The reigning European champions have issued an official statement rejecting reports from Italy that they have tabled a bid for the Juventus star

Real Madrid deny Pogba Bid

Real Madrid have issued a statement denying reports they have made a formal offer for Juventus star Paul Pogba.

The France international has been the subject of intense speculation linking him with a move to a host of Europe's biggest clubs this summer, with the reigning European champions rumoured to be among the current front-runners for the 22-year-old.

Italian newspaper La Stampa claimed this week that a formal offer have been presented to Juventus, but Madrid have moved to categorically deny the reports.

An official club statement read: "Following the reports published in the Italian newspaper La Stampa concerning an alleged offer from Real Madrid for the player Paul Pogba, the club wishes to state the following:

"Real Madrid have had no contact either with Juventus or the player's agent and, as a consequence, the reports published in this newspaper are completely false."

Former Madrid goalkeeper Francisco Buyo claimed this week that Pogba had informed the club that he was ready to move to the 

Santiago Bernabeu, though conflicting reports suggested Barcelona would be his preferred destination.

He has also been strongly linked to big-spending Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

Pogba joined Juventus in 2012 on a free transfer after failing to agree a new contract with Manchester United.

The Nigeria U23 coach has told Goal that hard work is needed by his boys and technical crew to land the ticket for Rio 2016 as camping resumes

Olympics ticket is not child's play - Siasia

The Nigeria U23 coach has told us that hard work is needed by his boys and technical crew to land the ticket for Rio 2016 as camping resumes

Nigeria U23 coach Samson Siasia expects tougher challenges ahead as his team seeks to land a ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Nigeria would face the winner between Ghana and Congo in order to qualify for the final qualifying tournament that would hold in Senegal between 28 November and 12 December 2015.

"The Olympics ticket is not child’s play. I have been there before and I know it’s not easy to win the Olympics ticket,” says Siasia.

“But with hard work, determination and the full support of everybody, I know we have the materials that will win the ticket and also go far in the competition," said Siasia who led Nigeria to silver at Beijing 2008.

The former Super Eagles handler said he has had contact with some undisclosed Europe-based players that are eligible and within the age bracket whom he would extend invitation to as soon as the camping of his team commences.

Siasia is expected to arrive in Abuja today as preparations continue for the ticket which Nigeria failed to get for the London 2012 Olympics.

Caf announced on Wednesday that Senegal would host the African U23 Championship which will throw up the qualifiers for Rio 2016.

The tournament would be played at the Léopold Sedar Senghor Stadium in Dakar and the Caroline Faye Stadium in M’Bour.

The 20-year-old's agent announced the winger would not be staying at Anfield for any sum of money, but the Reds boss insists he will be see out his deal

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says he expects Raheem Sterling to see out the final two years of his current deal, despite the bitter ongoing contract row between player and club.

Sterling's controversial agent, Aidy Ward, insisted on Thursday that the 20-year-old would not be staying at Anfield even if he were offered €1.3 million per week, and also branded ex-Red Jamie Carragher a "k***" over his criticism of the situation.

That came on the back of a string of stories in the media suggesting Sterling is set on finding a new club this summer, and the Reds duly scrapped planned talks over a new agreement.

But Rodgers says the youngster will be staying put regardless: "It's difficult to comment on what others speak about. Any meetings that take place here will be dealt with internally.

"Raheem, whether there are talks or no talks, has two years left and I expect him to see that through.

"I'm sure talks will take place over the summer. 

"I don't see Raheem as being unhappy. If Raheem is fit, which he is, he will be available to play on Sunday. It doesn't change my approach to him. He's a good kid."

Widespread reports on Monday night stated that Sterling had told Rodgers ahead of the Premier League clash at Chelsea earlier this month that he would be leaving the club this summer.

But the Reds boss refused to shed any light on the rumours, insisting everything the club does will be conducted in private.

"What Raheem said and didn't say to me [before the Chelsea game] will stay between him and I.

"How we like to work is to keep everything behind closed doors. We can only control what we do."

Liverpool proved their ability to keep hold of an unsettled player, if only for one further season, by refusing to sell Luis Suarez to Arsenal in the summer of 2013.

And Rodgers believes the club's owners, Fenway Sports Group, will be able to keep the Sterling situation under control.

"The ownership have shown their strength in their time here," he continued. "They have done an incredible job to stabilise the club.

