Top Stories

Friday Kickoff: Toure signs extension, Wilshere suffers setback, and more

YayaToure2 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Manchester City have been given a major boost for the rest of this season, and beyond.

Yaya Toure signed a four-year contract extension with Manchester City on Thursday, ending speculation of his departure this summer.

The younger of the Toure brothers has been one of the integral pieces on a team that went from finishing in tenth place in 2009, to the team that won the league last season. The 29-year-old signed the contract this week reportedly in order to show his commitment to the club ahead of the Manchester derby next Monday.

“This is where I want to be,” Toure told The Telegraph. “When I first arrived at City, every time I went to sleep I would dream about us winning something; now it is about us being the best team in whatever competition we take part in.”

Toure will reportedly make up to £240,000 a week with incentives in the new deal. Since arriving at City in 2010, Toure has made 91 Premier League appearances, scoring 19 goals and adding 13 assists.

Here are some more stories to get your Friday started:

WILSHERE SETBACK KEEPS HIM OUT FOR ANOTHER WEEK

Two weeks ago, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger announced his hope that midfielder Jack Wilshere would be back by the start of April.

However, a setback in training has lead the club to hold Wilshere and recent injury victim Theo Walcott out of the squad for the team’s match this Saturday against West Bromwich Albion. Wilshere has been out since the start of March with an ankle injury suffered in training.

On the positive side, both Wilshere and Walcott are participating in light training, and according to assistant coach Steve Bould, the two have a chance of featuring in a week’s time against Norwich.

Wilshere, who missed 14 months of action with an ankle injury suffered in July 2011, has made 24 appearances for Arsenal this season in all competitions, with two goals and four assists.

SAO PAULO SHOCKED BY THE STRONGEST IN LA PAZ

The value of one player on Sao Paulo is arguably more than the entire The Strongest team alone, yet atop the mountains in La Paz, it was the Bolivian club who triumphed.

The Strongest defeated Brazilian side Sao Paulo 2-1 on Thursday night, putting the Bolivian team on the brink of the knockout stages for the first time ever. The first match-up between these two sides in February also ended 2-1, but in Sao Paulo’s favor.

Nelvin Soliz got the match started in the for The Strongest with an amazing 30-yard strike in the 15th minute that found the corner of the net, despite a desperate attempt to knock it away by Sao Paulo goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni.

Ceni would soon get his revenge, scoring as he has so often in his career, from the penalty spot, this time in the 44th minute. The Strongest went up for good in the 66th minute, on another long-range blast, this one from Ernesto Cristaldo, that took a Ceni deflection into the back of the net. With the win, the Bolivian side moves into second place in Group Three on six points, with Sao Paulo right behind them in third place with five. Both teams have one match to play.

Around the continent, Argentine side Newell’s Old Boys defeated Deportivo Lara of Venezuela 3-1, Paraguayan club Olimpia knocked off Universidad de Chile 1-0, and Nacional of Uruguay destroyed Mexican side Toluca 4-0, earning themselves, and Boca Juniors, a place in the knockout stage.

QUICK KICKS

Former France coach and player Laurent Blanc has called Thiago Silva the “perfect defender” based on his performance against Barcelona last Tuesday. (REPORT)

Queens Park Rangers will be without Shaun Wright-Phillips for the rest of the season after undergoing ankle surgery. (REPORT)

Real Madrid captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas is set to return to the bench from injury this Saturday in his club’s match against Levante UD. (REPORT)

Barcelona have filed a complaint with UEFA based on their assessment of Wolfgang Stark’s performance in Paris on Tuesday evening. (REPORT)

Fans of Uruguayan club Nacional broke the record for largest flag/tifo on Thursday night, presenting one before the Copa Libertadores match that measured 656 yards in length (REPORT)

Chelsea has been linked with 22-year-old Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Andre Schurrle in a €15 million deal. (REPORT)

——-

What do you make of these reports? What do you think of the Toure signing? Do you see Wilshere and Walcott coming back next week? What do you make of the world’s biggest tifo?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. You might want to clarify what the strongest at one point in that piece cause I was wondering what the hell I was reading haha. Had to look up the team.

    Reply
  2. Stop it Barca. It’s the field, other team isn’t playing, its the referee. You’re the best team in the world with the best player in the world and a wonder to watch, there is no need to constantly complain after not winning.

    Reply
    • i’m actually okay with this one. they’re pointedly not complaining about the awful offside non-call. they’re complaining about the referee not stopping the game when two players from the same team are down injured, and then keeping both players off until a later stoppage. apparently, that’s against fifa rules? someone with more time can look it up, i guess.

      Reply
  3. 240,000 pounds. that’s like $370,000 a week right? oMG And the average Premier league player makes like 25,000 pounds or $38-39,000 a week.

    MLS can’t compete with that but we can compete with say the Scandinavian leagues of which many players (college aged and lesser talented MLS vets) head to. You could make say 200-300 K a year in Denmark even if you’re an average player which is probably 2-3 times more than in MLS.

    Reply
    • It helps to be owned by royal family members of Abu Dhabi and to be sponsored — shirt and stadium — by the UAE airline and so on. Man United is majority owned by Americans who own other teams, ditto Aston Villa, Liverpool. A lot of the EPL teams are not primarily owned by English people or interests. Which means arguably one way it’s sustaining itself is prestige and history and outsiders wanting to buy in. I’m not sure English owners on their own could afford this.

      This is actually a hot button issue in England, some Manchester fans don’t like the Glazers or how they run things, a new team was created in Manchester that plays non-league soccer but actually faced the Big Club in FA Cup.

      One interesting aspect is this suggests there are deep pockets interested in soccer, from America, but perhaps we’re not ready for them domestically. The guy who owns Arsenal also owns the Rapids but that is not the general pattern.

      I also can’t believe that if we are out-attending not just the NBA but these foreign leagues, that we stay the cheaper aletrnative forever. For example, Seattle, attended the way it is. But there will be lag because we’re trying to keep 20-ish solvent teams each with a shot, and not some Darwinian apparatus where the teams are on their own and maybe get a parachute payment if they drop.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to xmen Cancel reply