Italian cyclist Samuele Privitera dies at 19 after crash in Giro della Valle d'Aosta
Italian cyclist Samuele Privitera, 19, died following a crash during the opening stage of the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, his team Hagens Berman Jayco confirmed late on Wednesday.
Privitera crashed during a descent, losing his helmet and colliding with a gate, Italian media reported. He was transported to hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.
"Samuele was and always will be the life and personality of this team. This team has always been a small family, and moments like this are unimaginable," Axel Merckx, owner of Hagens Berman Jayco, said in a statement.
The second stage of the race, which takes place in northern Italy's Aosta Valley near the French border, has been cancelled.
The Giro della Valle d'Aosta is the largest under-23 race in Italy, following the Giro Next Gen, held annually in August in the Aosta Valley.
"The stage goes to him and his family. It's the first thing I read in the morning," Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogacar said after winning the race's 12th stage on Thursday.
"I was thinking of him in the last kilometre."
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New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
Evan Ferguson and Brighton – is there any way back?
Evan Ferguson's season-long loan from Brighton & Hove Albion to Roma is a pivotal moment in his career development. The switch to the Italian capital until next summer for the 20-year-old Republic of Ireland international striker, with the possibility of the move becoming permanent, could go one of two ways. Advertisement Everybody involved in the deal — the player, his representative, both clubs — will hope it works out the same way as it did initially at Roma for Tammy Abraham, the No 9 he is replacing at the Stadio Olimpico. After leaving Chelsea in summer 2021 as a 23-year-old, Abraham scored 17 goals in his first season in Serie A, while also helping Roma to win the inaugural UEFA Conference League and earning himself an England recall. His career has not hit those same heights since, however. An ACL injury in his left knee at the end of his second year in Italy cost him much of the 2023-24 season, before the last one was spent on loan to Italian rivals Milan, scoring only three times in 28 league appearances. The now 27-year-old joined Turkish side Besiktas, again on loan, at the start of this month — a transfer which will become permanent if certain conditions are met. His exit to Istanbul created the vacancy up front in the Roma ranks. If Ferguson hits the ground running along similar lines to Abraham four years ago, his confidence levels and prospects will be restored. Brighton will then get back a rejuvenated player at the end of a deal in which Roma have paid an initial loan fee of €3million and are covering his wages in full. Alternatively, a €37m (£32.2m$45.5m) buy option clause for Roma kicks in — a very healthy profit on a player signed to Brighton's academy from Bohemians in his homeland as a raw 16-year-old in January 2021. Do please note the 'if' at the beginning of that previous paragraph, though, because there is another scenario where his time in Italy is much gloomier. A continuing of Ferguson's downward spiral over the past 20 months — injuries contributing to irregular game time, the goals drying up and belief ebbing away — could be accompanied by a nosedive in the value to Brighton of a player who was being talked about as a £90m ($121.7m at current rates) prospect when he first broke through in the Premier League with six goals and two assists in 19 top-flight appearances in 2022-23. Advertisement In those circumstances, Ferguson would return to the Amex Stadium with the chance of re-establishing himself at his parent club further diminished and the likelihood of leaving next time for a club at a lower level than Roma and West Ham United, where he spent the second half of the last Premier League campaign on loan. The Irishman does not feature in the immediate plans of Brighton's head coach Fabian Hurzeler. That is self-evident from this move to Roma happening in the same month the German has lost Joao Pedro from his forward options for the new season, with the Brazilian's sale to Chelsea. The landscape could be different in a year's time if Ferguson's latest temporary exit goes to plan. 'For sure, he has a future at Brighton,' Hurzeler told The Athletic at the end of Brighton's training camp in Marbella, Spain, on Monday. 'I am very happy for him that we found a good solution, that he now has an opportunity to get game time. That is the most important thing for Evan. I still see a lot of potential, and I still see that he is a player for us for the future.' 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There were a lot of cheers for him and hopefully now he can bring his quality onto the pitch.' Ferguson was all smiles, signing autographs as he received a rousing reception from Roma fans at the airport as they welcomed him to Italy on Sunday, before he completed the medical and paperwork formalities of his move. What a reception for Evan Ferguson in Rome by the Roma fanbase The start of something special — Rep of Ireland Player Tracker (@reptracker) July 20, 2025 Even fresher in the minds of those expectant Roma supporters than Abraham's first-season exploits for their club will be the successes of Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay and Ferguson's Brighton team-mate Billy Gilmour in helping Napoli to the Serie A title last season after the Scotland international colleagues moved to Italy a year ago. 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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Alexander Isak could cost £250m to sign. This is why – and who could afford it
