Fenerbahce have completed the signing of central defender Martin Skrtel from Liverpool for a reported fee of £5.5million.
The 31-year-old, who joined Liverpool from Zenit in 2008, played 22 times in the Premier League last season, but saw his first-team opportunities reduced following the arrival of Jurgen Klopp as manager in October 2015.
He has been a fine servant to the Merseyside club, however, clocking up 242 Premier League appearances, behind only Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Sami Hyypia, Pepe Reina and Robbie Fowler.
Slovakia international Skrtel arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday and said: Fenerbahce is a giant club, a great club. Therefore I accepted their offer.
He will be presented to the media on Friday.
Welcome Martin Skrtel! …
According to a recent report from Marca, Jasper Cillessen is interested in leaving Barcelona during the summer transfer window. The 29 year old is now believed to be tired of playing second fiddle to Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who has had the number one spot at the Nou Camp locked down for quite some time. Cillessen has been with Barca since back in 2016 when he made the move over from Ajax, and has also featured regularly for the Netherlands since his debut in 2013.
Cillessen certainly earned his move to Barca after a string of strong years with Ajax, but in the end, it didn’t really matter all too much to the Spanish giants. They continued to prioritise ter Stegen and, understandably, the Dutchman wants to go somewhere that he’ll be getting regular first team football.
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Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan feels indebted to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp for moulding his career, with the two set to meet in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Gundogan enjoyed a successful stint under Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, whom he joined from Nurnberg in 2011.
After a slow start to life at Signal Iduna Park, Gundogan went on to become a pivotal part of Klopp s Dortmund side, helping them win the Bundesliga in his first season and reach the Champions League final the following year.
Frequent injuries have since impacted the Germany international, but when fit he has continued to be an asset to Pep Guardiola s City, who face Klopp and Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-final.
And that occasion gave Gundogan a good opportun…
Juventus bounced back from defeat to AC Milan last time out to record a 4-1 victory over Sampdoria in Turin.
The Serie A champions went down 1-0 at San Siro on Saturday, but were back to somewhere near their best on Wednesday, roaring into a two-goal lead inside the opening nine minutes.
Mario Mandzukic opened the scoring with a header for his first goal of the season and shortly afterwards Giorgio Chiellini nodded in from a corner.
That early quick-fire double may have had Samp fans fearing a repeat of last season s 5-0 drubbing on the same ground, but the visitors – struggling in the lower reaches of the table – pulled one back after the break
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through Patrik Schick, following Chiellini s error.
Any hopes of a comeback were soon da…
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has nominated Pep Guardiola as his manager of the year, but believes Rafael Benitez, Chris Hughton and David Wagner would all be worthy winners of the Premier League accolade.
Guardiola s Manchester City have won the league title in swashbuckling style, drawing Klopp s praise, yet the Reds manager also wants to acknowledge the work of three relegation-battling coaches.
Former Liverpool boss Benitez at Newcastle United, Brighton and Hove Albion s Hughton and Huddersfield Town s Wagner have all successfully kept their sides in the top flight this term, the first time a trio of promoted teams have secured their status since 2012.
Pep Guardiola [at Manchester City], obviously, was impressive for the season, for the kind of football, but I…
Manchester City drew 2-2 with Barcelona but then lost 4-1 on penalties in a delayed friendly on Tuesday.
A storm around Orlando caused the pre-season meeting at Camping World Stadium to be pushed back by over an hour.
When the match did get going, fans were treated to a first half featuring three goals – City s Nico O Reilly cancelling out Pau Víctor s opener before Pablo Torre put an inexperienced Barca side back into the lead.
Playing their first game under new coach Hansi Flick, Barca were pegged back by Jack Grealish s goal on the hour mark.
However, the Blaugrana, who introduced first-teamers Alejandro Balde, Inigo Martinez and Robert Lewandowski after the break, came out on top in the shootout, with Kalvin Phillips and Jacob Wright failing to con…
New York City are through to the final four in the MLS playoffs for the second season in a row after a convincing 3-1 victory away from home against Montreal on Sunday.
City – the reigning champions after defeating the Portland Timbers in the 2021 MLS Cup – moved one step closer to going back-to-back when a smart cutback from Gabriel Pereira presented Maximiliano Moralez with an open goal in the sixth minute.
Their lead was doubled in first-half stoppage-time as Santiago Rodriguez picked out a beautiful ball through to Heber in behind the Montreal defence, and he tucked it away stylishly with his first-time strike from just outside the six-yard box.
Talles Magno was brought off the City bench in the 58th minute, and he assumed penalty responsibilities just th…
Derby County are closing in on the signing of Martyn Waghorn from Championship rivals Ipswich Town, according to Sky Sports.
The twenty-eight-year old had also been linked with a move to Middlesbrough but has opted to join up with Frank Lampard’s side, who opened the season with a come-from-behind victory at Reading on Friday evening.
Meanwhile Waghorn wasn’t named in Ipswich’s squad as they drew 2-2 with newly promoted Blackburn Rovers.
Having signed from Rangers just twelve months ago, Waghorn racked up forty-six appearances in all competitions for the Tractor Boys last season, scoring sixteen goals.
Prior to his move north of the border he spent time with Wigan Athletic and Leicester City and was named the Foxes Player of the Year in 2010,…
Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil is not ruling out a return to Schalke at some point in his career.
Ozil joined Schalke s academy in 2005, but left for Werder Bremen in 2008 before going on to join Real Madrid and then Arsenal.
Despite speculation linking him with a move away after a season in which he was the target of considerable criticism, the Germany international is expected to sign a new contract with Arsene Wenger s side.
But on talk of a possible return to Gelsenkirchen, Ozil told the Funke Media Group: Right now, I m not thinking about it. But in football you cannot rule out anything.
My family would be very happy about a return.
Schalke is my absolute favourite club, I m still a big fan. After all, I grew up with Schalke.
In te…
Newcastle United moved three points above the relegation zone as they scored a late equaliser against Tottenham Hotspur at St James Park on Sunday.
Joelinton had initially given the hosts a shock lead as he made Spurs pay for some shocking defending in the first-half. However, their advantage did not last long as Harry Kane hit two quickfire strikes to complete a speedy first-half comeback. On-loan Arsenal man Joe Willock in the end secured a point for Steve Bruce s men though, converting from close range in the 85th minute.
Here are three things we learned from the game:
Kane a POTY contender?
Whilst Kane has had more lethal Premier League seasons in front of goal his 30-goal haul in the 2017/18 campaign coming to mind it could be argued that this edition is h…