title: JJ Lin

text: In 2017, Lin established Team Still Moving under Gunfire (Team SMG), a professional esports team. Initially focused on Arena of Valor, Team SMG has expanded itself into other games such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in 2018, in 2020 and Dota 2 in 2021.


title: JJ Lin

text: On 24 February 2021, Lin performed a medley of songs ("A Whole New World", "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", "Let It Go" and "Embark") to commemorate the official launch of the digital streaming service Disney+ in Singapore, which launched a day earlier on the 23rd.


title: JJ Lin

text: In July 2022, Lin said he is collaborating with Kiat Lim, son of Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim, and Elroy Cheo, a scion of the Cheo family that owns edible oils firm Mewah International, to co-found ARC, an app-based digital community that authenticates member profiles with non-fungible tokens (NFTs).


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Cairo International Airport (; "Maṭār El Qāhira El Dawly") is the principal international airport of Cairo and the largest and busiest airport in Egypt. It serves as the primary hub for Egyptair and Nile Air as well as several other airlines. The airport is located in Heliopolis, to the northeast of Cairo around from the business area of the city and has an area of approximately .


title: Cairo International Airport

text: During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) built John Payne Field Air Force Base to serve the Allied Forces, rather than take over the existing Almaza Airport located away. Payne Field was a major Air Transport Command air cargo and passenger hub, connecting westwards through Benghazi Airport (during the war known as "Soluch Airfield") to Algiers airport on the North African route to Dakar Airport, in French West Africa.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Other locations that transport routes were flown were RAF Habbaniya, Iraq on the Cairo – Karachi, India route; Lydda Airport, BritishPalestine; Jeddah, Arabia, on the Central African route to Roberts Field, Liberia (1941–1943), and later after the war ended, Athens, Greece and on to destinations in Europe.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: When American forces left the base at the end of the war, the Civil Aviation Authority took over the facility and began using it for international civil aviation. In 1963, Cairo International Airport replaced the old Heliopolis Airport, which had been located at the Hike-Step area in the east of Cairo.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The airport is administered by the Egyptian Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation, which controls the Cairo Airport Company, the Egyptian Airports Company, National Air Navigation Services and Aviation Information Technology, and the Cairo Airport Authority. In 2004, Fraport AG won the management contract to run the airport for eight years, with options to extend the contract twice in one-year increments.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The terminal facilities include Departure Hall 1, International Hall 3, and Hall 4 for private and non-commercial aircraft services. As part of the recent upgrading and facility improvement scheme, the CAA demolished the old Hall 3, previously used for domestic arrivals and departures, to reconstruct a new hall to be used for international arrivals. Terminal 1 is locally known as the "Old Airport," although its facilities were recently given a complete overhaul and are newer than those of Terminal 2, which is still known as the "New Airport."


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Terminal 1 was originally used by EgyptAir and several Middle Eastern airlines. However, an increasing number of other foreign carriers, such as Air France and KLM transferred operations from Terminal 2 in 2006. In May 2009 EgyptAir moved all its operations to the new Terminal 3 (along with all Star Alliance airlines serving the airport). In March 2010, with the closure of Terminal 2 for major renovation works, all non–Star Alliance airlines serving the airport shifted operations to the terminal.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Departures and arrivals are with all airlines departing from Terminal 1 Hall 1, with the exception of Saudia, which is the sole tenant of Terminal 1 Hall 2 due to the size of their operations (SV accounted for 65% of Terminal 2's traffic in 2009). Most international airlines arrive in Hall 3. Arrival Hall serves international and domestic arrivals.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The CAC has inaugurated the "Airport City Concept" to provide an array of services and entertainment facilities to travelers, airport visitors, as well as the general public. The first phase, a new shopping mall called the 'AirMall' has been built near Terminal 1's International Arrival Hall 3.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: As of 2009, the facade of the terminal was being upgraded. A study on reorganizing the departure and arrival halls is ongoing as well as the feasibility study to include contact stands to improve the service and comfort levels to the passengers. Terminal 1 has 12 gates.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Terminal 1, Hall 4 is dedicated to private jet and executive jet services. Even though it is referred to as a 'Hall' under Terminal 1 it is operated independently from the commercial passenger terminal.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Smart Aviation Company has been based at the building since 2007; it moved to a new executive FBO in 2010 adjacent to Hall 4.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Terminal 2 was inaugurated in 1986 with 7 boarding gates. It primarily served European, Gulf and East Asian airlines. The terminal was closed in April 2010 for complete renovations starting in 2012 and lasting 36 months. The architecture of the building limited the opportunities for further expansion, which necessitated the entire building to be closed for major structural overhaul at an estimated cost of approximately $400 million.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: In February 2010 the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved a loan amount of $387 million to support the Cairo Airport Development Project (CADP) to overhaul the terminal with national banks providing the rest. The project aimed at increasing the terminal capacity from 3 million to 7.5 million passengers annually. The upgrade included the complete modernization of the 20-year-old facility to reach the same level of service as the new Terminal 3. In August 2011, Turkey's Limak Holding won the tender for modernizing the terminal.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: After several project delays, the renovated terminal had its soft opening on 28 September 2016 with a capacity of 7.5 million passengers bringing the airport's total passenger capacity to 30 million passengers annually. The new terminal has 14 gates and an additional 5 remote stands.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: During February 2017, Saudi Arabian Airlines launched its first international "Al-Fursan lounge" at Cairo International Airport Terminal 2. The 1,500 square-meter lounge can accommodate 300 people at a time.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The renovated terminal is operating jointly with Terminal 3 as one integrated terminal via an air bridge, thus, reinforcing the role of Cairo International Airport as a regional hub.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Given projected growth, and the limited ability to expand Terminal 2, the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation began construction of Terminal 3 in 2004. The terminal was officially inaugurated on 18 December 2008 and opened for commercial operations on 27 April 2009. The facility is twice as large as the current two terminal buildings combined, with the capacity to handle 11 million passengers annually (6 million international and 5 million domestic) once the first phase is completed. It is adjacent to Terminal 2, and the two terminals are initially connected by a bridge.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: With its hub at the airport, EgyptAir's operations were overhauled with the full transfer of its operations (international and domestic) into the new terminal between 27 April and 15 June 2009. To implement the Star Alliance "Move Under One Roof" concept, all Alliance members serving the airport were relocated to the terminal by the first of August 2009.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: On 20 September 2011, Prime Minister Sharaf inaugurated the new Seasonal Flights Terminal (ST), located west of Terminal 3. During the start-up phase EgyptAir operates its daily flight to Medina from the new Terminal. All Hajj traffic of EgyptAir will move to the ST while Saudia's Hajj flights will still operate from Terminal 1.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The terminal has an annual capacity of 3.2 million passengers with 27 check-in counters and 7 gates with a common gate and single security concept, the first in Cairo. It is designed to handle 1,200 passengers per hour. Passengers will be bussed to remote aircraft stands around Terminal 3. Its purpose is to ease operational strains on the existing terminals during pilgrim seasons.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The airport has four terminals, the third (and largest) opened on 27 April 2009 and the Seasonal Flights Terminal opened on 20 September 2011. Terminal 2 was closed in April 2010 for major renovation works and was reopened on 28 September 2016. A third parallel runway replaced the crossing runway in 2010. Runway 05L/23R is long, 05C/23C has a length of , and the new runway is designated as 05R/23L and is long.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The MiniMetro people mover links Terminal 1, the AirMall, the multi-storey car park and Terminals 2 and 3. The main station is located between Terminals 2 and 3 and is an integral part of the bridge connecting the two terminals. An air-cushioned system with top speed was designed and constructed by Leitner-Poma.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: A luxury 350-room five-star Le Méridien hotel opened in front of Terminal 3 in December 2013. The hotel is linked to the terminal by a skyway that is also equipped with a moving walkway.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: With the national carrier, EgyptAir, and the Egyptian authorities planning to develop the airport as a hub for the Middle East and Africa, the airport facilities are in constant development.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: There are several ways to leave Cairo airport upon arrival. The most convenient way is by one of the numerous "limousine services". Pick-up points are in front of the terminals (curb side). The prices are fixed depending on the destination and the car category, but different providers may charge wildly different prices. Category A are luxury limousines (e.g. Mercedes-Benz E-Class), Category B are Micro Buses for up to seven passengers, Category C are midsized cars (e.g. Mitsubishi Lancer) and new Category D are London Taxis.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: A shuttle bus connects with all the passenger terminals and finally stops at the Cairo Airport Bus Terminal where public buses heading to other destinations in Cairo and connect frequently to major transportation hubs like Abbasia and Tahrir Square/Abdel-Moniem Riad bus terminus.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: However, there were efforts by Transport for Cairo (TFC) to map the major bus routes and metro lines in Cairo. Having this map in hand is useful.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Also, scheduling and route information of both the public Cairo Transportation Authority (CTA) and Mwasalat Mirs (MM) buses are now readily available on Google Transit and can be accessed using the Google Maps app and website.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Persons carrying cabin-sized pieces of luggage can use most of the public buses in Cairo without having to pay for an extra ticket (unless they block the seat next to them with the bag, in which case they might be asked to pay for another ticket ranging from 5 to 10 LE). There were plans to connect the Line 3 of the Cairo Metro to the airport however, these plans have been put on hold. The nearest metro stations are Heliopolis square and Adly Mansour Interchange station.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Transit Map for Cairo Metro and Mwasalat Misr buses, provided by Transport for Cairo. Note that this map doesn't include the latest Cairo Metro expansions, as Line 3 now reaches Heliopolis Sq, Huckstep/AlHikestep and Adly Mansor Interchange Stations.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: With the exception of the so-called (and increasingly scarce) "Black and White" cabs, all regular Cairo taxis (colloquially known as the White taxi) are equipped with digital taxi meters. Taxi drivers in Cairo are legally required to switch on their Taxi meters the moment they pick up a new client (See video on Mada Masr). However, some taxi drivers will try to either manipulate how the meter counts the distance driven (by electronically tampering with their meters) or will remove the meter and force the customer to bargain for a price.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: An affordable and reliable form of private transport readily available in Cairo are the popular ride-sharing mobile phone app based services such as Uber and Careem, which both accepts cash and card payments.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Several international car rental providers operate out of Cairo International Airport (CAI) and have offices both in Terminals 3 and 1.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: The airport can be reached via Oroba Road from Heliopolis or via the new road, connecting Terminal 3 with the Cairo Ring Road and Suez Road interchange. The toll for driving into the airport grounds range from 10 to 20 EGP depending on the type of the vehicle.


