Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu feels he has been unfairly punished after a transgression committed six years ago at a different club saw him banned for four months.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) this week upheld a four-month suspension handed down by FIFA, which found him guilty of breaching a contract with Trabzonspor.
The offence relates to 2011, when he agreed to join the Turkish side before opting instead to extend his deal with German club Karlsruher.
The 22-year-old, who has been ordered to pay Trabzonspor €100,000 in compensation, was unable to hide his frustration with the decision, but has vowed to return stronger after his punishment.
Hello all, you will have seen that CAS upheld FIFA s decision to hand me a four-mon…
Philippe Coutinho says being above Everton in the Premier League is the only thing Liverpool have to think about ahead of the Merseyside derby.
Liverpool host their local rivals at Anfield on April 1 after the international break, with Coutinho on duty with Brazil.
Everton have not beaten the Reds since 2010 and are without a win in an away derby since 1999, but come into this game on fine form having lost just once in the top-flight in 2017.
Despite Ronald Koeman s men now sitting within six points of fourth-placed Liverpool, Coutinho insists he is not concerned about those runs coming to an end.
I don t think about that or worry about that, Coutinho told reporters about the prospect of Everton finishing above them in the table.
Right now, Live…
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is thrilled at the prospect of facing Real Madrid in this season s UEFA Champions League group stages.
Thursday s draw in Monaco pitted Liverpool in Group B alongside the defending champions, as well as Swiss outfit Basel and Ludogorets of Bulgaria.
Liverpool s second-placed finish in the Premier League last season earned them a place in the Champions League for the first time since 2009-10, and being drawn against Real gives the club the chance to repeat the feats of the 2008-09 season, when the men from Anfield dispatched the Spanish giants 5-0 on aggregate in the second round.
As 10-time winners of the competition, Real have twice as many crowns as Liverpool, and Rodgers is eagerly anticipating the contests ahead.
Ini…
Tottenham Hotspur have offered the sum of £15million for Aston Villa s Jack Grealish, according to and their sources.
Apart from a short loan spell at Notts County in 2013/14, Grealish has spent his entire career up to now at Aston Villa, making a total of 110 appearances and scoring nine goals along the way. A very gifted midfielder with notable skill on the ball and loads of creativity, he is the type of player that can take responsibility and drive a team forward. However, it s hard to imagine him displacing the likes of Christian Eriksen or Dele Alli at Tottenham, and he would most likely start his stint in North London on the bench.
With the Birmingham club facing financial difficulties, Chelsea, Fulham and Leicester are also said to be interested in taking ad…
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he tried to sign Steven Gerrard while he was in charge at AC Milan.
Ancelotti, who led Milan to two UEFA Champions League titles between 2001 and 2009, wanted to pair Gerrard with living Azzurri legend Andrea Pirlo.
However, the Italian boss could not convince the former England international to leave Anfield in favour of pastures new.
Gerrard s a leader. A great player, the most important figure that Liverpool have. He is the Paolo Maldini of Liverpool, Ancelotti told The Sun.
He s one of the players I would have loved to have coached. And I thought about him so many times in the past when I was at Milan.
But it was impossible because he was very much linked with Liverpool. We had s…
Liverpool signed four new midfielders this summer, but they still have some unfinished plans for the future of the middle section of their squad. According to Sky Germany journalist Florian Plettenberg, the Merseysiders are closely watching Assan Ouedraogo of Schalke.
Only 17 years of age and vastly talented, Ouedraogo has attracted plenty attention from across Europe. In England, apart were Liverpool, Everton and Brighton are said to be holding an interest. Apparently, there is a €20m release clause in his contract, which kicks in at the end of the season.
A central, box-to-box midfielder by trade, he is very capable of playing further up as a No. 10, or even on one of the attacking flanks, where his speed makes more of a difference. His career has obviously just sta…
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has warned his new team-mate Benjamin Mendy that the Premier League poses a stiff test compared to life in Ligue 1, and urged the French full-back to adapt to English football quickly.
Mendy arrived from Monaco in a reported £52 million deal and Toure, who has been at City since 2010, said the 23-year-old will bring an injection of pace and power to Pep Guardiola s squad.
The France international made 24 league appearances for Monaco as they won the title in 2016-17, finishing eight points clear of nearest challengers Paris Saint-Germain.
Mendy is no stranger to the pressure of a price tag, having moved from Marseille to Monaco for £11.5m in June 2016, and Toure backed him to succeed at City.
I know Mendy, because …
Wolfsburg continued their excellent season with a 2-1 win at Inter that gave them a 5-2 aggregate success in their UEFA Europa League last-16 tie.
Dieter Hecking s men, who sit second in the Bundesliga table, appear set for UEFA Champions League football next season but qualified for the last eight of Europe s second-tier competition on Thursday, for the first time since 2009.
The German side, who came from behind to win last week s first leg 3-1, took a 24th-minute lead through Daniel Caligiuri.
Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio was on top form throughout the contest at San Siro, although he was finally beaten 19 minutes from time by Inter forward Rodrigo Palacio.
But substitute Nicklas Bendtner had the final word for the visitors, lashing in on th…
German daily newspaper that Schalke are considering winter moves for Renato Augusto and Gokhan Inler.
The Miners will soon stay without general manager Horst Heldt, whose deal is due to expire in the summer, but he will have some important work to do before he leaves Veltins Arena.
Namely, the 46-year-old has yet to find a proper replacement for Julian Draxler, although it appears that Corinthians midfielder Renato Augusto has been chosen as the primary target.
Schalke coach Andre Breitenreiter confirmed to Sport Bild that Augusto was “an interesting and excellent player”, which is enough to suggest he could soon be joining the Miners.
The 27-year-old already has plenty of Bundesliga experience having represented Bayer Leverkusen between 2008 and 20…
New Aston Villa manager Dean Smith is keen to bring Barry Bannan back to the club, according to the Mirror.
The Scotland international left Villa Park for Crystal Palace in 2013, before signing for Sheffield Wednesday two years later.
Since arriving at Hillsborough, he has racked up one hundred and twenty-nine appearances in all competitions, scoring seven goals and was named in the PFA Championship Team of the Season in 2016.
Internationally, he has racked up twenty-seven senior appearances for Scotland but hasn’t featured for them in just over a year.
The twenty-eight-year old played eighty-three times for Villa, scoring two goals though he did spend much of that period out on loan across spells with Derby County, Blackpool and Leeds United.
…