Borussia Dortmund closed out the January transfer window the same way they started it.
Having already made a big splash by signing Erling Braut Haaland earlier this month, the German side added another impressive piece on deadline day, confirming the acquisition of midfielder Emre Can from Juventus.
The 26-year-old heads back to the Bundesliga on an initial loan for €1 million, Juventus confirmed. Dortmund have an obligation to make the transfer permanent at the end of the season for an additional €25 million if certain “sports results” are achieved during the remainder of the campaign.
Can should help bolster a side that has seen its midfield hit hard by injuries and departures this season; both Thomas Delaney and Axel Witsel have been sidelined by various ailments, and Julian Weigl was recently sold to Benfica.
The tough-tackling German, who’s hoping to secure a spot on the Euro 2020 team, spent time at both Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen earlier in his career before joining Liverpool.
He was largely stapled to the bench in Turin since the appointment of Maurizio Sarri, playing just 281 Serie A minutes this season. Can was also surprisingly omitted from Juventus’ Champions League squad.
The Baltimore Ravens signed safety Chuck Clark to a three-year contract extension Monday, the team announced.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but Clark’s extension is worth $15.3 million, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It now ties Clark, who had been scheduled to enter the final season of his rookie contract in 2020, to the Ravens for the next four years at $16 million.
The 24-year-old Clark, who was drafted by Baltimore in the sixth round (186th overall) in 2017, moved into the starting lineup in Week 6 in 2019 and had the best season of his career, finishing with an interception, 2 forced fumbles, a sack, 9 passes defensed and 68 tackles.
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Clark’s extension increases the likelihood of Baltimore cutting Tony Jefferson, whose season-ending knee injury opened up that starting spot for Clark. The Ravens can create $7 million in cap space by releasing Jefferson.
“Chuck is a great story about hard work, patience, preparation and passion,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said in a story on the team’s website announcing the deal.
“He waited for his chance and seized the opportunity. Chuck’s a good football player, a fine teammate and a respected leader. He’s the type of player we want on our defense for a long time. Congrats to Chuck and his family.”
DeCosta said when he took over as general manager last year that he wanted to retain his players before they reached free agency.
ESPN’s Jamison Hensley contributed to this report.
Now that the January transfer window has slammed shut, it’s time to assess the damage. Here, theScore gives its verdict on the movers and shakers from the last 31 days.
Winner: Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund may have won the entire window.
By acting quickly to sign Erling Haaland – the Norwegian prodigy who rose to stardom with Red Bull Salzburg earlier this season – Dortmund reinforced their status as Europe’s top talent incubator. Haaland chose Dortmund over a host of other clubs, including Manchester United, because he felt the German side could provide the necessary playing time to continue his development.
Dortmund did what they had to do to get the deal over the line, reportedly satisfying the player’s €20-million release clause while paying an additional €15 million to agent Mino Raiola and another €10 million to Haaland’s father. Other teams would’ve balked at those figures, but Dortmund are already reaping the rewards of their investment. Haaland scored a hat-trick off the bench during his debut on Jan. 18 and produced a brace in another cameo appearance one week later; he already has five goals in a scarcely believable 56 minutes of play.
BVB also managed to offload two players who had become surplus to requirements. Julian Weigl’s stock fell dramatically in recent seasons – remember the links with Manchester City? – but Dortmund still secured €20 million for his services in a deal with Benfica. They also flipped Paco Alcacer for a reported €23 million.
Loser: Olivier Giroud
Olivier Giroud reportedly held talks with Inter, Tottenham, and, at the very end, Lazio. But Chelsea weren’t ready to let the Frenchman go. If they had, manager Frank Lampard would’ve lost one of just three recognized strikers in his squad. (Not that Giroud has played all that much.)
Giroud will obviously feel like a prisoner in all of this. With playing time at a premium and the European Championship just a few months away, the 32-year-old could risk losing his place in the French national team. France manager Didier Deschamps continued to select Giroud during the qualifying phase, but Deschamps publicly challenged the striker to find another club in January and build a case for a crucial call-up. Giroud’s chances of playing at the Euros may have depended on it.
Spurs would’ve been ideal. They needed a Premier League veteran to take Harry Kane’s place while he recovers from injury. Apart from the obvious grudges Arsenal fans may have held, moving from one part of London to another would’ve been an easy transition for the former Gunner. If only.
Winner: Christian Eriksen
All Christian Eriksen wanted was a new challenge. But Tottenham wouldn’t let him leave so easily. Despite his shrinking contract and its deflating value, Spurs reportedly demanded a whopping £130 million for the Danish playmaker in June, hoping Real Madrid or a club of similar stature would bite. The summer came and went, and Eriksen entered the final season of his contract an unhappy man.
Jose Mourinho hoped he could change Eriksen’s mind, but the 27-year-old felt his time at Spurs was over.
