After decades of the Cold War, the overall smugness of Putin, and most recently the invasion of Georgia, it was about time that somebody had the guts to stare into the great red eyes of Mother Russia and tell them that they don’t scare him! But who would have thought that man would be Wayne Gretzky?

 (”This is how little you scare me, Russia!”)

During a speech at the Economic Club in Canada yesterday, Gretzky addressed a number of issues, one of which was why he doesn’t believe the KHL, Russia’s new start-up hockey league, will threaten the existence of the NHL.

And evidently, Gretzky has some experience when it comes to second-tier hockey leagues.

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Jeepers creepers, where’d you get those peepers? AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE comes across this cool close-up of a cross-eyed Swiss soccer fan.

And today, many more Switzerland supporters are just as red-eyed, as their team has been knocked out of Euro 2008.

Or course, what soccer photo album would be complete without some sexy shots of the fine female fans from foreign lands?

Like this princess from Portugal:

(More photos after the jump.) Read more…

• BOSTON SPORTZ blows off the Boys from Bristol, as those crazy, kooky Chris Berman videos are still alive online.

• If Shaq’s going to use “The Big Cactus”, CNBC’s Darren Rovell would like his 15%, please.

• THE OKLAHOMAN notes that Arkansas State’s basketball team seems to be hard up on Dickeys.

• Crikey! WISN-TV in Milwaukee reports that the Aussie family who moved to Green Bay to follow the Packers are now back Down Under.

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30-SOMETHING AND SINGLE? DREAMS STILL DO COME TRUE: MEN’S VOGUE has this lovely photo of stunning 19-year-old tennis player Ana Ivanovic, accompanied by this tidbit about her curious interesting career arrangement:

“At 15, Ivanovic moved to Switzerland (from Serbia) and was sponsored by a businessman, now her manager, on the understanding that she would pay him back out of her prize money. She has long since returned the $500,000, and now lives in Basel (Switzerland).”

The NEW YORK SUN has more on her “manager”, someone named Dan Holzmann. Holzmann claims he previously “made a good living from the vitamin drink Juice Plus” before deciding to invest $500,000 in Ivanovic’s career.

At the time, Holzmann was 32 and Ivanovic was 15 and he had never managed a tennis player.

In the VOGUE piece Ivanovic denies any current love interest - which has us really surprised. We’re sure Holzmann would just love it if she was in a normal relationship with a guy her age. In fact, we’re almost sure he’s probably encouraged it.

Now pardon us while we high-five, man-hug and chest-bump Holzmann (not that we’re implying anything whatsoever other than what has been previously reported).