The good news for Manchester United: the transfer summer is over. England’s record champions have been such a restless club of late that most of the players they wanted to sign in the summer preferred to turn them down. Now someone brave was found: Antony Matheus dos Santos, that’s the full name of the €100 million most expensive purchase in the club’s proud history. Antony, 22, is now tasked with saving United’s attack and functioning better than a certain Cristiano Ronaldo in coach Erik ten Hag’s system. Actually, United wanted to sign a number of players like Antony, actually they would have liked to give up Ronaldo, but as a consolation: Others had even worse summers. Ajax Amsterdam, for example, has given up coach ten Hag and eight top performers – and in Antony now also the best remaining striker. Felix Haselsteiner
Aubameyang’s liberation
Somersaults coming back to London: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
(Photo: Team Ireland/dpa)
FC Barcelona have not had good business in recent years, but in the case of Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the calculations have paid off. Just over half a year ago, Barça had brought the former Dortmund player from Arsenal from London on a free transfer. Aubameyang, 33, is now moving to his former coach Thomas Tuchel, i.e. to Chelsea. Barça is said to receive a transfer fee of 13 million euros – and as a bonus, the Spanish left-back Marcos Alonso. For Aubameyang, the return to London should be tantamount to liberation. On the one hand, he was condemned to being a reservist by buying Robert Lewandowski. On the other hand, he had been brutally attacked in his house on Monday. A blow from a rifle butt caused a hairline fracture in his jaw, which is said to put him out of action for a month. Javier Caceres
Coach fright at the coach fright association
Hats off: Mario Balotelli with a Sion jersey
(Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)
José Mourinho regularly kicked him out of the Inter Milan squad, he almost got into a fight with Roberto Mancini in training at Manchester City, and Jürgen Klopp didn’t even want to try it with Liverpool: Mario Balotelli has never been a favorite coach. This has changed little in the past few years of his lively career. Last Saturday he clashed with his coach Vincenzo Montella after the final whistle – it was the last appearance of the now 32-year-old striker at Adana Demirspor in Turkey, where he scored 18 goals last season. Shortly before the end of the transfer, the Swiss first division club FC Sion announced Balotelli’s commitment. That might fit. Because before there can be a dispute there, the coach has already been kicked out anyway. The club has changed coaches 13 times since 2017. In David Kule
Rich Swiss
Most recently only Dortmund reservist: Manuel Akanji.
(Photo: H. Langer/Imago)
By six and a half kilometers, Manuel Akanji has missed his childhood dream. The centre-back is (still) a Manchester United fan, but instead of playing at Old Trafford he will be playing at the Etihad Stadium in the future. Still, it’s “the perfect next step,” he said. Akanji is said to have cost around 17.5 million in the summer sales of Borussia Dortmund. This is a bargain for Manchester City and its owners from Abu Dhabi, even if Akanji was last in the stands at BVB. And City’s high-gloss squad is missing two central defenders due to injuries. In terms of football, Akanji could fit in well: he is fast and strong in tackles, ideal for a high defense. Incidentally, with a weekly salary of around £180,000, he is said to have become the highest-paid Swiss footballer in history. Karoline Kipper
Stay healthy in Denmark
Soon back on the pitch? Alfred Finnbogason
(Photo: Mathilda Ahlberg/Bildbyran/Imago)
One of the striking strikers in the Bundesliga in recent years was simply gone without a bouquet of flowers: FC Augsburg announced during the summer break that Alfred Finnbogason was leaving the club after his contract expired. The fact that he has not been part of the club’s squad since then is not an unfamiliar picture. The Icelander scored very often when he was healthy – with 37 goals he is the Bundesliga record scorer for FCA. But often he was injured. For a whole season he never played since he came in 2016. Where he could have ended up with fewer health problems was the question that lingered at the height of his career, which peaked when he scored for Iceland in a 1-1 draw against Argentina at the 2018 World Cup. In the end, however, the question was more: Will he end up somewhere again at 33? The answer, on Wednesday: Lyngby BK in Denmark. Subject to the medical check. Sebastian Fisher
The dismantling of the Big City
Will (maybe) meet somewhere else now: Krzysztof Piatek.
(Photo: Popow/Imago Method)
Actually, it is not difficult to profit from Krzysztof Piatek. The Pole is a classic penalty area striker who only needs to be supplied with balls – and he snaps. At Hertha BSC they finally have wingers, Chidera Ejuke on the left and Dodi Lukébakio on the right. But Piatek goes, or: He has to go. One reason is his high salary. Piatek came to Berlin from Florence in January 2020, when Hertha was on a spending spree due to the entry of investor Lars Windhorst. At that time, Piatek, Lucas Tousart, who was still in Berlin, Matheus Cunha (today Atlético Madrid) and Santi Ascacíbar (Cremonese) made sure that Hertha spent more than 100 million euros – and thus won their only title in recent times: winter transfer window record buyers. Piatek is now moving to US Salernitana on loan. There they have a great winger as a supplier: the former Munich Franck Ribéry. Javier Caceres
