Monthly Archives: May 2017

Transfernewz

Paris St-Germain in £61 million move for Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Ligue Un giants Paris St-Germain are lining up a £61 million move for Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, according to reports.

The Gabon striker is a wanted man after spearheading Dortmund’s attack – the side finished 3rd in the Bundesliga, won the German Cup and reached the quarter finals of the Champions League this season – for the past 4 seasons and scoring 120 goals in 189 appearances in all competitions.

Aubameyang, who has had interest from other clubs in Europe and China, is set to sign a £168,000-a-week deal with the French giants, according to Yahoo Sports France. He will also pick up a £5.25 million signing-on fee, the report said.

He is said to have told officials at Dortmund that he wants to leave this summer for a fresh start elsewhere.

Transfernewz

Thomas Tuchel sacked by Dortmund – could he be on his way to Arsenal?

Thomas Tuchel has been sacked as head coach of Borussia Dortmund, and this has led to increased speculation that he could take over as manager Arsenal.

Dortmund finished third in this season’s Bundesliga, won the DFK Pokal and made it through to the quarter finals of the Champions League, but this was apparently not enough for Tuchel to keep his job. Tuchel had been in the job since 2015, taking over from Jurgen Klopp.

In a statement, Dortmund denied that Tuchel’s departure had anything to do with a recent disagreement between him, CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke and sports director Michael Zorc.

However, this move has led to speculation that Tuchel could now take over at Arsenal. The Gooners won the FA Cup at the weekend, but finished outside of the Champions League spot for the first time in 20 years.

Current Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger – who has faced calls from fans to quit this season – had a meeting with the Gooners’ owner Stan Kroenke yesterday to discuss his future, but no announcement on that has been made.

It is known that a 2-year contact offer had been made to Wenger earlier in the season, but the Frenchman was yet to sign it.

Football Factz

Court confirms that Lionel Messi’s jail term will stand

Barcelona star Lionel Messi’s 21-month jail term, handed down to him last year, will stand, the Spanish Supreme Court has said – but he is unlikely to face any time behind bars.

Messi was convicted last year alongside his father, Jorge, who manages his finances, of £3.5 million tax fraud. They were convicted of three counts of fraud, for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay between 2007 and 2009, and were also found guilty of resorting to fictitious companies to evade tax on income from companies using Messi’s image rights.

However, Messi will not be facing porridge as, under the Spanish system, prison terms of less than 2 years can be served under probation.

During his original trial in June 2016, Messi said: “I only worried about playing football.”

However, the Supreme Court was having none of it, saying: “It defies logic to concede that someone who earns a large income does not know that he must pay taxes on it.”

Transfernewz

Manchester United and Manchester City in potential for battle for Neymar

Manchester United and Manchester City are on alert after it was revealed that Barcelona forward Neymar’s father had advised his son to quit Barcelona and move to the Premier League.

Neymar Snr believes that his son needs to move to England in order to move out of the shadow of his strike partners at the Nou Camp, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez and establish himself as the number one striker in the world.

This could spark a bidding war between the Manchester clubs – both Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are known to be fans of the Brazilian international – and the talk is that the bidding may exceed £100 million.

Neymar has scored 24 goals for Barcelona this season – but he is still behind Suarez (28 goals) and Messi (35) in the scoring charts. In all, Neymar has scored 104 goals in 184 appearances for Barca since joining from Santos in 2013.

Both Manchester clubs are looking for marquee signings this summer, after relatively disappointing league campaigns, where City finished a distant third to champions Chelsea, and United ended up in 6th – although they did with the EFL Cup and are in the final of the Europa League.
Football Factz

All the factz on Leicester City v Tottenham Hotspur’s premier league match

Leicester City v Tottenham Hotspur
• The sides drew 1-1 at White Hart Lane earlier in the season.
• Leicester have won their last 5 matches at the King Power Stadium, although Spurs are unbeaten in their 3 visits to date (2 wins)
• Spurs have lost just 1 of their last 11 PL matches
• However, Spurs have failed to score in 3 of their past 6 matches on their travels.
• With 2 matches left, Leicester could finish as high as 8th or as low as 15th, if all the results went against them.