January 29th, 2007
USA Defender, Oguchi Onyewu, transfer saga surrounding still continues. After an earlier report linking him to Olympique Marseille in France. English Premiership club Newscastle United have released the following statement that Onyewu is taking a physical with Newcastle on Monday and would join the club on loan for the rest of the season.
But Onyewu current club Standard Liege has denied Onyewu is in England, with their spokesperson telling eurosport: “We are aware of Marseille and Newcastle’s interest. I don’t know if he was at Newcastle yesterday, as it was a day off for our players. He is training today with the squad”.
In the past month, Onyewu has received interest from Real Madrid, Chelsea and AC Milan, amongst others. He turned down a $1.96 million dollar transfer from Fulham, where he would have joined fellow Americans Brian McBride, Carlos Bocanegra and Clint Dempsey.
More
January 29th, 2007
The 18 year-old Japanese forward, Takayuki Morimoto, makes an impact on his Italian Serie A debut for Catania. Takayuki Morimoto hit the net for Catania just five minutes after his Serie A debut to gift the Sicilian outfit with a precious draw at Atalanta.
“When coach Marino told me to come onto the pitch, I just thought about the moment I was going to score,†said Morimoto who also known as the Japanese Ronaldo.
Morimoto arrived to Catania this summer from Japan J-League club Tokyo Verdy 1969, and makes very well performance with the Catania youth-side in the past months, that coach Marino decided to bring him with the Catania first-team and plays for Serie A competition.
“Now he is ready, both technically and physically. He gave much-needed freshness to a team that played three games in one week,†said the Catania boss after yesterday’s match.
Morimoto appeared in his J. League debut for Tokyo Verdy 1969 against Jubilo Iwata at the age of 15 years, 10 months and 6 days, a league record. He scored his first goal against JEF United Ichihara on May 5 that year, two days before his 16th birthday, also a league record. Marimoto also captured the J. League Rookie of the Year Award 2004.
More
January 27th, 2007
The nominees for Italian Serie A Oscars awards 2006 have been announced. There is no Inter Milan players on the list. However for many people in Italy that would be no surprise, considering that the Nerazzurri arrived third in Serie A on 2005-2006 season without ever really impressing much throughout the season and were awarded the Scudetto only thanks to the Calciopoli scandal.
Here are the nominees:
Best Young Player: De Rossi, Foggia, Palladino
Best Goalkeeper: Amelia, Buffon, Peruzzi
Best Defender: Cannavaro, Nesta, Zambrotta
More
January 27th, 2007
Spanish Primera Liga club Real Sociedad reported to making a late bid to transfer former Spanish midfielder Gaizka Mendieta From Middlesbrough back to Spain. “We are investigating if there is something that we can do before the market closes,” Miguel Ãngel Lotina, the Sociedad coach, said.
Middlesbrough boss, Gareth Southgate, stated at the start of January that he had received no bids for the midfielder, but rumours continued to circulate that a move would be made. Mendieta career in the English Premiership is unsuccessful. Mendieta performance is not like a €43 million player when he transfer from Valencia to Lazio.
Real Sociedad currently are in deep trouble in 19th place in the Spanish Primera Liga as they are six points from safety, although there have been signs of improvement recently. The arrival of Savio earlier this month has given the club a boost, while the capture of Mendieta would see the confidence lifted once again.
More
