Cristiano Ronaldo will not train with Juventus on Friday, the Serie A giants confirmed to AFP, as rumours of an imminent move to Manchester City gather pace.

Widespread media reports said that Ronaldo left Juve’s Continassa training centre before the start of Friday’s session. Sky Sport Italia reported that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner arrived in the morning to say goodbye to his teammates before leaving at around 10:45 am local time (0845 GMT).

Asked by AFP if Ronaldo would be training with his Juve teammates, a club spokeswoman confirmed that he would not.

According to daily Gazzetta Dello Sport, a deal for superstar Ronaldo to go to Premier League champions Manchester City could be completed with the next 24 hours.

Despite Juventus insisting the 36-year-old was staying, on Thursday Sky claimed the Portugal captain had already cleaned out his locker in the dressing room and is reluctant to make himself available to face Empoli this weekend.

If a deal is to be reached, the clock is ticking with the transfer window set to close on Tuesday.

Premier League champions City have been widely linked with a move for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner after missing out on England captain Harry Kane.

The fee, however, could be a problem with the Italians believed to be wanting in the region of 25 million euros ($29.4 million).

Ronaldo, who has one year remaining on his contract, has also been linked with Paris Saint-Germain and a return to Madrid.

Ronaldo joined Juve in 2018 to huge fanfare.

Last weekend, Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri insisted that he had received assurances from the Portugal star over his future.

“Let’s clarify this issue, Ronaldo told me that he’s staying,” Allegri said in response to numerous questions on Ronaldo’s form and mindset ahead of Sunday’s Serie A opener at Udinese.

“He has always trained well and has always been available. I’ve read rumours in the papers, but he’s never wanted to leave Juventus.”

Italy’s top scorer last season with 29 goals started the Udinese game on the bench.

– ‘Disrespectful’ rumours –

Last week, Ronaldo himself rubbished reports of a move back to Real Madrid, calling them “disrespectful” and saying that stories of his departure were written with “nobody ever being concerned about trying to find out the actual truth”.

Real have since had an initial bid of 160 million euros for PSG star Kylian Mbappe rejected, but according to French media reports are set to make a second offer of 180 million.

That would close any route for Ronaldo back to the Santiago Bernabeu, although as well as the reports of a possible move to City, there have also been rumours he could join old rival Lionel Messi in Paris to replace Mbappe should the Frenchman leave.

Ronaldo scored 118 goals in 292 appearances for Manchester United early in his career before leaving for Madrid in 2009.

He joined Juve in 2018 after scoring a remarkable 450 goals in 438 matches in a glittering nine-year spell at the Bernabeu that also included four Champions League triumphs.

At Juventus, his hopes of winning another Champions League have been thwarted, with the club failing to get beyond the quarter-finals during his time in Turin.

Last season, they were deposed as Italian champions by Inter Milan.

Source: AFP

Lukaku has returned to Chelsea for a deal of £98 million (US$135 million). Following a club-record move from Inter Milan, the 28-year-old returns to Chelsea for the second time. The former West Brom, Everton, and Manchester United forward is committed to the club until 2026.

“Yes, it was good. It was good it is good to be back, obviously. It doesn’t feel new because a lot of the players I knew them from before. So I have already a relationship with most of the players. So, you know, I’m really happy to be here. And, you know, it’s up to us to prepare as a team and, you know, keep winning going forward.”

Romelu Lukaku has pledged to maintain the club’s current success, confirming that he is a “more mature” player than he was during his previous time at Stamford Bridge.

_”Maturity, maturity has been important. I think I’ve learnt much more about myself, you know, setting higher standards for myself as a player. I think, you know, you just it’s more becoming more complete, I think, because the game in Italy is much more different. It’s much more tied to spaces, is very more technical and tactical, which helped me a lot. .” _

The Belgian’s recent goal-scoring record at Inter speaks for itself. During the 2020/21 season, he scored 30 goals and added 10 assists in 44 games across all competitions.

Africa News

Lionel Messi stood and smiled, looking transfixed as Paris Saint-Germain fans chanted the soccer great’s name — “Leo Messi, Leo Messi” — before Saturday’s French league game against Strasbourg. Not yet fully fit, Messi did not make the match squad, but saw his new club beat Strasbourg 4-2.

