Manchester City surprisingly signed England midfielder Gareth Barry from Aston Villa on a five-year deal on Tuesday to begin an offseason of big spending to revamp the squad.
The Premier League’s richest club paid £12 million (US$19.8 million) for the Villa captain, who played more than 400 games for Villa after joining the club as a trainee 12 years ago.
“Gareth is widely acknowledged as one of the top midfielders in the Premier League,’’ City manager Mark Hughes said. “The experience required to compete with the best in the Premier League is vital, and with Gareth we get the experience of someone who has played week-in, week-out in the hardest league in the world.”
The 28-year-old Barry almost joined Liverpool a year ago because of what he said was a desire to play in the Champions League but the clubs couldn’t agree on a transfer fee. Now, though, he has joined a City side that finished six places and 22 points behind this season’s four qualifiers.
While Villa qualified for the Europa League with a sixth-place finish, City was able to increase Barry’s salary to around £80,000 a week without the benefits of European soccer next season.
City’s Web site described the signing as a “clear statement of intent” as owner Sheikh Mansour of the Abu Dhabi United Group looks to use his wealth to ensure the club, which hasn’t won a major trophy since 1976, is competitive in the Premier League and Champions League.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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