Transfers:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan to PSG)

Finally the Ibrahimovic case has come to an end and he will play for PSG during the next three seasons. The French team has become the focus of the European soccer market. PSG will play in the Champions League during the next season and they are showing that they will fight for it, especially after hires like the Zlatan, Verratti or Thiago Silva one. The French League will be the other objective.

Ibra will form a lethal partnership with Pastore and Lavezzi, and will be shielded by players such as Menez, Motta, or Veraratti. A “Dream Team” as Swedish Ibrahimovic has called to his new team. “I am going to play for the Dream Team and I just want to think about how many tittles I am going to win”, said the striker who will be the second player in the world with the highest salary, earning between € 14 and 15 millions per season.

Marco Verratti (Pescara to PSG)

The “new Pirlo” as they call Verratti, is moving from modest Italian club Pescara, to superpower PSG, who has shown their financial potential by buying both Ibrahimovic and Verratti in the same day.

“He’s young, is the future of Italy,” said the president of PSG, about 19 years old Verrati. The player has signed for the next five years and it is not just a commitment to the future but also for the present.

The players here are great champions,” Verratti told reporters at a press conference at Parc des Princes. “I’ve seen them on television and now I’m training with them. It gives me a huge desire to do well here. “It doesn’t happen every day that a young player can join a great club like this. I’ll do my best to repay PSG’s faith in me.”

Carlos Vela (Arsenal to Real Sociedad)

Mexican Carlos Vela is finally staying in Real Sociedad from the Spanish First Divison. The striker who played in the San Sebastian team during the last season in a loan contract, will stay in there for the four next seasons. The striker yielded a great performance in Real Sociedad where he scored 12 goals in 35 games, so the club has made a great effort and has been negotiating with Arsenal for the Mexican international player during the past 3 months.

Rumours:

Filipo Inzaghi (Milan to Reading)

Since the end of their contractual relationship with Milan, Filippo Inzaghi’s future remains full of mystery for Calcio fans, but according to recent rumors of the international press, which includes the Italian portal Tutto Mercato, the future of veteran striker could finally be in the Premier League.

It seems that Reading is the club that is trying the most to hire the Italian start Filippo Inzaghi.

Tymoshchuk (Bayern to Hamburg)

According to German press reports, defensive midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk would be a major target for the markets of Hamburg during this summer. The trigger that could end this successful operation, has to do with Bayern’s recent movements to sign a class footballer who plays in the same position as Tymoshchuk. 

Image Courtesy of   Abel Tumik / Shutterstock.com

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Soccer Transfers and Rumours of the Day

In this new series from The Toonari Post we will cover the biggest soccer transfers from the previous day as well as the most important rumors.

Transfers:

Michael Bradley (Chievo to Roma)

The American 24 years old midfielder, has been given a huge step in his career by going to AS Roma. In this transfer Roma has paid an amount of 3.75 millions euros and has also given Chievo the Romanian midfield Adrian Stoain.

Bradley who plays as a center midfielder will have to fight for a place with great quality players such as De Rossi, Pjanic or Brighi.

The American midfielder has signed until 2016, so he will defend the red shirt for the next four seasons.

Thiago Silva (Milan to PSG)

Thiago Silva, one of the most important players of AC Milan has been bought by mighty PSG. The French team owned by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has announced that the defense will play in PSG for the next five seasons. The amount of money to be paid for the Brazilian player transfer has not been officially said but it seems that it is something around 42 millions euros. It is tough to know how much Silva will earn, something around 9 millions of euros per season. (All of these figures should be cited with links, especially since you are saying that it may be around these prices)

According to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, PSG bought both Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahivoch. However, PSG has not confirmed this last movement, although it looks like sooner or later the Swede will end up in France.

It is the first time in soccer history that a club has paid so much money for a defender. Previously the record was Rio Ferdinand’s transfer to Manchester United in 2002.

Daniel Pranjic (Bayern Munchen to Sporting Lisbon)

Croatian international player Pranjic, who was a free agent after the expiring of his contract on Bayern Munich at the end of the season, has gone to Portuguese Sporting Lisbon team.

The midfield that just played in the Eurocup was close to tying up a deal with Everton, but he has finally decided to move to Portugal. The Croatian national has signed for three years in the Portuguese club, up to 2015, and will have a buyout clause of 15 million euros.

It is the fourth signing for the Portuguese after they bought Swiss Gelson Fernandes, Sunil Chhetri Indian striker and the young Moroccan Labyad Zakaria.