PSG’s latest signing joined four other recruits  as they were presented before some 49,000 fans at Parc des Princes before kickoff.

Messi was not in the actual squad for the game. He only recently returned from an extended holiday after helping Argentina win the Copa America.

In a scene which few could have predicted even recently, former Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos applauded Messi — his eternal Barcelona nemesis and the all-time record scorer in “Clasicos” between Barcelona and Madrid — as he joined him on the podium.

Italy’s Euro 2020 star goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma,  Netherlands captain Georginio Wijnaldum, and former Inter Milan right back Achraf Hakimi were all given loud ovations.

But nothing compared to the huge one reserved for Messi, a four-time Champions League and six-time Golden Ball winner.

He joined PSG on a two-year deal this week after his new deal with Barcelona sensationally collapsed and left him in tears  as PSG moved quickly.

Earlier Saturday, coach Christophe Galtier returned to Lille and punished his old club as Nice won 4-0.

Striker Kasper Dolberg and midfielder Hichem Boudaoui scored inside the first four minutes, with lively forward Amine Gouiri involved in both.

Lille clawed back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 last weekend, but there was no comeback this time as Gouiri made it 3-0 from the penalty spot shortly after the break and Dolberg headed in his second midway through the second half.

Last season, Galtier’s excellent coaching helped Lille win the title  against the odds.

But Lille was not keen on letting him leave one year before the end of his contract, and Nice had to pay 4 million euros ($4.7 million) in compensation. This created tense relations between Galtier and Lille president Olivier Letang.

It must have been a strange sight for Galtier as the league trophy he won, and the recent Champions Trophy, were presented to the home fans.

They were soon in despondent mood as Nice went 2-0 up.

Playing his first match since scoring three goals for Denmark at Euro 2020, Dolberg found the net in the first minute from close range.

Poor defending from Zeki Celik under pressure from Dolberg resulted in Gouri setting up Boudaoui and he smacked a firm shot past Lille’s new goalkeeper Leo Jardim — who has conceded seven in two games since replacing Mike Maignan.

Marseille hosts Bordeaux in the pick of Sunday’s games.

Monaco lost 1-0 at Lorient on Friday and has only one point from its opening two games, having finished third last season.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

Paris Saint-Germain’s surprise signing of Lionel Messi has been hailed as a shot in the arm for France’s cash-strapped football league, but experts warn that the Argentine superstar’s arrival is not all good news for an increasingly unbalanced Ligue 1.

Call it the revenge of the “farmers’ league”.

As the least prestigious of Europe’s major football leagues, France’s Ligue 1 is well-accustomed to the derogatory moniker, the “farmers’ league”. But now that the world’s most famous footballer has joined the farm, it’s time for a little payback. 

On Tuesday night, hours after Lionel Messi signed a two-year deal with Paris Saint-Germain, the league’s Twitter account posted an image of a goat leaning on a farm’s fence with the shirts of Ligue 1’s top players hanging on either side. The caption read, “The farmers have a new goat” – a reference to Messi’s unofficial standing as football’s “GOAT” (Greatest of all time).

Capping a decade of sensational signings by Qatar-owned PSG, the Argentine’s surprise move to Paris has been met with a mix of shock and delight in France, where few pundits had openly entertained the idea that Messi would one day play Ligue 1 football. In terms of prestige, it dwarves even the club’s record €220 million purchase of Neymar in 2017.

In unusual comments praising a club’s transfer dealings, Ligue 1 chief Vincent Labrune – a former president of PSG’s arch-rivals Marseille – celebrated Messi’s signing as a big win for French football in a statement on Wednesday.

“Messi’s arrival will bolster the attractiveness and visibility of our championship across continents,” Labrune said, thanking the club’s owners for creating what he called one of sport’s biggest global franchises.PSG fans hail ‘start of a new legacy for Paris’

Instead of lamenting the widening gulf between the free-spending Parisians and the rest of the pack, PSG’s domestic rivals have also hailed the arrival of Argentina’s six-time Ballon d’Or winner.

“Can you imagine Messi coming to town?” asked Saint-Etienne coach Claude Puel, celebrating a “huge boost” for the French league.

