Sports

(GSM) Bundesliga giants Werder Bremen are set to secure the services of former Manchester United and Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre.

The 33-year-old, who joined Arsenal in 2008, is a free agent after leaving the Gunners in the summer.

We are in promising talks, it looks like Silvestre is coming to us, Bremen sporting director Klaus Allofs told Kicker.

The German side are in need of defensive reinforcements, having lost 4-1 to Hoffenheim in their opening game of the Bundesliga season last weekend.

Silvestre spent nine years at Old Trafford between 1999 and 2008 after signing from Internazionale, winning four Premier League titles, the Champions League and the FA Cup.

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Sunderland have completed the signing of defender Billy Jones on a free transfer after his contract with West Bromwich Albion expired, .

The right-back spent a total of three years at the Hawthorns, making sixty-one appearances in all competitions, scoring his one and only goal in a 1-1 draw with Newcastle United towards the end of the 2012/13 Premier League campaign.

He began his career with Crewe Alexandra, where he spend four seasons before spending the same amount of time at Preston North End ahead of his switch to the West Midlands in 2011 while internationally, he has been capped by England at every level from the U16s to the U20s.

The 27 year old has signed a four-year contract with the Black Cats after rejecting the chance to stay at West Brom, who ar…

Riyad Mahrez wants to leave Leicester City, with the winger saying it is time for him to move on from the 2015-16 Premier League champions.

Algeria international Mahrez was named the PFA Player of the Year and scored 17 league goals as Leicester shocked the world by winning the title, but he has stated his intention to play regular Champions League football.

Leicester reached the quarter-finals of Europe s premier club competition before exiting to Atletico Madrid but they did not qualify for next season s tournament and Mahrez is now seeking a transfer from the club to fulfil his ambitions.

Out of the huge admiration and respect I hold for Leicester City, I wanted to be totally honest and transparent with them and have therefore informed the club that I fe…

Manchester City have been negotiating with Leroy Sane over a new contract since October, and according to manager Pep Guardiola, the negotiations are going well.

The winger joined City from Schalke 04 in 2016 in a £37million deal, and though he took a little while to adjust to the demands of the Premier League, he was a crucial part of their impressive title-winning run that saw Guardiola s team pick up an even 100 points.

However, he was surprisingly left out of Germany s World Cup squad, and the tournament proved disastrous for Joachim Low s chosen men. And with the arrival of Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City later in the summer, Sane has seen his time on the pitch significantly reduced.

Naturally, such a downturn in a player s fortunes has led to various sp…

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was unable to identify the cause of his team s collapse after they slumped to a 4-1 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid on Saturday.

The Serie A heavyweights were level at 1-1 going into the break in Cardiff thanks to Mario Mandzukic s spectacular overhead kick, but Casemiro s deflected strike, Cristiano Ronaldo s second and a late Marco Asensio effort saw Zinedine Zidane s side become the first team to retain the Champions League in its current format.

It marked yet more disappointment on the biggest stage in European club football for veteran Buffon, who also lost the 2003 and 2015 deciders to AC Milan and Barcelona respectively.

We are disappointed, he was quoted as saying by UEFA.

We played very well in th…

Dani Ceballos is planning to hold talks with Real Madrid over his future, but a transfer to Barcelona would never be an option for the midfielder.

Ceballos impressed in his first season on loan at Arsenal but was unable to make such an impact in the 2020-21 campaign.

In 40 appearances across all competitions, he provided three assists – from a total of 41 opportunities created – yet failed to score himself.

A passing accuracy of 87.61 per cent last season also ranks him below the average (88.01) of Arsenal midfielders, albeit only Granit Xhaka (3,107) attempted more passes than Ceballos (1,865).

With Carlo Ancelotti having just been appointed as Madrid s new coach, Ceballos is expecting things to be different to how they were under Zinedine Zidane.

A-League premiers Melbourne City suffered a shock late defeat in their final game of the regular season as Newcastle Jets emerged 2-1 victors to move off the foot of the table, with a historic goal for Archie Goodwin among the highlights.

It looked as though City – winners of the season s first phase – were going to coast to their 16th A-League victory of the season when Stefan Colakovski turned in Adrian Luna s low cross in the ninth minute.

However, Goodwin levelled in some style 14 minutes later, collecting a backheeled pass from Lucas Mauragis before nonchalantly curling a stunning 25-yard strike into the far side of the net.

In doing so, Goodwin – aged 16 years and 215 days – became the club s youngest-ever A-League scorer, and second only to Mohamed…

Swiss coach Lucien Favre has been appointed the new manager of Bundesliga club Borussia Moenchengladbach.

The 53-year-old will be unveiled by the club on Monday after signing on as a replacement for Michael Frontzeck, who was sacked on Sunday following Gladbach s terrible start to the season.

The club sit last on the Bundesliga table with just four wins from 22 matches and are seven points adrift of clearing the relegation zone.

A 3-1 loss away to fellow strugglers St Pauli was the last straw for the club s board, who dismissed Frontzeck and have now replaced him with Favre, who won two Swiss League titles with FC Zurich.

Favre also had previous coaching experience in the Bundesliga after guiding Hertha Berlin to fourth place in 2009.

His first g…

Asian Football Confederation president Mohammed Bin Hammam confirmed on Friday he will run against Sepp Blatter in June s FIFA presidential election.

The 61-year-old made the announcement during a press conference in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Bin Hammam revealed he would overhaul the FIFA executive committee should he be elected, increasing its number of members from 24 to 40, with some believing the present set up places too much power in the hands of too few.

The Qatari called for greater transparency from football s governing body after several corruption scandals in recent years, and announced he would establish a transparency committee if successful in deposing Blatter.

Today after careful study, consultation and consideration, armed with…

Moroccan defender Mehdi Benatia could be returning to Italian Serie A this summer, .

The highly rated footballer hasn’t quite managed to prove his worth at Allianz Arena, and with Mats Hummels joining the Bavarians this summer, he has been deemed surplus to requirements.

A return to Italian Serie A appears on the cards for the 29-year-old, with former club AS Roma and Italian champions Juventus reportedly keen on his services.

It was in Serie A that Benatia had made a name for himself, spending three years at Udinese before moving to Stadio Olimpico in July 2013.

The centre-back went on to make 33 league appearances for the Giallorossi, scoring 5 goals in the process, eventually securing a move to Bayern.

AS Roma face AC Milan at San Siro in th…