Arsenal are set to complete the signing of Swedish striker Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting Lisbon, following a full verbal agreement between all parties involved.
Transfer insider Fabrizio Romano confirmed the deal on Tuesday, stating, “Viktor Gyökeres to Arsenal, here we go! Verbal agreement in place between all parties involved.”
According to Romano, Sporting have accepted Arsenal’s final bid of €63.5 million plus an additional €10 million in add-ons.
The striker’s agent is also reported to have agreed to reduce his commission to facilitate the move.
Gyökeres will put pen to paper on a five-year deal with the North London club.
The 27-year-old forward, who enjoyed an impressive campaign in Portugal, was reportedly determined to make the switch to the Emirates.
“He only wanted Arsenal,” Romano added.
With personal terms agreed and negotiations finalised, the transfer marks another major move in Arsenal’s summer recruitment drive.
Snoop Dogg has become co-owner of Championship side Swansea City in an unlikely alliance between the world of rap and football, the Welsh club announced.
The 53-year-old American star joins former Real Madrid stalwart and Croatia World Cup finalist Luka Modric in the club’s ownership structure.
Snoop Dogg made a surprise appearance on the club’s social media channels last week, modelling their new home jersey for the 2025-26 season and the club announced on Thursday that he has become an investor.
His involvement comes after American businessmen Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen took over the club last November.
Swansea will hope that Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, can use his 100 million-plus social media followers to boost the club’s profile as they seek to return to the Premier League for the first time since they were relegated in 2018.
Swansea’s owners have said they want to generate greater revenue, which would allow them to invest more in new players under the profit and sustainability rules in British football.
The 53-year-old rapper said on the club’s website: “My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City.
“The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working-class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me.
“I’m proud to be part of Swansea City.”
Swansea announced in April that Modric, who this week joined AC Milan at the age of 39 after leaving Real Madrid, had acquired a stake in the club.
“To borrow a phrase from Snoop’s back catalogue, this announcement is the next episode for Swansea City as we seek to create new opportunities to boost the club’s reach and profile,” Swansea’s owners said in a statement.
“Snoop’s colossal global fanbase and audience will certainly help us do that, and he has made clear to us throughout this process just how excited he is at the prospect of joining the club.
“Snoop has openly shared his love of football and his desire to be involved in the game and we expect his involvement to support us putting as competitive a team as possible out on the field.”
Swansea’s Welsh rivals Wrexham have achieved a meteoric rise to the Championship — the second-tier of English football — since Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased the club in 2020.
Former Super Eagles interim head coach, Monday Sinclair, is dead.
Sinclair died at the age of 88.
His death was confirmed on Wednesday by former Super Eagles goalkeeper Peterside Idah, who played under him at Sharks FC and considered him a mentor.
Peterside wrote in a tribute shared via Facebook on Wednesday, “Our daddy is gone. What a man.
“He signed me to play for Sharks. Gave me my first match against Niger Tornadoes of Minna.
“The first day he saw me come to train with Sharks, he said, ‘My friend, are you a boxer?’
“He said I was built like Tyson. From that day, I found me a football father. I became very close to him and his family, with Puppa K as a very close brother.”
Sinclair, who featured for the Green Eagles in the 1960s, was widely respected for his sharp eye for talent and enduring contribution to football development in Nigeria.
He began his coaching career with the now-defunct Sharks FC of Rivers State, before going on to handle Niger Tornadoes, Enugu Rangers, and Bayelsa United.
In 1997, he was appointed interim coach of the Super Eagles and later served as head coach of the Equatorial Guinea national team.
Sinclair was credited with mentoring some of Nigeria’s most iconic footballers, including Peter Rufai, Taribo West, Finidi George, and Peterside himself.
His grassroots influence left an enduring legacy on Nigerian football.
His passing comes just days after the death of another football legend, Peter Rufai, who battled a long-term illness.
Crystal Palace have been demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League by UEFA for a breach of multi-club ownership rules, European football’s governing body confirmed on Friday.
US businessman, John Textor, owns a stake in the Eagles and is the majority owner of French club Lyon, who have also qualified for the Europa League.
