Ronaldinho, who left Barcelona for AC Milan, and Manchester City-bound Robinho were the two top names in soccer to have completed transfers during the summer.
Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Andrei Arshavin of Zenit St Petersburg had been tipped for big-money moves, but they came to nothing.
The transfer deadline passed at midnight on Monday, meaning players cannot now move clubs till the winter transfer window opens in January.
PHOTO: AFP
Ronaldinho’s move meant he could leave his wretched season at Barcelona behind him, where he was accused of showing more interest in night-time partying than what he was doing on the Nou Camp pitch.
However, AC Milan’s 20 million euro (US$29.2 million) purchase of the 2005 European Soccer Player of the Year could prove a rebirth in the career of Ronaldinho, who teams up with Brazilian compatriots Kaka and Pato at the San Siro.
Andrei Shevchenko has also returned to AC Milan from Chelsea and the club looks set for an upswing in fortunes following a poor 2007-2008 season.
Manchester City signed Robinho from Real Madrid for around 42 million euros, the English Premier League club confirmed yesterday.
Brazilian international Robinho agreed a four-year contract with Mark Hughes’s side shortly before the close of the transfer window.
Juventus contented themselves with the 22.8 million euro capture of Brazilian striker Amauri from Palermo as their top signing.
Coach Jose Mourinho was the big investment by Inter Milan who brought him in as a replacement to Roberto Mancini and their major signing of the season was made on Monday when they took on board FC Porto winger Ricardo Quaresma for around 17 million euros.
Inter also landed Roma’s Brazilian midfielder Mancini and Ghana midfielder Sulley Muntari.
In Spain, Real Madrid purchased striker Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart from Hamburg, joining up with fellow Dutchmen Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Royston Drenthe and Wesley Sneijder at the Santiago-Bernabeu stadium.
Van der Vaart’s inclusion no doubted consoled the Meringues somewhat having failed to prise Euro 2008 top scorer David Villa from Valencia.
Barcelona opened their wallet wide to pay for the incoming players of Daniel Alves, Alexander Hleb and Seydou Keita.
Though the top Spanish clubs often get the players they want, Ronaldo did not move to Madrid although they offered Manchester United a reported 85 million euros for the player who scored 42 goals on the way to the English Premiership and Champions League titles.
He was involved in a tug-of-war between the clubs with daily updates throughout the summer though early last month he finally decided to stay with the Red Devils for at least another year, adding he would still like to play for Madrid at some point in his career.
Just after losing in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 with Portugal, Ronaldo had made clear his desire to move to Madrid although he had a contract linking him with Manchester till 2012.
Sir Alex Ferguson got his way however and hanging on to Ronaldo was the major task, as far as his squad was concerned, during the summer.
However United beat the transfer deadline to complete a 37.7 million euro deal for Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov. Berbatov, 27, agreed a four-year contract with United and Tottenham confirmed the deal on their Web site 45 minutes after the transfer window shut.
Manchester City had tried to lure Berbatov to Eastlands after having an offer accepted for the Bulgarian, but he opted to join the European champions following talks with Ferguson at the club’s Carrington training ground.
Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger brought in Marseille’s midfield maestro Sami Nasri, sometimes touted as the new Zinedine Zidane, and defender Mikael Silvestre, also of France, from Manchester United.
Liverpool however splashed out 24 million euros to buy Tottenham striker Roy Keane to create a new strike partnership at Anfield with Fernando Torres.
Chelsea’s new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led Brazil to their fifth World Cup title in 2002, brought in playmaker Deco from Brazil.
Tottenham, very active in the transfer market this season, failed to land their sought-after target of Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
RSS