Kevin Kuranyi said Saturday he's ready to extend his contract with VfB Stuttgart, ending the tug-of-war over the services of the Germany forward.
That was good news for the financially strapped Bundesliga front-runners, who are trying to hold together its young talented team against more lucrative offers from bigger clubs.
"We have a few details to work out, but I'm confident we can do that tomorrow," Kuranyi said after Saturday's 0-0 Bundesliga draw against VfL Bochum.
Last week, Germany defender and fellow 21-year-old Andreas Hinkel spurned a more lucrative offer from Schalke to stay with the rising club.
Like Hinkel, Kuranyi probably won't earn what he could at another club for extending his contract beyond 2005. In addition to a reported offer from Schalke, representatives from AC Milan and Juventus Turin were spotted in the stands by the German media during the Bochum match.
But Kuranyi, Germany's top forward, has been under huge pressure from the fans, media and his teammates to stay with they Bundesliga's youngest side, which now appears to have a big future.
"I'm confident he will sign. It would be a shame if he didn't. He's helped stamped this team," said Stuttgart coach Felix Magath, given much of the credit for forming the team's young stars.
Stuttgart was forced to put unknowns from its youth system on the pitch last season because it was broke, then shocked many people by finishing second in league. This year, its unbeaten in the Bundesliga and cruised into the Champions League's second round, chalking up a win against Manchester United in the process.
Among the other key youngsters on Stuttgart are goalie Timo Hildebrand, 24, Belarus midfielder Aliaksandr Hleb, 22, and winger Philipp Lahm, 20.
Stuttgart still has 15 million euros (US$17.5 million) debt.
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS