Football Dispatch

Summer Football
07 August 2007
AC Milan have signed Alexandre Pato from Brazilian club Internacional. The 17-year-old striker is widely considered to be one of Brazil's foremost young talents and will join the Rossoneri in January. Under European Union legislation, non-EU players cannot play for European clubs until after their 18th-birthdays. As Pato does not turn 18-years-old until after the summer transfer window closes, he will be expected to arrive at the San Siro after Christmas. In 26-matches for Internacional, Pato has scored 12-goals and helped the club to a win over Barcelona in last season's World Club Cup Final in Japan. Milan paid an estimated 14.6M-euros for the player.

Dusko Tosic has joined Werder Bremen. The 22-year-old Serbian international right-back made 40-appearance for French Cup winners Sochaux, last season. He has signed a 4-year contract at the Weserstadion. Bremen manager Thomas Schaaf is a self-admitted admirer of the versatile defender. Tosic starred for Serbia at the recent U21 European Championships.

Chelsea winger Arjen Robben is hoping to be a Real Madrid player by Thursday. The 23-year-old Holland international fell out of favour with Blues manager Jose Mourinho last season and spent much of 2007 on the sidelines through injury. Mourinho, however, would prefer to keep the player at Stamford Bridge for the short term. Chelsea are somewhat short-staffed at the moment with Didier Drogba, Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack, and John Terry nursing injuries. Frank Lampard is also suffering from a broken toe. Madrid are willing to spend upwards of 25M-pounds on Robben -- cash Mourinho would use to fund a swoop for Sevilla's Daniel Alves.

Ballack, for his part, may be joining Robben at the Bernabeu before the end of August. Madrid are keen to land the 30-year-old Germany captain -- albeit at a substantially reduced wage-rate. Ballack currently earns 125,000-pounds per-week at Chelsea; but the Spanish champions would be willing to pay him just 91,000-pounds per-week. The difference, 34,000-pounds, would be paid by Chelsea under the Madrid proposal. Chelsea would also stand to collect approximately 10M-pounds from the transaction. Ballack made the move to London from Werder Bremen, last summer, on a free transfer.

Leighton Baines is David Moyes' latest signing at Everton. The 22-year-old left-back had a break-through season with Wigan, last year, and starred for England at the summer's U21 European Championships. Newcastle were also in the mix for his services; but, although Sam Allardyce offered a more lucrative wage package, Baines settled on the move to Goodison Park. Moyes payed roughly 5M-pounds for the player.

Manchester United left-back Gabriel Heinze's future remains in limbo. The 29-year-old Argentina international met face-to-face with United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, yesterday. Heinze has been attempting to push through a 6.8M-pound move to Liverpool and hoped that a tete-a-tete with his boss would help in drawing the uncomfortable situation to a close. Ferguson, however, remained steadfast in his insistence that Heinze will not join the Merseysiders. United are adamant that they have a verbal agreement with
Heinze ruling-out a move to a top, Premiership rival. In the short-term, it appears as though Heinze will be training with the United youngsters.

Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has transfer-listed a trio of Eastlands mainstays. Paul Dickov, Danny Mills, and Ousmane Dabo have been shown the exit door at City. Mark Bresciano, meanwhile, has become Eriksson's 9th signing of the summer. The Swede paid 3M-pounds for the Palermo and Australia midfielder.

The Scottish Premier League kicked-off the 2007-2008 season, Saturday; and Rangers are atop Celtic in the standings for the first time in more than two years. Captain Barry Ferguson scored twice and Nacho Novo added another as last season's runners-up earned a 3-0 victory over Inverness in front of 7,700 at Caledonian Stadium.

Celtic, meanwhile, drew a disappointing 0-0 with Kilmarnock at Parkhead. Newly-promoted Gretna were given a rude welcome to the top-flight. Michael Jigton scored twice in 10-minutes as Falkirk dispatched the newcomers 4-0. Monday's lone match saw Hibs beat Hearts in the Edinborough derby. Midfielder Brian Kerr scored the only goal of the match after just 2-minutes at Tynecastle.

Alain Perrin opted for an attacking line-up in his first match in charge at Olympique Lyonnais. The Lyon manager's starting-XI included forwards Milan Baros, Karim Benzema, Sydney Govou, and Kader Keita. Baros and Benzema scored on either side of the break as the hosts defeated Auxerre 2-0 at the Gerland, Sunday, in Ligue-1's kick-off weekend. Juninho started the match on the bench and replaced Baros in the 74th-minute.

Valenciennes earned a somewhat surprising 3-1 victory over visiting Toulouse, Saturday. Former Lille striker Johan Audel scored each of the hosts' goals before the hour-mark and Nicolas Dieuze tallied the lone marker for Toulouse. Audel, 23-years-old, was part of Lille's off-season cull at the forward position.

Elsewhere in Ligue-1, Marseille opened their campaign with a disappointing draw away to Strasbourg and Paris Saint-Germain drew 0-0 at home to Sochaux. Bordeaux started brightly with a 1-0 win over highly-rated Lens. Former Manchester United striker David Bellion scored the match-winner in the 31st-minute.