Casillas: Real Madrid have to ´put the icing on the cake´ with Champions League win

Manchester City have made an official bid of £41 million for the services of Nathan Ake which has now been accepted by Bournemouth, according to wide-spread reports.

Apparently, the two clubs have held talks about a potential transfer even before the Premier League season ended, but Bournemouth s eventual relegation from the top flight practically confirmed his departure from the Vitality.

As previously reported by David Ornstein of , City had drawn up a list of prospective candidates to fill in the gap in their defence left by the departure of long-serving captain Vincent Kompany last summer, which included the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli, Milan Skriniar of Inter Milan, Mykola Matviyenko of Shakhtar Donetsk, David Alaba of Bayern Munich and Dan-Axel Zagadou o…

FIFA has welcomed the news that Hakeem al-Araibi is to be released from prison in Thailand and allowed to return home to Australia.

Al-Araibi s lawyer confirmed to SBS News on Monday that his client is to be freed by Thai authorities, having been detained since last November on an Interpol notice issued at the request of Bahrain.

The 25-year-old fled his homeland in 2014 before being granted permanent residence in Australia, where he is on the books of semi-professional club Pascoe Vale.

The pro-democracy advocate had been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in absentia by the Bahrain regime for alleged vandalism but denied any involvement.

A campaign championed by former Australia captain Craig Foster has been calling for FIFA and human rights groups to…

Manuel Pellegrini has denied West Ham are considering a January move for Edin Dzeko.

The Roma striker played for Pellegrini at Manchester City and he suggested this week he would be interested in a Premier League return.

Dzeko hit 16 Premier League goals as Pellegrini s City won the 2013-14 title, but he later fell out of favour and joined Roma in 2015.

Pellegrini, though, said Dzeko is not on his radar when he spoke at a news conference on Thursday.

You can talk about five, six or seven players that are linked with us, Pellegrini told reporters.

We must not talk about one player. I know him well but we are not thinking about that at the moment.

How s Marko doing, Boss?

— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd)

West Ham host…

Romelu Lukaku must rediscover the form that fired Inter to the Scudetto in 2021 should he return to the Nerazzurri, former Italy striker Christian Vieri has said.

Lukaku scored 24 goals under the stewardship of Antonio Conte as Inter lifted the Serie A title in the 2020-21 campaign, before returning to Chelsea for a club-record £97.5million fee.

The Belgium international struggled on his Stamford Bridge return, scoring just eight times in 26 Premier League appearances.

Lukaku is widely expected to head back to Inter on loan less than a year after leaving, as Simone Inzaghi looks to assemble his side to reclaim the Scudetto from fierce rivals Milan.

The 29-year-old will hope to regain the confidence he had during his two-year spell with Inter, with no N…

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can have no complaints about his sacking at Manchester United, which became inevitable , according to club greats Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand.

Solskjaer was dismissed on Sunday after a stunning 4-1 defeat to Watford in United s first Premier League match since the international break.

Big home losses to Liverpool and Manchester City had already increased the pressure on the 48-year-old.

Although only those two title-winning teams earned more points (245 for Liverpool, 244 for City) than United (197) during Solskjaer s tenure, the Red Devils have only once endured a worse start to a Premier League season.

That was also under Solskjaer, as United earned just 16 points from 12 games in 2019-20, compared to 17 points this term. Their 2…

Had Euro 2020 actually started on time last year, it s fair to say Pedri wouldn t have been in the Spain squad.

Although he impressed for his country at the 2019 Under-17 World Cup, Pedri did not make a LaLiga appearance until September 2020.

Even earning a spot in Barca s first-team squad wasn t a given after he linked up with them from Las Palmas. It was initially expected he would either go on loan to a smaller LaLiga club, or feature for the B team.

But Pedri suitably impressed Ronald Koeman in pre-season and was fast-tracked into the senior side and he went on to play in all but one of their 38 LaLiga games.

The teenager then earned his first call-up to the Spain squad in March, and at that point few would have bet against him playing a leading role…

Paris Saint-Germain are willing to allow Georginio Wijnaldum to leave next month on loan for the second half of the season and are open to offers, according to Sky Sports journalist Kaveh Solhekol. The former Liverpool and Newcastle midfielder would be interested in returning to the Premier League, and at at the moment, Arsenal are one of the possible destinations.

PSG willing to listen to offers for Georginio Wijnaldum to go out on loan next month. Player would be open to a move back to Premier League. Arsenal thought to be an option.

— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh)

Wijnaldum left Liverpool as a free agent at the end of last season, having played a huge part in their quest to return to the top. He made a total of 237 appearances in all competitions for…

According to a report from Sky Italia, Sampdoria have now agreed on a deal with Southampton that would see them sign Manolo Gabbiadini. The forward has struggled with the Premier League club after an initially positive start to life in the Premier League, and now, he appears to be heading over to Serie A.

The deal would be on a loan basis to start off with, although there would be an obligation attached for them to buy him for £10.75 million once the summer transfer window opens.

Upon reaching a certain tally of goals Sampdoria will then pay £450,000, as well as £225,000 more if they end up qualifying for European football.

Gabbiadini had some good moments in the English game, but it certainly feels like his style is better suited to Italian football.