Italian striker Mario Balotelli has completed a move to OGC Nice. He signed for the Ligue 1 club for free from Liverpool.
Balotelli will receive a salary of €4.5m per year, according to French daily Nice Matin. He will join Nice, currently 3rd in Ligue 1, on a one year deal.
It appears Liverpool were more than happy just to get the striker off their wage bill – the Italian would have been out of contract with Liverpool regardless next summer.
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21 year old PSG central defender Presnel Kimpembe has earned a surprising, late call-up to the French national team after Eliaquim Mangala had to pull out with a thigh injury.
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Kimpembe had been initially selected with the France U21s, but has been promoted to the top team as Deschamps deals with an injury crisis at centre back. Kurt Zouma, Samuel Umtiti, Adil Rami and Jérémy Mathieu are all on the treatment table, save the latter, who had decided after discussions with Deschamps to retire from international football.
Speaking to L’Équipe, former Arsenal director David Dein discussed the French manager on the occasion that Wenger celebrates 20 years in the manager’s job with the North London outfit. Highlights.
On Wenger & Football:
Arsène knows every player in the world. He is a living encyclopaedia. He lives only for football.
On Wenger’s birthday:
On the 22nd October, Arsène will celebrate his 67th birthday. I am scratching my head for an idea of what to give him. He does not need anything, he spends nothing. He has a nice car, but he does not indulge himself. It will be a very good deal when he sells it. I have finally figured it out, I will install a more powerful satellite antenna on his roof, that way, he will have access to more channels and will be able to watch a few more matches.
On when Dein & Wenger first met:
Our meeting? It was fortuitous. We are in 1989. Arsène, who is the Monaco manager, comes to watch an Arsenal game at Highbury. I run into him in one of the club’s executive rooms. We introduce ourselves to each other.
The connection was immediate. I suggested to him that he should come to dinner with me at some friends’s. To my great surprise, he accepts… My destiny, Arsène’s destiny, Arsenal’s destiny but also English football’s destiny was set that evening… The reason why 75% of managers in the Premier League are foreign are because there was a pioneer.
On when Wenger was in Japan:
Every week I would send him VHS tapes of our matches. When he joined us a year later, he knew everything about our game.
On Wenger the manager:
Arsène is not your typical manager. Apart from being passionate, intelligent, with integrity. He is an idealist. Nobody wants to win more than he does, but he wants to do it with style. He will never jeopardise his values. Behind the manager, there is the educator. Not one player has passed through Arsenal without improving. Arsène improves men.
On Wenger & losing:
After a loss, it is not necessarily a good idea to have dinner with Arsène. He rehashes frustration. He hates losing.
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Today’s edition of L’Équipe revealed that Barcelona star Neymar was PSG’s number one target to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the recent summer transfer window.
Although the absolute dream of PSG owner Tamin al-Thani is to sign another one of Barcelona’s gems, Lionel Messi, it was impossible to achieve. Despite meetings between PSG President Nasser Al Khelaifi and Lionel Messi’s father, Messi had no intention of leaving a club that he considers to be the best in the world.
Another star that PSG had been touted to be considering was Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo. Photos were taken of Sporting Director Létang, Nasser Al Khelaifi and super-agent Jorge Mendes in deep discussion in Madrid ahead of Les Parisiens’ clash with PSG in the Champions League in November 2015, however it is not believed that these discussions had anything to do with the Portuguese EURO 2016 winner.
Two years earlier, PSG had a greater chance of signing Ronaldo, but these hopes have faded.
Of all the megastars, all that was left was Neymar. PSG first opened talks over the phone with the player’s agent Wagner Ribeiro. In those initial discussions, Ribeiro is assured that Neymar would receive the same treatment as Zlatan Ibrahimovic: the team would play for him.
Another argument that was made was that if Barcelona won the Champions League, Lionel Messi would win the Ballon D’Or. If PSG won the Champions League with Neymar playing for them, he would have an opportunity to win the Ballon D’Or and finally step out from Messi’s shadow.
A face to face meeting in April occurred in Sao Paulo between Wagner Ribeiro, PSG Sporting Director Olivier Létang and Neymar’s father.
That meeting went on for hours, discussing particularly the specifics of Neymar’s contract with Barcelona. That it was running out in 2018, and that he had a release clause worth €192m.
After that meeting, the agent made it clear that he judged things to have gone well, and that a transfer was possible. The father of Neymar believed in the PSG project, and he also believed that PSG could meet Neymar’s financial demands. Especially after the Brazilian international was handed a €45m tax evasion fine by the Brazilian government.
The next meeting occurred in Ibiza at the beginning of the summer, between PSG President Nasser Al Khelaifi, Olivier Létang and Neymar’s entire clan.
During this meeting, the different parties got into the nitty-gritty of negotiations for the first time. Al Khelaifi reiterated during that meeting that PSG would pay Neymar’s release clause no problem.
In an interview with Neymar’s agent Walter Ribeiro to ESPN in September, he had thew following to say:
“Neymar was very close to joining PSG. He could have earned €40m a year.”
L’Équipe moved to deny this claim this morning, saying that PSG were particularly unprepared to pay the enormous salary that was being pushed by Neymar’s father. However, PSG were willing to offer Neymar a series of incredible bonuses, including a donation to Neymar’s hotel project.
In the end, even PSG player Lucas Moura attempted to convince Neymar over text to join, but it simply was not going to happen. Neymar’s extension with Barcelona has been penned until 2021.
