Herrera keen for long stay at Bilbao

Brendan Rodgers says Swansea s Ashley Williams has apologised for strongly criticising Liverpool striker Luis Suarez.

In an extract from his book published this week, defender Williams accused Suarez of being a serial diver and also said he would like to punch the controversial Uruguay forward.

Liverpool manager Rodgers, who coached Williams at Swansea, revealed he spoke to his former charge about the explosive comments and said the Welshman has since apologised to both him and Suarez.

I ve spoken to Ash and Ash has spoken with Luis and there s no issue there, he said.

When I saw those comments, I found it hard to believe to be honest so I ve spoken to him and I ve got the full explanation of how it seemingly got out there and he was very quick to wan…

Manchester City defender Karim Rekik has penned a new long-term deal , the club have confirmed.

The 18-year-old, who can play at both centre-back and left-back, joined the club from Feyenoord in 2011 and made two appearances for Roberto Mancini s side before earning a further eight caps on-loan at Portsmouth in the Championship at the end of the season.

Rekik, who has missed three months of the current campaign with a back injury, has targeted a spot in the City first team.

It was a very easy decision to make, City is a great club with a great future for me, Rekik told the club s official website.

I can develop as a player and a person at this club and that s why I decided to stay.

It feels like family inside at City, everybody is nice and th…

A huge flag-waving crowd gave Germany s not quite all-conquering football team a heroes welcome in central Berlin on Monday despite their 1-0 defeat to Spain in the final of Euro 2008.

Even if you are vice-champions it is worth celebrating, said student Richard, 24, who drove for four hours from North-Rhine Westphalia to get to Berlin for Sunday s match which was definitely worth it, he said.

Lots of people came specially to Berlin for the match and now they are staying here for the team, he said, one of around 100,000 fans who came to welcome Michael Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger and co at the Brandenburg Gate.

Coach Joachim Loew, appearing on stage to rock music by the White Stripes, used the occasion to pay tribute to Luis Aragones s team but vowed to pu…

As quoted by Fabrizio Romano, Ajax defender Jurrien Timber claims he had offers to leave the Dutch champions last summer but chose to stay put, but at the end of this season, he s prepared to consider his transfer options.

Ajax are known as a club that regularly produces top-quality players in every position; the list of the past and current superstars that went through their academy ranks is long indeed. Last summer, Timber was reportedly a target for Manchester United, following the agreement for head coach Erik ten Hag to move to Old Trafford, but as it happened, United signed Lisandro Martinez from Ajax instead, as well as winger Antony.

Interestingly enough, Timber took his first football steps at Feyenoord, but he switched to Ajax at the age of 12. Now 21, he s ma…

Former Arsenal player and manager Terry Neill has passed away at the age of 80, the club has confirmed.

Neill made 275 appearances for Arsenal between 1960 and 1970, and was made captain at the age of 20.

The midfielder, who was also a player-manager for Hull City, received 44 caps for Northern Ireland before retiring from playing in 1973.

Neill went on to manage Tottenham in 1974, before moving back to their north London rivals two years later.

Arsenal reached three consecutive FA Cup finals on his watch from 1978, winning the 1979 final in a dramatic 3-2 success against Manchester United.

Neill also guided Arsenal to the 1980 UEFA Cup Winners Cup final, which they lost to Valencia on penalties.

He left after seven seasons in charge…

After clinching the first top-flight title of his managerial career, Claudio Ranieri has finally proved his doubters wrong, says former Leicester City defender Patrick Kisnorbo.

Ranieri is the mastermind behind Leicester s remarkable Premier League-winning campaign, which was confirmed with two games to play on Monday after Chelsea held Tottenham to a 2-2 draw.

But Ranieri s appointment was an unpopular one when he replaced Nigel Pearson at the start of the season.

Many questioned Leicester a 5,000-1 shot to win the title before the season started for handpicking Ranieri, who had been sacked by Greece in November 2014, after Pearson had dramatically preserved the club s top-flight status.

That s the disappointing thing about football. People start c…

Juan Antonio Pizzi is confident his Chile side can beat Argentina and the most important player in history Lionel Messi in the Copa America Centenario final.

The 48-year-old took over as coach of the reigning South American champions in January and has inspired an impressive defence of their title in the United States.

However, Chile must now defeat Messi s Argentina at the MetLife Stadium on Sunday night to retain their crown.

The Barcelona star broke Gabriel Batistuta s all-time goalscoring record for Argentina in the semi-final defeat of USA with his 55th international strike, but Pizzi is optimistic despite the scale of the task ahead of his men.

I believe we re going up against the most important player in history, said the Argentine-born coach.<…

Valencia re-signed striker David Villa to a six-year deal on Wednesday.

Villa, 26, had been linked to move to rival Real Madrid or to a team in the Barclays Premier League before re-signing with the Primera Liga club.

“We announce today that David Villa and Valencia will remain together for many years to come,” Valencia president Vicente Soriano said. “The best striker in Europe is staying at Valencia.”

Villa has scored 70 goals over his previous three campaigns with Valencia and helped the club win the Copa del Rey last season.

“It is a very happy day for me,” Villa said. “In the last month and a half, lots of things have happened around me that I have not experienced before.

England won but looked anything but confident in Andorra for their World Cup 2010 qualifying opener. Joe Cole scored twice to earn Capello s men the victory.

With no goals scored in the first half, England began to show nervous behaviour in the second with pressure starting to pile up.

But Chelsea s Joe Cole saved the day for the side that missed out on Euro 2008, volleying a Frank Lampard free kick past the goalkeeper for 0-1 in the 49th minute.

And another six minutes later, Cole netted his second, this time with preparing work from Wayne Rooney.

England and Andorra were drawn into Group 6, with Croatia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

…

Chelsea star Eden Hazard has won the PFA Fans Player of the Year award for the Premier League for 2019.

The Belgium international beat five other nominees from Manchester City and Liverpool to claim the prize, including Virgil van Dijk, the winner of the PFA Players Player of the Year award.

While that particular accolade is awarded based on votes by fellow professionals, the fans prize is determined by a public vote, which concluded on Monday.

Hazard came out on top ahead of Van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Bernardo Silva, Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling, who was named the Football Writers Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year.

Hazard s 16 goals and 15 assists in the top flight in 2018-19, the latter of which had already given him the Premier League s Playma…