Rumours:

Afellay (Barcelona to Lille)

FC Barcelona is looking for some money in order to buy a central defense who can replace Carlos Puyol. In order to get the cash, Barca is willing to sell both Adriano Correira and Afellay. For this second one, Lille has made a good offer, but the player does not want to play in the French league. The Dutch forwards wants to stay in Barcelona and he says that will just move if teams such as Inter or Arsenal make offers for him.

Luka Modric (Tottenham to Real Madrid)

Real Madrid is close to a £30million deal for Luka Modric. However, it seem that the Spanish team is waiting to get rid off of Kaka, so they get some money to go for the Croatian national player. According to the Daily Mail, a number of different options have been tried over the course of the transfer, especially the inclusion of Madrid players to bring the cost down. Ricardo Carvalho and Nuri Sahin were both offered, but neither were open to idea of moving to Tottenham.

Image Courtesy of   Benjamin Kralj / Shutterstock.com

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Co-hosts Ukraine upset the form book as they defeated Group D underdogs Sweden in Kyiv. Two goals from the nations hero Andriy Shevchenko were enough to come back to snatch three points after Zlatan Ibrahimovic had given Sweden what had been a deserved lead.

The fast paced tempo of the game fitted with the raucous atmosphere around the stadium as the Ukrainians did their best to spur their team on. Ukraine were probably the least fancied team in Group D coming into the tournament, but they set their stall out well and challenged underdogs Sweden in every department. The fluid passing between Sweden’s frontline of Ibrahimovic, Toivonen and Rosenberg caused Ukraine issues and Seb Larsson was pulling the strings in midfield, but there were no clear chances for either side until home favourite Andriy Shevchenko found himself through on goal but didn’t catch his shot properly and missed the target.

The atmosphere was certainly aiding the sides approach towards the match, Ukraine were flowing forward and Yarmolenko was only denied by a superb defensive block from Olof Mellberg, before Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s header brushed the post at the other end.

But as the crowd began to calm down a little, so did the game. It wasn’t the most exciting start but the game had become stretched towards the break with both teams creating chances and both producing good football. The second half started in similar fashion with plenty of attacking football, Rosenberg had a shot blocked before Ibrahimovic finally put Sweden ahead with a close range finish. But Ukraine used this as inspiration and just five minutes the stadium erupted when Shevchenko headed home to level things up.

The stadium didn’t have a chance to quiet down when Shevchenko headed home a second from a corner, Mikael Lustig may have felt he would have kept it out had he not moved from the near post as Shevchenko connected with the ball. Sweden were rocking after being dominant but now found themselves 2-1 down and playing against a rocking atmosphere in the middle Kyiv.

Erik Hamren introduced Anders Svensson to try and get a grip of a midfield which was beginning to become overrun by a rejuvenated Ukraine and all the momentum was with the hosts. Hamren made another throw of the dice soon after bringing on the experienced Christian Wilhelmsson for Seb Larsson. Things had gone from looking comfortable to desperate for the Swedes, Rasmus Elm tried his luck from distance but the effort just about summed up Sweden’s mood after looking good for victory after scoring the opener.

Hamren wasn’t waiting any longer to go all out for it and immediately made his final substitution, bringing on ex-Bolton striker Johan Elmander for Rosenberg. If Sweden were going to get back into it, then it seemed goal scorer Ibrahimovic would be the man to do it. Elmander’s nice little knock down found the AC Milan striker and his rocket shot stung the palms of Pyatov but the ball found its way to safety.

Ukraine looked tired but the fans were still out in voice to give Shevchenko a huge round of applause as he made way for Artem Milevsky with ten minutes to go. Wilhelmsson had given Sweden a different dimension and looked lively against a tiring Ukraine defence, but the back four stood tall and kept on denying Sweden any clear cut chances at goal.

The crowd soon went from noisy to nervy as the game hit the final five minutes and that tension had passed on to the Ukraine players who were now hanging on to their lead as Sweden threw everything at the co-hosts. Sweden did have one huge chance to get a draw when some neat work between Ibrahimovic and Elmander saw the former blaze wide and high when in on goal. Swedish fans probably would have been celebrating a goal if the roles had been reversed and the fans sensed Sweden’s chances may have gone.

Deep into stoppage time there was still one more draw of breath from the Ukraine fans when Olof Mellberg found himself in on goal and his lob over Pyatov seemed to take an age to finally land on the roof of the net. It was the last action of an entertaining match with will live long in the memory of Ukrainian fans and Ukrainian football.