title: Cairo International Airport

text: Note: Cairo-Suez road is part of the Arab Mashreq International Road Network, designated as the Motorway 50/M50. It connects Cairo to Suez, South Sinai through the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel under the Suez Canal, then to Israel via the Taba Border Crossing, Jordan via the Wadi Araba Crossing, to Saudi Arabia via Durra Border Crossing, and then finally into Iraq via the Arar border crossing where the road ends in the capital, Baghdad. To bypass crossing through the Taba Border Crossing, where an entry visa to Israel may be required, the majority of the intra-Arab road traffic -including cargo and trucking- uses the Nuweiba – Aqaba ferries.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: The Paperboy is a 2012 American crime drama film co-written and directed by Lee Daniels and based on Pete Dexter's 1995 novel of the same name. The novel was inspired by a true story. It follows Miami reporter Ward Jansen who returns to his hometown in Florida to investigate a murder case involving a death row inmate. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, David Oyelowo, John Cusack and Macy Gray.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: The film was produced by Daniels, Hilary Shor, Avi Lerner, Ed Cathell III, and Cassian Elwes. It premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival on May 24, 2012 and October 5, 2012 worldwide. It grossed $102,706 in its opening weekend and $3.8 million worldwide, against a budget of $12.5 million, making it a box office bomb. Despite its mixed reviews, Kidman's performance drew Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Anita (Macy Gray), the former maid of the Jansen family, recounts the events of the summer of 1969 when Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey), an idealistic reporter, returned to his hometown of Lately, Florida, to investigate the events surrounding the 1965 murder of a violent local sheriff. Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack), a swamp-dwelling alligator hunter and small-time criminal, is on death row for the murder. Ward and his colleague, Englishman Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), investigative reporters with "The Miami Times", plan to help exonerate him. Some evidence against Van Wetter was "lost", which Ward and Yardley plan to expose as redneck injustice.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Alabamian Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman) had fallen in love with Van Wetter, though they have not met, only exchanging correspondence. She arrives in Lately, determined to prove his innocence so they could marry. Charlotte requested the help of Ward and Yardley who then hired Jack (Zac Efron), Ward's younger brother, as their driver.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Ward has mixed feelings about returning home to his estranged father, W.W. (Scott Glenn), who runs Lately's local newspaper. The brothers dislike their divorced father's latest girlfriend, Ellen (Nealla Gordon). Jack works as a paperboy for his father's business after having been expelled from college, ending his collegiate swimming career. His only real friend is Anita, who helped


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Jack proclaims his love to Charlotte, giving her his mother’s ring, but she repeats that she is devoted to Van Wetter.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Van Wetter is initially hostile to the reporters. Contrary to the romantic portrayal he had painted of himself in his letters to Charlotte, he reveals himself to be racist, sexist, and crude. After Van Wetter tells them his alibi, the Jansens travel to meet Van Wetter's Uncle Tyree (Ned Bellamy). Tyree, who lives in pitiful conditions in the middle of the swamp, is initially reluctant to admit his own crime to save his nephew's life, but finally admits that they were away the night of the murder, stealing sod from a golf course in Ormond Beach.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Yardley and Charlotte visit the golf course to verify the story. Yardley claims to have found the developer who bought the stolen sod, saying that the man requested anonymity, so refuses to disclose his name even to Ward. Yardley goes back to Miami to start writing the article.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Suspicious of Yardley's motives, Ward decides to check Ormond Beach himself, with Jack and Charlotte in tow. On the way Ward gets drunk at a bar and approaches a black man. During the night, Charlotte and Jack hear alarming sounds and run from their rooms. They find the black man, with several others, viciously beating Ward. Ward is admitted to hospital.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Jack goes to Miami, hoping to convince Yardley not to publish the unproven "facts" with Ward’s name as co-reporter. During the confrontation, Yardley reveals he's actually an American pretending to be English to escape discrimination. He also reveals he had given Ward sexual favors in the past, which was the beginning of Ward's self-loathing infatuation with black men. Jack does not resent Ward for being a homosexual, but for keeping it a secret from him.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: The article is published and Yardley leaves for New York with a book deal. Van Wetter obtains a pardon, and Charlotte goes to live with him in the swamp. Months later she is unhappy with his abusive behavior and sends a letter to Jack telling him she made a mistake and plans to reunite with him at his father's wedding. Jack does not receive the letter until the wedding reception, smuggled to him by Anita, who was fired from the Jansen household and knew that Ellen did not intend to pass the letter to Jack.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Charlotte is not at the wedding. Jack leaves to rescue her, joined by Ward, who has revealed that the anonymous developer does not exist, undercutting Van Wetter's alibi. Jack and Ward find that Van Wetter has killed Charlotte rather than let her attend the wedding. A fight ensues and Van Wetter kills Ward, while Jack dives into the swamp and evades him all night. The next morning he retrieves his loved ones’ bodies and boats away.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Anita concludes by recounting that Van Wetter was convicted for the murders of Ward and Charlotte and sent to the electric chair. Jack later saw his mother at Ward's funeral. He would never get over Charlotte.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: After the critical acclaim for his previous film "Precious", Daniels was sent many possible scripts for a follow up including several lucrative offers. However he decided to pass on these stating that "I couldn’t get off on it" and stating that he instead "went with what my spirit told me to do". Daniels had stated that along with "Push", he viewed "The Paperboy" as "one of the great, great novels". He particularly enjoyed the characters in the novel, finding them extremely relatable, though he found the plot was somewhat nonsensical and thus viewed the movie as an attempt to create a more coherent storyline.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Daniels was initially nervous about meeting Kidman although he calmed down once she told him "I'm just a working girl, Lee. You've got to direct me." Kidman herself was unsure if she could portray her character, only gaining confidence after Daniels introduced her to several women who, similar to Kidman's character, had romantic involvements with prisoners, one of whom told her that she believed she could portray such a relationship convincingly. During the shoot Kidman only communicated to Cusack as her character, Charlotte, stating "I wanted to deal with him as the character and have him deal with me as the character". As a joke after filming wrapped, Cusack went up to Kidman and formally introduced himself. One notable scene featured Kidman urinating on Efron after he gets badly stung by a swarm of jellyfish. Although neither the actors involved nor Daniels had any problem with filming the scene, Daniels admitted to getting cold feet while editing and consulted with Kidman about possibly removing the scene who reportedly told him "Lee, you made me pee on Zac Efron. If you don't put it in the movie, you need to man up."


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: The film premiered on the 65th Cannes Film Festival on May 28, 2012, to mixed reviews. Robbie Collin at "The Daily Telegraph" wrote that "Readers of the film's Wikipedia page may spot the claim that it received 'the longest sustained standing ovation of the festival at 16 minutes'. As someone who was present at that screening, and the cacophonous quarter-hour of jeering, squawking and mooing that followed, I think Wikipedia may want to clarify its definition of 'standing ovation'." "The Guardian" surmised, "those who prefer delicate watercolours had better stand well back. It makes a lurid splash." "The Paperboy" also screened at the 39th edition of the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent, 2012 Ischia Film Festival, 2012 New Orleans Film Festival, 50th New York Film Festival (to which Kidman received a tribute gala), 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2012 Stockholm International Film Festival.


