Category: 6. Sports

Chelsea have agreed a £40m fee to sign Manchester United forward Alejandro Garnacho.

The 21-year-old Argentina international was told to find a new club by head coach Ruben Amorim at the end of last season.

Sources from United say the initial Chelsea offer was £25m, but Garnacho’s transfer – which includes a 10% sell-on clause – will now be the club’s fourth largest ever sale after Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Angel di Maria.

Chelsea will have spent more than £500m, including add-on clauses, on wingers in just over three years since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club.

It will be more than £650m with strikers included – again with add-ons – but there have been significant player sales, with Chelsea likely to fully balance the books this summer on departures.

Garnacho’s move comes as forward Christopher Nkunku, 27, closes in on a move from Chelsea to AC Milan.

Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson is also in talks over an initial loan switch to Bayern Munich, which could include an obligation to buy the 24-year-old.

Player sales are important to Chelsea this summer because of Uefa sanctions, which included a fine of 31m euros (£26.7m), but also a requirement to maintain a “positive transfer balance” in this window to register new signings for the Champions League.

The imminent transfer of Nkunku for an initial £32m means the Blues will have banked at least £263.2m – minus add-ons and future fees – which is a Premier League record for player sales in a summer window.

They had already surpassed their previous highest total of £215.9m, set in 2023, prior to the confirmation of the Frenchman’s departure.

Garnacho held talks with Chelsea in January when his priority became a move to Stamford Bridge and United initially wanted £60m for him.

As a homegrown player, having joined United’s youth system from Atletico Madrid as a 16-year-old in 2020, the fee will also be important towards meeting the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

The Old Trafford club have already spent £200m on a new forward line of Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.

Garnacho’s last competitive game for United was May’s Europa League final – after which he questioned Amorim’s decision not to start him in 1-0 defeat by Tottenham.

Although he did go on the club’s post-season tour of Asia, he was not selected for the three-match summer trip to the United States.

Garnacho was ordered to train at different times to Amorim’s squad, along with fellow outcasts Tyrell Malacia, Jadon Sancho, Antony and Marcus Rashford, who subsequently joined Barcelona on loan.

When asked about the player’s future in Chicago, boss Amorim said “sometimes things don’t work out”.

Michael Johansson, Physically Challenged (P) class, and Anders Hӧije, Open (O) class, were gold medalists at the end of Day 2. Hӧije scored full points and spent only 115 seconds on four timed controls (three tasks in each), and won by 12 seconds.

With 20 competitors scoring full points on Day 1, aiming for the right level of steadiness on day 2 was paramount for success. Many of the 20 missed one point or more today, and in the end only 6 athletes had full scores over both days. Today, 2 controls were voided in the race, plus several controls for P class only because the extremely dry and hot terrain surface deteriorated into soft sand that was impossible for wheelchairs.

Most successful was Hӧije, but Tommi Hakuli, Finland pushed him close. Only 7 seconds longer again at the timed controls, Lithuania’s Robertas Stankevic took the bronze. The six podium placings went to six different nations.

Full concentration was needed in the highly complex rocky terrain  Photos: WTOC 2025

The P class was a close contest between Johansson and the Spaniard Alejandro Aguilar Lara, who ended with the same points score but 69 seconds longer at the timed controls (including penalty scores for wrong answers). Ola Jansson, Sweden, who along with Johansson is a multiple medal winner at World and European level, was third. Sweden and Ukraine both had two athletes in the top six.

The competition took place in mid-town Sümeg in Hungary, with some kites sited in spectacular positions high up on the steep slopes leading up to the castle.

The Championships now move to Slovakia, with tomorrow being a Model Event day. The next competition is the Relay on Saturday.

Leading results, PreO 2 days combined

O Class

1. Anders Hoije SWE 69 points + 115 seconds
2. Tommi Hakuli FIN 69 + 127
3. Robertas Stankevic LTU 69 + 134
4. Krystian Petersburski POL 69 + 143
5. Marcello Lambertini ITA 69 + 147
6. Jo Inge Fjellstad NOR 69 + 358

P class

1. Michael Johansson SWE 60 + 287
2. Alejandro Aguilar Lara ESP 60 + 356
3. Ole Jansson SWE 55 + 243
4. Nicola Galvan ITA 55 + 533
5. Vladyslav Vovk UKR 54 + 299
6. Serhii Bielanenko UKR 52 + 299

TOP WOMEN’S MATCH: ARYNA SABALENKA V LEYLAH FERNANDEZ

Aryna Sabalenka looked favourite to win her maiden Grand Slam at the U.S. Open in 2021 after top seed Ashleigh Barty suffered a shock third-round exit.

But the Belarusian, who had brushed aside three seeded opponents in straight sets to reach the last four, went down to unseeded Leylah Fernandez, who in turn lost the final to a qualifier, Emma Raducanu.

Since then, Sabalenka has won three Grand Slams, but the defending champion did not get a chance to avenge her loss to the Canadian four years ago, until now.

