French-Togolese 21-year old striker Loïc Gagnon is on trial at small Ceará-based team Horizonte. He was recently playing for Union Sportive d’lvry.
If he joins Horizonte, he will become another French player to join a Brazilian team in recent years, following the footsteps of Aymen Souda, who plays for Paraná.
Brazil’s manager Mano Menezes announced the squad for the games against Iraq (October 11th) and Japan (October 16th):
GOALKEEPERS:
Diego Alves (Valencia)
Jefferson (Botafogo)
Victor (Atlético-MG)
FULL-BACKS:
Daniel Alves (Barcelona)
Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Adriano (Barcelona)
Alex Sandro (Porto)
CENTREBACKS:
Thiago Silva (PSG)
David Luiz (Chelsea)
Dedé (Vasco)
Leandro Castán (Roma)
MIDFIELDERS:
Sandro (Tottenham)
Paulinho (Corinthians)
Fernando (Grêmio)
Giuliano (Dnipro)
Lucas Moura (São Paulo)
Oscar (Chelsea)
Ramires (Chelsea)
Thiago Neves (Fuminense)
Kaká (Real Madrid)
STRIKERS:
Neymar (Santos)
Leandro Damião (Internacional)
Hulk (Zenit)
The main news is that Kaká is back to the team after two years. The squad also shows the decline of Italian football, as Leandro Castán is the only Italy-based player, while in the World Cup most of the key players played for Italian etams.
Kerlon perfoms his famous seal dribble in Japan, where he plays for Third Division team Fujieda MYFC, but that does not work too well.
Kerlon has struggled with injuries since he became a senior player, and has failed to establish himself at several teams such as Inter Milan, Ajax, Paraná and Nacional Nova Serrana.
The 2012 Club World Cup draw was held today, Libertadores champions Corinthians are the Brazilian representatives in the competition. They have previously won the tournament in 2000, when they beat Vasco in the final.
As Libertadores champions, Corinthians only enter in the semifinals.
This is the tournament schedule:
Play-off Round – December 6, Yokohama
Winners of J-League vs Auckland City
Quarter-finals – December 9, Toyota
Winners of Asian Champions League vs Monterrey
Winners of J-League or Auckland City vs Winners of African Champions League
Fifth place match – December 12, Toyota
Loser quarter-final 1 vs Loser quarter-final 2
Semi-final – December 12, Toyota
J.League winner, Auckland City or African UCL winners vs Corinthians
Semi-final – December 13, Yokohama
Asian Champions League winners or Monterrey vs Chelsea
Third place match – December 16, Yokohama
Loser semi-final 1 vs Loser semi-final 2
Final – December 16, Yokohama
Winner semi-final 1 vs Winner semi-final 2
Globo Esporte reports that Santos’ president Luís Álvaro is taking advantage of his trip to Europe to try to sign Robinho for the 2013 season.
Santos recently sold Ganso to arch-rivals São Paulo, and repatriating an idol like Robinho could help appease the fans and strengthen the team, which rely too much on Neymar.
A return to Santos would also benefit Robinho, who has not been called up lately, so a move from Milan to Santos could help place him on the spotlight again.
Diego and Kaká have also been linked with moves to Santos.
‘Globo Esporte’ claims Lucas Moura is about to joining PSG for a fee higher than 38 million Euros. He was earlier rumored to be close to joining Manchester United.
Inter Milan are also rumored to be interested in signing him.
The Brazilian news site says Alex Ferguson tried to contact Lucas Moura all day to convince him not to join PSG but he could not do so. Lucas Moura was also told by other players that Manchester is a boring city.
PSG owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi loves Lucas and made an effort to sign him when he was closer to Manchester United, PSG’s director Leonardo has good relations with both Lucas Moura’s agent Wagner Ribeiro and with São Paulo.
Wagner Ribeiro was in Paris during the weekend, and even watched the game between PSG and Barcelona on Saturday.
Lucas Moura is expected to sign a 5-year contract with the French club, the medical will take place on August 15th, after Brazil’s game against Sweden in Stockholm.
PSG will need to free a non-EU spot to make room for Lucas Moura, if they fail to do so now, Lucas Moura is expected to join in January.
São Paulo have not confirmed or denied the story yet. If the transfer is confirmed, it will be the highest transfer ever in Brazilian football history, surpassing that of Oscar to Chelsea.
Cable TV channel Sportv (which is owned by Globo like Globo Esporte) is also reporting the above, but other Brazilian sources are yet to confirm this story.
Obs: Notice that this text above is a summary of what ‘Globo Esporte’ said, just that.
Obs2: Italian Sky reports the transfer fee is €45 million, and that Lucas Moura will join the French team in January.
São Paulo’s centreback Rhodolfo is being linked with a move to Roma, but São Paulo’s vice-president ruled out letting such an important player leave the club.
He was quoted as saying:
“I’m not aware of anything, nothing came to me. And if it had come to [football director] Adalberto Baptista, I would know too”.
He added:
“We have no interest in negotiating the player because he is very important to us. Nothing has come and even if something had come, we wouldn’t negotiate him”.
Milan have announced at their official site that they will face Cruzeiro in a friendly game at the Gillette Stadium on August 4th.
That will be the second time Cruzeiro play at that stadium as they faced New England Revolution in 2010.
Del Piero would be interested in joining Flamengo, reports ‘Globo Esporte’. The Brazilian sports news site contacted Flamengo’s director Zinho who confirmed that Flamengo did contact Del Piero’s representatives and that the Italian player would be interested in joining Fla.
Zinho pointed out though that Fla’s first priority is avoiding get more debts, while Del Piero has also attracted interest from MLS and Middle Eastern teams.
Globo Esporte (Portuguese)