Under UEFA multi-club ownership rules, Lyon have been allowed to keep their place in the second-tier competition of European football as they finished higher in Ligue 1 (6th) than Palace (12th) in the Premier League last season.
Palace qualified for European competition for the first time by winning the FA Cup in May – the club’s first ever major trophy.
Textor has since agreed to sell his 43 percent stake in the London club to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.
However, that deal is yet to be completed and was struck well after UEFA’s deadline of March 1 for multi-club conflicts to be resolved.
A decision on Palace’s fate had been delayed by a separate case that initially saw Lyon relegated to the second tier of French football due to financial problems.
The seven-time French champions won an appeal against that decision on Wednesday after Textor stood aside from the day-to-day running of the club.
Palace are expected to appeal the verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Nottingham Forest, who had qualified for the Conference League by finishing seventh in the Premier League last season, will replace Palace in the Europa League, a UEFA source told AFP.
Former Liverpool and England midfielder, Jordan Henderson, is leaving Dutch giants, Ajax, one year before his contract was due to expire, the club announced on Thursday.
The 35-year-old joined Amsterdam-based Ajax in a blaze of glory in January 2024, only six months after his move from Liverpool to Saudi Arabia sparked controversy over gay rights.
An outspoken advocate for the gay community, his transfer to Saudi club Al-Ettifaq had prompted accusations he was putting money above principles.
But he quickly put that controversy behind him, as Ajax appointed him club captain and he made 57 appearances in the shirt made famous by the likes of Johan Cruyff and Dennis Bergkamp.
With Henderson as the driving force, Ajax bounced back from one of their worst-ever seasons to challenge for the Eredivisie title last year.
However, they contrived to throw away the opportunity to be crowned Dutch champions, giving up a nine-point lead with only five matches to play — handing the title to bitter rivals PSV Eindhoven.
Ajax Technical Director Alex Kroes described Henderson as “a true captain for us, both on and off the pitch.”
“Through his mentality and leadership qualities, he made a significant contribution to our qualification for the UEFA Champions League,” said Kroes.
Henderson’s form for Ajax earned him a surprise recall to Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad in March and he voiced his thanks for the opportunities in Amsterdam.
“To play for this club was an honour in itself. To have the privilege of captaining it was even more so,” he said in a statement.
He said he would not be making further comments, given the “tragic events of last week, and the devastating loss of my former teammate Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva.”
Liverpool and Portugal star Jota was killed along with his sibling last week when his car sped off a motorway in Spain.
A Spanish court on Wednesday sentenced former Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti to a year in jail for tax fraud committed in 2014, a punishment that will not oblige the Brazil coach to serve prison time.
Prosecutors alleged the Italian created a system of shell companies to hide extra earnings during his first spell as Real Madrid manager in 2014 and 2015, notably through image rights.
They said the 66-year-old, one of the most successful managers in football history, failed to pay more than one million euros due to undeclared earnings in those years, seeking four years and nine months’ jail against him.
Ancelotti denied having intentionally committed fraud at his highly publicised trial in April, saying he never realised a scheme allowing him to collect some of his salary in image rights would see him pay less tax.
A Madrid court announced it had convicted Ancelotti for “an offence against the treasury… to the punishment of one year in prison” and a fine of 386,361 euros ($452,821).
Ancelotti showed a “conscious desire to evade the payment of taxes on the income obtained from the exploitation of his image rights, through artificial mechanisms”, the court wrote in a ruling.
“The actions are blatantly fraudulent and the structures used do not conform to a real economic logic. The deliberate concealment of income through opaque structures and entities in tax havens proves a fraudulent intent,” it added.
But the former Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain boss, who no longer lives in Spain, will not serve jail time because the sentence is less than two years and he has no criminal record.
The court cleared Ancelotti of the fraud allegation for the 2015 tax year, saying it could not conclude “beyond reasonable doubt” that his fiscal residence for that year was in Spain.
He joins a list of football greats who have fallen afoul of Spain’s crackdown on stars who have not paid their due.