“You know, I think I bet I don’t remember anything from that match, because I think I changed a lot. I had really tough challenges after that, and I went through. I found myself. I become a better player and a person,” Sabalenka said.

“So I think it’s going to be a completely different match. I bet I just don’t even try to remember that match… I love rematches. So I’m actually super excited facing her here again.”

Fernandez has struggled since reaching the French Open quarter-finals in 2022, never making it past the third round of a Grand Slam.

But the 22-year-old won her first WTA title since 2023 at the Washington Open last month, and will look to carry that momentum with the hope of pulling off yet another upset against the world number one.

TOP MEN’S MATCH: NOVAK DJOKOVIC V CAMERON NORRIE

Novak Djokovic kept his quest for a record 25th slam on track after being given a brief scare against Zachary Svajda in the second round, where he fought back from a first-set loss to win in four sets.

The 38-year-old, who had struggled with a blister on his foot in the first round and dealt with some stiffness during the second set against Svajda, said he was going through an internal tussle as well.

“I’m just trying to be locked in, you know. Just trying to solve the riddle once I’m on the court,” Djokovic told reporters on Wednesday.

“It’s not like I’m not finding joy on the court competing. I enjoy competing, but I don’t enjoy not playing well. That’s why I put extra pressure on myself and my team to be better the next day, the next match.”

Djokovic has won all six of his previous matches against his next opponent Cameron Norrie. The Briton has won only two sets against Djokovic, including the first set in their Wimbledon semi-final clash in 2022, where the Serbian staged a comeback to take victory.

“There is always something to prove once you step out onto the court, which is you’re still able to win a tennis match,” Djokovic said. “You have days like this where you’re not playing at your best, but you just kind of find a way.”

RISING RADUCANU FACES RYBAKINA TEST

The U.S. Open of 2021 remains the only title Emma Raducanu has won on the WTA Tour, but the Briton has made some progress in her bid to recapture her old form, with dominant straight-sets wins in the first two rounds where she has dropped a total of six games.

But Raducanu, who took world number one Sabalenka into two tiebreaks in a three-set defeat at the Cincinnati Open earlier this month, now faces a fellow Grand Slam winner in ninth seed Elena Rybakina, who is also yet to drop a set in her campaign.

Rybakina beat a 19-year-old Raducanu 6-0 6-1 in their only meeting in 2022 before winning Wimbledon the same year.

“I think she’s a top opponent. She’s won Wimbledon. She’s been at the top of the game for so long and very dominant and has big weapons, has a huge serve and big groundstrokes. So I do want to see how my game suits and fits against the top,” Raducanu said. “It’s going to be a tough match.”

Rybakina, however, did not see her previous win over Raducanu as being significant to their upcoming contest.

“She’s a tough opponent and definitely she knows this place better than anyone else, and I’m looking forward for this match. I know that I need to improve a little bit,” the 26-year-old said.

U.S. OPEN ORDER OF PLAY ON FRIDAY

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM

32-Luciano Darderi v 2-Carlos Alcaraz

4-Jessica Pegula v Victoria Azarenka

7-Novak Djokovic v Cameron Norrie

Taylor Townsend v 5-Mirra Andreeva

LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM

9-Elena Rybakina v Emma Raducanu

6-Ben Shelton v Adrian Mannarino

1-Aryna Sabalenka v 31-Leylah Fernandez

Jerome Kym v 4-Taylor Fritz

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

Italian gymnast Lorenzo Bonicelli has been transferred to the spinal unit of Niguarda Hospital in Milan, according to a post on social media from the Ghislanzoni Gal Sports Club of Lecco, where he trained as a youngster.

On 23 July, during the FISU 2025 World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr region, Bonicelli, 23, sustained a neck injury while performing a triple flipping dismount off the still rings during the qualifying round.

He underwent surgery in Germany to reduce a cervical sprain trauma with subluxation of the fifth vertebra, and a tracheotomy was performed to help him breathe. He was later moved to a hospital in Milan where he began to communicate and eat on his own.

On Wednesday (27 August) “after weeks in intensive care, Bonni was transferred to the Spinal Unit of Niguarda Hospital,” reads a post on Instagram from Ghislanzoni Gal, which launched a fundraising campaign to support his rehabilitation journey.

“It’s an important step – the first step of a long and complex path that will require time, strength and patience. At his side are the doctors, his family, friends and an entire community that continues to show its closeness,” the post continued.

Since his transfer from Germany to Italy, Bonicelli has been accompanied by his family and his girlfriend Lisa Rigamonti, a former gymnast and now a nurse, who in recent days provided further updates on his condition.

“He will begin motor physiotherapy once the vital aspects being monitored in intensive care are stabilised,” she told La Gazzetta dello Sport on 20 August. “Only then, in the spinal unit, will we face the other stages of this journey. Only from that day will we focus on physical rehabilitation.”