One of Wednesday evening's Champions League sub-plots was the return of Didier Drogba to the European stage, 9 months after scoring the final penalty to seal Chelsea's European title.
Though he didn't score in his new side Galatasaray's 1-1 draw with Schalke 04, the German club are considering appealing to UEFA, on the grounds that Drogba may not be approved to be a Galatasaray player, due to an ongoing dispute with the Ivorian's former club in China, Shanghai Shenhua.
Turkish Super Lig club Galatasaray has reportedly captured their second massive signing of the January transfer window, signing former Chelsea star Didier Drogba from China's Shanghai Shenhua.
The 18-month deal for Drogba comes a week after Galatasaray finalized a transfer for Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder.
Drogba to choose Galatasary over Chelsea for Champions League football - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Galatasaray are looking to sign Didier Drogba in the January transfer window and have started negotiations with Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua to buy the striker.
Scared off but the wage demands of Didier Drogba, Juventus have gone with a cheaper former Chelsea striker, signing Nicolas Anelka on loan from Shanghai Shenhua for the rest of the season. Anelka is reported to be getting paid €600,000 for five months, plus performance-related bonuses and an option to extend for another year.
Italian media claim Didier Drogba wants his Shanghai Shenhua contract terminated, sparking a bidding war between Juventus, Lazio and Milan.
The former Chelsea striker has reportedly sent a letter to Shanghai Shenhua asking for his deal to be terminated. That would then open the door to a free transfer back to Europe.
Didier Drogba could be in for a shock return to Chelsea after the striker revealed that he is seeking a loan move to prepare for the Africa Cup of Nations, which starts in January.
Drogba, whose last act in a Blues shirt was to score the winning penalty in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich back in May, is under contract at Shanghai Shenhua.
Former Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka is eyeing a return to the Premier League after struggling to settle in China, with his preferred choice of transfer being Liverpool, according to The Sun. The 33-year-old moved to Shanghai Shenhua in January 2012, where he was briefly named player-manager following the sacking of Jean Tigana.
Liverpool has been forced to end their pursuit of reported target Didier Drogba after the former Chelsea striker pledged his future to Shanghai Shenhua. The Reds were rumoured to be keen on taking the Ivorian on loan in January but he has now made it clear he would prefer to stay in China and would not be returning to England.
Liverpool is being linked with a shock loan move for ex-Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. The 34-year-old Ivory Coast international left Stamford Bridge for China in the summer, joining Shanghai Shenhua on a free transfer after lifting the Champions League trophy under Roberto Di Matteo. However, The Sunday People claims Drogba could make a quick return to the Premier League, joining Liverpool on loan when the Chinese season comes to an end next week.
All good things have to come to an end eventually and the long shot that was Shanghai Shenhua belatedly saving their season and qualifying for the Asian Champions League is now off the table after the team was humiliated 4-2 by the high-flying Guizhou Renhe on Sunday.
Wang Dalei China's Fallen Star Begins To Shine Again is a post from: Just Football
It's not all about Drogba and Anelka in Shanghai. Just Football's man in China Andrew Crawford reports on the re-emergence of a local talent:
The Chinese Super League is down to the final three games of the 2012 season and whilst most eyes have been on the expensively acquired foreign signings now plying their trade in China, others have been watching the redemption of one of its most promising but frustrating players, Wang Dalei.
Arsenal Linked With Shock Drogba Swoop Arsenal are purportedly trying to sign former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba from Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, according to a report published by The Sun. The big Ivorian moved to the unglamorous world of Chinese football at the end of last season but his future in the country's Super League [.
There have been various reports this morning that the ex-Chelsea star Didier Drogba could be on his way to Arsenal after problems amongst the owners of Shanghai Shenhua who are not reportedly able to pay his wages which are rumoured to be 300,000 GBP per WEEK! Ray Wilkins, who spent many many years working alongside [.
When MLS gave a 31-year-old David Beckham a four-year contract worth a league-record $6.5
million per year in 2007, there was vigorous debate over the financial sense of such a move. Now,
five years into Beckham's successful stint in the league, MLS commissioner Don Garber has revealed
that an attempt was made earlier this year to obliterate that record by offering 34-year-old Didier
Drogba more than $10 million a year.
If you did not think MLS had a serious interest in luring Didier Drogba to North America this
summer, think again.Â
Speaking at a panel at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit in New York on Thursday, MLS
comissioner Don Garber said that the league offered Drogba a salary of more than $10 million per
year, which would have been an MLS record.
Shanghai East Asia FC: A new young hope for football in China is a post from: Just Football
These are exciting times for Shanghainese football. Not just because of Shanghai
Shenhua's brash, noisy acquisitions of Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba but because lower
down a division, another team from the city, Shanghai East Asia are within
touching distance of promotion to the Chinese Super League.
Reports from China indicate Didier Drogba and his former Chelsea team mate, Nicholas Anelka
could leave Shanghai Shenhua because the club is unable to meet its wage commitments because of an
escalating shareholder row. Both Drogba and Anelka earn a mind boggling £300,000 per week to play
for 10th placed Shenhua.
By Andrew Crawford, writing from Shanghai. View all letters here.
Two months into the second phase of the Shanghai Shenhua revolution, with Didier Drogba freshly
installed as the team's new alpha male, the team have gone unbeaten over seven games.
Chelsea's midfielder, John Obi Mikel, must be in cloud cuckoo land after claiming that the Blues
will regain the Premier League title and defend their Champions League trophy this season.