His Brest counterpart Michel Der Zakarian struggled to contain his enthusiasm, telling reporters: “We say that we have a shit league, but if we manage to bring in a player like that, it would be exceptional. I’m not going to be polite here – but he gives me a hard-on.”

Is he the Messiah?

In normal times, PSG’s rivals may well have frowned at the Parisians’ latest move to catch another star. But these are no ordinary times for clubs whose revenues have been hollowed out by the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many teetering on the edge of a cliff. Indeed, it’s no surprise French football sees a saviour in the Argentinian superstar, whose name is pronounced the same way as the French word for Messiah (“Messie”). 

According to economist Christophe Lepetit, a member of French football’s DNCG auditing body, Paris Saint-Germain’s lavish spending has helped raise Ligue 1’s profile by luring the world’s top players to France. 

“In recent years, the club’s high-profile signings have countered the notion that the Ligue 1 is a ‘farmers’ league’, and Messi’s arrival will further debunk the myth,” he says. 

PSG’s star transfers – which in recent years has included the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, David Beckham and Kylian Mbappé – have also helped to qualify another criticism levelled at Ligue 1: that it is merely a “feeder league”, nurturing young talent that is then sold off to the highest bidder. Instead, Lepetit says, “PSG prove that French football can also attract and hold on to the biggest stars in the game.”

The challenge for Ligue 1 officials is now to ensure the league’s heightened star power translates into an increased global audience – and thus greater revenue. 

“Talent scouts are already very familiar with the French league, but many in the wider public may discover it now, thanks to Messi,” says Lepetit. “And by watching PSG’s league games, they may discover new players and clubs they want to follow.” 

Boosting Ligue 1’s global audience is crucial to French hopes of improving the rotten deal they get from television broadcasters when compared with Europe’s “big four” leagues: England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and Germany’s Bundesliga. 

Three years ago, Neymar’s signing helped push the value of Ligue 1’s international broadcasting rights from €25 million up to €80 million. But that is still only a fraction of what the Premier League and La Liga earn, and less than half the money fetched by the Italian and German leagues. 

With legions of fans scattered across the globe, Messi should be an even greater pull than Neymar. Unfortunately for the French league, however, news of his arrival comes just days after it signed off on a new three-year broadcast deal following months of bitter wrangling – meaning the Argentine will be aged 37 by the time that deal expires.

A dead rubber?

Until a more lucrative deal is signed with the broadcasters, and the dividends are spread out across the board, there is little evidence to suggest that other French clubs will benefit from PSG’s most prestigious signing yet.

Amid the euphoria prompted by Messi’s arrival, some have likened his move away from his boyhood club Barcelona to that of another illustrious Argentine, the late Diego Maradona, more than three decades ago. But Maradona’s bold 1984 switch to Italy was precisely what Messi’s transfer is not: a transformative move that singlehandedly put southern minnows Napoli – then the butt of rival Italian fans’ racist jokes – on the football map, breaking the richer northern clubs’ stranglehold on Serie A. 

Instead, analysts warn that Messi’s move to PSG will only widen the chasm between the phenomenally wealthy Qatar-owned club and its domestic rivals – a divide that arguably does more harm to the French league’s global standing than the actual quality of the football produced.

“What we’re seeing is the further strengthening of the one club that already outstrips all others, at least in terms of the stars at its disposal,” says sports economist Jean-Pascal Gayant at the University of Le Mans.

“If Messi had signed for another French club, rather than the one that already dominates all others, then yes, that would certainly have heightened interest in the French league,” he says. “But it’s the opposite that’s happening.”’Messi makes football magic,’ says PSG president

According to Gayant, PSG’s signing of an umpteenth superstar is both good and bad news for French football, adding to the pool of talent on display but also increasing the competitive imbalance between clubs. 

“Two factors determine a sport’s attractiveness: the amount of talent on display and the level of competitiveness, without which there is no suspense,” he explains. “In this case, an increase in the first factor will almost certainly be offset by a further decline in the second.”

More worryingly for Ligue 1 officials, and indeed their European peers, Messi’s move threatens to widen the disconnect between Europe’s heavyweight clubs, like PSG, and smaller outfits. In this respect, Gayant argues, it increases the likelihood of a future split between a continental “Superleague” and second-tier domestic leagues.

Culled from France 24