Newly crowned Spanish champions Real Madrid and runners-up Barcelona have killed the proverbial fatted calf this summer in an attempt to establish preeminence in La Liga next season.
Real have captured German international defender Christoph Metzelder from Dortmund and Pepe from Porto while landing Javier Saviola -- on a free transfer -- from Barca, as well as taking Spanish international forward Roberto Soldado back from his loan at Osasuna.
New coach Bernd Schuster hasn't finished there as Real also try to secure a transfer for Jose Antonio Reyes, who was on loan last season from Arsenal, as well as pluck winger Arjen Robben from Chelsea.
With such an influx defenders Michel Salgado and Ivan Helguera, who has Fabio Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos, Metzelder and Pepe ahead of him in the central defensive pecking order, will be seeking new employers.
Alvaro Mejia is already set to join promoted Murcia for 2 million euros, (US$2.8 million) according to Marca sports daily, and the club are as yet without bidders for misfit Italian striker Antonio Cassano.
Barca, beaten to the wire in the title race, have landed four players to date after agreeing to sign Argentine international Gabriel Milito from Zaragoza for a reported 20 million euros.
Barca had earlier splashed out 24 million euros on Thierry Henry, having chased him for more than a year, though it remains to be seen if he can fit into an attack already comprising Samuel Eto'o, Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho.
Also coming in is French defender Eric Abidal from Lyon for some 15 million euros and Ivory Coast youngster Yaya Toure.
French midfielder Ludovic Giuly has agreed to join AS Roma for an initial 3.2 million euros, rather than the 6 million the Catalan club hoped for, though another 1.2 million could come if he helps the club qualify for the Champions League.
Barca also want to offload Santi Ezquerro to former club Athletic Bilbao, along with Brazilian Thiago Motta and Maxi Lopez, a striker who spent last season on loan with Mallorca.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier