La Liga
KOEMAN BARS YET-TO-RELEASED SUAREZ FROM TRAINING WITH BARCA SQUAD
Luis Suarez has been asked to train on his own by new Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman as he prepares to leave the LaLiga club for Juventus.
Although the new coach has told him that his services were no longer required, the club has not formally terminated his contract which still has one-year expiry date.
However, the Uruguayan forward is reported by Daily Mail to be in talks with the Spanish club to terminate his contract, which expires in 2021, after six successful years at the Camp Nou.
Quoting Spanish outlet, Marca, Daily Mail reported that Suarez has agreed a £9million salary with the Serie A champions in a move that would see him link-up with Cristiano Ronaldo in Turin.
And several reports, including ESPN, have claimed that the striker is training away from the first-team group alongside Arturo Vidal and another fitness coach while his future gets resolved.
Suarez posted an image of him training with Barcelona on his Instagram story with the caption, ‘Professional’, implying that he will remain dedicated to the LaLiga club while he remains a player there.
The forward’s proposed £9m salary in Italy will see him receive a lower wage compared to what he currently earns at Barcelona, though the 33-year-old is expected to earn additional sums in bonuses and image rights payments.
Suarez is the third-highest goalscorer in Barcelona’s history with 198 strikes to his name – despite only joining the Catalan side six years ago.
Yet new boss Koeman has refused to include him in his plans for next season and he is set to depart the club alongside Vidal – who has been strongly linked with a move to Inter Milan.
Suarez was reportedly told by the Dutch manager that his services are no longer required in a one-minute phone call which left the Uruguayan stunned.
The striker was also upset at the radio silence by club president Josep Maria Bartomeu over his future, with Barcelona fans already upset at their own chief over the way he has handled Lionel Messi’s transfer saga.
During his time at the Camp Nou, Suarez has won four LaLiga titles, four Spanish Cups along with the Champions League and Club World Cup titles in 2015.
He originally joined the Spanish giants for a £65million from Liverpool in 2014.
It was mission accomplished, said Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti after his side fought back from two-goals behind to snatch a rip-roaring 4-4 draw on Tuesday for a 5-4 aggregate win that put them through to the Copa del Rey final.
Ancelotti brushed off questions about a sub-par performance by his side and praised his players’ effort in what he considered a highly entertaining encounter.
“We have achieved our goal today which was to reach the final and there is not much time to think about it,” Ancelotti told a press conference.
“It was an entertaining game with some mistakes and a lot of good things. It was fun and we are in the final.
“I never saw ourselves out of it because anything can happen at the Bernabeu. When we have to come from behind, we never give up. We never give up, especially at home, with the fans by our side.”
Ancelotti said David Alaba was not to blame after he deflected two balls into his own goal, calling it “bad luck” by the Austrian defender, but urged his defence to play with better focus moving forward.
“It’s not good to concede four goals in a game,” Ancelotti said.
“Right now we are a team that has a lot of effectiveness up-front, but little balance.
“However, we can’t ignore what we did in attack, scoring four goals against Real is not that easy. I think we are doing quite well.”
Real Madrid, who have won the Spanish Cup only once in over a decade, will play either Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in a mouth-watering final in Seville next month.
Atletico fought back to hold Barca to a thrilling 4-4 draw ahead of Wednesday’s second-leg in Madrid.
-Reuters
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Real Madrid’s legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti will go on trial next week for allegedly failing to declare income to Spain’s tax office, the Madrid court which will hear the case has said.
Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of four years and nine months for the 65-year-old Italian, accusing him of having cost Spain’s treasury more than one million euros ($1.1 million) in undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015.
The trial will begin on Wednesday and it is expected to last two days, a spokesman for the court said.
Ancelotti, who as a coach has won a record five Champions League trophies including three with Real, must be present for the hearings, he added.
Prosecutors accuse him of only declaring in his tax returns the personal remuneration received from Real Madrid during those two years even though he himself declared himself to be a tax resident in Spain and indicated his home was in Madrid.
They accuse Ancelotti of allegedly setting up a “confusing” and “complex” system of shell companies to hide his extra earnings from his image rights as well as from other sources such as real estate.
A Spanish court in 2023 ordered Ancelotti to stand trial over the affair, but did not set a date.
Ancelotti dismissed the affair last year as “an old story that I hope will be resolved soon” when he was asked about the case.
He took over at Real Madrid in 2013, leaving in May 2015, before being appointed at Bayern Munich the following year.
The former Italy international midfielder, who as a player won the European Cup twice with AC Milan, later managed Napoli and Everton before returning to Real Madrid in 2021.
Aside from his success in the Champions League he has won domestic league titles with Madrid and Milan, in England with Chelsea, in Germany with Bayern Munich and in France with Paris Saint-Germain.
-AFP
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Spain’s former soccer chief Luis Rubiales told Reuters on Thursday he would appeal a court ruling which found him guilty of sexual assault for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent.-
-Reuters
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