Tottenham Hotspur have stepped up their battle to keep Croatia midfielder Luka Modric after he was quoted on Saturday as saying he wanted to leave the Premier League club for their London rivals Chelsea.
Modric, who signed a new six-year-deal last year, was not for sale “at any price,” Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said on the club’s Web site.
“In respect of Luka Modric, we are not prepared to sell at any price, to Chelsea Football Club or any other club. We made our stance on this issue abundantly clear in writing to Chelsea,” he added. “They chose to ignore it then made the offer public.”
Photo: AFP
“For the avoidance of any doubt, let me reiterate that we shall not enter into any negotiations whatsoever with any club regarding Luka. We now consider the matter closed,” he said.
Spurs released the statement after the 25-year-old midfielder, who has not submitted a formal transfer request, told the Daily Mail newspaper he wanted to leave, but would like to stay in London.
“Chelsea are a big club with an ambitious owner,” he said. “They have great players and they have ambitions to fight for the title and win the Champions League.”
“I want to leave Tottenham as friends. I have enjoyed my time there, but now it is right for me to look at another club. I have an arrangement with the chairman. When I signed my new contract, he said that, if another club came to sign me, they would consider the offer,” he said. “This is not about money, it is about ambition. When I came to England I was dreaming about winning titles, that is still the same.”
“Tottenham are a big club with good players and a good manager, but I want to fight for the championship,” he said.
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, who had said on Thursday that Chelsea’s initial reported bid of £22 million (US$35.7 million) for the player was “ridiculous,” was delighted with his chairman’s stance.
Redknapp told talkSPORT -radio: “It’s a happy thing to have a player like Luka Modric, who has suddenly turned into a £50 million or £40 million player and everyone wants him.”
“We’re lucky we’ve got him and we aren’t selling him, that’s what the chairman says and that’s good enough for me,” he said. “The chairman has made a statement today, he can’t backtrack on that. He means that, I know he means that. Luka’s not going.”
“Daniel has made that statement, he can’t come out and suddenly sell him. Everyone will go ‘What’s the use of listening to what he says?’ He can’t sell him, he’s said he’s not going to sell him and that’s good enough for me,” Redknapp said.
Modric has scored 12 goals in 120 appearances since joining Spurs for £16.5 million in 2008 from Dinamo Zagreb.
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