a big thumbs up from his hospital bed following surgery yesterday on a long-term back injury.

Murray revealed last week he was having the minor operation to avoid aggravating the problem and potentially ruling himself out for the rest of the season.

He will now miss the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals in London in November but should be back on court in time for the Australian Open in January.

Alongside the photo, the 26-year-old posted on Twitter: “Thanks for all the well wishes, means a lot to me...”
“First thing I said when I came round was “did I win?” #somethings never change.”
Canadian Michael Downey has been named as the Lawn Tennis Association’s new chief executive.

   
SEBASTIAN VETTEL clocked on for Formula One's night shift at the Singapore Grand Prix and turned the star-lit qualifying session into another sensational show.

It was the Red Bull record-buster's 41st pole position, his sixth of the season, and left him hot favourite to clinch a hat-trick of triumphs around the bumpy Marina Bay circuit.
"What a great feeling! There's no place quite like this," said the German, 26, who is on track for a fourth straight world title.
"It is the tightest of races and there is no room for error so there are plenty of opportunities for everyone."
The Prince of Darkness has won twice and been second, fourth and fifth since the first Singapore GP in 2008.
He climbed out of bed at noon yesterday, breakfasted at 2pm, then went to work on the street circuit.
Vettel said: "I have stayed on European time while I've been here.
"I've twice tasted the winner's champagne here and it is one grand prix where you feel you deserve it because it's the longest race on a real tough circuit."
He quickly shattered ex-champion Kimi Raikkonen's lap record, set in 2008, and was so confident he could not be beaten that he sat out the rest of qualifying after his opening lap of the ten-minute shootout.

   
Nico Rosberg made him sweat as he outshone Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to finish second but Vettel punched the air in triumph once pole position was in the bag.
Romain Grosjean will start from a shock third place in the Lotus.
But two-time Singapore runner-up Jenson Button struggled home eighth in the troubled McLaren, three places behind Hamilton.
A disappointed Hammy, running third in the title chase, said: "I'll just have to do the best I can - I'll be giving it a good go for the podium."
Scot Paul di Resta dropped back to 17th in his Force India.
NEW JERSEY will be on the 2014 F1 calendar when it is ratified by the FIA World Council this week.
The race, which will pass through New York city, is set to be staged back-to-back with the Canadian GP.

   
WAYNE ROONEY hooker Jenny Thompson has fled to Dubai to escape internet abuse.

The former vice girl sparked fury by declaring she may reveal the identities of three other Premier League stars she has bedded.

And she triggered disdain by finally ­coming clean over the “who’s the daddy?” mystery surrounding the birth of her one-year old daughter Izabella.

Thompson had hinted the father was one of the football aces she had been linked to but it turned out to be Keith Tomlinson, a 34-year-old builder from Bolton, Lancashire.

The Daily Star Sunday knows the names of the three footie millionaires she claims have been among her clients but we cannot print details for legal reasons.

Jenny, 23, was so terrified by the threats made against her on Twitter she has left Britain and is staying in Dubai with her oil worker dad Hamish and mum Dana.

One pal said: “Jenny thought she was doing no harm but it has backfired.”

In 2010 Manchester United and England striker Rooney, 27, enjoyed a three-in-a-bed hotel romp with Jenny and her ex-hooker pal Helen Wood, 25.

The £1,200 session took place while Roo’s wife Coleen, 27, was ­pregnant. Jenny went on to bed former Manchester City star Mario Balotelli.

          The Ethiopian Football Federation have confirmed they will play the first leg of the 2014 Fifa World Cup play-offs against Stephen Keshi’s men on Sunday 
Ethiopia’s 2014 World Cup first leg play-offs clash against Nigeria has been slated for Sunday, October 13 at the National Stadium in Addis Ababa.
Speaking to news men in Addis, General Secretary of the Ethiopia Football Federation (EFF) Yigsaw Bezuayehu disclosed that the match will be staged on a Sunday.
“We have traditionally hosted all our home matches on Sunday and our game against Nigeria will not be an exception as we will play the first leg at the National Stadium on Sunday on Sunday October 13,” Bezuayehu said.
The Nigeria Football Federation had earlier raised alarm that Ethiopia are yet to confirm the match day. With this development, it means that Nigeria will fly out on a chartered flight on Saturday, October 12, so as to beat the effects of the high altitude in Addis Ababa.
Nigeria have opted out for Saturday, November 16 as the date for the return leg match to be played  at the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar.

    
SPRINT star Usain Bolt has admitted he is scared of British women, despite his success with the opposite sex.

The fastest man on the planet said that he can't always tell if a woman is genuine, even thugh he has had three "at the one time".
Bolt, 27, publicly split from British girlfriend Megan Edwards in December.
He said: “There’s so many beautiful women everywhere I go, but one thing I’m sure of is that I’m scared of London women.
  
      

         

Ninety-six million Naira Abuja Stadium re-grassing causes controversy

The National Sports Commission has revealed to the House of Representatives Committee on Sports that the amount of money coughed-out in re-grassing the Abuja National Stadium was 96 million Naira ($600,000).
Addressing the committee members, the Director of Finance and Administration in the Sports ministry, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed declared that the sum was paid to Julius Berger, the contractor that replaced the grass on the football pitch.
 “We spent N96 million to re-grass this pitch,” Mohammed told puzzled committee members while insisting that did not include the amount spent to commission the stadium that was once used to prosecute Super Eagles home matches.
In the same vein, chairman of the committee, Godfrey Ali Gaiya has refused to accept the amount spent because to him the job done is substandard.

 “My God, how can you use N96million to re-grass a pitch, and this job was tested by nature right in our presence when it drizzled for few minutes and the whole place became water-logged, we have asked them to invite the contractors to come and do a good job.”
 “My verdict is that I am not comfortable with the level of water logged on the pitch. I was in Calabar and it rained for three days non-stop before the match and you cannot compare Calabar that is in tropical environment to Abuja that is in the Savannah where rain is lighter.”
“So, if it rained in Calabar for three days when Nigeria played Malawi and I never saw anything like waterlogged spot, why should ordinary drizzling cause water ponds on the renovated Abuja pitch,” Gaiya asked.
 “We don’t want to aggravate our mood further so we decided to be silent on that, but this is not good for our sport,” Gaiya fired back.

 

    
ANTHONY JOSHUA wants to becomed the new 'People's Champion' of British boxing.

The Olympic gold medallist begins his pro career on October 5 against unbeaten Italian Emanuele Leo at London's O2 Arena.
And he dreams of following in the footsteps of former Brit world heavyweight kings Frank Bruno and Lennox Lewis.
Joshua, who lifted super-heavyweight gold at London 2012, said: "Lennox is a real people's champion, just as many said Frank Bruno was.
"Lennox is outgoing, he'll talk to anyone. He is a real cool guy.
"At some time in the future, I'd love to be known as the people's champion like those two."