Latest news with #AthleticClub
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
🚨 Official: Athletic Club sign Jesús Areso until 2031
Jesús Areso will not play for Atlético de Madrid, as was suggested in recent weeks, and is moving from Osasuna to Athletic Club. The full-back signs a contract with the red-and-white team until 2031 and will be available for Ernesto Valverde's training sessions starting tomorrow. The full-back returns to Lezama, where he already played 52 matches as a player for Bilbao Athletic. He has made his mark at Osasuna with 11 assists and one goal in the 86 official matches he has played wearing their jersey. Advertisement This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here. 📸 Juan Manuel Serrano Arce - 2025 Getty Images
New York Times
7 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Can Barca register Rashford? Plus: Parma eye Reyna, Premier League ticket price table
The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic's daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox. Hello! Barcelona are signing Marcus Rashford. Even though they might not be able to field him. Capeesh? On the way: 📝 Barca's Rashford puzzle 🇺🇸 Italian team move for Reyna 💰 Wrexham's third big-money deal 🇯🇵 Japanese pinball The way they conduct transfers at Barcelona is, to put it politely, a little back to front. They explore potential signings, they bring negotiations to a conclusion — and then they worry about whether those signings are even permitted in the first place. It's how it went with Dani Olmo last summer: Barca paying £50million ($62m) for him without any guarantee that La Liga would register the midfielder for the season that followed. In the end, it took government intervention to allow Olmo to play from start to finish. It's how it would have gone a few weeks back, too, had Nico Williams not turned down the Catalans. Advertisement Barca, see, are forever either on the verge of exceeding La Liga's salary cap, or exceeding it full stop. Williams, who stunned them by choosing an enhanced contract with Athletic Club over a transfer to Camp Nou, was sharp enough to realise this. His camp demanded an exit clause in the event that Barca failed to register him with La Liga. Barca refused, causing the transaction to collapse. And so, they and we move onto Marcus Rashford, the latest Barca deal that comes with the caveat of nobody quite knowing if the club can afford him. The move is happening, technically speaking, because the Manchester United forward is in Spain. Terms for a season-long loan are in place and Rashford, as Dermot Corrigan outlines, is greasing the wheels by making a big financial concession: accepting what equates to a 25 per cent pay cut. The 27-year-old earns just under £17m a year at United, or £325,000 a week — top whack in the Premier League. Barca will pay him £12m, with Rashford forgoing the difference. The makeweight facilitates a deal to suit all sides but it is far from certain that Spain's governing body will approve it. In Barcelona terms, it's entirely on trend. United need this transfer to go through. Rashford is persona non grata in Ruben Amorim's first-team plans, and the forward is a horribly expensive spare part. Barca, likewise, need the 27-year-old to cover as a left-sided attacker or a centre-forward. And Rashford needs a break from Old Trafford. Win, win, win. Barca are already beyond the salary cap La Liga has set for them. Officially, they cannot register new signings for 2025-26 — so the process of loaning Rashford is ploughing ahead into the dark (Barca aren't in any position to buy him outright). Joan Garcia, the goalkeeper they bought from Espanyol last month, is already trapped in that limbo. Advertisement What Barca consistently manage to do, and what TAFC has touched on previously, is 'pull levers': a euphemism for 'find money from somewhere', via commercial agreements or player sales. It's what they'll have to do to ensure Rashford — or Garcia for that matter — can be involved in their opening league fixture at Mallorca on August 16. As an example, in December, Barca began selling long-term VIP box deals for the redeveloped, but as yet unfinished, Camp Nou (above). That initiative could raise £87m. Dermot has gone deeper in explaining some of their other levers and it's almost a tradition of every transfer window now: Barca searching every avenue to keep their recruitment churning. Realistically, the Rashford deal will proceed because it's gone too far not to, and because Barca have a knack of getting these moves done. It's how they operate — player first, bureaucracy second — but you can't help thinking it's a matter of time before the wing-and-a-prayer routine catches them out badly. 🎙️ The Rashford deal is the subject of the latest episode of The Athletic FC Podcast. Pol Ballus is becoming a veteran of levers and registration wrangles. Listen on Apple and Spotify. One name TAFC expected to be writing more about during Europe's close season was Gio Reyna. Few players on the continent are more desperate for a transfer but until now, mentions of the United States forward have been sporadic. We're seeing movement, however. This morning's DealSheet reveals that Serie A side Parma are targeting Reyna — still on the books of Borussia Dortmund in Germany, but as peripheral as ever — as a priority. Parma have an American owner (the Krause Group) and cash to spend after selling French forward Ange-Yoan Bonny to Inter for £20m. Advertisement Before this window closes, Reyna has to move on. A brief loan spell to Nottingham Forest aside, he has given his entire professional career to Dortmund, but he isn't getting games and it isn't working out. He is 22 and has a World Cup to think about. Talks between Parma and Dortmund went well over the weekend. Keep eyes on this one. Amusingly, the other line that jumped out of the DealSheet was Chelsea (would you believe it?) casting their eye over 22-year-old winger Xavi Simons at RB Leipzig. He's angling to leave, and Chelsea have an addiction to young, moderately expensive attackers. I'm not saying it's on, but history speaks for itself. Last week, after several years on the waiting list, I finally landed a season ticket for Edinburgh's finest, Heart of Midlothian. It cost £425, which struck