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Reception to "The Paperboy" has been mixed with some critics comparing it to Lee Daniels' directorial debut, "Shadowboxer". Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph" disliked the film at its Cannes premiere, but positively reappraised it almost a year later on its UK release. "As a piece of art this is all lust, no caution; a heady mirage of sex, swamps and soul music that wants nothing more than for you to share in the joke. Thank goodness I finally got it," he wrote. Most praise has been for Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Charlotte Bless, and Collin wrote that she "has not been this good since "Dogville" (2003), and...secretes sensuality like a slug does slime". Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" said, "Nicole Kidman really is terrifically good as Charlotte: funny, sexy, poignantly vulnerable". Sophia Pande of "Nepali Times" wrote, ""The Paperboy" may not be to your taste. It is often over the top and very violent, but this is Lee Daniel’s ["sic"] style. It is this very style backed by intelligence, undeniable directorial skill, and an intimate knowledge of his deeply flawed but very human characters that make for such a compelling film." Nonetheless, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists nominated Kidman in the category, "Actress Most in Need of a New Agent."


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45% based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 5.20/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Trashy and melodramatic, "The Paperboy" is enlivened by a strong cast and a steamy, sordid plot, but it's uneven and often veers into camp." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: The staff of "The A.V. Club" named it the worst film of 2012. "The New Yorker" film critic Michael Schulman called the film "deliriously tawdry and nonsensical". Stephen Whitty of the "Newark Star-Ledger" wrote of the film, "Simply ugly trash," while Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" basically recommended one watch the movie "with the indispensable aid of that wonderful late-20th century invention: fast forward."


title: The Paperboy (2012 film)

text: Singer Mariah Carey wrote and recorded a song titled "Mesmerized" for the film's soundtrack. The song, however, was not released to coincide with the film. It was released on October 2, 2020 on her special collection of previously hard-to-find and unreleased songs, "The Rarities". The song was produced by Carey along with Loris Holland and Randy Jackson.


title: Laver Cup

text: The Laver Cup is an international indoor hard court men's team tennis tournament between Team Europe and Team World, the latter of which is composed of players from all other continents except Europe. Usually held annually since 2017, the tournament is intended to be the Ryder Cup of the tennis world. It normally takes place two weeks after the US Open, with the location rotating between various host cities (that usually do not have an ATP Tour event); alternating yearly between European cities and cities in the rest of the world. In addition to the guaranteed participation fees which are based upon the players' ATP rankings, each member of the winning team gets $250,000 in prize money, but the tournament itself does not count towards the players' point totals in the ATP Tour for that year. In May 2019, the Laver Cup became an officially sanctioned ATP Tour event.


title: Laver Cup

text: Matches during the Laver Cup tournament differ from conventional 3-set matches played on the ATP Tour; in the event when the match is tied at one set all, a 10-point “match tiebreak” is played instead of a deciding final set (this is to ensure that all matches conclude within a reasonable timeframe of approximately 2 hours, whilst enabling 4 matches to be completed within a match day – that begins either at 1 pm local time for Days 1 & 2, or at 12 noon local time for the final Day 3 of the tournament). In addition, unlike conventional ATP tour matches, coaching of match participants is commonly applied courtside by teammates and team captains.


title: Laver Cup

text: The competition pits six top European players against six of their counterparts from the rest of the world. Each team is led by a team captain, who is a tennis legend. Three of the six players qualify based on their ATP singles ranking as of the Monday following the French Open in June. Three are "captain's picks", announced by the start of the US Open, in August.


title: Laver Cup

text: There are 12 matches played over three days (nine singles and three doubles). Each match victory on day 1 is worth one point, on day 2 two points, and on day 3 three points. The first team to claim 13 points wins the tournament. Therefore, the winning team can only be decided on day 3.


title: Laver Cup

text: No player plays singles more than twice. At least four of the six team members take part in doubles. All matches start as two sets, a 10-point “match tiebreak” is played if the match is level at one set all.


title: Laver Cup

text: In the event both teams are tied at 12 points each, a fifth match known as “The Decider” is played on day 3, whereby one set is played as a regular set with ad scoring and a tiebreak.


title: Laver Cup

text: In the event that only one match is required on Sunday (last previous occurrence was at the 2021 Laver Cup), an exhibition match is played following the trophy ceremony.


title: Laver Cup

text: The tournament is named after Australian Rod Laver, a tennis player widely regarded as one of the greatest in the history of the sport (He won all four major titles in the same calendar year, winning the Grand Slam twice in singles, in 1962 and 1969; the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era.) Roger Federer's management company, TEAM8, Brazilian businessman and former Davis Cup player Jorge Paulo Lemann, and Tennis Australia partnered to create the Laver Cup. Roger Federer was inspired to create a tennis team tournament based on the biennial Ryder Cup golf tournament, which features the best golfers from the United States playing against the best golfers from Europe. However, Laver Cup differs as it is purely an invitational event based on past historical performances; selection of (and the playing agreement with) the tournament participants are not automatically based from the highest ranked players of the recent ATP Tour world rankings.


title: Laver Cup

text: Former rivals Björn Borg of Sweden (Team Europe) and John McEnroe of the United States (Team World) were announced to serve as captains for at least the first three editions. After the 2019 edition, they announced that they will reprise their roles as team captains for a fourth straight edition.


title: Laver Cup

text: The first edition was held in Prague from 22 to 24 September 2017, at the O2 Arena. Team Europe defeated Team World 15–9.


title: Laver Cup

text: The second edition was held in Chicago from 21 to 23 September 2018, at the United Center. Team Europe defeated Team World 13–8.


title: Laver Cup

text: The third edition was held in Geneva from 20 to 22 September 2019, at the Palexpo. Team Europe defeated Team World 13−11.


title: Laver Cup

text: The fourth edition was held in Boston from 24 to 26 September 2021, at the TD Garden. It was originally scheduled for September 2020, but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid overlapping with the 2020 French Open, which was also rescheduled. Team Europe defeated Team World 14−1.


title: Laver Cup

text: This tournament marked the retirement of Roger Federer. Team World defeated Team Europe for the first time by a margin of 13−8.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in both the National League (NL) and the American League (AL). Winners are determined from voting by the managers and coaches in each league, who are not permitted to vote for their own players. Additionally, a sabermetric component provided by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) accounts for about 25 percent of the vote.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: In 1957, the baseball glove manufacturer Rawlings created the Gold Glove Award to commemorate the best fielding performance at each position. Winners receive a glove made from gold lamé-tanned leather and affixed to a walnut base. In the inaugural year, one Gold Glove was awarded to the top fielder at each position in MLB; since 1958, separate awards have been given to the top fielders in each league. Since 2022, a tenth Gold Glove Award in each league has been awarded to a utility player. Thus, 20 Gold Gloves are normally awarded annually.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: Since 2016, a Gold Glove is also awarded each year to one fastpitch softball player in the National Pro Fastpitch league.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: For the first four seasons of the award (1957 to 1960), individual awards were presented to left fielders, center fielders, and right fielders. From 1961 through 2010, the phrase "at each position" was no longer strictly accurate, since the prize was presented to three outfielders irrespective of their specific position. Any combination of outfielders, often three center fielders, could win the award in the same year. Critics called for awarding a single Gold Glove for each individual outfield position, arguing that the three outfield positions are not equivalent defensively. Starting in 2011, separate awards for each outfield position were once again presented. In the 1985 American League voting, a tie for third-place resulted in the presentation of Gold Glove Awards to four outfielders (Dwayne Murphy, Gary Pettis, Dwight Evans and Dave Winfield); this scenario was repeated in the National League in 2007 (Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltrán, Aaron Rowand, and Jeff Francoeur).


title: Gold Glove Award

text: Before the involvement of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in the voting process, "The Boston Globe" writer Peter Abraham said the Fielding Bible Awards "are far more accurate (and accountable)" than the Gold Glove awards since statistics are used along with the opinions of an expert panel. The Gold Gloves are selected by managers and coaches that may have seen a player as few as six times during the season. Bill Chuck of Comcast SportsNet New England wrote that Gold Glove voters frequently counted only errors to determine winners. Geoff Baker of "The Seattle Times" said the votes for the Gold Gloves rely largely on a player's past reputation. The Associated Press wrote that "some fans have viewed the Gold Gloves as mostly a popularity contest, even suggesting that a player's performance at the plate helped draw extra attention to his glove." After winning the AL Gold Glove at first base in both 1997 and 1998, Rafael Palmeiro won again in 1999 with the Texas Rangers while only appearing in 28 games as a first baseman; he played in 128 games as a designated hitter that season, resulting in a controversy. Derek Jeter, winner of five Gold Gloves, believes that many defensive factors cannot be quantified. In 2013, Rawlings collaborated on the Gold Glove Award with SABR, who provided the SABR Defensive Index (SDI) to add a sabermetric component to the selection process. The index accounted for 25 percent of the vote, while managers and coaches continued to provide the majority. Afterwards, Jay Jaffe of "Sports Illustrated" wrote that the Gold Gloves "appear to have significantly closed the gap on their more statistically-driven counterparts." SABR and "FiveThirtyEight" believed that the impact to the voting results by SDI, which is also included on the voters' ballots, went beyond its own 25% weight and also influenced the managers' and coaches' voting.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: The most Gold Gloves ever won by one player is 18 by pitcher Greg Maddux. He won 13 consecutive awards from 1990 to 2002, all in the National League. Brooks Robinson has the most wins for a position player, with 16 Gold Gloves, all at third base, and is tied for the second-highest total overall with pitcher Jim Kaat; both players won their 16 awards consecutively. Iván Rodríguez has won the most Gold Gloves as a catcher, with 13 career awards in the American League. Ozzie Smith has 13 wins at shortstop; he and Rodríguez are tied for the fourth-highest total among all winners. Among outfielders, Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays, who played primarily right field and center field, respectively, are tied for the lead with 12 Gold Gloves. Keith Hernandez, the leader at first base, has won 11 times, and Roberto Alomar leads second basemen with 10 wins. Other players with 10 or more wins include shortstop Omar Vizquel (11), catcher Johnny Bench (10), third basemen Mike Schmidt (10), and Nolan Arenado (10) and outfielders Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Andruw Jones, and Al Kaline (10 each).


