Transfers

Offensive reinforcements are arriving at the Emirates Stadium in North London, and they couldn't come at a better time. Just a few days after a lackluster opening day defeat to Brentford, Arsenal has signed attacker Martin Ødegaard on a permanent transfer worth nearly $50 million.

The Norwegian had a successful loan spell at the club last season, joining on loan from Real Madrid in January 2021 and making 14 appearances during the second half of the campaign.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been linked with a host of clubs this summer but he seems set to stay put at Juventus, tasked with an even more important role in revitalizing the Italian giants.

Be it a return to boyhood club Sporting Lisbon, a move Ronaldo's own mother suggested was a possibility, or another shot at the English Premier League with Manchester United, the 36-year-old has been subject to much transfer talk.

The soccer world has been without its greatest villain, or hero depending on if he’s on your team. A new Diego Costa transfer could be announced soon and the 32-year-old plans on taking his talents to Brazil with Atlético Minerio.

ROME - Romelu Lukaku is a familiar face to Premier League viewers, but the player who completed a $134.7 million return to Chelsea on Thursday is, by his own admission, not the same one who departed England two years ago.

“Italy has brought me to another level. I have never felt this strong. I have reached another level, physically and mentally,” Lukaku said in May.

PARIS — Lionel Messi dashed any thoughts of him taking it easy in his later years as he set his sights on leading new club Paris St Germain to their first ever Champions League title at his presentation in France on Wednesday.

The Argentine forward, 34, had agreed to stay at former club Barcelona after his deal expired at the end of June, only for the Spanish club to admit they could no longer afford him last week.

He signed a two year deal with an option for a third with the Parisians on Tuesday.

While Lionel Messi's departure marks the end of an era for Barcelona, there is plenty more to be resolved at the Nou Camp before the season gets under way:

MONEY ISSUES

Barcelona has a gross debt of over one billion euros ($1.17 billion) and years of profligate spending meant they flew too close to the sun once too often.

Even without the Argentine, their salary mass accounts for 95 percent of all income — in football, it is considered viable and healthy to have your wages to income at a maximum ratio of 70 percent.