Real Madrid have completed a blockbuster transfer for Eduardo Camavinga from Rennes.
The 18-year-old French international put pen to paper on a six-year deal, the club announced.
Los Blancos landed the prized midfielder for an initial fee of €31 million plus a potential €9 million in add-ons, The Guardian’s Fabrizio Romano reports.
Real beat out Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain for Camavinga’s services after the Rennes academy product entered the final year of his deal with the French club.
Camavinga is viewed as a long-term replacement for stalwart Luka Modric and has established himself as a reliable defensive midfielder capable of making incisive forward runs.
Despite his age, Camavinga boasts a wealth of experience, having made 71 league appearances for Rennes to pair with 10 outings across the three different UEFA club competitions.
He became France’s youngest international since 1914 when he made his senior Les Bleus debut against Croatia in the UEFA Nations League in September 2020. He also became France’s youngest goalscorer since 1914 with an overhead kick against Ukraine in October 2020.
Camavinga is Real’s second summer signing after David Alaba made the move to the Spanish capital on a free transfer from Bayern Munich earlier in the window.
Supporters’ groups from across the globe have hit out at FIFA’s proposal to hold the World Cup every two years, describing it as a move that threatens to “destroy” the football ecosystem and put more matches out of their financial reach.
A joint statement released Tuesday by 58 fan groups representing all six confederations began by quoting FIFA director of development Arsene Wenger saying the plan is “what the fans want.”
“The undersigned fans’ organizations categorically refute this statement,” the declaration reads. “The overwhelming majority of fans oppose a biennial World Cup cycle – and if FIFA had bothered to engage with us on the subject, they would have known this to be the case.”
Wenger is discussing his proposed shake-up with former England internationals Michael Owen and John Terry and has vowed to include all of football’s major stakeholders in the extensive consultation process, according to BBC Sport’s Simon Stone. There was no mention of supporters in Stone’s report.
“We’re not the only ones (who are ignored),” Ronan Evain, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe, told theScore. “National associations, clubs, and leagues – they’re not really involved in it, either.”
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and European Clubs’ Association chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi both condemned the notion of a biennial World Cup on Monday. Al-Khelaifi warned that “international competition cannot suffocate fans’ and players’ connections to clubs, without which international competition wouldn’t exist.”
FRANCK FIFE / AFP / Getty
Evain added: “FIFA is saying they’re already speaking to fans outside of Europe, but we’ve spoken to dozens and dozens of groups in Africa, in Asia, in South America … and no one has been consulted. So, either they do this fan consultation with random people, or it is bullshit.”
The joint statement continued in questioning FIFA’s motivation to alter a World Cup tradition that began in 1930, saying there’s no evidence it’ll improve the global game.
Additionally, the fan groups noted the damage they believe a biennial World Cup could cause.
“Such a move threatens to destroy the already fragile balance between local, domestic, continental, and international competitions and calendars,” the statement reads. “In particular, it will devalue and endanger the established competitions run by the various confederations – competitions that are just as important to match-going fans as the World Cup itself.
“We enjoy the World Cup precisely because it is an extraordinary event. Most of us do not have the time, money, or ability to travel to the other side of the world every 24 months to watch our teams play in a much-diminished competition and half-empty stadia.”
Evain, who’s French, tried to think about Wenger’s proposal from the perspective of nations that find it harder to reach major tournaments, citing Wales as an example. However, he’s found that the potential of more tournament games through more World Cups isn’t enticing fans from those countries.
Two supporters’ organizations from Wales signed the statement slamming the biennial World Cup plans.
“I can’t really see the demand – and I’ve tried hard to find it,” Evain said.
The statement concludes: “We … call on FIFA and supportive national football associations to abandon their proposals to impose a biennial World Cup and include fans’ voices in any decisions that affect the future of the game that we fund and make a global spectacle.”
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and European Clubs’ Association (ECA) chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi reject the idea of a biennial World Cup, with the former saying it would “dilute” what makes the tournament so special.
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is leading a consultation process on holding a World Cup every two years in his role as FIFA’s director of development.
“What people want today are high-stakes, easy-to-understand competitions,” he said last week while insisting there’s “no financial intention” behind the proposal.
However, Ceferin and Al-Khelaifi, who also serves as Paris Saint-Germain president, shot down Wenger’s proposal at the ECA’s General Assembly in Geneva on Monday.
“You have probably heard that FIFA is conducting a feasibility study about the World Cup every two years,” Ceferin said, according to The Guardian’s Sean Ingle. “Well, we think that the jewel of the World Cup has value precisely because of its rarity. Holding it every two years will lead to less legitimacy, and it will unfortunately dilute the World Cup itself.”
He added: “Our players don’t need to see more of their summers spent at tournaments rather than devoted to relaxation and recuperation.”
Al-Khelaifi said FIFA’s potential reform of the international calendar needs “honest engagement, not unilateral and self-interested decisions” before noting that changes could put “players’ health and well-being at risk – and the clubs bear all the risk.”
“International competition cannot suffocate fans’ and players’ connections to clubs, without which international competition wouldn’t exist,” he added.
Both the women’s and men’s editions of the World Cup are held every four years, with the former beginning in 1991 and the latter starting in 1930 (with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to World War Two).
Wenger told beIN SPORTS in March that the UEFA Nations League and other “parallel competitions” should be scrapped to make room for “games with meaning,” according to BBC Sport’s Simon Stone.
Kylian Mbappe won’t join Real Madrid this summer after Paris Saint-Germain failed to respond to the Spanish club’s €200-million offer on Tuesday morning, according to The Guardian’s Fabrizio Romano.
Real Madrid are now expected to strike a pre-contract agreement with Mbappe in January, allowing them to sign the French forward on a free transfer when his PSG deal expires in June 2022, according to Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol.
The Spanish club’s offer actually exceeded €220 million, Solhekol adds.
PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi was determined to keep the 22-year-old until January at least, Romano reports. However, he’s left the club open to losing Mbappe for nothing by doing so. Les Parisiens owe AS Monaco €180 million for Mbappe’s transfer four years ago.
Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and Neymar were named in the same matchday squad for Sunday’s 2-0 win at Stade de Reims, but the celebrated trio is yet to line up together due to Messi replacing Neymar in the 66th minute of that Ligue 1 game.
Now, PSG boss Mauricio Pochettino has the opportunity to field all three attackers as the club tries to fulfill its main ambition of winning the Champions League. The French side’s European campaign starts at Club Brugge on Sept. 15; its group is rounded out by Manchester City and RB Leipzig.