title: Gold Glove Award

text: The only player to win Gold Gloves as an infielder and outfielder is Darin Erstad, who won Gold Gloves as an outfielder in 2000 and 2002 and as a first baseman in 2004, all with the Anaheim Angels. The only other player to win Gold Gloves at multiple positions is Plácido Polanco, who won at second base (2007, 2009 AL) and third base (2011 NL). Family pairs to win Gold Gloves include brothers Ken and Clete Boyer (third base), brothers Sandy Alomar Jr. (catcher) and Roberto Alomar (second base), Bengie and Yadier Molina (catcher), father and son Bobby and Barry Bonds (outfield), and father and son Bob (catcher) and Bret Boone (second base).


title: Gold Glove Award

text: The 2021 St. Louis Cardinals hold the record for most Gold Gloves by a single team in a single season with five.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: On February 20, 2007, Major League Baseball and Rawlings announced that an all-time Gold Glove Team would be named during the 50th anniversary of the first Gold Glove Awards. Rawlings asked 70 baseball reporters, former players, and former managers to select 50 names for the ballot, from an initial selection of 250 names. The team was selected by fans, who voted at the Rawlings Gold Glove website, at United States Postal Service offices, and at sporting goods stores. The results were announced at the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: In the history of the Gold Glove Award, there have been twelve double-play combinations, or pairs of middle infielders, that have won awards in the same year. Shortstops and second basemen depend upon each other for the majority of double plays. The most common type of double play occurs with a runner on first base and a ground ball hit towards the middle of the infield. The player fielding the ball (generally the shortstop or second baseman) throws to the fielder covering second base, who steps on the base before the runner from first arrives to force that runner out, and then throws the ball to the first baseman to force out the batter for the second out. Mark Belanger won four Gold Gloves with the Baltimore Orioles alongside winning partner Bobby Grich, and Joe Morgan paired with Dave Concepción for four combination wins with the Cincinnati Reds. The most recent teammates to accomplish the feat are Andrelton Simmons and Ian Kinsler, who won with the Los Angeles Angels in 2018.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: Since 1957, there have been five Gold Glove batteries. The pitcher and catcher, collectively known as the battery, are the only two players on the field involved in every pitch. In particular, the pitcher and catcher control the running game with tools such as pickoffs or the strength of the catcher's throwing arm. The first pitcher and catcher on the same team to win Gold Gloves in the same year were Jim Kaat and Earl Battey, with the Minnesota Twins in 1962. Only two pairs of batterymates have won Gold Gloves together more than once: Iván Rodríguez and Kenny Rogers won with the Texas Rangers in 2000, and again with the Detroit Tigers in 2006. Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright matched the feat, winning in both 2009 and 2013.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: In 2011, Rawlings added an annual Platinum Glove Award awarded to the best defensive player in each league, as selected by fans from the year's Gold Glove winners. Numbers after a player's name indicate that he has won the award multiple times.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: In 2016, Rawlings announced it would begin awarding a gold glove annually to a female fastpitch softball player in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) league.


title: Gold Glove Award

text: NPF coaches and managers vote for a winner (excluding those on their respective teams). This award is in addition to the collegiate and high school awards added in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the inaugural Gold Glove Awards.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: Below Her Mouth is a 2016 Canadian erotic romantic drama film directed by April Mullen and written by Stephanie Fabrizi. The film stars Natalie Krill as Jasmine and Erika Linder as Dallas, two women in Toronto who meet and begin a passionate love affair. The cast also includes Tommie-Amber Pirie, Mayko Nguyen, Elise Bauman, Melanie Leishman, and Sebastian Pigott.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: While having sex with her girlfriend Joslyn, a roofer named Dallas finds herself sexually frustrated by not being able to fully have an orgasm while Joslyn has a massive one. Despite Joslyn's pleas, Dallas breaks up with her. Meanwhile, Jasmine, a successful fashion designer, is happily engaged to a man named Rile. He leaves her behind while going on a business trip. Later that night Jasmine, despite claiming to be straight, goes to a lesbian bar with her friend Claire, to be her wing woman. While in the bar's bathroom, Jasmine meets Dallas who finds herself to be immediately attracted to Jasmine.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: Dallas soon hits on Jasmine, despite the latter telling her that she's engaged and tries to excuse herself to find Claire, only to find that her friend is already dancing and making out with another woman. Jasmine leaves, only to have Dallas follow her and make out with her. While Jasmine initially resists, it soon becomes consensual, and she kisses Dallas back before finally stopping and making Claire leave with her. Claire tells Jasmine not to worry about the kiss. The next morning after Dallas leaves for work, it is shown that she is currently working on roofing the house next to Jasmine's. Jasmine soon starts to find herself attracted to Dallas as well; she starts to masturbate to Dallas in her bathtub after seeing her from her window.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: Although Jasmine rejects Dallas once again while on her way to work, seeing a naked woman model for her soon awakens a lust for Jasmine that makes her finally admit defeat and agrees to have one date with Dallas. In a bar, Dallas tries to get intimate with Jasmine, who despite her best attempts to resist, soon makes out with Dallas in an alleyway but then asks Dallas to take her somewhere else once she sees a garbageman near them. Dallas takes Jasmine back to her apartment where the two engage in passionate sex, after which Jasmine starts to cry after realizing she has cheated on her fiance, but is soon comforted by Dallas. After waking up in the morning, Jasmine receives a call from Rile and while initially feeling guilty, decides not to tell him what has happened. After hanging up, Dallas and Jasmine start to get to know each other more with Dallas telling her how she became a roofer and Jasmine revealing that she once had feelings for another girl when she was younger, but decided not to pursue this after her mother found out. While spending the day together Jasmine reveals how she once had an amazing opportunity in her career, but turned it down as it would have required her to move; she had sacrificed it for Rile who also gained a similar chance with his work, to which Dallas tells her she would have moved with Jasmine if they were in a relationship.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: The next morning, the two women again have passionate and urgent sex since Rile will be returning the day after. While dropping Jasmine back home, Dallas attempts to have sex one last time since Jasmine tells her they won't be able to see each other after that night. Jasmine's best efforts to resist this fail, and she succumbs. Meanwhile Rile calls Jasmine to inform her that he is coming home after a rainstorm caused his trip to be cancelled early, but she is too engaged in having sex with Dallas to notice his message. Jasmine and Dallas move their lovemaking to the bathroom and after a while Rile walks in on them. Rile leaves, with Jasmine chasing after him while Dallas goes back home. Rile agrees to forgive Jasmine if she breaks up with Dallas for good, which she does after sharing a heartbreaking farewell and a last kiss. In the days that follow, the two women are shown to be miserable without each other as Dallas is once again sexually frustrated even after having an erotic encounter with a stripper and Jasmine cries when Rile attempts to have sex with her, knowing that she will never be the same fiancée for him, ever again.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: Sometime later Dallas and Jasmine meet up where they reconcile as Jasmine reveals she told her friends everything about Dallas.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: The film was shot in Toronto over a period of three and a half weeks in 2015 with an all-female production crew, and subsequently premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, followed by a simultaneous release in the United States on April 28, 2017.


title: Below Her Mouth

text: Diego Semerene of "Slant Magazine" gave the film 0.5 stars out of 4, writing, "The film is an unquestionably pornographic fantasy barely trying to pass as something other than masturbation material." He added, ""Below Her Mouth"s stiff acting and dialogue suggest a misguided "Blue Is the Warmest Color" influence reduced to the sexy aesthetics of lesbian sex but completely oblivious to that which actually animates the film's impossibly beautiful, unbearably smooth, and perpetually horny bodies." Guy Lodge of "Variety" described it as "a sexually frank but narratively flimsy girl-meets-girl romance that never gets under its gorgeous characters' amply exposed skin." Frank Scheck of "The Hollywood Reporter" called it "an undeniably steamy effort that delivers plenty of heat in its sex scenes, while falling significantly short in dramatic terms."


title: Below Her Mouth

text: Katie Walsh of the "Los Angeles Times" said: "Despite the female filmmakers at the helm, the film treads into exploitative territory, with the ratio of screen time given to writhing female bodies far outweighing that given to their unique experiences as gay or closeted women in the world." Jude Dry of "Indiewire" wrote: "What, exactly, is below her mouth? Her chin? Her body? Her entire mind and spirit? It's a fittingly ambiguous title for a directionless film, late night fare that will be enjoyed by just as many horny men as horny teenage lesbians."