Inter Milan have now given Eriksen the opportunity he sought. And if he wanted a challenge, he’ll certainly get one. Antonio Conte will demand everything from Eriksen. In Conte, Eriksen will find a manager similar to his previous superior, Mauricio Pochettino, who asked Eriksen to do more than make plays. Conte will count on Eriksen’s stamina to establish a foothold in midfield. And after so many years of close calls and near-finishes, Eriksen will have a shot at winning a title. Here’s to new beginnings.
Loser: Manchester City
Even before the transfer window opened, Pep Guardiola was under no illusions that City would do any business at all. The club told him he’d have to make do with the players he had.
But unlike in previous seasons – when City seemed happy to spend heaps of money on superfluous signings – there were clear deficiencies to address. City’s defensive shortcomings were laid bare when Aymeric Laporte went down with a long-term knee injury. No one stepped up. Worse yet, confidence in John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi dropped even further. City didn’t adequately replace Vincent Kompany in the summer, and now, six months later, they’ve still done nothing to ease the burden at the back.
Even if City’s Premier League title defense is hanging by a thread, there are other trophies to win. Guardiola himself has a duty to make a deep run in the Champions League, a competition he hasn’t won since 2011. But doubts remain. Without a major trophy, the season will go down as a failure.
Winner: Atalanta
Atalanta are the envy of a lot of clubs right now. They’ve built a competitive outfit on a limited budget, and now they’re gaming the loan system.
Without doing much work at all, Atalanta sold Dejan Kulusevski to Juventus for €35 million, scoring a massive profit on a player they initially signed for €100,000. Kulusevski appeared just three times for Atalanta before joining Parma in the summer on loan, and it was his explosive start to the 2019-20 season that secured Juventus’ interest.
Atalanta’s scouts have done an incredible job identifying talent at low prices, but the 19-year-old didn’t even have time to make the first team. They plucked Kulusevski out of a small club in Stockholm and dropped him into the youth system. Parma eventually gave the Swede a chance to show his skills, and the rest is money.
Loser: Barcelona
Barcelona may well survive without Luis Suarez – after all, they still have Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi up front – but the January window offered a healthy choice of replacements. Edinson Cavani was itching to leave Paris Saint-Germain, and Dries Mertens’ love affair with Napoli appears to have reached its end.
Valencia striker Rodrigo and former Villarreal frontman Cedric Bakambu were also linked with Barcelona, but neither move materialized. Perhaps the club wanted to avoid another short-term signing like last season’s bet on Kevin-Prince Boateng.
Regardless, Barcelona continued to neglect one of their most prominent positions of need. They’ve needed a fix for quite some time and ignored all the warning signs. And now that they’re back to possession-based football, they’ll need someone to finish it all off. The moment is ripe for Griezmann, who has no choice but to fill in the gaps, but the problem still lacks a permanent solution. At some point, club president Josep Maria Bartomeu must act.
ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Redskins are working to make Jennifer King the first African American female full-time assistant coach in the NFL after meeting with her late last month, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.
King would join the staff as an offensive assistant, a source told ESPN’s David Newton.
Redskins coach Ron Rivera hired King as a wide receivers coaching intern for the Carolina Panthers the past two summers. She also was an offensive assistant with Dartmouth College this past fall.
The Athletic first reported that the Redskins are working to hire King.
Multiple sources said she met with members of the organization before the Super Bowl. The Redskins hired Rivera in January.
King previously coached the Johnson & Wales University women’s basketball team, guiding it to a Division II championship in 2018. She also played for the New York Sharks in the Women’s Football Alliance and served as an assistant receivers coach for the Arizona Hotshots in the Alliance of American Football.
King first met Rivera in 2016 at an NFL Women’s Careers in Football Forum. Rivera told ESPN in 2018 that he could envision a day when a woman becomes a coordinator or even a head coach.
“Part of it, it’s all about the fan base,” Rivera told ESPN at the time. “It’s also knowing the moms out there that understand the game. It’s important because they really do control as to whether their kids are going to play. This is something that has to be developed.
“It helps us in a lot of ways. It also shows everybody deserves an opportunity.”
Last year at a Women’s Careers in Football Forum, Rivera said that female coaches were “an untapped source. There’s a lot of forward thinkers in this room. We’re in a production-based business. It’s all about winning, and we’ve got to create that opportunity to win. It doesn’t matter who you are — if you bring something special to the table and help us, we most certainly want you.”
During her time in the AAF, King helped coach former Redskins receiver Rashad Ross, who is now playing for the DC Defenders of the XFL.
“[King’s] knowledge of the game was impressive,” Ross told ESPN last year. “It’s a double standard when it comes to sports with females and men.”
Ross said he felt King could relate to the players because of her own playing days and her coaching ability.
“She’s been through what we’ve been through,” he said. “It’s different learning by the book and actually playing and actually going through it — understanding how players feel when they’re hurting and not hurting, when they’re frustrated.
“When things weren’t going right, she was good at keeping my head in the game and understanding it.”