Former Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho received a one-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud in 2019.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were both found guilty of tax evasion and received prison sentences that were waived for being first-time offenders.
Ancelotti’s glittering career has seen him win a record five Champions League titles as a manager and lift the European Cup twice with AC Milan as a player.
The former Italy midfielder left Real Madrid to become Brazil boss at the end of last season after a rare trophyless campaign.
AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said on Monday that Croatia captain Luka Modric will join the Italian club from Real Madrid after the Club World Cup.
Modric, who turns 40 in September, joined Madrid from Tottenham in 2012 and has been linked with a move to Italy since early June, after announcing he would leave the Spanish giants at the end of his contract.
Madrid play Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup on Wednesday. The final is on July 13.
“He’ll arrive in August,” Allegri said during his first press conference on his return as Milan boss.
“He’s an extraordinary and important player. It would be useless to talk more about him.”
Allegri is back at the helm at Milan, having led them to the Serie A title in 2011 during his first spell in charge between 2010 and 2014.
Their first game of the new season is in the Italian Cup on August 17.
French international Theo Hernández is on the verge of completing a move to Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal, with a deal now sealed between the club and AC Milan, according to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano on Monday.
The left-back is expected to sign his contract in the coming days after a verbal agreement was reached two weeks ago. AC Milan will reportedly receive a €25 million transfer fee for the 26-year-old.
Hernández will become the latest addition to Al Hilal’s growing list of European stars and will be a key figure in the squad managed by Simone Inzaghi.
“Theo Hernández to Al Hilal, here we go! Agreement now being sealed after verbal pact made two weeks ago. AC Milan will receive €25m transfer fee as Theo will sign his contract in the upcoming days. New left back for Simone Inzaghi,” Romano wrote.
The former Real Madrid defender joined AC Milan in 2019 and quickly became one of the club’s standout performers, helping them secure the Serie A title in the 2021/22 season.
His departure marks a significant change in Milan’s defensive setup ahead of the new campaign.
Liverpool forward Luis Diaz has reportedly agreed on personal terms with Bayern Munich ahead of a potential move to the Bundesliga club, according to German outlet BILD.
The Colombian international has been the subject of growing transfer speculation during the summer window, though he remains part of Arne Slot’s squad at Anfield for now. Diaz, who joined Liverpool in 2023, has established himself as one of the Reds’ key players on the left wing.
Despite his importance to the team, it appears Diaz is open to a new chapter, with BILD reporting that an agreement on personal terms has already been reached with Bayern. However, it remains unclear whether Liverpool are willing to enter negotiations over a transfer.
Diaz played a significant role in Liverpool’s successful 2024/25 Premier League campaign, during which the club secured the league title. Over 36 league appearances, he scored 13 goals, provided five assists, and was involved in 16 goal-creating actions across 2,399 minutes of play.
The 27-year-old’s potential departure comes as Bayern Munich look to strengthen their attack following a serious injury to Jamal Musiala during the FIFA Club World Cup. The German side may view Diaz as a key reinforcement ahead of the new season.
Meanwhile, Liverpool have made a strong start to their own transfer window, having secured the signings of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, and Milos Kerkez.
Wirtz, in particular, is seen as a versatile option capable of filling in on the left if Diaz departs.
As of now, no official deal has been announced between the clubs, but the reported agreement signals that Diaz’s future at Anfield remains uncertain.
Real Madrid striker, Gonzalo Garcia, has moved joint-top of the goal scorers’ chart at the ongoing FIFA Club World Cup in the United States after netting in Madrid’s thrilling 3-2 quarter-final win over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
The 21-year-old forward now has four goals in the tournament, placing him alongside Angel Di Maria, Serhou Guirassy, and Marcos Leonardo as the competition’s current leading scorers ahead of the semi-final fixtures.
Garcia, who has played a key role in Madrid’s attacking strength so far, will be aiming to increase his tally when the Spanish giants face Paris Saint-Germain in a highly anticipated semi-final clash on Wednesday.
In the other semi-final fixture, Chelsea will take on the Brazilian side Fluminense on Tuesday.
Below is the updated list of top scorers at the tournament ahead of the semi-finals:
