Manchester United Transfers Veron
Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron was transferred from Manchester United to Chelsea, as expected, on Wednesday, with the London club paying the English Premier League champions $24 million for the South American who glories in the nickname “Brujita,” or “Little Witch.”
Veron, 28, did not want to leave, but his agent, Fernando Hidalgo, put a good face on the deal.
“Seba [Veron] is proud to join Chelsea, but it was not his intention to leave,” Hidalgo said.
Veron, who was acquired from Lazio two years ago for $45 million, was considered surplus to requirements this season by United Coach Sir Alex Ferguson, despite the Argentine international’s key role in last season’s championship run.
With United having signed Cameroon midfielder Eric Djemba Djemba and about to sign Brazilian midfielder Kleberson, the team was top-heavy in talent in the center of the field.
“It’s always difficult to let good players go,” Ferguson said on Manchester United’s Web site, “[but] I think there would have been problems ahead with [all] the players in midfield.”
Even with Veron and David Beckham having been sold, United still has Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, Ryan Gigs, Darren Fletcher, Phil Neville, Quinton Fortune, Mikael Silvestre, Djemba Djemba and Kleberson fighting for starting spots in midfield.
The problem, in other words, has not been solved, but United now has $60 million or so to spend on new players.
“We do need a defender,” Ferguson said.
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Gallardo Goes Home
Another Argentine World Cup player, midfielder Marcelo Gallardo, left AS Monaco in France and rejoined his former club, River Plate in Argentina.
“I’m happy, I’m fulfilling my wish to return to River, a club for which I have special sentiments,” Gallardo said on his arrival in Buenos Aires.
River Plate, which earlier signed Chilean international Marcelo Salas, has added the two veterans to make up for the loss of one of its brightest young players, Andres D’Alessandro, who was sold to Vfl Wolfsburg of the German Bundesliga.
Fan Stabbed to Death
One fan was stabbed to death and four dozen others were injured in the Turkish city of Izmir when fighting broke out between supporters of two second-division clubs, Karsiyaka and Goztepe, during a preseason tournament known as the Aegean Friendship Cup.
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Georgian Puzzle
Last week, Dynamo Tbilsi, one of Georgia’s leading clubs, gave Coach Ivo Susak an ultimatum: He could coach Dynamo or Georgia’s national team, but not both.
Susak chose club over country and quit as Georgia’s coach.
The country’s soccer federation was left wondering where to turn. It didn’t wait long. On Wednesday, Merhab Zhordania, the federation’s 42-year-old president, took action.
“I’ll be in charge of the national team through the end of the Euro 2004 [qualifying] cycle,” Zhordania decreed.
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Quoteworthy
Beckham hasn’t settled in in Spain because Real Madrid is touring Asia, but he told England’s Guardian newspaper that he misses certain things about Manchester.
“I do miss pie and mash and jellied eels,” he said, “but you make different decisions at different times in your life and, although I didn’t want to move abroad before, it feels right now.”
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Foot Ball
Michael Foot, the former leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Wednesday was added to the roster of the English club Plymouth Argyle.
Foot, a lifelong Plymouth fan and club director, is 90. The signing, already approved by the Football League, was in honor of his birthday.
He will wear No. 90 but is not expected to play much.
As the one-time would-be Prime Minister’s friends remarked: “He’d rather have had No. 10.”
As in Downing Street.
Times wire services contributed to this report.