title: Below Her Mouth

text: The film was made available as video on demand on Amazon Video on April 29, 2017; followed by Netflix on August 1, 2017.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which threeEnglish, French and Germanhave the higher status of "procedural" languages of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working languages). Irish previously had the lower status of "treaty language" before being upgraded to an official and working language in 2007. However, a temporary derogation was enforced until 1 January 2022. The three procedural languages are those used in the day-to-day workings of the institutions of the EU. The designation of Irish as a "treaty language" meant that only the treaties of the European Union were translated into Irish, whereas Legal Acts of the European Union adopted under the treaties (like Directives and Regulations) did not have to be. Luxembourgish and Turkish, which have official status in Luxembourg and Cyprus, respectively, are the only two official languages of EU member states that are not official languages of the EU.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The EU asserts that it is in favour of linguistic diversity. This principle is enshrined in the EU Charter of fundamental rights (art. 22) and in the Treaty on European Union (art. 3(3) TEU).


title: Languages of the European Union

text: In the EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, and the EU does not have a common language policy; EU institutions play a supporting role in this field, based on the principle of "subsidiarity"; they promote a European dimension in the member states' language policies. The EU encourages all its citizens to be multilingual; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their native language. Though the EU has very limited influence in this area, as the content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states, a number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The most widely understood language in the EU is English, which is understood by 44% of all adults, while German is the most widely used mother tongue, spoken by 18%. All 24 official languages of the EU are accepted as working languages, but in practice only threeEnglish, French, and Germanare in wide general use, and of these, English is the most commonly used. French is an official language in all three of the cities that are political centres of the Union: Brussels, Belgium; Strasbourg, France; and Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Since the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2020, the government of France has encouraged greater use of French as a working language.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: , the official languages of the European Union, as stipulated in the latest amendment of "Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community" of 1958, are:


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The number of member states exceeds the number of official languages, as several national languages are shared by two or more countries in the EU. Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, and Swedish are all official languages at the national level in multiple countries (see table above). In addition, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Slovene are official languages in multiple EU countries at the regional level.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Furthermore, not all national languages have been accorded the status of official EU languages. These include Luxembourgish, an official language of Luxembourg since 1984, and Turkish, an official language of Cyprus.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: All languages of the EU are also working languages. Documents which a member state or a person subject to the jurisdiction of a member state sends to institutions of the Community may be drafted in any one of the official languages selected by the sender. The reply is drafted in the same language. Regulations and other documents of general application are drafted in the twenty-four official languages. The "Official Journal of the European Union" is published in the twenty-four official languages.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Documents of major public importance or interest are produced in all official languages, but that accounts for a minority of the institutions′ work. Other documents—e.g., communications with the national authorities, decisions addressed to particular individuals or entities and correspondence—are translated only into the languages needed. For internal purposes the EU institutions are allowed by law to choose their own language arrangements. The European Commission, for example, conducts its internal business in three languages, English, French, and German (sometimes called "procedural languages"), and goes fully multilingual only for public information and communication purposes. The European Parliament, on the other hand, has members who need working documents in their own languages, so its document flow is fully multilingual from the outset. Non-institutional EU bodies are not legally obliged to make language arrangement for all the 24 languages ("Kik v. Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market", Case C-361/01, 2003 ECJ I-8283).


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The translations are expensive. According to the EU's English-language website, the cost of maintaining the institutions’ policy of multilingualism—i.e., the cost of translation and interpretation—was €1,123 million in 2005, which is 1% of the annual general budget of the EU, or €2.28 per person per year. The EU Parliament has made clear that its member states have autonomy for language education, which by treaty the Union must respect.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The vast majority of EU languages belong to the Indo-European family: the three dominant subfamilies are the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. Germanic languages are spoken in central and northern Europe and include Danish, Dutch, English, German, and Swedish. Romance languages are spoken in western and southern European regions; they include French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. The Slavic languages are to be found in central Europe and the Balkans in southern Europe. They include Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene. The Baltic languages, Latvian and Lithuanian; the Celtic languages, including Irish; and Greek are also Indo-European.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Outside the Indo-European family, Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian are Uralic languages while Maltese is the only Afroasiatic language with official status in the EU.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Most official EU languages are written in the Latin script. The two exceptions are Greek, which is written in the Greek script, and Bulgarian, which is written in Cyrillic script. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek scripts. The current design of euro banknotes has the word "euro" written in both the Latin and Greek (Ευρώ) alphabets; the Cyrillic spelling (Eвро) was added to the new Europa series of banknotes started in 2013 (see Linguistic issues concerning the euro).


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Although Maltese is an official language, the Council set a transitional period of three years from 1 May 2004, during which the institutions were not obliged to draft all acts in Maltese. It was agreed that the council could extend this transitional period by an additional year, but decided not to. All new acts of the institutions were required to be adopted and published in Maltese from 30 April 2007.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: When Ireland joined the EEC (now the EU) in 1973, Irish was accorded ""Treaty Language"" status. This meant that the founding EU Treaty was restated in Irish. Irish was also listed in that treaty and all subsequent EU treaties as one of the authentic languages of the treaties. As a Treaty Language, Irish was an official procedural language of the European Court of Justice. It was also possible to correspond in written Irish with the EU Institutions.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: However, despite being the first official language of Ireland and having been accorded minority-language status in the Northern Ireland region of the United Kingdom, then an EU member state, Irish was not made an official working language of the EU until 1 January 2007. On that date an EU Council Regulation making Irish an official working language of the EU came into effect. This followed a unanimous decision on 13 June 2005 by EU foreign ministers that Irish would be made the 21st official language of the EU. However, a derogation previously stipulated that not all documents have to be translated into Irish as is the case with the other official languages.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The regulation meant that legislation adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers is translated into Irish, and interpretation from Irish was available at European Parliament plenary sessions and some Council meetings. The cost of translation, interpretation, publication, and legal services involved in making Irish an official EU language was estimated at just under €3.5 million a year. On 3 December 2015, a new regulation passed by the council had set a definitive schedule on the gradual reduction of the derogation of the Irish language. This regulation outlined a schedule of gradual reduction spread across five years starting from 2016. The derogation was ultimately revoked on 1 January 2022, making Irish a fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Irish is the only official language of the EU that is not the most widely spoken language in any member state. According to the 2006 Irish census figures, there are 1.66 million people in Ireland with some ability to speak Irish, out of a population of 4.6 million, though only 538,500 use Irish on a daily basis (counting those who use it mainly in the education system) and just over 72,000 use Irish as a daily language outside the education system.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: At the time of Croatia's accession to the EU, some diplomats and officials suggested that, rather than accepting Croatian as an official EU language, the EU should instead adopt a single hybrid language that would encompass several similar languages sometimes identified collectively as "Serbo-Croatian"; in addition to Croatian, this would include the Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin languages, with the goal of reducing potential translation and interpretation costs if the other Western Balkan states eventually joined the EU as well. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was cited as an example of an international body that had conducted business in such a combined language. In negotiations with Croatia, however, it was agreed that Croatian would become a separate official EU language, as none of the other states at issue had yet been admitted to the EU.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Some regional or minority languages spoken within the EU do not have official recognition at EU level. Some of them may have some official status within the member state and count many more speakers than some of the lesser-used official languages. The official languages of EU are in bold.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: In the list, language varieties classified as dialects of an official language by member countries are not included. However, many of these varieties may be viewed as separate languages: for instance, Scots (the Germanic language descended from Old English, not the Celtic language known as Scottish Gaelic) and several Romance languages spoken in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, such as Aragonese, Asturian, Mirandese, Lombard, Ligurian, Piedmontese, Venetian, Corsican, Neapolitan and Sicilian.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The French constitution stipulates French as the sole language of France. Since the 2008 modifications, article 75-1 of the Constitution adds that "regional languages form part of the French heritage".


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Nevertheless, there exist a number of languages spoken by sizable minorities, such as Breton (a Celtic language), Basque, and several Romance languages such as Occitan, Catalan, Corsican and the various langues d'oïl (other than French), as well as Germanic languages spoken in Alsace-Lorraine (Central Franconian, High Franconian, Luxembourgish, and Alemannic) and French Flanders (Dutch). Armenian speakers are found in the Paris area and the Rhone corridor linking Valence and Marseilles.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: These languages enjoy no official status under the French state, and regions are not permitted to bestow any such status themselves.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The official language of Greece is Greek, and recognized minority languages are Armenian, Ladino and Turkish. Nevertheless, there are several other languages in Greece, which lack any recognition. These are Albanian, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian (these last two usually being collectively known as "Vlach"), Romani and the Slavic varieties spoken in the country. Greece has been described as the only European Union member state that sticks to a "linguistic assimilationist ideology".


