Valencia have completed the €8million signing of Sporting CP right-back Cristiano Piccini on a four-year deal.
The 25-year-old agreed a deal until 2022 on Monday, with Valencia inserting an €80m release clause into his contract at Mestalla.
It is a second spell in LaLiga for Piccini having spent three seasons with Real Betis before moving to Lisbon in 2017.
But after only one Primeira Liga campaign, the former Fiorentina youth player is back in Spain, and he is looking forward to the new challenge.
It s a big jump, one of great pride, because I started in the lower leagues in Italy and today is one of the most happy of my life, and one of the happiest of my career, he told Valencia s official website.
Playing [in] the Champions League is a g…
Wayne Rooney will be back in action within two to three weeks after suffering ankle ligament damage, according to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson on Friday.
Rooney sustained the injury late in United s Champions League quarter-final first leg defeat at Bayern Munich on Tuesday, sparking fears the England forward could miss the rest of the season and the World Cup.
But scans on Thursday showed the problem is not as bad as first thought and Ferguson said: The nation can breathe again. We re relieved. It could have been worse.
There is no bone damage or serious ligament damage. The nation can stop praying.
Ferguson was naturally delighted that Rooney will be back before the end of the season and his talismanic star could return in the derby at…
Carpi held AC Milan to a creditable 0-0 draw at the Stadio Alberto Braglia on Sunday as the sides produced a scrappy encounter in their first Serie A meeting.
The hosts only promoted from the third tier of Italian football in 2013 have already claimed a point off title-chasing Napoli this term and picked up another solid draw against a Milan attack that displayed several shortcomings going forward.
Sinisa Mihajlovic saw his side put seven goals past Sampdoria and Crotone in Serie A and the Coppa Italia in recent days following blanks against Atalanta and Juventus, but Milan were well contained by their lowly opponents, who came closest to breaking the deadlock early on.
Lorenzo Lollo had two good chances in the first half while Milan s best chances came courtesy …
Bayern Munich continued their storming start to the Bundesliga campaign with a thumping 7-0 rout of promoted Bochum at the Allianz Arena.
Leroy Sane s brilliant free-kick opened the floodgates on Saturday and Julian Nagelsmann s side did not look back as they cruised to a seventh straight win in all competitions.
Vasilios Lampropoulos own goal capped off a torrid first half for Bochum, with Joshua Kimmich and Serge Gnabry having previously netted.
Another record fell to Robert Lewandowski in the second half, as he became the first player in Bundesliga history to net in 13 consecutive home matches, and Kimmich helped himself to a second before Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting got in on the act to complete the scoring.
The signs were ominous from the first whi…
Harry Redknapp has claimed the credit for turning Gareth Bale into a global superstar when they were together at Tottenham.
The Wales international flourished under the 66-year-old during his tenure at White Hart Lane, but Redknapp revealed that he had to toughen Bale up to make him into the world s most expensive player.
Bale scored 20 league goals for Redknapp s Tottenham and the QPR boss believes that his coaching gave the Real Madrid star the platform to become one of the biggest names in football.
Redknapp revealed in his autobiography – which is being serialised in the Daily Mail – that he felt Bale was pampered before he arrived at the club from Southampton and ordered his staff to make him tougher.
All he needed was to be toughened up to emerge as a s…
Newcastle United have completed their second signing of the transfer window, with midfielder Jonjo Shelvey joining from Swansea City on a five-and-a-half-year contract.
Shelvey has been an important figure for the Swans since arriving from Liverpool in July 2013 but has failed to hold down a regular place in Alan Curtis first-choice XI in recent weeks, having previously fallen from favour under Garry Monk prior to his sacking in December.
The 23-year-old started Sunday s 3-2 FA Cup defeat at Oxford United but was involved in a verbal altercation with a supporter after the final whistle.
Shelvey underwent a a medical on Tyneside on Tuesday after Newcastle agreed a fee believed to be in the region of £12million to sign him.
I am very excited to be he…
Prediction: Manchester City to win 2-0
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Newcastle United and Manchester City will face each other in the Premier League this week. The game is slated to kick off at 8pm UK time on Friday.
Newcastle United
Newcastle United’s season is basically over. The Magpies are not going to get relegated from the Premier League, and that was manager Steve Bruce’s main priority this campaign. Newcastle are 16th in the league table at the moment with 39 points from 35 matches.
Bruce’s side will head into the match against newly-crowned Premier League champions on the back of a 4-2 victory over Champions League hopefuls Leicester City. The Magpies were actually 4-0 up at one stage, but they conceded twice late on.
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Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany has revealed a deal has been struck to make Antoine Griezmann s loan spell at Atletico Madrid permanent.
Griezmann joined Atletico on a two-year loan deal last season, which reportedly contained a €40million purchase obligation if he played at least 30 minutes in a percentage of the team s games.
That clause has led Atletico to manage Griezmann s minutes in the season s early weeks; although the forward has appeared in all eight of Los Colchoneros league games this campaign, he played under 30 minutes in six of those contests.
It was suggested the two LaLiga giants had reached an agreement worth €19.9million for Griezmann s services earlier this week, and Xavi intimated such reports were correct on Saturday.
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(GSM) Former Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate claims he did not take the decision to sign the club s record transfer deal Afonso Alves.
Alves moved to Boro from Eredivisie club Heerenveen in a deal worth in excess of £12million. However, the Brazilian forward eventually failed to live up to his promise.
But Southgate, who was frequently criticized for signing Alves, insists he did not want to sign the forward, suggesting the transfer deal was made by club chairman Steve Gibson.
Alves? At most clubs now there is a group of people who make buying decisions. But no, I didn t buy him, Southgate told the Daily Express.
But you make a decision. You can walk out as Alan Curbishley did at West Ham but if I had done that I might not have got another oppo…
Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte heaped praise on David Luiz, who he believes is one of the best defenders in the world.
David Luiz was sold to French champions Paris Saint-Germain in 2014 after former boss Jose Mourinho lost patience with the Brazilian but Conte lured him back to Stamford Bridge in the off-season.
It has proved to be a wise decision, with a more mature David Luiz starring for the Premier League leaders, who have the chance to restore their seven-point advantage against Manchester United on Sunday.
Overseeing David Luiz s transformation into a consistent and reliable defender, Conte hailed the 29-year-old.
When David arrived in England, I heard a lot of bad things about him, Conte said. Why was he coming back to Chelsea because, in the p…