Alexander Isak wishing to leave Newcastle United is one thing; working out who could afford to buy him is quite another. Newcastle hope any serious transfer fee conversation will start at the mind-boggling figure of £150million ($203m). To put that into context, it would make Isak the third most expensive footballer in history, behind Paris Saint-Germain recruits Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. Advertisement The field of possible destinations looks slim. Even ignoring the football factors, the financials in play are huge and an obvious barrier to entering the Isak market. Buying Isak for £150m is more like a £171m transfer once we add in some estimated agent fees and, if the buyer is a Premier League club, a four per cent transfer levy. From a profit and sustainability rules (PSR) perspective, spread over a five-year deal, those fees alone would add £33m-35m to a club's costs. Then there are Isak's wages. 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They don't want for cash, having received not far shy of £1bn from their current owners, but this deal, alongside their other activity this summer, would be pushing things. Particularly as Chelsea are in their own UEFA settlement regime, and the impact of recent intra-group asset sales won't boost their PSR calculations forever. Chelsea are already in the position of needing to sell players to free up space on their Champions League squad list and, in any case, it's unclear how Isak's salary would line up at a club where there's been a concerted (albeit sometimes overstated) effort to reduce staff costs. Arsenal were long viewed as a viable landing spot for Isak, but the imminent signing of Viktor Gyokeres casts clear doubt on that. Even without Gyokeres, they have spent over £100m already this summer, albeit after a lean year last season (net spend: £20.9m). Arsenal probably could afford the £50m annual cost of signing Isak, especially as revenues continue to rise, but their activity this summer (both completed and pending) would mean they'd very much be pushing toward their limit by doing so. Manchester City have plenty of money and PSR headroom, even after spending some £300m or more since the turn of the year. They could afford Isak, having booked nearly £200m in profit in the past three seasons. Football reasons seem a more likely impediment to moving there. Across town, Manchester United have been heavily loss-making in recent years but, as The Athletic detailed in June, their PSR losses are much lower than previously thought. United remain the fourth-highest-earning club in the world and have undertaken significant cost-cutting over the past year. Advertisement From a PSR perspective, they may well be able to stretch to someone like Isak, even without Champions League football this year. But cash is another issue. United's transfer debts were over £300m net even before the recent signings of Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, and their need to sell players this summer is more cash-focused than rules-based. To that end, adding Isak's wage and paying a huge fee to Newcastle looks highly unlikely, and would rely on either a further injection of shares (Sir Jim Ratcliffe invested £238.5m in 2024) or adding to an already hefty debt pile. Remarkably, despite their £300m-plus spend already this summer, Liverpool represent the likeliest Premier League destination for Isak. The Anfield outfit would need to sell players but are already planning to; the departures of Diaz, Darwin Nunez or Harvey Elliott, or even all three, would provide a boost to profits and cash, and help them back toward the policy of sustainability driven by Fenway Sports Group over the past decade and more. Liverpool have been able to spend so much this summer through careful financial management, and it's exactly that which keeps them in the frame for Isak — even at the huge asking price. It's a tall ask, even for a club as well managed as they have been, but the conditions to do it really are there: low transfer debt, strong cashflow, surging revenue and saleable assets to help offset the hit both now and in the future. Away from the Premier League, the oil-soaked elephant in this particular transfer room is the instance whereby Isak's overarching employer doesn't change. Al Hilal are, like Newcastle, owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and, at the risk of stating the obvious, have no financial worries at all. Since being taken over by PIF in June 2023, Al Hilal have spent over £400m on new signings and goodness knows what more on wages. If they want to sign Isak, they can afford to. The financials would be easy from Al Hilal's perspective, and while selling to a club of such supreme wealth might comfort Newcastle fans in the knowledge they'll get a chunky fee for Isak, the reality is more nuanced. Advertisement Under Premier League rules, any sale to a fellow PIF-owned club would require a 'fair market value assessment'. In other words, if the league deemed the fee spent by Al Hilal excessive, Newcastle would have to revise down their profit on Isak in their PSR calculation. The ramifications of a move to Saudi Arabia would be even worse on the continental stage. Under UEFA rules, player sales between related parties — which Newcastle and Al Hilal are — have to be measured at zero profit (or a loss), just as Allan Saint-Maximin's move to Al Ahli in July 2023 was. Isak could be sold to Al Hilal for £150m and Newcastle would enjoy the cash, but under UEFA rules, they'd be disallowed from booking any profit — thus doing nothing to improve their ability to remain compliant on the European stage.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Man Utd Get Bad News as Juventus Eye Swap Deals for PSG, Tottenham-Linked Star
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