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Italy's official language is Italian, although twelve additional languages (namely Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian) have been recognized as minority languages by the 1999 national Framework Law on the Country's historical linguistic minorities, in accordance with the Article 6 of the Italian Constitution. However, many other languages other than Italian and the above-mentioned twelve are spoken across the country, most of them being either Gallo-Italic or Italo-Dalmatian.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The Spanish governments have sought to give some official status in the EU for the languages of the autonomous communities of Spain, Catalan/Valencian, Galician and Basque. The 667th Council Meeting of the Council of the European Union in Luxembourg on 13 June 2005, decided to authorise limited use at EU level of languages recognised by member states other than the official working languages. The Council granted recognition to "languages other than the languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 whose status is recognised by the Constitution of a Member State on all or part of its territory or the use of which as a national language is authorised by law." The official use of such languages will be authorised on the basis of an administrative arrangement concluded between the council and the requesting member state.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Although Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician are not nationwide official languages in Spain, as co-official languages in the respective regions – pursuant to Spanish constitution, among other documents – they are eligible to benefit from official use in EU institutions under the terms of 13 June 2005 resolution of the Council of the European Union. The Spanish government has assented to the provisions in respect of these languages.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The status of Catalan, spoken by over 9 million EU citizens (just over 1.8% of the total), has been the subject of particular debate. On 11 December 1990, the use of Catalan was the subject of a European Parliament Resolution (resolution A3-169/90 on languages in the [European] Community and the situation of Catalan).


title: Languages of the European Union

text: On 16 November 2005, the President Peter Straub of the Committee of the Regions signed an agreement with the Spanish Ambassador to the EU, , approving the use of Spanish regional languages in an EU institution for the first time in a meeting on that day, with interpretation provided by European Commission interpreters.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: On 3 July 2006, the European Parliament's Bureau approved a proposal by the Spanish State to allow citizens to address the European Parliament in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, two months after its initial rejection.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: On 30 November 2006, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, and the Spanish ambassador in the EU, Carlos Bastarreche, signed an agreement in Brussels to allow Spanish citizens to address complaints to the European Ombudsman in Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, all three co-official languages in Spain. According to the agreement, a translation body, which will be set up and financed by the Spanish government, will be responsible for translating complaints submitted in these languages. In turn, it will translate the Ombudsman's decisions from Spanish into the language of the complainant. Until such a body is established the agreement will not become effective.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Galician in particular, not being itself a European Parliament official language, can be used and is in fact used by some European Parliament constituents as a spoken dialect of Portuguese due to its similarity with this language.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Luxembourgish (Luxembourg) and Turkish (Cyprus) are the only two national languages that are not official languages of the EU. Neither Luxembourg nor Cyprus have yet used the provision of 13 June 2005 resolution to benefit from use in official EU institutions. On 26 February 2016 it was made public that Cyprus has asked to make Turkish an official EU language, in a “gesture” that could help reunification and improve EU–Turkey relations. Already in 2004, it was planned that Turkish would become an official language if Cyprus reunited.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: In September 2010, Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn declined a request of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) to make Luxembourgish an official language of the European Union citing financial reasons and also that German and French being already official languages would be sufficient for the needs of Luxembourg.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The Romani people, numbering over two million in the EU, speak the Romani language (actually numerous different languages), which is not official in any EU member state or polity, except for being an official minority language of Sweden and Finland. Moreover, Romani mass media and educational institution presences are near-negligible.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Though not an official language of the European Union, Russian is spoken in all member states that were part of the Soviet Union (and before that the Russian Empire). Russian is the native language of about 1.6 million Baltic Russians residing in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as a sizeable community of about 3.5 million in Germany and as a major immigrant language elsewhere in the EU, e.g. in and around Paris. Russian is also understood by a majority of ethnic Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians born before c. 1980, since, as official language of the Soviet Union, it was a compulsory school subject in those countries during the Soviet occupation. To a lesser extent, this legacy also holds true among the older generation in parts of the EU that were formerly part of the Eastern bloc, such as the GDR.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: In March 2010 fact-sheets in Russian produced by the EU executive's offices in Latvia were withdrawn, provoking criticism from Plaid Cymru MEP and European Free Alliance group President Jill Evans who called European Commission to continue to provide information in non-official EU languages and commented that "it's disappointing to hear that the EU is bowing to pressure to exclude Russian speakers in the Baltic in this way".


title: Languages of the European Union

text: In Finland, the Sami languages Northern Sami (ca. 2,000 speakers), Skolt Sami (400) and Inari Sami (300) have limited local recognition in certain municipalities of Finnish Lapland. Furthermore, legislation specifically concerning the Sami must be translated to these languages. Bilingualism with Finnish is universal, though.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: At least five different Sami languages are spoken in Sweden, but "Sami language" (undifferentiated) is recognised as an official minority language in Sweden, and is co-official with Swedish in four municipalities in Norrbotten County (Swedish Lapland). Most of Sami speakers speak Northern Sami (5,000–6,000 speakers), although there are ca. 1,000–2,000 Lule Sami speakers and 600 Southern Sami speakers. Also Ume Sámi and Pite Sámi are spoken in Sweden.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: For millennia, Latin served as a "lingua franca" for administrative, scholarly, religious, political, and other purposes in parts of the present-day European Union. After Athens and other Greek city-states of the 6th to 4th centuries BC, the first documented political entity historically verifiable in Europe was the Roman Republic, traditionally founded in 509 BC, the successor-state to the Etruscan city-state confederacies.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Latin as a "lingua franca" of Europe was rivalled only by Greek. It is serving as honourable and ceremonial language in some of the oldest European universities in the 21st century, and has operated as the official language of the Roman Catholic Church until today. Latin, along with Greek, was at the core of education in Europe from the schools of rhetoric of the Roman Republic in all of its provinces and territories, through the medieval "trivium" and "quadrivium", through the humanists and the Renaissance, all the way to Newton's "Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis" (just to name one example of thousands of scientific works written in this language), to the public schools of all European countries, where Latin (along with Greek) was at the core of their curricula. Latin served as the undisputed European "lingua franca" until the 19th century, when the cultures of vernacular languages and the "national languages" started to gain ground and claim status. Today, several institutions of the European Union use Latin in their logos and domain names instead of listing their names in all the official languages. For example, the European Court of Justice has its website at "curia.europa.eu". The Court of Auditors uses "Curia Rationum" in its logo. The Council of the European Union has its website at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ and its logo showing "Consilium". The European Union itself has a Latin motto: ""In varietate concordia"". Under the European Company Regulation, companies can be incorporated as "Societas Europaea" (Latin for "European Company", often shortened to "SE" after the company's own proper name). Latin is one of the languages of IATE (the inter-institutional terminology database of the European Union).


title: Languages of the European Union

text: A wide variety of languages from other parts of the world are spoken by immigrant communities in EU countries. Turkish (which is also an official language of the EU member Cyprus) is spoken as a first language by an estimated 1% of the population in Belgium and the western part of Germany, and by 1% in the Netherlands. Other widely used migrant languages include Berber languages which are spoken by about 1% of the population of both the Netherlands and Belgium and by many Berber migrants in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Arabic is spoken in many EU countries mainly in its Maghrebi and Levantine varieties. Maghrebi Arabic is spoken by migrants in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Levantine Arabic is spoken by migrants in Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Greece. Languages from former Yugoslavia (Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Albanian, etc.) are spoken in many parts of the EU by migrants and refugees who have left the region as a result of the Yugoslav wars and unrest there.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: There are large Chinese communities in France, Spain, Italy, and other countries. Some countries have Chinatowns. Old and recent Chinese migrants speak a number of Chinese varieties, in particular Cantonese and other southern Chinese varieties. However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening of the People's Republic of China.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Many immigrant communities in the EU have been in place for several generations now, and their members are bilingual, at ease both in the local language and in that of their community.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: A wide variety of sign languages are used in the EU, with around 500,000 people using a sign language as their first language. None of these languages are recognised as an official language of an EU member state, with the exception of Ireland passing the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 that granted it official status alongside Irish and English, and only two states (Finland and Portugal) refer to sign languages in their constitution.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Several NGOs exist which support signers, such as the European Union of the Deaf and the European Sign Language Centre. The European Commission has also supported some initiatives to produce digital technologies that can better support signers, such as Dicta-Sign and SignSpeak.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The sign languages in use in the EU are more difficult to classify into language families than the spoken languages, because of language contact and creolization. Important families include the Swedish, French, and German sign language families.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Esperanto is a constructed language that is part of the educational system in several member states. In Hungary it is officially recognised by the Ministry of Education as a foreign language; and examinations in Esperanto may be used to meet the requirements of knowledge of foreign languages needed to complete university or high school. Every year, since 2001, between 1000 and 3000 people have passed examinations in Esperanto, making up for a sum of more than 35,000 up to 2016; it is recognised by the Hungarian state. The Hungarian census 2001 found 4575 Esperanto speakers in Hungary (4407 of them learned the language, for 168 of them it is a family or native language); in 2011 it found 8397 Esperanto speakers. In 1990 there were only 2083 Esperanto speakers in Hungary following the census.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Esperanto is not mentioned by the EU Commission as an EU language; the Commission mentions only official, indigenous regional and minority languages as well as languages of immigrants. Following estimates there are approximately 100,000 Europeans sometimes using Esperanto (and several millions having learned Esperanto); the language has several thousand native speakers, some of them of the second or third generation.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The European party Europe – Democracy – Esperanto seeks to establish the planned language as an official second language in the EU in order to make international communication more efficient and fair in economical and philosophical terms. They are based on the conclusions of the Grin Report, which concluded that it would hypothetically allow savings to the EU of €25 billion a year (€54 for every citizen) and have other benefits. However, the EU Parliament has stated clearly that language education is the responsibility of member states.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The European Esperanto Union also promotes Esperanto as the international auxiliary language of Europe.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The five most spoken languages in the EU are English (44%), German (36%), French (30%), Italian (18%) and Spanish (17%). At 20% of the total number of speakers, German is the most widely spoken native language, followed by Italian (15%), French (14%) and Spanish (9%). The knowledge of foreign languages varies considerably in the specific countries, as the table below shows. The most spoken second or foreign languages in the EU are English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian. In the table, boxes coloured light blue mean that the language is an official language of the country, while the main language spoken in the country is coloured dark blue.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: A total of 56% of citizens in the EU member states are able to hold a conversation in one language apart from their native language. This is nine points higher than reported in 2001 among the 15 member states at the time. A total of 28% of the respondents state that they speak two foreign languages well enough to have a conversation. Almost half of the respondents—44%—do not know any other language than their native language. Approximately 1 in 5 Europeans can be described as an active language learner (i.e., someone who has recently improved his/her language skills or intends to do so over the following 12 months).


