McBride, Mathis Go to Europe

Clint Mathis and Brian McBride, two of the most successful American forwards of the last half-decade, agreed Tuesday to join clubs in Germany and England, respectively.

Mathis, 27, today will sign with Hannover 96 of the German Bundesliga after spending six years in Major League Soccer, the last four with the New York/New Jersey Metro Stars.

He started his professional career with the Galaxy in 1997 and leaves the league having scored 52 goals in 148 regular-season and playoff games.

“With Clint, we’ve gotten a good forward,” said Carsten Linke, Hannover’s assistant coach. “I think we’re all satisfied with the way we’ve reinforced the team.”

A World Cup player in 2002, Mathis has scored 11 goals in 34 matches for the United States. He agreed to a contract that will keep him with Hannover until June 2006. Financial terms were not revealed.

The German club, which already has U.S. defender Steve Cherundolo on its roster, returns from the Bundesliga’s midwinter break Jan. 30.

McBride, 31, appeared ready to sign for Blackburn Rovers of the English Premier League when rival Fulham stepped in with a better offer, one that will pay the former St. Louis University standout a reported $1.5 million per year, more than four times his $341,000 MLS salary.

The first player chosen in the inaugural MLS draft in 1996, McBride spent his entire MLS career with the Columbus Crew, scoring 71 goals in 183 regular-season and playoff games.

He has scored 20 goals in 67 games for the U.S., including the game-winners against Portugal and Mexico at the Korea/Japan ’02 World Cup.

At Fulham, he will join former UCLA and current U.S. defender Carlos Bocanegra, who was signed by the London club earlier this month.

“Brian is a great talent who [will get] his fair share of goals,” Fulham Coach Chris Coleman said. “He has superb aerial ability and has already proved that he can perform each week at the highest level.”

McBride scored four goals and assisted on two in eight Premier League games while playing on loan for Everton last year.

“Over the past four years, there has been a lot of talk about me leaving,” McBride said in Columbus on Tuesday. “It’s been a long, tiresome process, with many sleepless nights, but we felt it was the right opportunity for us and it was time to move forward ....It’s an exciting new opportunity for my family and I.”

Galderisi Stricken

Former Italian international Giuseppe Galderisi, who played for two seasons in MLS with the Tampa Bay Mutiny and New England Revolution, is in intensive care in a hospital at Padua, Italy, after undergoing heart surgery.

Galderisi, 40, suffered a heart attack Monday night. He won the Italian Serie A championship three times, twice with Juventus and once with Verona, and played 10 times for Italy.

He was an assistant coach of the Revolution for two seasons.

Quick Passes

English Premier League leader Arsenal suffered its first domestic defeat this season when it was shut out, 1-0, at home by Middlesbrough in the first leg of the English League Cup semifinals. Brazil’s Juninho scored....The Dutch club Feyenoord has rejected Arsenal’s initial bid to sign striker Robin van Persie, 20, one of the Netherlands’ top young players....Murcia, in last place and trying to avoid relegation in the Spanish league, signed former Welsh international and Real Madrid coach John Toshack as coach after firing Joaquin Peiro....Another Spanish club, Zaragoza, fired Paco Flores and hired former Spanish international Victor Munoz as coach....Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba, fired as South Africa’s coach Jan. 7, has given up his legal battle to be reinstated after reaching a compensation agreement with the country’s soccer federation.

Times wire services contributed to this report.