Chelsea youngster Charly Musonda currently on loan at Real Betis has revealed that he turned down the chance to join Barcelona in 2012 in favour of a move to Stamford Bridge.
The 19-year-old left the Anderlecht academy at 16 to continue his career elsewhere and Chelsea s decision to also snap up his brothers Lamisha and Tika eventually convinced him to join the Premier League side.
It is true that I rejected Barcelona because Chelsea also agreed to sign my brothers, Musonda told Marca.
At the time, it was very important for the family that we all joined the same club. We wanted to stick together.
Barcelona are among the best in the world, but it was important for me to have my family with me.
Visiting La Masia was very impressive. It was a gre…
Aston Villa defender Enda Stevens has joined League Two side Northampton Town on a one-month emergency loan deal.
The 24-year-old made six Premier League starts during Paul Lambert s first season in charge at Villa Park in 2012-13, but has since fallen out of favour.
Stevens spent time on loan at both Notts County and Doncaster Rovers last term, making 13 Championship appearances for the latter.
The former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international started his career at University College Dublin before establishing himself as first-choice left-back at St Patrick s Athletic.
He then joined Shamrock Rovers, where he won two League of Ireland titles and the 2011 PFAI Young Player of the Year award before switching to Villa in January 2012.
The full-b…
Raheem Sterling was the hero as Manchester City tightened their grip at the top of the table with a 3-1 win over Watford.
The England international scored a thirteen-minute hattrick at the start of the second half to ensure victory for Pep Guardiola’s side, with substitute Gerard Deulofeu netting a consolation for the Hornets, who remain in eighth place.
The Citizens know there is no room for complacency, with Liverpool hot on their heels and the Reds kept up their end of the bargain by coming from behind to beat Burnley 4-2 at Anfield in Sunday’s early kick-off.
Scare
Ashley Westwood gave the Clarets a surprise lead on six minutes, only for goals from Roberto Firminio (2) and Sadio Mane to turn the game on its head.
Johann Berg Gudhmund…
Shinji Kagawa has signed a two-year contract extension at Borussia Dortmund, the Bundesliga club have confirmed.
Japan international Kagawa, in his second spell with Dortmund having rejoined from Manchester United in August 2014, was due to be out of contract at the end of the forthcoming season but is now committed to a stay at Signal Iduna Park until June 2020.
Over a combined five campaigns with BVB, Kagawa has won two Bundesliga titles and twice lifted the DFB-Pokal.
Dortmund are currently on tour in Kagawa s homeland and he told a news conference in Tokyo: BVB with its incredible fans has grown in my heart.
I am very happy to continue to be a part of this extraordinary club in one of the best leagues in the world with the highest number of spectato…
For the first time since becoming an independent country, Ukraine have secured a place in the quarterfinals of the European Championship by beating Sweden after extra time in an extremely tiring round-of-16 contest on Monday. Manchester City s Oleksandr Zinchenko opened the scoring in the 27th minute by getting on the end of a cross from West Ham forward Andriy Yarmolenko and producing a thumping volley to beat Robin Olsen in the Sweden goal. Emil Forsberg equalized with a deflected effort which found its way into the top corner in the 43rd minute. The match was eventually settled by substitute Artem Dovbyk just as the 30 minutes of extra time had expired.
Seesaw
It was an extremely interesting contest, one that could have gone either way at any moment. The teams alternated in…
Market: Slovenia win to nil
Odds: 21/20 @
With a golden chance to extend on their Nations League purple patch, Slovenia will make the trip to Moldova on Wednesday night.
Starting with the hosts, hugely outplayed against Greece over the weekend and hit with what turned out to be a routine 2-0 defeat on home soil, Moldova have continued to limp on what has been an extended rut. While the Blues might have managed to open up this year s Nations League campaign with a stalemate against Kosovo on home soil, they have since lost each of their last three appearances on the bounce, including a 1-0 defeat against Wednesday s guests last month. Now without a win to their name across any competition since way back in June 2019, Engin Fırat s men have also lost 11 of those…
Serie B club Sampdoria have appointed Giuseppe Iachini as their new coach and have handed him a contract running until June 2012.
The Italian club made the announcement on Monday, just a day after dismissing Gianluca Atzori following their 1-0 defeat to Vicenza at home at the weekend.
Sampdoria announce that they have signed a contract with Giuseppe Iachini until June 30, 2012, reads a statement on the club s official website.
The Genoa-based outfit were relegated from Serie A at the end of last season and are struggling to gain a foothold in the Italian second division at present.
Samp are currently seventh in the Serie B table with 22 points from 15 matches, 12 behind leaders Torino.
Iachini led Brescia to promotion to Serie A at the end of 20…
Juventus kept alive their hopes of silverware this season with a 2-0 first-leg win in their Coppa Italia semi-final against Lazio.
Front two Federico Chiesa and Dusan Vlahovic scored in the early part of the second half to break open a previously underwhelming encounter at the Allianz Stadium in Turin.
The two sides also met in Serie A on Saturday, Lazio winning that game 1-0 with a stoppage-time goal from Adam Marusic, but Massimiliano Allegri’s side successfully turned the tables as he chases a record fifth Coppa Italia as coach to break a tie with Roberto Mancini and Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Lazio lost Mattia Zaccagni to injury just 10 minutes in after he was caught by Federico Gatti – and were grateful things did not get worse even before substitute Gustav Is…
Juventus have contacted Real Madrid over taking Raul Albiol on loan for the second half of the season.
Albiol has slipped down the central defensive list at the Santiago Bernabeu recently, only featuring four times in La Liga this season.
According to AS, Juve have shown their interest in bringing the player to Turin in January known to Madrid through an intermediary.
Bianconeri boss Antonio Conte is said to be desperate to reinforce his defence during the transfer window with Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini currently being deployed at left-back and Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci failing to impress the coach.
Albiol arrived in the Spanish capital from Valencia in 2009 and is now vying with Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho and Sergio Ramos for a place in the Madr…
Barcelona defender Dani Alves said he is convinced that Pep Guardiola will sign a new deal with the Catalan club.
Guardiola, who has led the club to 13 titles since taking charge in 2008, is out of contract at the end of the season and has yet to decide whether to sign one of his customary one-year extensions.
However, Alves said he remains optimistic that the 41-year-old boss will soon commit his future to the reigning European and Spanish champions.
I think that Guardiola will sign again because without him we re nothing, the Brazil international said.
Without him we d lose our anchor and we d drift away. Guardiola has given us stability.
Alves added that it would be impossible for anyone to accuse the former Spain international of leaving …