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Luxembourg businessman Gérard Lopez is set to complete the purchase of Ligue 1 side Lille OSC by early December, according to RMC.
Lopez will additionally take on the role of President as well as owner, according to the report.
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Luis Campos will not be appointed as the club’s Sporting Director officially, and instead is likely to take up a similar position that he previously held at AS Monaco as Special Advisor to the President, who will in this case be Lopez.
Campos has been told that he will be given full power in terms of signing players and looking after youth development, and Campos and Lopez are speaking every day, according to the report.
Lopez, who is set to sell his stake in Club Sportif Fola Esch, will assess Lille’s accounts in depth in the coming weeks before finally buying the club.
In recent days, Gérard Lopez has had candid conversations with current manager Frédéric Antonetti and confirmed his desire to keep the Frenchman on.
However, it is understood that Luis Campos wants to rid of Antonetti and send a message to the players that their current level of performance is unacceptable.
Speaking to Le Parisien, PSG central midfielder revealed that he had a difficult relationship with Zlatan Ibrahimovic whilst the Swede was at the club.
“Things got heated in training two or three times, after some slightly rough challenges. But I really had it out with in the United States during a pre-season match against Chelsea. He was angry at me for something that was not at all my fault. And I, well I do not accept injustice… So I responded by insulting him. It was not very cool on my part. But we made up and talked it out and things were sorted out.”
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According to our colleagues at RMC, prospective LOSC Lille buyer Gérard Lopez is currently in advanced negotiations with Marcelo Bielsa to become the club’s new manager, following the sacking of Frédéric Antonetti which occurred yesterday.
A meeting occurred three weeks ago between Gérard Lopez, Luis Campos (who is set to become the Luxembourgian’s right-hand man as a Sporting Director), Marc Ingla, the club’s future General Director and Marcelo Bielsa in London.
Bielsa also recently visited Lille’s training facilities and is understood to have been impressed by the quality of them.
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There are a number of stumbling blocks that are putting a spanner in the works as negotiations rage on. The first is that Bielsa wants the final word on transfer policy and is unsure if he can work with Luis Campos in this regard.
Secondly, Bielsa never takes over a team mid-way through a season, because his unique style of play requires a full pre-season in order to be successfully implemented.
Talks continue. Lille are also in discussions with former FC Porto boss Vitor Pereira.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with L’Équipe, Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon covered a multitude of different topics. Highlights.
On why he has stayed at Juventus for such a period of time:
Because I built my life according to certain values. And one of those values, is the sense of belonging, the gratitude towards a club, a team, an environment, fans who have always behaved in a correct manner towards me.
On mistakes:
I am used to it, everyone can make one or two mistakes a year, not more. So when I made one, it created a drama, everyone was giving their opinion. And it is true that today, I am easier to attack, because I am 38. When I make a mistake, people say that I am getting old. But I was also making mistakes at 30, at 25, that is part of my position. I am very self-critical. If I decide one day that some of my mistakes are linked to the fact that I am not as nimble, that I am of a certain age, that I am reading situations less well, then I will be the first to quit.
On singing the Italian national anthem with such conviction:
When I was young, that was a bit less the case. It is normal, people ripen and feel about certain things differently. Today, the national anthem represents a lot more to me. I lost a grandfather in the First World War, so there is a very strong sense of belonging.
On whether a champion has a role not just in football, but also in society:
Yes, that is inevitable, that is part of the responsibilities that I have had. But I think that one should not exaggerate it either. When I hear: “You, footballers, you are the symbols of upbringing for the children,” I do not agree. My children, I raise them, I am their father. It is not Higuain, Balotelli, Donnarumma or Del Piero who is going to raise them.
Aside from that, concerning the way a player behaves on the pitch or off it, you can have a discussion at home about it. You can say: “Look it is good what he is doing,” and the opposite, if a player makes a mistake, you can say to your children: “There, I did not appreciate that.” The behaviour of a player can be the source of a conversation but it cannot be the basis of an upbringing nor the model.
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Speaking exclusively to SFR Sport, Manchester United manager José Mourinho discussed Anthony Martial’s situation at the club.
“Every player is different. I had this season a situation that was more difficult than Karim (Benzema) and Anthony (Martial). Mkhitaryan. But Mkhitaryan was completely open and completely understood the difference between me and other coaches he had. The difference between the demands of the Premier League and the Ukrainian league or even Bundesliga, complete different philosophy of play. And he worked a lot without playing, but he worked a lot to try to reach the level. And certainly by surprise he played a couple of matches when nobody was expecting and he was man of the match and he was phenomenal and people realised that the time we spent outside was a good time for him to improve him as a player.”
“Anthony I think, very young, as a start, very young, people forget that he is very young. Last season, Manchester United was playing completely different, completely different than we do today. He was basically, playing up front, the team had lots of basic ball possession, waiting just for a moment to put the ball in the space for Anthony to go and score a goal. This season it is more difficult. This season is more difficult, he needs a little bit of time to improve I think.”
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Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille are leading the race to sign Rennes winger Paul Georges Ntep, according to L’Équipe.
Ntep, whose Rennes contract expires at the end of the season, will be sold by the Brittany side this month if an acceptable offer is made. Although Rennes representatives are being tight-lipped about the player’s situation in its entirety, they have admitted that Marseille are currently showing themselves to be the most serious contender for the player’s signature, according to the report.
Ntep knows the city of Marseille well, being very good friends with André-Pierre Gignac and sharing the same agent as him.
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