Liverpool have turned down a transfer request from Fernando Torres hours after Kenny Dalglish made his first major transfer impact in his second spell as manager by agreeing to sign Uruguay forward Luis Suarez.
The club, who said on Friday they had agreed to buy Suarez from Dutch club Ajax for 26.5 million euros (US$36 million), have made it clear they intend to keep Spain striker Torres.
“Fernando is under long-term contract and the club expect him to honor the commitment he made to Liverpool FC and its supporters when he signed the agreement,” the Merseysiders said on their Web site.
On Thursday, Liverpool turned down what media reported was a British record fee of about £40 million (US$63 million) for the forward from Chelsea.
Torres has struggled for form this season, but has looked sharper since Dalglish took over from Roy Hodgson on an interim basis this month, helping to lift Liverpool up to seventh in the Premier League with back-to-back wins.
If Liverpool can persuade Torres to stay they will end up with a potent strike force thanks to the addition of the 24-year-old Suarez, who scored 111 goals in 159 appearances for Ajax.
Liverpool said on their Web site they had been granted permission by Ajax to discuss personal terms with Suarez and his representatives, adding the deal was subject to a medical.
“I can understand Luis wanting to go to Liverpool, it’s a beautiful club, but then it has to be satisfying for both parties,” Ajax coach Frank de Boer said in a statement.
Nicknamed El Pistolero or “The Gunfighter,” Suarez has just finished serving a seven-match ban for biting PSV Eindhoven’s Otman Bakkal on the shoulder in a league match in November.
He was also at the center of controversy at last year’s World Cup when Uruguay went through to the semi-finals after he handled the ball on the goal-line in the final minute of extra-time against Ghana to prevent a winning goal by Dominic Adiyiah.
Suarez was sent off, but his team subsequently won a penalty shootout.
The striker has scored seven league goals this season after notching 48 in all competitions last term to earn the Dutch Footballer of the Year award.
Suarez has netted 16 goals in 38 international appearances.
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