Everton sign Digne
LONDON, Aug 1, (Agencies): Everton have signed defender Lucas Digne from Spanish champions Barcelona on a five-year contract, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old France international joins Everton after two seasons in Barcelona, where he made 46 appearances across all competitions, as the Nou Camp outfit won the La Liga last term and retained the Spanish Cup.
“I want to show my best football here and discover the best league in the world. Everybody loves the Premier League. I am loving the fact I am coming here,”
“I am not afraid, I am excited. For me, it is a new challenge to discover a country, a league, people and a great club such as Everton. It is fabulous.”
Digne, who missed out on France’s World Cup squad this year, previously played for French top-flight side Paris St Germain, winning two Ligue 1 titles, and also completed a loan spell at Italy’s AS Roma.
Everton manager Marco Silva praised Digne’s attributes and welcomed the competition with Leighton Baines at left-back.
“He is a high-quality player, aggressive, with good technical ability and... he has demonstrated his clear quality in Barcelona,” Silva said.
Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has said Robert Lewandowski is not for sale — at any price — amid reports that Chelsea are the latest top club chasing the Poland striker.
“Our door remains closed, the top quality we have at Bayern Munich will stay here,” Rummenigge told Wednesday’s edition of Munich-based newspaper TZ.
The UK media has suggested Lewandowski, under contract at Bayern until 2021, could move to Chelsea and the Polish striker’s agent revealed in May that his client wants to leave Munich after four successful years.
In the past, Lewandowski has frequently been linked to Spanish giants Real Madrid.
However Rummenigge says Lewandowski, the Bundesliga’s top-scorer last season with 29 goals and who has a market value of around 85 million euros ($99 million), is going nowhere — whatever the amount offered.
Napoli’s charismatic owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has taken over troubled former Serie A club Bari after they were relegated to the Italian league’s fourth tier over financial difficulties.
Bari, who last played in Serie A in 2010-11, finished seventh in Serie B last season and qualified for the promotion playoffs.
But they were refused a licence last month for next season and forced to restart in Serie D, the highest of the amateur leagues.
On Tuesday, the city’s mayor Antonio Decaro offered the ownership of the club to De Laurentiis ahead of 10 other candidates.
“This club has a very long history of 110 years. We must rise quickly and try to return to Serie A,” De Laurentiis told a news conference on Wednesday.
Stoke City manager Gary Rowett hopes goalkeeper Jack Butland would resist any offers from top-level clubs and stay with the Championship side as they prepare for their league opener at Leeds United on Sunday.
Butland, who has won eight caps for England and was part of their World Cup squad, featured in all but five of Stoke’s 41 matches in all competitions last season.
Their relegation from the Premier League last season prompted speculation that several top-tier sides were keen to sign Butland but Rowett said there had been offers worth considering.
Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope, a member of England’s World Cup squad, faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after an operation on a dislocated shoulder, manager Sean Dyche said Wednesday.
The 26-year-old, who has one international cap but was an unused squad member in Russia, dislocated his shoulder in the Europa League second qualifying round first leg clash with Aberdeen last Thursday.
Tom Heaton, who ironically Pope replaced as first choice last season after he too dislocated a shoulder, is also struggling according to Dyche. He has asked UEFA for dispensation to bring in another goalkeeper for Thursday’s second leg at Burnley which is delicately poised at 1-1.