me as decent value. It seemed even better value when I read Matt Woosnam's breakdown of season ticket costs in the Premier League. True, an adult can watch Burnley for no more than £525 in 2025-26 but the most expensive prices at nine clubs are now over £1,000. Fulham setting top dollar at £3,084 (over $4,000) is, well, preposterous. I'm not sure how these figures look to our U.S. readers — email in and let us know — because live sport in the States isn't cheap. The Premier League's most affordable options (£345 for an adult at West Ham United, for example) are far more inclusive. But certain charges are pricing out ordinary people, and they'll continue to soar. (Kick-off ET/UK time) Women's European Championship semi-final: England vs Italy, 3pm/8pm — Fox Sports/ITV. Japan's J1 League is tight. With 24 of 38 matchdays gone, its top five clubs are split by four points, leaving little in the way of margin for error. It remains to be seen, then, how badly Kyoto Sanga — fourth, and fully in the mix — rue the events of yesterday. They led Avispa Fukuoka 2-0 in the 93rd minute. They conspired to draw 2-2, conceding a full-blown pudding of an equaliser, above. Facepalms all round if that proves the difference.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Spain international defender reaches agreement with Champions League side
Athletic Club are enjoying their most successful spell in the 21st century, after winning the Copa del Rey two years ago, and returning to the Champions League this season. It has been met with renewed ambition in the transfer market. After securing a €15m deal for Alvaro Djalo last summer, Los Leones appear to be on the verge of signing Osasuna right-back Jesus Areso. The big 'signing' though has been the contract that was agreed with Nico Williams until 2035, staving off interest from Barcelona. Athletic are not done yet though. Aymeric Laporte set for Athletic return? Image via Marca According to Alberto Santacruz of RadioMarca, Athletic have now reached an agreement on personal terms with former Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte. The ex-Lexama product is set to pen a three or four-year deal if Athletic can find an agreement with Al-Nassr, but Santacruz declares that 'everything will be closed this week'. The Basque giants must now find an agreement with the Saudi Arabian side, who started off demanding the €27.5m fee they spent on Laporte two summers ago. However negotiations are advanced, with Laporte pitching in to help the deal get done. Atletico Madrid option on the backburner Laporte has been heavily linked with a return to Athletic for the past year, and manager Ernesto Valverde had asked for his signing as a top priority. The 31-year-old was also an option for Atletico Madrid, but it appears they have gone in a different direction. Spain motivation for Laporte Part of the reason for his return to Europe is a bid to return to the Spain side. Luis de la Fuente left him out of the most recent squad, and Laporte's level has declined this year. A return to La Liga is in part a response to his place with La Roja being under threat, with the World Cup cresting the horizon next summer.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Aymeric Laporte is going home! Ex-Man City defender ready to quit Al-Nassr for move back to his former side
Athletic Club have made verbal proposal for Laporte Laporte not in Al-Nassr's long-term plans Riyadh side put faith in new defender Hancko Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱 WHAT HAPPENED? Laporte was among the first batch of major signings by Al-Nassr alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. The ex-Manchester City defender has since started 69 games for the club and has been an integral part of the first team. However, according to CadenaSER, the 31-year-old is not in head coach Jorge Jesus' plans. The Spanish defender has been offered a chance to move back to his country after the Basque club initiated talks with the Saudi club. THE BIGGER PICTURE Al-Nassr have recently appointed Jesus as their manager, and the first thing for the ex-Al-Hilal coach was to bring in players that fit his vision. The Portuguese coach wanted to sign new players that suit his style of play and has decided to offload Laporte and midfielder Otavio. Jesus plans to strengthen the central areas with a defensive and an attacking midfielder. DID YOU KNOW? Slovakian defender David Hancko is the first major signing under the new management of Jesus, and it was only after the head coach's approval that the club went ahead with the deal. The €33 million (£28m/$38m) signing will replace Laporte and has signed a contract until 2028. This makes Laporte's exit more likely this summer, but it still won't be an easy task for Bilbao to sign him as the Saudi club are said to play hardball. WHAT NEXT FOR AL-NASSR? Al-Nassr haven't managed to win much even after their revamp with Ronaldo in 2023. The 40-year-old forward has expressed his desire for the Saudi club to make new signings and even held discussions with Jesus on what aspects the team needs to work on and improve. Among the many names suggested by the ex-Real Madrid winger is Liverpool's Luis Diaz. However, multiple clubs, including Bayern Munich, are in the race to sign the Colombian winger.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Athletic Club table offer for Al-Nassr star
La Liga outfit Athletic Club this week moved forward with an opening bid for a former member of the club's defensive ranks. The player in question? Aymeric Laporte. Stopper Laporta is widely expected to be on the move before the summer is out. The Spanish international is no longer part of the plans at Saudi outfit Al-Nassr, fresh off sealing a deal for Feyenoord standout Dávid Hancko. With Laporte still held in high regard across Europe, a whole host of clubs have in turn been credited with an interest in his services. And as alluded to above, this week, one such suitor went as far as to send a proposal for his signature the way of Al-Nassr. As per a report from market insider Fabrizio Romano: 'Athletic Club made first verbal proposal to Al Nassr today for Aymeric Laporte. Laporte, out of Al Nassr project at this stage with Athletic Club pushing to make it happen.' Conor Laird – GSFN
