Weekend Update While People Lie About Freddy Adu
By: Martha | July 28th, 2007
•Despite the fact that virtually all the media outside of Italy are reporting Freddy Adu’s on-again, off-again move to Benfica is so on-again that it’s pretty much done, reports in Italy insist he’s actually going to Parma with the help of Inter, who will buy the player if he puts in a good showing this season. Mmmmhmm.
•Cristiano Lucarelli made his Ukrainian debut yesterday, playing 45 minutes in Shakhtar Donetsk third match of the season. According to Channel 4, he was “impressive.” Good work, Cristiano!
•Oh, and in case you hadn’t heard, Cristian Chivu is an Inter player now. Officially: He signed a five-year contract yesterday, and is expect to join the team in London this weekend. (This despite the alleged efforts of Milan to convince Barca to take the defender, just so Inter couldn’t have him. Love it.) And Marco Andreolli is now in Rome, have signed his co-ownership contract with the club. Whew, glad that’s over.
•Add Real Betis and (who else) Manchester City to the list of teams supposedly interested in Fiorentina’s Valeri Bojinov. (Who, by the way, scored the winning goal yesterday for the club that is trying desperately to move him.)
•Speaking of Man City, according to BBC Sport, the deal sending Juve defender Giorgio Chiellini to Sven Goran Eriksson’s team could well be completed this weekend, assuming Liverpool land Gabby Heinze and don’t make a late bid on the Italian instead. Ironically, if Liverpool do fail to win the Heinze sweepstakes, there’s a good chance he will have chosen Juve instead. I feel like there’s a Catch-22 in here somewhere.
•Man City again: They want Marco Amelia. Man. Who knew it would take this little time to get sick of Eriksson again?
•You know how the Italian press decided Milan’s mysterious non-EU target was Thaigo Motta? Never mind. Now they think it’s Real Madrid’s Julio Baptista who, with a €20 million pricetag on his head, will coast Silvio Berlusconi a whole lot more than Motta would have.
•Women in prison have made “accessories” for Inter Milan. What does that mean, exactly? Are the players carrying handbags we’re not seeing? Tasteful-yet-eye-catching belts?
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Tags: Serie A, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Roma, Juventus, Rumors -amp; News, Parma, Tag IndexSubscribe
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Inter fans can now expect an exceptional defender when playing against mid-to-low table teams, but one who chokes the minute he sees the big boys. That is, when he plays. Because during his “healthy” season last year, he still missed more than a third of the season to injury.
And having the symbol of Milan on Inter’s kit is blasphemous. Shouldn’t they have the coat of arms of Buenos Aires? They just got rid of one of their 3 Italians for a Romanian. They’re quite Italian, yup yup yup.
Posted from
United States
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Martha - here’s the latest from here in DC about Adu.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/
Goff has covered DCU for a long time and obviously knows Freddy well from this. That channel 4 story doesn’t sound right considering Freddy flew to DC from Salt Lake last night to meet up with his Mom and Agent to hop on a plane to Lisbon tomorrow.
Honestly, I think that either Benfica or Parma would be a great place for him to develop, as both clubs do a fine job of developing attacking players. I hope he does well enough to earn some minutes this year, but it is great for him that he is on his way out of the MLS wasteland that is Real Salt Lake.
Plus that transfer fee figure is off - it has already been reported that MLS has accepted the transfer fee from Lisbon - $2 million. The reason the deal feel apart the first time is that Freddy couldn’t “agree personal terms” with Benfica. They’ve upped the offer and he appears to be ready to sign.
Posted from
United States -
This despite the alleged efforts of Milan to convince Barca to take the defender, just so Inter couldn’t have him.
One of the most hilarious rumours of this off season, for me. I love how (apparently) Milan big wigs were said to have flown to Barca just to have that conversation.
Posted from
Australia -
I won’t pretend to know anything about MLS financially, but the fact that America’s ‘chosen one’ is about to be sold for $2m really says a lot about the state of soccer in the US. Even if he isn’t really American.
And if Milan really wanted to prevent Inter from having Chivu, they would’ve bought him themselves. Or at least driven the price up with an offer. They could use some beefing up in the back line.
Posted from
United States -
I believe the transfer fee is low on Adu for two main reasons. First, he could leave on a free transfer in January. Second, teams are hesitant to pay big money for him because while he has been very impressive at age-group FIFA events (U-17 and U-20 WC); he has not produced on any kind of consistent basis in MLS. Plus, while they haven’t said so publically, Salt Lake wants to get rid of him. Due to salary cap and designated player constraints, they cannot afford to pay Adu’s wages while he is still more of a prospect than a star player.