"Liverpool supporters always back their own players. If he plays any part in the game, Raheem will get the support of our fans."

The best performers in the latest round of Italian league action are recognised in our all-star XI

Serie A Team of the Week: El Shaarawy torments Torino

The penultimate round of the 2014-15 Serie A season could easily have been something of a formality with so few fixtures having any big prizes riding on them. Instead, there were a huge number of quality displays to be considered for Goal's latest Team of the Week.

Gianluigi Buffon was in excellent form as Juventus continued their preparation for the Champions League final with a 3-1 home win over Napoli. The Italy captain saved Lorenzo Insigne's penalty and made a plethora of smart stops in general play to help tee up the Bianconeri's late victory march.

Daniele Rugani's excellent first full campaign in Serie A has seen him into our best XI on a number of occasions, and he was fantastic once more as Empoli were denied a clean sheet and a victory over Sampdoria in stoppage time by Samuel Eto'o. Yohan Benalouane was head and shoulders above the rest for Atalanta at Chievo before the hosts grabbed a late equaliser of their own. And Monday saw Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa's return to the scoresheet for the first time since 2011 as Roma won the local derby against Lazio to snatch a Champions League group spot.



Keisuke Honda has been one of Milan's most consistent players in a largely disappointing season, and he was again a stand-out as the Rossoneri triumphed over Torino despite the first-half dismissal of Cristian Zaccardo. Francesco Magnanelli's consistency rarely translates into goals, but he registered the only strike of the game as Sassuolo beat Udinese, and Andrea Bertolacci was magnificent in midfield as Genoa outplayed Inter to snatch a 3-2 win. Meanwhile, Josip Ilicic makes the Team of the Week for the fourth successive round after he returned to Palermo and delivered a barnstorming performance in Fiorentina's 3-2 success.

Genoa's win over Inter saw Maxime Lestienne change the course of the fixture by running rings around Andrea Ranocchia and friends, and he netted a vital second goal too. Luca Toni continued a phenomenal campaign - and career - with two more goals for Verona in a 2-2 draw with Parma. And there was a welcome return to goalscoring form for Stephan El Shaarawy, who netted only his second and third goals of the season in Milan's 3-0 win over Torino.

The Blues laid the foundations for a first Premier League title in five years with a brilliant summer of targeted recruitment - now their rivals must do the same

For Jose Mourinho, that euphoric Premier League title feeling came with beating Crystal Palace. By the timeChelsea got around to lifting the trophy on Sunday he was past it, speaking with the pride of a winner but also the steely glint in the eye of a man who is already plotting the next triumph.

“I always believe if you are not better than you were the season before, normally you don’t retain the title, so if we want to win the title next year, and obviously we want to do that, we have to be better,” he told Sky Sports as his players celebrated on the pitch at Stamford Bridge. “I have to be better, these players have to be better and maybe our squad needs some fresh blood to put the current squad under a bit of pressure.

“The players know me, they know I’m not going to give positions just because of what they did this year, but I think maybe a couple of players to improve the squad to put them under pressure would help us compete against the fantastic opponents we are going to have.”

Mourinho is well aware that Chelsea’s first Premier League title in five years was made possible by a brilliant summer of targeted recruitment. Diego Costa was acquired in a €46 million deal from Atletico Madrid to provide the goals that a faded Fernando Torres could not. Cesc Fabregas came in to turn a talented but reactive midfield into one capable of winning matches on the front foot. Thibaut Courtois finally made the leap from loan superstar to first-choice goalkeeper.

All three men were integrated into the squad before Chelsea embarked on a pre-season tour of mainland Europe in late July, and by the start of the season Mourinho could not hide his pleasure at the talent and cohesion of his group. “We have the squad that we want to have,” he told reporters in August. “It is a squad for tomorrow, for next season and also a squad with big possibilities for the next five or 10 years with so many young people. So I like my squad very much.”

Chelsea’s achievement mirrored that of Manchester City the summer before, when Fernandinho and Jesus Navas arrived to bolster an already formidable squad on July 1 and went on to play key roles as Manuel Pellegrini’s men saw off Liverpool and the Blues to claim a second title in three seasons, scoring an outrageous 102 goals in the process.

It is a common theme. In the last five seasons only two men signed towards the end of a summer window have gone on to be key contributors to a Premier League title-winning team. One was Sergio Aguero, a superstar-in-waiting when he joined City in late July of 2011, missing most of the club’s pre-season tour of the USA. The other was Robin van Persie, already the best striker in England by a distance upon signing for Manchester United in mid-August 2012.

LATE IMPACT | Sergio Aguero arrived from Atletico Madrid in late July but hit the ground running (Getty)

       ALL SMILES | RVP was Sir Alex Ferguson's last big-name signing and was an instant hit (Getty)

These exceptional talents are the exceptions that prove the rule. Louis van Gaal only has to cast his mind back to last summer to recall how difficult it is to try to keep up with the Premier League’s finest after a chaotic, disjointed and draining pre-season. Their major transfer business done early, Chelsea’s preparations were every bit as serene as what has followed.

This summer the sense of urgency is exacerbated by the fact that the new Premier League season is slated to begin on August 8 – the earliest starting date for 15 years. Signings will have less time to adjust to their new surroundings, team-mates and managers, making those July weeks all the more crucial if they are to hit the ground running in the manner of Costa and Fabregas.

United have made an encouraging start, wrapping up a €31.4m deal for Memphis Depay with three matches of the season to spare and sending the faded Radamel Falcao back to Monaco. But Van Gaal still has plenty to do if he wants to bring the Premier League’s most unbalanced squad up to championship standard.

City’s planned overhaul should make their supporters nervous – and not just because Txiki Begiristain is the man making the decisions. The likes of Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and Paul Pogba are glamorous targets but if Pellegrini is saddled with wholesale change he will need every minute of pre-season to turn his squad into coherent contenders.

CREATOR IN CHIEF | Former Chelsea man Kevin De Bruyne has starred in the Bundesliga (Getty)

WANTED MAN | City will be among a host of clubs interested in Juventus' Paul Pogba (Getty)

Arsene Wenger is right when he insists that Arsenal require quality rather than quantity, but there remains the fear that his endless pondering will be wholly unsuited to a transfer window where decisiveness will be more valuable than ever before. News of an ambitious bid for Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema is heartening but the Gunners’ boss will be judged on his results.

Chelsea will again look to strengthen but they enjoy the advantage of building from the highest base. “It’s not the problem of Chelsea, it’s the problem of the others,” Blues legend Marcel Desailly told Goal last week. “If United, Arsenal and City don’t have that consistency of performance, Chelsea will again be ahead of all the other teams.”

With Mourinho already eyeing the next piece of silverware, Chelsea’s Premier League rivals face an unenviable task to ensure their squads are up for the challenge. Worse still, the clock is ticking.

A European club final could be played under a roof for the first time in history on Wednesday - and the hosts of Dnipro-Sevilla now have other targets to aim for

The first European club final to be played under a closed roof could take place on Wednesday and the location for this historic event will come as a surprise to many football fans. Rather than being held in one of the rich western European countries where such a significant development would be more expected, the venue is the Polish capital city of Warsaw.

The 2015 Uefa Europa League final is being staged at the Stadion Narodowy on the banks of the River Wisła (Vistula). Such is the unseasonably poor weather in central Poland that the match organisers have made contingency plans to shut the stadium roof if the predicted heavy rainfall materialises.

The Poles were already proud enough just to be hosting the country's first European club final. The potential use of the roof, confirmed by Uefa on Tuesday, adds further to the sense that Polish football is making immense advances, which have become ever clearer in recent years.

Polish footballers are far more prominent in leading European clubs than has previously been the case, with Robert Lewandowski at Bayern Munich an outstanding example. Then there are his former team-mates at Borussia Dortmund, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek.


The Stadion Narodowy - with the roof closed - during Tuesday's pre-match training sessions

Arkadiusz Milik is a very promising young forward at Ajax, but perhaps the Polish player who has made the greatest strides forward this season is Grzegorz Krychowiak. The 25-year-old has impressed for Sevilla from the opening moments of his daunting debut against Real Madrid in the Uefa Super Cup in Cardiff last August.

Though that encounter ended in a 2-0 defeat, the defensive midfielder has been vital in helping Sevilla to the Europa League final, making more tackles and more interceptions than any of his team-mates. He has, unsurprisingly, been watched by several of the continent's leading clubs, including Arsenal.

Krychowiak is the latest of an increasing run of Polish footballers participating in major European finals. He has also proved crucial in helping his country to the top of Group D of the Euro 2016 qualifiers ahead of world champions Germany, having impressed in Poland's 2-0 victory over their neighbours at the Stadion Narodowy last October.

The result was immensely significant, as the Poles had never before defeated the Germans in 18 previous attempts, and Krychowiak enthuses: "Our victory over Germany was absolutely huge for the country. It was the first time in history that we had beaten them. I get goosebumps every time I think about it."



It was something that even Poland's past golden generations of footballers did not manage, despite Jan Tomaszewski's famous side securing third place at the 1974 World Cup and Zbigniew Boniek's team subsequently equalling that achievement in 1982. Boniek is now the modernising president of the Polish Football Association, the PZPN.

But a past footballing great as the figurehead of the nation's governing body has not always worked out. The difference now is that Polish football has the infrastructure to go with its ambitions on the pitch. Membership of the European Union has brought much-needed investment but it was Euro 2012 that proved the biggest stimulus.

All four stadiums used for that tournament three years ago were newly built, in Gdansk, Poznan and Wroclaw as well as Warsaw. All are different but every one is beautiful in its construction and none is purely functional. They have attracted leading music acts such as Madonna and Coldplay, bringing in much-needed extra income.



Moreover, the competition to be a Euro 2012 venue meant that new arenas also rose up on the sites of other old stadiums, such as the famous Stadion Slaski in Chorzow and the home grounds of Wisla Krakow and Legia Warszawa. They were just reserve sites for Euro 2012 but the club arenas are attracting more fans back to league games.

Poland may now be hosting its first European club final, but the real ambition is for one of the country's sides to eventually participate in one. It is 45 years since Gornik Zabrze reached the European Cup Winners' Cup final in Vienna in 1970, where they were beaten 2-1 by Manchester City.

First a Polish club must get back among the continent's leading competitors by qualifying for the Champions League, something no team from Poland has managed since Legia went all the way to the quarter-finals in 1995-96, at the expense of, among others, the English league winners, Blackburn Rovers.

With the advances which Polish football is presently making, that is another historical anomaly which should soon be changed.

Tuesday's shocking news sparked outrage throughout the footballing fraternity with some figures even likening Fifa to the mafia

The football world was rocked on Tuesday when Swiss police swooped to arrest and detain, pending extradition to the United States, seven football officials on federal corruption charges related to Fifa.

These included current Fifa vice president and Concacaf president Jeffrey Webb, as well as Conmebol president Eugenio Figueredo.

An international law enforcement collaboration resulted in morning raids at the Hotel Bauer au Lac in Zurich where officials were staying ahead of the 65th Fifa congress which will decide the Fifa presidency on Friday.

The arrests, together with further news that Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has opened criminal proceedings relating to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, led to outrage throughout the footballing fraternity.

The controversy was only further exacerbated when world football's governing body's Director of Communications and Public Affairs Walter de Grogorio addressed the press. He insisted that not only was it FIFA who initiated the proceedings and was the damaged party, but that there would be no re-vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and no postponed re-election of the Fifa presidency.

HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, who is challenging Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency, was one of the first to react to the news.

“Today is a sad day for football,“ he lamented in a press release.




'A sad day' | Prince Ali (right) is set to take on Blatter for Fifa presidency on Friday

A statement from Europe's governing body Uefa read: "Uefa is astonished and saddened by the events which have taken place earlier today in Zurich and is now waiting for additional information.

"An informal meeting of the Uefa Executive Committee will take place this afternoon in Warsaw prior to the Uefa Europa League final."

The Chairman of the English Football Association Greg Dyke was also deeply disheartened: "We should stress this morning's developments are very serious for FIFA and its current leadership.

"As one of the associations who nominated Prince Ali it will not surprise you to learn that if the election for president goes ahead The FA will be voting for him. However, there must be a question mark over whether the election should take place in these circumstances.

"Clearly things are changing very quickly and our delegation to the Fifa congress in Zurich, which I am leading, will discuss the position and what we should do about it with our colleagues in Uefa when we meet tomorrow [Thursday] morning."


Mafia | Delaney said the Fifa raids are like something from a gangster film

Football Association of Ireland CEO John Delaney was absolutely scathing in his criticism of Fifa.

"It seems like something out of a mafia movie," he told RTE Radio One.

"Nothing would surprise me with Fifa, that’s the sad thing. When you wake up this morning and hear those events, it’s shocking and very saddening.

"The awards of World Cups are always covert and then there are independent reports that we don’t get to see. We’re told we’d get redacted versions and we don’t get those.

"There is always controversy around Fifa and it’s governance and the one person who has always been at the head of that is Sepp Blatter and he has to take some responsibility for that and that’s why I said yesterday that we wouldn’t be voting for him."

England legend and BBC presenter Gary Lineker was even more damning of the governing body and Blatter.

"There can't be a more corrupt, deplorable organisation on earth than Fifa. The house of cards is falling. Time for change!," he tweeted.

"If Blatter had even a crumb of dignity remaining, he'd walk away now, creep back to his lair, sit in his armchair and stroke his cat."

COMMENT: The Chelsea manager's words have led him to contradict himself once again and attempt to deny a team well worthy of Champions League football a spot in the competition

Around this time last season, Jose Mourinho lambasted 'football philosophers' as his Chelsea team prepared to face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. His ire was focused on people who seem to have a comment on anything and everything related to the game. 

The irony isn't lost on Jose; most of the time he knows precisely what he is doing and his statements are calculated with an ulterior motive.

And then on other occasions, he starts trouble just for kicks. His recent comments about the relative strength of La Liga are tired, clichéd and are lacking in facts, similar to the philosophers he chose to target.

Following Chelsea's title triumph a few weeks ago - which, in the end, proved extremely comfortable - Mourinho said: "In other countries you can win matches when you are resting. In Spain and in Italy, I won lots of matches resting. 

"This season I rested a few players against Bradford and I lost against Bradford. And that is English football. This is the reality of the Premier League. It's not just about the number of matches, it's the intensity. The difference between the Premier League and La Liga is huge. Would Barcelona or Real Madrid win the Premier League? Maybe yes. Maybe not."

But here, Mourinho is missing the point entirely. Barcelona and Real Madrid have dominated the latter stages of the Champions League since 2009 but the achievements of the other sides, those that don't have the unlimited resources of the big two, are also highly impressive.

Atletico Madrid were within 30 seconds of winning the Champions League last season, while for the best part of a decade Valencia regularly reached the latter stages. Malaga enjoyed just one run in Europe's top competition but missed out on the semi-finals only due to a last-minute Borussia Dortmund goal. 

Sevilla, Europa League finalists once again this year, Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao - the theme isn't the relative power of the teams involved but rather their ability to compete on multiple fronts with distinction.



Does Mourinho still have a chip on his shoulder when it comes to La Liga, given his unsavoury experience with Real Madrid? Indeed, he may be better placed at looking at the likes of Italy, Germany or the hapless France if he wishes to identify underachievement and teams undeserving of European spots.

Spain has produced 14 finalists since 2005 across the two major continental competitions. England are behind in second and even Mourinho admitted his concern about the form of his fellow Premier League teams in the five-year coefficient period.

"I am never happy when an English team loses in Europe," he said in February. "I work in this country and I may be affected by that in the future. We want to keep, year after year, the same number of teams in the Champions League and Europa League."

The Europa League has been reinvigorated by the introduction of Champions League qualification to the winner. But there has been much debate over whether Sevilla, who only managed to finish fifth in La Liga, should be entitled to the award. 

Granted, Uefa's inconsistency over how many sides from one nation can compete in European competition in any one season led to Chelsea regaining entry from sixth after winning the Champions League in 2012, consequently denying Tottenham a place from fourth. 

Yet the teams in the Premier League currently situated outside England's top four - namely Liverpool and Spurs - both had an opportunity to take a run all the way to the Europa League final. Where they failed, Sevilla excelled - why should they be denied Champions League football next season as a result?

Mourinho's propensity to open his mouth so often leads to a contradiction. He complains about La Liga being an easy league and yet the teams he must face week in, week out in England are falling well short of their continental counterparts. Which is it, Jose?

The fact is that Spanish clubs have triumphed in 30 of their last 33 European knockout ties - a success rate of 94 per cent. The system awards high performance in the tournaments that Uefa oversee. Sevilla will be competing to win their fourth Europa League since 2006, and Spain's seventh in the space of the last 12 years. 

If that level of consistency doesn't deserve an additional place in Europe, what does?