Speaking ahead of the campaign, which got off to a solid start with a 2-0 away win against Wigan,
the 25-year-old Nigeria international is in an overly optimistic mood.
Two weeks after making his Chinese Super League debut, Didier Drogba scored his first goal for
Shanghai Shenhua in today's match against Hangzhou Greentown.
It probably won't make the $300,000-a-week striker's career highlight reel, but it's certainly
an important milestone for the man who moved to China for the challenge, not the money.
31.07.2012 - El Shanghai Shenhua dirigido por Sergio Batista carretea sin levantar vuelo en
China. Con 6 puntos cosechados de los últimos 15 en juego se mantiene a 3 puntos de puestos de
descenso y esta vez, por la 19º jornada de la Super Liga, rescató un empate en su visita al
puntero Guangzhou Evergrande (de DarÃo Conca, Lucas Barrios y Marcelo Lippi) remontando (2 veces)
el resultado.
Keeping with our recent tradition of doing really random posts in the off-season, we must now
naturally move on to pre-season friendlies. Pre-season friendlies are a time of joy for the
marketing heads of football clubs, assorted brands and Chinese-names-on-tshirt-writers. The global
tours of English clubs this summer have practically reached the opposite ends of the world,
everyone apparently glad to avoid the traffic back home during the Olympics.
Apparently, there's some small sporting event kicking off in London (we've sent our top
reporters T.Cleverly and R.Giggs to check this out), but on the other side of the world, United are
in pre-season. Already having thrashed Amazulu 1-0 with Kiko Macheda's goal, and a 1-1 affair with
Ajax Cape Town, this match notched the level into serious.
Manchester United's Shinji Kagawa scores his first goal for the club since his Summer move from
Germany, while also picking up the Man of the Match award as United beat Shanghai Shenhua minus
Anelka and Drogba in United's pre-season tour of Asia.
A long list of summer friendlies that are being televised in North America kicks off Wednesday
night, when the Seattle Sounders take on UEFA Champions League winner Chelsea at CenturyLink Field
as part of the World Football Challenge.
In addition to the WFC, Manchester United's summer tour that includes a trip to South Africa and
matches against Barcelona and Didier Drogba's Shanghai Shenhua is also being televised for all to
see.
The Daily Mail is reporting that Frank Lampard will quit Chelsea in the January transfer window and join Chinese side Guizhou.
Lampard, who will be out of contract at Stamford Bridge next summer, has been repeatedly linked with a move to Major League Soccer next year, but it looks like he will be heading to China instead at Los Angeles.
China: Football, rivalry and identity in the Middle Kingdom is a post from: Just Football
In his article-cum-essay, ‘From the Capital To Beijing; Angry Youth On Guoan's
Terraces', the always excellent blogger ‘bcheng' talks about the cultural importance that
Beijing Guoan has to the natives of current home;
Getting into a top university is hard and even if one does what's needed, it's still very
possible they'll graduate and enter the ranks of the unemployed or, at best, underemployed.
Manchester United have surpassed Barcelona's £125m world record shirt sponsorship deal with the
Qatar Foundation by striking a seven-year shirt agreement with Chevrolet worth in excess of
£25m-a-year.
United, whose current £20m-a-year shirt deal with the American insurance giant Aon still has
two seasons left to run, will begin their partnership with Chevrolet at the start of the 2014-15
campaign.
When Manchester United have a defensive injury crisis, Michael Carrick is usually called upon to
play in the centre of defence. During the pre-season tour, with Chris Smalling, Nemanja Vidic and
Jonny Evans all out injured, and Phil Jones not travelling after his selection in England's Euro
2012 squad, Carrick played in defence against Shanghai Shenhua.
Shanghai Shenhua vs Manchester United 2012 Highlights 0-1 Shinji Kagawa Goal Video Score
Friendly is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter
Shanghai Shenhua vs Manchester United 2012 Highlights 0-1 Shinji Kagawa Goal Video Score Friendly
is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Shanghai Shenhua vs Manchester
United 2012 ( Shanghai Shenhua Man Utd VIDEO BELOW) Final score and result:- Shanghai Shenhua vs
Manchester United 0-1 ( Shinji Kagawa) Shanghai, China- 13.
18.03.2013 - Las andanzas del Flaco (Rolando) Schiavi por China traen alguna perla con reminiscencias publicitarias. El Shanghai Shenhua (dirigido por Sergio Batista) le ganó (1-0) el clásico a Nanchang Bayi con gol de Patricio Toranzo sin perjuicio de que Schiavi recibiera de su propia medicina en el área de su defensa por parte del justiciero Wen Xu.
Nicolas Anelka was watching carefully as Roger Federer beatYen Hsun-Lu6-3, 7-5 at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday. Given the'uncertainty' surrounding his current contract with Shanghai Shenhua, it wouldn't surprise us if he was experimenting with other sports.Image:PETER PARKS/AFP/GettyImages.
Clarence Seedorf followed up Didier Drogba's first two goals for Shanghai Shenhua by opening his
Botafogo account in as fine of style as you'd expect of Clarence Seedorf. In his fourth match with
the club, Seedorf equalized in the 64th minute against Atletico-GO with a lovely free kick over the
wall that opposing keeper Marcio (who opened the scoring with a successful penalty of his own in
the 23rd minute) could only gawk at.
