NIJMEGEN, Netherlands (AP) — Former Ajax playmaker Dusan Tadić returned to the Netherlands on Monday to join NEC Nijmegen which starts in the Champions League qualifying rounds next week.
NEC said the 37-year-old Tadić — who captained Serbia at the 2022 World Cup — signed a two-year contract.
NEC was a surprise third-place finisher in the Dutch league last season to earn its first season in European competitions since 2009. The club faces Olympiakos in the Champions League third qualifying round with the first leg in Greece next week.
Tadić starred in Ajax’s stellar run to the Champions League semifinals in 2019, eliminating Juventus and title holder Real Madrid with second-leg wins on the road. He scored and had two assists in a signature 4-1 win at Madrid in the quarterfinals.
NEC is Tadić’s fourth Dutch club with spells at Groningen and Twente before he spent four years in the Premier League with Southampton. He was a free agent after one season with Al Wahda in Abu Dhabi.
He retired from the Serbia national team with a record 111 appearances after the 2024 European Championship.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Real midfielder Luka Modric, left, tries to stop Ajax's Dusan Tadic during the Champions League round of 16 second leg soccer match between Real Madrid and Ajax at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, file)
NEW YORK (AP) — Singer Carly Simon has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and was recently treated for skin cancer, the singer shared in a statement provided to The Associated Press.
“So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing. The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease,” Simon's statement on Monday read.
The singer, 83, had been experiencing arthritis in one of her hips and both her knees, resulting in replacement surgeries for those three joints. But her mobility continued to decline. At times, she said, she could not walk without “considerable help.”
“My family and I knew that something more was going on. After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s,” she said.
“It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it, and to decide how much I wanted to say about it publicly,” she explained. “Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and it can be unpredictable. Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.”
Parkinson’s is a neurologic disease that robs people of control over their movements. It typically starts with tremors and is characterized by slow movement, a shuffling gait, stiff limbs, balance problems and slurred speech.
About 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s, and 10 million people worldwide, the Parkinson’s Foundation estimates. It usually appears after age 60, though it sometimes develops before age 50.
The exact cause isn’t known, but Parkinson’s develops when cells that produce one of the brain’s chemical messengers — dopamine — begin to deteriorate and die.
There is no cure, but there are treatments including medications that affect dopamine levels and a surgically implanted tremor-blocking device. Patients also can benefit from physical and occupational therapy.
“I began treatment, including taking medication to help with stiffness and other symptoms,” Simon said. “There is no tidy or predictable schedule to the illness. It does not consult my calendar before deciding what kind of day I am going to have.”
She also shared that she was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer, on her face at the same time. She had surgery, and the cancer was removed, “but the surgery affected my appearance and made me more self-conscious about being seen in public,” she said.
She said music has been a salve, and on Aug. 14, she will release “Comes in Waves,” her first album of original songs since 2008.
“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape. It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room,” she continued. “It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”
FILE - Carly Simon performs during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 19, 2017. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