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The current Champions League holders drew a blank on Italian soil, as both teams failed to break down stubborn defenses in Milan. Barcelona will hold a slight advantage with the second leg at the Nou Camp, but on a night with few chances, Milan will be disappointed it didn’t make it count.

It was a frantic start. Barcelona looked half asleep, as it gifted the ball to Milan in the opening minutes, culminating in a great chance for Boateng, and an even better chance for Robinho, who volleyed over from no more than six yards. But Lionel Messi was beginning to get into his stride, testing Abbiati from the edge of the box and inter-linking nicely with his teammates.

Last year’s winners had a big appeal for a penalty turned down, when Alexis Sanchez was brought down by Abbiati after a neatly worked free-kick, but the referee waved the shouts away. Barcelona was getting on top though, and had a goal disallowed for offside minutes later, when Messi went too early to meet a Dani Alves cross.

Milan wasn’t taking the pressure lying down though, and almost went ahead, as the ex-Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic ran through on goal but was denied by Victor Valdes. It was a typically fraught encounter between two attack-minded teams, but the away side definitely had the upper hand, as Milan failed to keep possession regularly enough to pose a threat.

The game was evenly poised as half-time approached, the world champions Barcelona threatened with no end product, whilst Milan had the odd opportunity on the counter-attack, but couldn’t find a route to goal.

The second half started much like the first had ended: Barcelona was doing most of the pressing, but Milan had to make a change when Robinho fell awkwardly and was replaced by El Shaarawy. Guardiola was beginning to grow frustrated by the lack of chances being created, and took Andres Iniesta off for youngster Cristian Tello, in hopes of getting a crucial away goal.

Urby Emanuelson was also thrown into the action with twenty minutes to go, and instead of the game becoming stretched, defenses tightened, as Milan looked even more likely to sit back and soak up the pressure, frustrating Barcelona further, as the 2011 winners failed to find a way through the stubborn defense.

As the clock ticked down, so did the chances of either team grabbing a crucial lead to take back to Spain. Messi came closest, forcing a good save from Abbiati, and Tello was denied by a last ditch block from Ambrosini, with the goal gaping. There were no more clear-cut chances, and the referee brought time on an anti-climactic second half, as both teams prepare to do it all again in Barcelona next week.

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In a shocking result, Belarusian side BATE Borisov held Italian giants AC Milan to a 1-1 draw in Belarus tonight. While BATE still need a highly unlikely victory from Plzen over Barcelona to keep their hopes of qualifying for the next stage of the tournament alive. The result will have done wonders for morale at BATE, who are the only Belarusian side to ever qualify for the group stages of the Champions League.

Milan made the perfect start to the game, pressuring BATE into several mistakes, and striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic came close to breaking the deadlock with several attempts on goal. Aleksandr Gutor, the BATE goalkeeper, did well to deny Ibrahimovic for the first 20 minutes, but was helpless to prevent Ibrahimovic giving Milan the lead in the 22nd minute.

The Swedish striker dispossessed defender Marko Simic, giving the ball to Robinho in the process. The Brazilian then progressed down the flank before returning the ball to Ibrahimovic , which the striker controlled and slotted past the advancing Gutor.

The goal seemed to bolster Milan’s confidence, with the visitors dictating the tempo of the game, and looking to extend their control over the game further. Although it seemed only a matter of time before they extended their lead, BATE was still a threat, and were posing a danger on the counter-attack.

One counter in particular caused anxiety for Milan fans, as Maksim Skavysh almost equalized for his side just a minute after Milan had taken the lead, but his header was saved well by Christian Abbiati. BATE were fortunate to enter the half-time break just one goal behind, as minutes before the interval, Robinho rounded Gutor, but was only able to hit the post with his effort.

With the home fans counting their blessings to have not conceded another goal, BATE manager Viktor Goncharenko had his work cut out instilling some self-belief back into his team before the second half. Whatever Goncharenko said to his side during the break, it seemed to work. With the home side looking in control of the game and pushing hard for an equalizer right from the kick-off.

The encouraged home fans did not have to wait long for their teams effort to be rewarded, and Renan Bressan stroked home a penalty in the 55th minute, after a clumsy foul by Ignazio Abate. With their passionate fans spurring them on, BATE looked to keep control of the game as it entered the final 30 minutes.

All seemed to go to plan for BATE, as they defended well, and even came close to taking the lead in what would have been an extraordinary victory for the Belarusian side. Despite being unable to take all three points, they will congratulate themselves on one of the greatest results in the club’s relatively short history.

Matt Trommer / Shutterstock.com

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