Sports
Transfer: They’ve Vinicius – Mbappe told not to join Real Madrid
France football icon Marcel Desailly has thrown his weight behind Kylian Mbappe opting for a surprise switch to the Saudi Pro League instead of the speculated move to Real Madrid.
Mbappe, who recently faced disappointment with Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League exit, is set to depart the club in the upcoming summer transfer window.
While Madrid has emerged as a prime contender for his signature, Desailly believes otherwise.
Expressing his views on Mbappe’s potential move, Desailly highlighted the competitive landscape at Real Madrid, suggesting that it might not be the ideal fit for Mbappe.
With emerging talents like Vinicius and Bellingham in the mix, Desailly argues that Mbappe might not enjoy the spotlight he craves.
“I have said it already, I would move to a different continent. For him, I am not sure Madrid is the best place for him to be. We have Vinicius on the left side, a player showing the quality like Bellingham so he’s not going to be the full number one that he wants,” Desailly told beIN Sports (via talkSPORT).
“If you think about the business of football, for £350 million I would go to Saudi for a year, then come back next season – the year of the World Cup – aged 26 and a half, cash out and play football, because what does Mbappe want? He wants to play football.”
Liverpool winger, Mohamed Salah, on Saturday, surpassed Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard’s goal record in the Premier League.
The Egyptian international achieved the feat after scoring a brace in Liverpool’s away Premier League 2-0 win against Bournemouth.
The match was played at the Vitality Stadium as Salah netted a penalty in the first half and another goal in the second half.
Salah’s two goals means, the former Chelsea and AS Roma star has now surpassed Lampard as 6th all time goal scorer in Premier League history.
The 32-year-old now has 178 Premier League goals with a goal ahead of Lampard, who now sit in 7th position on the all-time Premier League goal scorers chat.
He is, however, behind the likes of Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole and Sergio Aguero in the goal chat.
Salah has scored 21 goals for the Reds so far this season.
He could leave Liverpool in the summer as he is yet to sign a new deal.
His contract with Arne Slot’s side will expire at the end of the season.
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, on Friday announced the full match schedule for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nine venues will be used across six cities for the continent’s flagship soccer event.
Hosts Morocco will will take on Comoros in the competition’s opening game at the newly-built 69,500-seater Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat on Sunday, December 21.
The country’s capital, Rabat, will have four match venues.
Other host cities are Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech, Fes and Tangier, which will have one match each.
The four quarter-final fixtures will be played at the Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, as well as in Tangier, Marrakech and Agadir.
The semi-finals will be in Rabat and Tangier, with the third-place play-off set for the Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca.
52 matches will be played during the biennial competition.
The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire are the defending champions of the competition.
The draw for this season’s UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off draw has been conducted on Friday.
Eight teams have progressed straight to the round of 16 following the completion of the league phase.
They are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.
They will all return to the competition in March, but others have more football to play before then.
The teams that finished between 9th and 24th, have a two-legged play-off to navigate in February.
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