ITALY
Juve sign Toni from Genoa
Juventus have completed the free signing of former Italy striker Luca Toni from Genoa, the Turin giants revealed on Friday. The 33-year-old former Bayern Munich and Fiorentina forward, who has 16 goals in 47 caps for Italy, signed an 18-month deal. According to Italian news agency Ansa, the deal means Genoa will save 6 million euros (US$7.8 million) that were due to Toni as a signing on fee when he joined on a free from Bayern at the beginning of the season and he revealed that he couldn’t say no despite the pay cut needed to accept Juve’s offer. “You can’t say no to Juve, I’m realizing a dream, I’m delighted,” he said at his official unveiling. “When I was offered the move I didn’t hesitate and I had no problem taking a pay cut. I have confidence [in Juve] because I’ve seen the hunger and the desire to get results. I know the group, I know most of the lads and I believe.” Toni, a member of Italy’s 2006 World Cup winning squad, had scored just three goals in 16 games this season for Genoa.
BRAZIL
Faker facing jail sentence
A player who faked his own kidnapping to get out of a team training session faces up to six months in prison, police said on Friday. Somalia, a player for the Rio club Botafogo, made a police report on Wednesday alleging he had been carjacked by an armed man and forced to drive around for two hours — when the training was happening — before being robbed of money and jewelry, but inconsistencies in his complaint raised suspicions and officers quickly discovered that security video footage from Somalia’s home didn’t back up his story. Police chief Juliana Domingues said the player could now face a serious criminal charge for making up the crime. Media reports said Somalia had returned home at 4am and likely thought up the kidnap ruse to make sure his club did not dock his salary.
ENGLAND
Sidwell signs for Cottagers
Former Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell returned to his native London on Friday when he signed for Fulham for an undisclosed fee on an initial six-month deal. The 28-year-old Sidwell, who had also interested Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United, joined Aston Villa from Chelsea in 2008 after initially making an impact in the top flight with Reading. “I’m delighted my move to Fulham has been finalized, and I’m looking forward to training with the squad and helping the club make steady progress up the table in the second half of the season,” he said.
ENGLAND
Rangers accept Miller bid
Rangers striker Kenny Miller is heading to the English Premier League after the Scottish giants accepted a bid from Birmingham City, it was confirmed on Friday. Birmingham will pay an initial fee of £600,000 (US$933,000) for Miller, whose contract at Ibrox expires in the summer. Miller is now studying the personal terms offered by Birmingham before finally deciding whether or not to move to St Andrew’s.
UNITED STATES
Okafor commits suicide
Former Nigerian international defender Uche Okafor, who featured at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups, killed himself at his Texas home, police said on Friday. The 43-year-old Okafor was found hanged in the upstairs of his Dallas-area home. He was discovered on Thursday by his former wife after a friend had tried to contact him, police spokesman Oscar Hinojosa said.
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