Vieira May End Up in Spain
Real Madrid has reached agreement with French midfielder Patrick Vieira of England’s Arsenal, Spanish radio network Cadena Ser reported Tuesday.
The transfer fee is about $42 million and should be completed within “hours,” the station reported on its website.
Vieira would earn $5.4 million a year on a contract lasting four to five seasons, the station reported.
A call to Real Madrid’s media office was not answered, and there wasn’t any announcement about Vieira on the team’s website, which usually notes deals whenever completed, no matter the time of day.
Earlier Tuesday, Spain media reported that Real Madrid submitted an official bid to Arsenal for the French midfielder.
“Real Madrid has made a formal offer to sign Vieira,” the sports daily Marca reported. “The transfer talks are in the final stages.”
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Scholes Retires
England and Manchester United star Paul Scholes announced his international retirement.
Scholes, 29, called it quits, saying he had been considering the move “for a while.”
The attacking midfielder, who appeared in two World Cups and two European Championships, scored 14 goals and earned 66 caps in seven years.
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Friendly Roundup
Michael Owen scored with five minutes remaining to give England’s Liverpool a 2-1 victory over Italy’s AS Roma at East Rutherford, N.J., in the last match for each team on a U.S. exhibition tour.
Liverpool was 2-1 on the 1 1/2 -week tour. Roma was 1-2.
Owen, who did not play in the first half, scored from about 15 yards after Dieter Hamann forced Roma to turn over the ball near the top of the penalty area.
Roma’s Marco Del Vecchio and Liverpool’s Djibril Cisse scored nine minutes apart in the first half.
The match in front of 25,028 at Giants Stadium dropped the average crowd to 39,814 for the Champions World Series, a total of 11 exhibition matches in the U.S. involving nine European clubs. Last year’s series of eight matches drew an average of 52,821.
At Manchester, England, Mikael Silvestre headed home a first-half corner and Manchester United defeated Holland’s PSV Eindhoven, 1-0, in a friendly in Old Trafford.
Earlier on the same field, Argentina’s Boca Juniors conceded an early penalty and then hit back to beat Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds, 5-2, in a friendly.
At San Salvador, El Salvador, Jerry Palacios scored three goals and Honduras defeated El Salvador, 4-0, in a friendly ahead of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
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China Reaches Final
China advanced to its first Asian Cup final with a 4-3 penalty shootout victory over Iran today after tying, 1-1, in regulation time at Beijing.
China faces defending champion Japan on Saturday at Beijing.