title: Languages of the European Union

text: English remains by far the most widely spoken foreign language throughout Europe. A total of 95% of students in the EU study English at secondary level and 38% of EU citizens state that they have sufficient skills in English to have a conversation (excluding citizens of Ireland, an English-speaking country). A total of 28% of Europeans indicate that they know either French (14%) or German (14%), along with their native language. French is most commonly studied and used in southern Europe, especially in Mediterranean countries, in Germany, Portugal, Romania, the Benelux countries and Ireland. German, on the other hand, is commonly studied and used in the Benelux countries, in Scandinavia, and in the newer EU member states. Spanish is most commonly studied in France, Italy, Luxembourg, and Portugal. In 19 out of 29 countries polled, English is the most widely known language apart from the native language, this being particularly the case in Sweden (89%), Malta (88%); the Netherlands (87%); and Denmark (86%). A total of 77% of EU citizens believe that children should learn English. English was considered the number one language to learn in all countries where the research was conducted except for Ireland and Luxembourg. English, either as a native language or as a second/foreign language, is spoken by 44% of EU citizens, followed by German with 36% and French with 30%.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: With the enlargement of the European Union, the balance between French and German is slowly changing. More citizens in the new member states speak German (23% compared with 12% in the EU15) while fewer speak French or Spanish (3% and 1% respectively compared with 16% and 7% among the EU15 group). A notable exception is Romania, where 24% of the population speaks French as a foreign language compared to 6% who speak German as a foreign language. At the same time, the balance is being changed in the opposite direction by growth of the French-speaking population and decrease of the German-speaking population.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Language skills are unevenly distributed both over the geographical area of Europe and over sociodemographic groups. Reasonably good language competences are perceived in relatively small member states with several state languages, lesser used native languages or "language exchange" with neighbouring countries. This is the case in Luxembourg, where 92% speak at least two languages. Those who live in southern European countries or countries where one of the major European languages is a state language have a lower likelihood of speaking multiple foreign languages. Only 5% of Turks, 13% of Irish, 16% of Italians, 17% of Spaniards and 18% of Britons speak at least two languages apart from their native language.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: While documents for and communication with citizens are in every official EU language as a right, day-to-day work in the European Commission is based around its three working languages: English, French, and German. Of these, English and French are used the most often. The use of English vs. French depends greatly on the unit or directorate. Only a few of the commissioners use a language other than English or French as their working language. German is rarely used as a true working language in the Commission, and German media have called the dominance of English and French a discrimination against German (which is the most spoken mother tongue of the EU) and a violation of the regulations pertaining to the EU's working languages. The German Bundestag has repeatedly called for German to receive an equal position in the Commission alongside English and French. The language situation has also disappointed many in France, and Kristalina Georgieva, who is from Bulgaria, gained a round of applause when she told the European Parliament she would learn French while in the Commission.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Use of German has, however, been increasing in EU institutions, as has the number of people learning the language across Europe.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The European Parliament translates its proceedings into all official languages so that fellow MEPs can understand them better than if they had the delayed translation. Committee meetings also often default to the language most understood by those attending instead of listening to the translation.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union is French. The judges deliberate in French, pleadings and written legal submissions are translated into French, and the judgment is drafted in French. The Advocates-General, by contrast, may work and draft their opinions in any official language, as they do not take part in any deliberations. These opinions are then translated into French for the benefit of the judges and their deliberations.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The European Union's legal powers on legislative acts and other initiatives on language policy are based on the provisions of the Treaties of the European Union. In the EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, and the European Union does not have a common "language policy". Based on the principle of subsidiarity, European Union institutions play a supporting role in this field, promoting cooperation between the member states and promoting the European dimension in the member states' language policies, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the member states (Article 149.2). The rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Community shall, without prejudice to the provisions contained in the Statute of the Court of Justice, be determined by the council, acting unanimously (Article 290). All languages, in which was originally drawn up or was translated due to enlargement, are legally equally authentic. Every citizen of the Union may write to any of the EU institutions or bodies in one of these languages and receive an answer in the same language (Article 314).


title: Languages of the European Union

text: In the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding since its inclusion in the Lisbon Treaty, the EU declares that it respects linguistic diversity (Article 22) and prohibits discrimination on grounds of language (Article 21). Respect for linguistic diversity is a fundamental value of the European Union, in the same way as respect for the person, openness towards other cultures, and tolerance and acceptance of other people.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Beginning with the "" in 1990, the European Union invests more than €30 million a year (out of a €120 billion EU budget) promoting language learning through the "Socrates" and "Leonardo da Vinci" programmes in bursaries to enable language teachers to be trained abroad, placing foreign language assistants in schools, funding class exchanges to motivate pupils to learn languages, creating new language courses on CDs and the Internet, and projects that raise awareness of the benefits of language learning.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Through strategic studies, the Commission promotes debate, innovation, and the exchange of good practice. In addition, the mainstream actions of Community programmes which encourage mobility and transnational partnerships motivate participants to learn languages.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Youth exchanges, town twinning projects, and the European Voluntary Service also promote multilingualism. Since 1997, the Culture 2000 programme has financed the translation of around 2,000 literary works from and into European languages.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The new programmes proposed for implementation for the financial perspective 2007–2013 (Culture 2007, Youth in Action, and Lifelong Learning) will continue and develop this kind of support.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: The EU used to provide the main financial support to the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages until 2010, a non-governmental organisation which represents the interests of the over 40 million citizens who belong to a regional and minority language community, and for the Mercator networks of universities active in research on lesser-used languages in Europe. Following a request from the European Parliament, the commission in 2004 launched a feasibility study on the possible creation of a new EU agency, the "European Agency for Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity." The study concludes that there are unmet needs in this field, and proposes two options: creating an agency or setting up a European network of "Language Diversity Centres." The Commission believes that a network would be the most appropriate next step and, where possible, should build on existing structures; it will examine the possibility of financing it on a multi-annual basis through the proposed Lifelong Learning programme. Another interesting step would be to translate important public websites, such as the one of the European Central Bank, or Frontex web site also, in at least one other language than English or French.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: Although not an EU treaty, most EU member states have ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: To encourage language learning, the EU supported the Council of Europe initiatives for European Year of Languages 2001 and the annual celebration of European Day of Languages on 26 September.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: To encourage the member states to cooperate and to disseminate best practice the Commission issued a Communication on 24 July 2003, on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: an Action Plan 2004–2006 and a Communication on 22 November 2005, on A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism.


title: Languages of the European Union

text: From 22 November 2004, the European Commissioner for Education and Culture portfolio included an explicit reference to languages and became European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism with Ján Figeľ at the post. From 2007 until 2010, the European Commission had a special portfolio on languages, European Commissioner for Multilingualism. The post was held by Leonard Orban. Since 2010, the portfolio was merged with education and culture, again.


title: Jeroen Krabbé

text: Jeroen Aart Krabbé (; born 5 December 1944) is a Dutch actor and film director with a successful career in both Dutch and English-language films. He is best known to international audiences for his leading roles in the Paul Verhoeven films "Soldier of Orange" (1977) and "The Fourth Man" (1983), for playing the villain General Georgi Koskov in the James Bond film "The Living Daylights" (1987) and his parts in "The Prince of Tides" (1991), "The Fugitive" (1993), and "Immortal Beloved" (1994). His 1998 directorial debut, "Left Luggage", was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Jeroen Krabbé

text: Krabbé was born into an artistic family in Amsterdam. Both his father, Maarten Krabbé, and grandfather Hendrik Maarten Krabbé were well-known painters, and his mother Margreet (née Reiss; 1914–2002), was a film translator. His brother, Tim, is a writer and top-level chess player, and his half-brother, , is an artist. Only later in life did he learn that his mother was Jewish and that her family had been killed during the Holocaust.