Compare this to a young player who is say South American that a European team will pay a big transfer fee for. Those guys usually have been impressive both for their club sides and the youth national teams. Freddy hasn’t produced more than a couple of highlight reel goals for DCU and only 2 peanlty kick goals for Salt Lake. To his credit - he has been played on the wing where he is less comfortable his entire career in MLS - he would like to play as an attacking central midfielder, where he did impress at the recent U-20 WC.
P.S. Chis - why are you so hung up on nationality? You are constantly jabbing Martha at how Inter are not “Italian” enough and now Freddy is not “American” enough. What gives?
Posted from
United States -
I’m not hung up. Inter I’ve just always hated, and I’m certainly not the only person that feels it’s somewhat oxymoronic for Inter to call itself an Italian team when they have a whopping 2 Italians on the senior squad (with 7 Argies & 5 Brazilians). Which will probably be the same or less than a club like Man City next year. Certainly there’s something to be said for competing for the Italian championship with a few actual Italians playing part.
And that wasn’t a dig at Freddy or his nationality. If anything it was a dig at American soccer, whose golden boy was born in another country.
Posted from
United States -
Well it is the nature of America as a nation, I thought, that people come from all over the world can call themselves American …
As far as the Inter situation, to me one of the biggest problems in world football today is still racism. It just sounds xenophobic to me to express that sentiment, especially when there are so many racist ultras in Italy. If there is not a specific rule in place requiring teams in Serie A to field a certain number of Italian or EU players, why does it matter where the players come from? I believe your beloved Roma has as many Brazilians as Inter does, no? I realize that Roma has more Italians in thier squad by a long shot, but I would think that as a fan of any Italian team the primary thing would be to see the best players at the club with the best chance of winning, regardless of where they were born.
Posted from
United States -
Hi, Jay here from the Spurs blog.
It’s a bit random, but we’re due to play Torino at White Hart Lane on 4th of August. It will be our last pre-season friendly, and I was just wondering what to expect. If anyone has any opinions or input that’d be great. I’m aware of Alessandro Rosina who I saw at the U-21 European Championships and looked great, but that’s about it.
Thanks
Posted from
United Kingdom -
tmc, did you really just imply that my feelings towards Inter are racist? Or, to take your use of ‘xenophobic’ literally, that I literally fear the influx of foreigners to Serie A.
You are obviously intelligent enough to realize how ludicrous that statement is. Come on. You’re better than that.
Posted from
United States -
Here’s another weird deal for you. Reggina buys 23-yo Icelandic player Emil Halfredsson after said player spent_two_weeks_in Lyn Oslo, because he transferred from from Tottenham only earlier this month.
http://tuttomercatoweb.com/index.php?action=read&id=69396
According to a Lyn director, they got more from Reggina than they had to give to Tottenham, so apparently his value must have been raised during the one competitive cup game he played for that club. C’mon Reggina, did they just forget to contact a long-time transfer target before he signed for another club?
Posted from
Netherlands -
Chris - that isn’t my point. I don’t think you are a racist. My point is just that the rules are what they are and fans of Serie A should want the best players on the field, no matter where they come from.
I would like to see football fans all over the world get past these racial and nationality based divisions and appreciate the talent of the players. That’s all.
Posted from
United States -
tmc, first off, thats never really going to happen… an ideal world doesnt exist…
besides its not really about racial and nationality division, but just more like national pride…
Posted from
United Arab Emirates -
rickard, that really is bizarre — he’s signed two long-term deals (four years, four years) in just a few weeks time? That’s brilliant management there, on pretty much everyone’s part. (Also to add to the bizarreness of it all, his official website consists only of a picture of him and the words “game over.” Is he dead, or something?)
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Thanks for that link, tmc — looks like the deal is pretty much done. Man, I wish my building wasn’t positioned in such a way that the dish needed to watch the Portuguese league games can’t get reception at my place. I’m interested in the league anyway, but it’d be fascinating to track Adu’s progress there.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Jay… Torino may have the greatest chance of being relegated than any other Serie A team I can think of. They have no strikers worth a damn and just lost Michele for 3 months. Rosina is a uniquely talented player who will run right at defenses and is capable of tremendous displays of skill but he lacks the passing touch at this point to be a truly great player. He’s still very young. I don’t profess to know a lot about Torino but what I do know is they haven’t impressed me at all. Given what the Spurs did in the second half of last season and your pickups in the transfer market, it should be a blood bath if you apply any pressure at all. Just my $0.02…
Posted from
United States
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