Robert Lewandowski’s agent Pini Zahavi has made it clear the Polish striker wants to leave Bayern Munich, amid reports Barcelona have made an offer.

“For Robert, things are very clear: he wants to leave FC Bayern this summer,” Zahavi told German daily Bild.

Lewandowski has already said he wants to leave Bayern, where he has a year left on his contract, with Barcelona reportedly offering 32 million euros ($34 million) to sign the 33-year-old.

Zahavi warned Bayern: “Of course they can keep Robert for another year, to be fair he has a contract until 2023, but I wouldn’t recommend that to them.

“For Robert Lewandowski, FC Bayern is history.”

A back-to-back winner of FIFA’s best male player award, Lewandowski has won every title available since joining Bayern in 2014, including eight Bundesliga trophies for a total of 10 having won two with ex-club Dortmund.

He also won the Champions League with Bayern in 2020.

Lewandowski was top-scorer in the Bundesliga last season for the fifth year running after netting 35 goals in Germany’s top flight.

Bayern CEO Oliver Khan and director of sports Hasan Salihamidzic have both publically stated the club will not let Lewandowski leave before 2023.

On Sunday, Salihamidzic slammed Zahavi on a Sport1 talk show.

“He (Lewandowski) has an adviser who has been messing with his head all year,” Salihamidzic fumed.

Zahavi played a role in David Alaba leaving Bayern for Real Madrid on a free transfer, leading to former club president Uli Hoeness once describing the player agent as a “piranha”.

Zahavi, 78, says the issue for Lewandowski is not about extra money. “He has felt disrespected by those in charge (at Bayern) for months, that’s the truth.

“FC Bayern has not lost Lewandowski the player, but Robert the person”.

Zahavi says he hopes Bayern’s senior figures “will think about it again” and allow Lewandowski the opportunity “to fulfil a lifelong dream and move to the club (Barcelona) he has always dreamed of.”

Source: AFP

Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min shared the Premier League Golden Boot on Sunday after both scored on the final day of the season.

South Korea’s Son netted twice in Tottenham’s 5-0 win at Norwich to move to 23 goals — one clear of Salah, but the Egypt forward struck late in Liverpool’s 3-1 win at home to Wolves.

Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo finished third with 18 goals in his first season back in the Premier League.

Salah’s goal was ultimately in vain as Jurgen Klopp’s team finished one point behind Manchester City, who scored three goals in five minutes to beat Aston Villa 3-2.

Tottenham’s win confirmed a fourth-place finish, meaning they qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Son, 29, said it was “incredible” to have the award.

“I can’t believe it,” he told the BBC. “I got really emotional. I dreamed of it as a child. Literally it’s my in hands. I can’t believe it.

“Until my goal I was really frustrated that I missed big chances. I told the players I missed the easiest chances and scored one of the toughest ones.

“I didn’t give up. I wanted to score today. The team helped me a lot at half-time. They wanted to help me, you could see it today.”

Source:  AFP

Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe won the French league’s best player award for the third time in his career on Sunday, then diplomatically swerved a question about his future.

Mbappe is out of contract at PSG next month and touted to join Karim Benzema at Real Madrid in what would be a formidable attack force.

Mbappe said he didn’t want to announce his decision during the ceremony but added “Yes, pretty much” when asked if he’s made his mind up over whether to stay or go.

Mbappe is the league’s top scorer with 25 goals for the French champion and has netted 36 in all competitions.

The awards are given annually by the National Union of Professional Football Players (UNFP) to players in France’s top two divisions.

The 23-year-old France star won the award last year — when Mbappe netted a career-high 42 goals overall — and in 2019.

“It’s always an honor to be here. Winning for a third time in a row is incredible,” Mbappe said. “I’ve felt the recognition this season more than ever.”

The trophy was not awarded in 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic ended the season 10 games early.

Although PSG comfortably won the league title — which it surprisingly lost to Lille last season — Mbappe’s goals and assists masked glaring shortcomings which were ruthlessly exposed by Madrid in the round of 16 in the Champions League.

PSG led 2-0 on aggregate thanks to Mbappe’s goals, but then allowed three goals in under 20 minutes as Benzema tore the defense apart with a brilliant hat trick.

Mbappe’s partnership with Benzema has blossomed since Benzema’s return to the national side after seven years out and they both scored heavily in the past year for Les Bleus.

Benzema struck a magnificent goal in the Nations League final against Spain and Mbappe scored the winner.

Mbappe has scored 168 goals for PSG since joining from Monaco in a deal worth 180 million euros ($187 million) five years ago, the second highest tally in the club’s history behind former teammate Edinson Cavani with 200 goals.

“I want to keep improving,” Mbappe said, laughing when the on-stage interviewer asked if he thought he could overtake Cavani at PSG, which would obviously mean staying there.

“I’m already very happy to be in the top three,” said Mbappe, who overtook Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s PSG tally of 156 goals.

But PSG’s failure to win the Champions League despite massive spending on star players — including a world record 222 million euros ($231 million) on Brazil’s Neymar — has proved frustrating for Mbappe, the star of France’s World Cup triumph four years ago.

In other awards, Bruno Genesio of Rennes was named best coach. The former Lyon coach was criticized early in the season but stuck to his principles.

Fourth-place Rennes has played some of the best attacking soccer in France, scoring 80 goals in 37 games and only five fewer than top scorers PSG.

The best goalkeeper award went to PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, and 21-year-old Marseille defender William Saliba, who is on loan from Premier League team Arsenal, was the best young player.

Source: AP

The European Champions League will see an increase of four teams to 36 and the present group stage replaced by one single league from the 2024/25 season, UEFA said on Tuesday.

The revamp of European football’s premier club competition will see each team play eight league games — four home and four away — as opposed to six in the group stage.

The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout stage, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition.

“We are convinced that the format chosen strikes the right balance and that it will improve the competitive balance and generate solid revenues that can be distributed to clubs, leagues and into grassroots football across our continent,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.

Ceferin and UEFA will be hoping the reforms — passed unanimously by their executive board — will kill off once and for all any thought of the rebel Super League making a reappearance.

Twelve of Europe’s biggest clubs signed up to the proposed new competition last April but it collapsed within days following a fierce backlash from their own players and fans, as well as governments and football’s governing bodies.

Nine clubs distanced themselves from the project but Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus remain on board with the concept.

UEFA had stepped back after consulting with various parties — including supporters — from having 10 league matches and allocating two of the four new places to teams based on club coefficient.

The four places will go to the club ranked third in the championship of the association in fifth position in the UEFA national association ranking.

Another will be awarded to a domestic champion by extending from four to five the number of clubs qualifying via the so-called ‘Champions Path’.

The final two places will go to the associations with the best collective performance by their clubs in the previous season (total number of points obtained divided by the number of participating clubs).

Those two associations if it had been judged on this season based on the collective performance of their clubs would be England and the Netherlands.

Similar format changes will also be applied to the UEFA Europa League (8 matches in the league stage) and UEFA Europa Conference League (6 matches in the league stage) and both will also include 36 teams in the league phase.

Ceferin revelled in the moment of succeeding in pushing through the reforms. “I am really pleased that it was a unanimous decision of the UEFA Executive Committee, with the European Club Association, European Leagues and National Associations all agreeing with the proposal made,” said Ceferin.

“Another proof that European football is more united than ever.

“Qualification will thus remain purely based on sporting performance and the dream to participate will remain for all clubs.”

Source: AFP

Real Madrid fought back from the brink of elimination to beat Manchester City 3-1 after extra time and 6-5 on aggregate in an enthralling and dramatic Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.

City led 1-0 on the night and 5-3 on aggregate when Riyad Mahrez scored after 73 minutes but Real substitute Rodrygo equalised in the last minute of normal time and headed home one minute later to level the tie at 5-5.

Five minutes into extra time Karim Benzema converted a penalty awarded for a foul on him by Ruben Dias and Real, the record 13-times European champions, held the shell-shocked English side at bay to reach the final.

Real will play Liverpool on May 28 in Paris, a repeat of the 2018 final in Kyiv which the Spanish team won 3-1.

Source: AFP