Edinson Cavani was in Paris on Monday to finalize his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, with sources close to the deal saying his 64 million euro (US$84 million) price tag would break the French record.
The 26-year-old SSC Napoli forward, who was the top scorer in Serie A last season with 29 goals, landed in Paris on Monday morning, before heading to a top city hotel to undergo a medical.
PSG later announced they would hold a press conference at 4pm yesterday, suggesting the medical had been passed and a contract could be signed either Monday night or yesterday.
Photo: AFP
Cavani is expected to sign a five-year deal, according to sources.
Late morning, outgoing PSG sporting director Leonardo was seen leaving the luxury hotel with an adviser of the Uruguay international, who is nicknamed the Matador.
Should the South American sign a contract with the French champions, he will line up alongside his former Napoli teammate Ezequiel Lavezzi of Argentina.
The current French Ligue 1 transfer record was set earlier this year when Colombia international forward Radamel Falcao signed for AS Monaco from Atletico Madrid for a figure estimated at nearly 60 million euros.
Although Monaco have hogged the transfer headlines in France this summer, with billionaire Russian owner Dmitry Rybolovlev spending about 140 million euros in a bid to challenge the reigning champions, PSG have now signaled their intention not to be left behind in the big spending stakes.
Meanwhile, the capital-based club sought to silence rumors that have been swirling in the Catalan sporting press since last week about the possible departure of the Brazil international centerback Thiago Silva to Barcelona.
“Thiago is a PSG player. He has a contract and he will respect it. The rumours are the same as the ones last year, but Thiago Silva is a PSG player and he’ll see out his contract with his club,” Silva’s agent, Paulo Tonieto, was quoted as saying on PSG’s official Web site.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later