Odds and Ends Roundup From an Oddly Subdued News Day

By: Martha | June 13th, 2007

Ms. Sophia Loren It’s a holiday in Portugal, but the internet feels like it’s a holiday everywhere. Am I missing something?

•Most importantly for all of us, the Azzurri held on to the top spot in FIFA’s World Rankings, just a few points ahead of new #2 France and #3 Brazil. For those of you who care about other teams, Germany have climbed into fourth while the US leaped a laughable 13 spots to land in 16th, ahead of such squads as Sweden, Scotland and Mexico. Serbia, meanwhile — who have only existed as an independent footballing nation for a few months now — are up nine spots to 22rd, a move that is clearly all about Dejan Stankovic.

•Despite what Cristiano Lucarelli said yesterday about no one being interested in him, the Portuguese press insists he’s very much in Benfica’s sights, though the club seem willing to pay only €5 million, well short of the £7 million fee Livorno are reportedly demanding for the striker.*

•Emerson is supposedly only a medical away from a Milan contract.

•Things are really, really crappy for Arezzo right now: First Juve suffer an injury-time loss to their relegation rivals and send them down on the last days of the season, and then a court confirms their six-point Calciopolio penalty, and officially condemns them to a season in C1. In an effort to save their proverbial asses, the club have requested an investigation of that Juve loss, suggesting the Turin club’s performance was a less than committed one. What? Irregularities on the last day in Italian football? Naw! (And Milan certainly have not kept Reggina up each of the last several seasons. That sort of thing never happens in Italy. Not ever.)

•Sophia Loren is a dirty, dirty liar.

•Though there has been no further information released since, it was widely reported yesterday that Empoli midfielder Almiron had all but signed with Juventus. According to the Italian press, the deal would be the culmination of months of negotiations between the the clubs, with young Juve properties Matteo Paro, Rey Volpato and someone named “Giovincino” (of whose existence I can find no independent confirmation) going the other way.

•In a story Chris has been covering for days, Bayer Leverkusen defender Juan is reportedly headed to Roma; his fee of €9 million was worked out months ago, and the deal is just a few formalities away.

•Arsenal want David Trezeguet. Suckers!

*Sorry about the lack of a direct link; the article is in O Jogo, which for some reason makes it impossible to link to specific stories. If you browse around there, though, you’ll find it — I swear I’m not making things up. Not right now, anyway.