Month: January 2025

West Ham signed a second Italy international on Saturday as Marco Borriello joined on loan from Roma for the rest of the season.

Striker Borriello follows compatriot Antonio Nocerino to Upton Park after the midfielder made a similar switch from Milan earlier in the day.

Borriello joined Roma from Milan for £10million in July 2011 following a successful loan spell, but has struggled to establish himself at the Stadio Olimpico.

The 31-year-old has spent time at Juventus and Genoa on loan, and scored 12 goals while at the latter for the duration of last season.

However, the forward, capped seven times by Italy, has managed just one goal in 11 league appearances for Roma this term.

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce will hope Borriello can recapture his best form alo…

Iago Aspas is set to return to Celta Vigo, after the Galician club agreed a deal with Sevilla to sign the striker.

Aspas, 27, spent last season on loan at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan from Liverpool, though Sevilla were obliged to make the move permanent later this month.

However, with the striker having managed just two goals in 16 La Liga games for the UEFA Europa League holders, Sevilla have opted to move Aspas on again.

Aspas will hope a return to Balaidos can help him rediscover his best form. A return of 12 strikes in 34 Liga matches for the then newly promoted Celta in 2012-13 prompted Liverpool to part with an estimated £7million for his services.

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Rodrygo Goes became Real Madrid s quickest debut goalscorer in LaLiga since Brazil icon Ronaldo when he wrapped up a 2-0 victory over Osasuna on Wednesday.

Rodrygo, signed by Madrid for a reported €45million in June 2018 but loaned back to Santos for a year, took just 93 seconds to score on his first appearance for Los Blancos.

The Brazilian 18-year-old replaced Vinicius Junior, who had broken the deadlock, in the 71st minute and opened his account by dribbling in from the left and curling a fine finish into the far corner of the net.

It was the fastest a Madrid player had scored on their league debut since Ronaldo, who needed just 62 seconds to strike against Deportivo Alaves in 2002.

1 Rodrygo Goes is the fastest player to score his first LaLiga goal …

Real Madrid defender Nacho said his team-mates have great confidence in their ability to succeed this season without Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, while admitting the duo had been essential to the club s success in recent years.

Head coach Zidane left the club after guiding Madrid to a third consecutive Champions League title in 2017-18 and was replaced by Julen Lopetegui.

The Frenchman s departure preceded Ronaldo s €112million transfer to Juventus, leaving Los Blancos without their all-time leading goal-scorer going into 2018-19.

Nacho, who played all 90 minutes of Madrid s 2-0 victory over Getafe in their opening LaLiga match of the season, told GQ magazine that the loss of Zidane and Ronaldo had only strengthened his side s resolve.

 Back …

Objective criteria now can be used to determine just who are the best footballers on the pitch, thanks to a US researcher who developed a computer model to quantify players performance, new research out Wednesday found.

In soccer (football), there are relatively few big things that can be counted, explained Luis Amaral, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, lead author of the paper in the online edition of PloS One.

You can count how many goals someone scores, but if a player scores two goals in a match, that s amazing. You can really only divide two or three goals or two or three assists among, potentially, eleven players, added the Portuguese-American scientist.

Most of the players will have nothing to quantify their…

Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp said Monday he would relish the chance to take over from Fabio Capello as England manager should the Italian quit after the team s World Cup exit.

England s lacklustre campaign in South Africa ended with a 4-1 last 16 loss to arch-rivals Germany in Bloemfontein on Sunday.

Defeat immediately led to calls for Capello to resign and the Italian, under contract with England s Football Association until 2012, admitted he was considering his position.

Capello has been in charge since 2008 and, should he quit or be sacked, Redknapp said that as a proud Englishman he would jump at the chance to manage the national side.

I m English, who wouldn t want to manage England?, Redknapp told Talk Sport radio on Monday.

Ther…

Napoli are weighing up summer move for Inter Milan centre back Juan Jesus, Italian media outlet .

It is no secret the Azzurri need another central defender to complete the squad for the new season and they were believed to be closing in on Torino s Nikola Maksimovic.

But, with Granata rejecting their latest offer, Napoli have decided to explore other targets as they have no plans to match Torino s valuation of the player.

The Azzurri are now turning their attention towards Inter Milan defender Juan Jesus, who could be available at a reasonable price.

The Brazilian has been in fine form ever since he joined the club from Internacional and has already featured in 91 Serie A fixtures, scoring one goal.

Juan Jesus, 24, has so far earned four Brazil …

West Ham striker Andy Carroll insists he knew former club Liverpool would challenge for the Premier League title this season.

The English striker, who made his move to West Ham permanent in June last year, says he told his new team-mates during pre-season that Brendan Rodgers men would threaten.

Sitting two points clear at the top, Liverpool – who face West Ham on Sunday – are dreaming of a first league title since 1990.

And Carroll said he predicted the Anfield club to challenge with star strikers Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge starring.

I said from the beginning of the season that I thought they had a great chance of winning the league, Carroll said.

I said that from the beginning – the very start. I said to all the lads that they would win it.