title: Jeroen Krabbé

text: Internationally, he first came to prominence in fellow Dutchman Paul Verhoeven's films, "Soldier of Orange" opposite Rutger Hauer and "The Fourth Man" with Renée Soutendijk. His first big American film was the Whoopi Goldberg comedy, "Jumpin' Jack Flash". However, it was his roles as villains in a string of international films from the late 1980s and early 1990s which brought him international stardom, with notable roles such as Losado in "No Mercy" (1986), General Georgi Koskov in the James Bond film "The Living Daylights" (1987), Gianni Franco in "The Punisher" (1989), Herbert Woodruff in "The Prince of Tides" (1991), and Dr. Charles Nichols in "The Fugitive" (1993). He appeared in numerous TV productions, and as Satan in the TV production "Jesus".


title: Jeroen Krabbé

text: He was both director and producer of a 1998 film about Orthodox Jews during the 1970s in Antwerp, Belgium, co-starring Isabella Rossellini and Maximilian Schell called "Left Luggage", as well as the Harry Mulisch novel adapted into film "The Discovery of Heaven". "Left Luggage" was entered into the 48th Berlin International Film Festival. The following year, he was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Jeroen Krabbé

text: His television work included playing an uncanny psychic in the "Midsomer Murders" series 11 episode "Talking to the Dead". Krabbé had an exhibition of his paintings in Museum de Fundatie (Zwolle), in 2008. He began working on documentaries for Dutch television about his favorite painters. In 2015 the first series were about Van Gogh, followed in 2017 by a series about Picasso, in 2018 by Gauguin and in 2020, about Chagall and recently, in August 2022, about Frida Kahlo.


title: Jeroen Krabbé

text: Krabbé married Herma van Gemert in 1964. Together they have three sons – Martijn (who is a radio and television presenter), Jasper and Jacob.


title: Jeroen Krabbé

text: Apart from acting and directing, he is an accomplished artist (his paintings have appeared on Dutch postage stamps), and has co-authored a Dutch cookbook. In November 2004, he released the book "Schilder", which is an overview of his paintings.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Ezequiel Iván Lavezzi (; born 3 May 1985) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a forward. During his career, his most important attributes were his pace, hardworking style of play, technique, creativity, and dribbling ability; although he was usually deployed as a winger, he was also used as a second striker or as an attacking midfielder on occasion.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: He began his career at Estudiantes (BA), and after one season was signed by Genoa, who loaned him to San Lorenzo, where he eventually moved on a permanent basis. In 2007, he was signed by Napoli where he won the 2012 Coppa Italia. His performances there earned him a €26.5 million move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2012, where he made over 150 appearances for the club and won three Ligue 1 championships, two Coupes de la Ligue and one Coupe de France. He finished his career in China, where he played for Hebei China Fortune from 2016 to 2019.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi represented the Argentina national team from 2007 to 2016. He was part of their team which won an Olympic gold medal in 2008, and also helped them reach the finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the 2015 Copa América and the Copa América Centenario.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi moved to the youth side of Estudiantes (BA) in 2003 where, over one season, he played 39 games and scored 17 goals.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Known as "el Pocho" or "the Chubby One", he was bought by Italian side Genoa in 2004 for €1 million, but was loaned out straight-away to Argentina side San Lorenzo. Here at the age of 19, he competed in the Apertura 2004 tournament scoring eight goals in total over the course of the season; which saw him finish as 4th top scorer.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi's most notable contributions included a spectacular effort against River Plate at River Plate Stadium. He scored in the 69th minute to give San Lorenzo a famous victory and seriously damage River's title challenge. This gained him the nickname "la Bestia" ("the Beast") from the Argentine media.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Although it was planned for Lavezzi to return to Genoa after a season on loan, there were problems: while Lavezzi was playing in Argentina, Genoa were involved in an alleged match-fixing scandal which saw them relegated down to Serie C1, the third level of Italian football. Due to financial constraints, the promising forward was sold to San Lorenzo for €1.2 million.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: On his return to San Lorenzo for the Apertura 2005 season, he managed to help the club up into the top half of the table, and with eight goals, he finished as the overall fourth top scorer. His last act as a San Lorenzo player was to help them to the Clausura 2007 title, beating out Boca Juniors by six points.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Napoli had recently achieved promotion back to Serie A, after finishing as runners-up the previous season in Serie B. Looking to strengthen their squad for a return to the top level, Napoli signed Lavezzi on a five-year contract on 5 July 2007. The transfer deal was worth around €6 million and he was presented before the fans and given the number seven shirt for his first season.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi soon made an impact for the club by scoring a hat-trick in a 3–1 victory over Pisa in the Coppa Italia at the Stadio San Paolo; this was the first hat-trick by a Napoli player in 14 years. The first league goal Lavezzi scored for Napoli came during a 5–0 victory against Udinese on 2 September 2007. After the match, he was described in reports as "inspirational," with the media proclaiming, "Napoli's star is born." The Neapolitan club hadn't won a league match by such a large margin since 1988, when Diego Maradona was at the club.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: The media, as they tend to do to many promising young Argentine players who appear in Italy, have been quick to dub Lavezzi the "New Maradona". Lavezzi himself, however, played this down, instead comparing himself to another Argentine player, Carlos Tevez.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: He completed the 2007–08 season with eight goals in 35 games. He quickly became a focal point of the fans' affection with his quick feet and sharpness around the box. In the 2008–09 season, he scored seven goals in 30 games. In the season 2009–10 he scored eight goals in 30 games but missed around 10 games because of injuries. Lavezzi stayed at Napoli for the 2010–11 season but was handed the number 22 jersey after he gave his number seven to recently signed striker Edinson Cavani as a welcome gesture. In the same season, he scored two goals in the UEFA Europa League, against IF Elfsborg and Liverpool respectively, scored six and assisted a further 12 in the Serie A, while also finding the back of the net in a Coppa Italia match against Bologna.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi scored his first goal of the 2011–12 campaign in a commanding 3–1 victory over Cesena on 10 September, opening the scoring in the third minute after controlling a long-ball from Hugo Campagnaro. Lavezzi was named "Man of the Match" as he volleyed in a lobbed pass from strike partner Edinson Cavani to send Napoli to a 2–0 victory over Udinese on 26 October. Shortly before the winter break, Lavezzi netted once and provided an assist for one of Cavani's goals as Napoli outclassed Lecce 4–2.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: In Napoli's commanding 3–0 victory over Fiorentina on 17 February 2012, Lavezzi rounded off the scoring in the 90th minute with a long-range goal. Four days later, he scored his first two Champions League goals; they came in a 3–1 first leg victory over Chelsea in the Round of 16. The following Sunday, on 26 February, Lavezzi scored the only goal of the game as Napoli defeated Internazionale and climbed up to fifth place in the Serie A standings.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi popped up in the 86th minute to score the winning goal against Parma on 4 March 2012, though the result was controversial, as Lavezzi appeared to be in an offside position. Lavezzi netted a penalty and provided an assist as Napoli tore apart Cagliari 6–3 on 9 March to warm up for their Round of 16 second leg tie against Chelsea. Lavezzi scored his ninth and final Serie A goal of the season in a 3–1 loss to Atalanta on 11 April after receiving the ball from Goran Pandev and pushing it past goalkeeper Andrea Consigli.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi won his first piece of silverware with Napoli on 20 May 2012 as the club defeated Juventus 2–0 in the Coppa Italia final. During the match, Lavezzi was fouled in the penalty box by Juventus goalkeeper Marco Storari, and Napoli were awarded a penalty, which Edinson Cavani dispatched to give Napoli their first goal and set the club on their way to their first trophy in more than 20 years.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: On 2 July 2012, Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain confirmed that they had agreed with Napoli to a €26.5 million transfer fee for the rights to Lavezzi and signed him to a four-year deal, reportedly worth up to €30 million.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: On 11 August, Lavezzi made his PSG debut against FC Lorient in a 2–2 draw in the opening match of the 2012–13 Ligue 1 season. His first two goals for PSG came on 21 November in the Champions League, securing qualification to the Round of 16 with a 0–2 away victory over Dynamo Kyiv.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi scored his third Champions League goal for PSG on 4 December, netting at the near post of FC Porto goalkeeper Helton shortly after the hour mark; the 2–1 defeat of the Portuguese champions ensured PSG top spot in the group. His first league goal came four days later, on 8 December, in PSG's 4–0 defeat of Evian at the Parc des Princes. On 11 December, Lavezzi scored PSG's fourth goal, after a Zlatan Ibrahimović hat-trick, as the capital club handed Valenciennes FC their first home defeat of the season.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: On 12 February 2013, Lavezzi scored the opening goal against Valencia CF in the Champions League Round of 16, helping PSG secure a 1–2 first leg away victory. Lavezzi secured the tie, equalizing the game at 1–1 and giving the French side a 3–2 aggregate win, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time since 1995.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: Lavezzi scored the 83rd-minute winner in a 3–2 win at Metz on 21 November 2014 to put PSG into first place in Ligue 1 ahead of Marseille.


title: Ezequiel Lavezzi

text: In January 2015, Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani were fined and suspended for two matches by PSG manager Laurent Blanc for missing a mid-season training camp in Morocco and the first training session after the break.