THE BEST SOCCER PLAYERS

Barcelona have announced that they have come to an agreement with Spurs over the transfer of the 19-year-old Mexican Giovani Dos Santos. Dos Santos, who can play up front or on either wing, will sign a five-year contract at White Hart Lane on June 30th, with Spurs paying an initial fee of £4.7m rising to £8.6m on appearances. Barcelona have retained the right to 20% of any fee should the player move on from Spurs in the first two years of his spell with the club. And, according to the Spanish club's website, they will get 10% of any fee if he is sold later in his contract. Dos Santos had struggled to make an impact in a Barcelona team blessed with an abundance of attacking talent, but scored a hat-trick in his last game for the club, a 5-3 win over Real Murcia. The signing of Dos Santos, who had reportedly interested Chelsea and Manchester City, is a real coup for Juande Ramos and Tottenham, who have already added the exciting Croatia midfielder Luka Modric and Crystal Palace young

Arsene Wenger has identified Mario Gomez, Karim Benzema and Luka Modric as the possible stars of Euro 2008. The Arsenal manager admits that he has come to the tournament 'with his chequebook' but feels that it has been increasingly difficult to unearth hidden gems. Wenger is not expecting to be surprised by many unfamiliar names but thinks exciting youngsters who are already on their way to establishing themselves could be the ones to watch. He is backing Germany striker Gomez, France forward Benzema and Croatia playmaker Modric to take the competition by storm. "What has changed in these major tournaments is that you don't really discover players any more," Wenger told reporters. "You expect (Cristiano) Ronaldo and Thierry Henry to be up there but I am now looking at younger players like Gomez, Benzema and Modric. "Apart from all the stars we know, these could be the three players who will be interesting to watch and maybe see overall if they can perfor

Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo has confirmed he will make an announcement on his future plans in the next "two to three days". Ronaldo has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid in recent weeks although United are determined to hold on to their prize asset and have even threatened to report the Spanish champions to FIFA over what they claim are attempts to unsettle him. The 23-year-old is hoping an announcement will end the speculation. Speaking after Portugal's 2-0 win over Georgia, Ronaldo told A Bola: "Let's see, I hope there will be news soon. In two to three days I will announce my decision." If he decides his future lies away from Old Trafford, Ronaldo would have a fight on his hands to secure a transfer to the Bernabeu. United boss Sir Alex Ferguson on Sunday claimed the Glazer family, the club's owners, would rather keep the player even if a hypothetical situation arose where he refused to play for the Red Devils. The Scot sa

Arsenal will complete the £11 million signing of French Samir Nasri from Marseille early next week. The skilful, 20-year-old playmaker will fill the position soon to be vacated by Alexander Hleb, whose departure was confirmed by his agent, Nikolai Shpilevski, on Friday. Nasri, who is expected to make a significant impact on this summer's European Championships, will sign a four-year deal with the north London club as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger attempts to add depth to a squad which failed to keep pace with Manchester United and Chelsea in the final furlongs this season. Nasri, 20, has undergone a medical, agreed a four-year contract and will be announced an Arsenal player once he is released from a France training camp to put pen to paper. A source close to Marseille said: "The deal has been agreed. The medical took place on Wednesday, he agreed to sign on Thursday and the only hold up is that he is with the French squad at the moment." Wenger is a big admirer of Nasr

The transfer speculation surrounding Olympique Lyon winger Hatem Ben Arfa continues to grow as the Sun claims that the twenty-one year-old has already signed a deal with Arsenal after the Gunners agreed a €20 million deal with OL. According to English newspaper, the Sun, Arsenal have beaten off competition from Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea with a price tag of around €20m required to prize one of France's leading young lights away from his native country. It has been no secret that Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger is a keen admirer of the player however the suggestion had been that Ben Arfa would be used by Lyon as a makeweight in a deal to bring Samir Nasri north from Marseille. Speculation has been rife over the last month that the winger could be on his way out of the Stade Gerland however reports yesterday appeared to indicate that Ben Arfa would be happy signing a new deal for the French giants. Ben Arfa, born in Paris of Tunisian descent, has played for Lyon since he

Real Madrid midfielder Mahamadou Diarra is looking increasingly likely to join Inter Milan in the summer, according to the Corriere dello Sport. The Mali international has been tipped to leave Madrid for quite sometime now due to his frosty relationship with Coach Bernd Schuster. Things took another turn for the worse yesterday when it was revealed that Diarra had been fined €300,000, a month's wages, for returning to Spain late from the African Cup of Nations. With Schuster seemingly set to exclude him from his team for tonight's match with Recreativo, despite injuries to Guti and Wesley Sneijder, an end of season exit is looking inevitable. Inter have identified the signing of a top-class centre midfielder as their priority in this summer's transfer market, and Roberto Mancini's first-choice is Diarra. Yesterday the player's agent, Frederic Guerra, admitted that a move to Inter was very possible."Milan, Liverpool and Juve have all called, but the team that in

Boca Juniors playmaker Juan Román Riquelme has stated that he never considered another life outside of football and that if he was reborn he would still want to come back as himself. Speaking after filming an advert for Adidas, Riquelme made it clear that football was the only route in life he ever considered and that he loves playing the game for living. "This is what I dreamed of from when I was very small... it enchants me to live this life, it is wonderful and it has given me more than I could ever have hoped. For that reason if I could return to my birth I would still be Riquelme," he told Olé. Although he always dreamed of playing football, Riquelme insisted that the fame that comes with it was never his primary motivation. "No, it took a while for me to get used to people praising my ability. I know that I bring something unique to the football pitch when I play the game and that brings attention. In the time I have been a football player I avoided seeking out att

Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva has surprisingly revealed he does not remember the incident in which he broke his leg very well, and declared he never wants to see it on TV or in the newspapers... The striker, who celebrates his 25th birthday on Monday, suffered the injury just three minutes into Arsenal's Premier League game against Birmingham, following a challenge from Martin Taylor, who was sent off for the offense. The players' reaction was one of absolute shock, as the game was frantic following the eight minute stoppage that was required to remove the player from the field. The match ended in a disappointing draw for Arsenal, who let Manchester United back into the title race as a plucky Birmingham side forced men forward and won a last-minute penalty to pull it back to 2-2 for Birmingham. However, all thoughts were with Eduardo during and after the game, and speaking to the club's official website, he has revealed that he barely remembers the incident, possibly due

Gila monster shakes the monkey off his back Alberto Gilardino finally broke his goal-scoring duck this weekend, but some of his critics are yet to be convinced. By: Paolo Bandini Typical - you wait 171 days for a goal, and then two come along at once. To be fair they do say that an adult Gila monster can go a whole winter without eating, but after a five-and-a-half month goal famine in Serie A, Milan's Alberto was beginning to look decidedly worse for wear. When he finally broke his duck yesterday, threading the ball through Fernando Muslera's legs for the fourth goal in Milan's 5-1 rout of Lazio (he would add the fifth nine minutes later), Gilardino scarcely managed to hold back the tears as he was mobbed by his team-mates. "There's been a summer in between," he protested when he was reminded of his lengthy drought after the game. "I can't exactly score when I'm not playing!" His demeanour betrayed him - the trademark haunted eyes and perma-

Former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy refused to let injury prevent him from celebrating Real Madrid's title success with the rest of his team-mates last night. Van Nistelrooy, La Liga's leading scorer this season with 25 strikes, only lasted 33 minutes of Madrid's title decider with Real Mallorca after limping off with a hamstring injury. That looked to be a huge blow for Madrid, who were trailing 1-0 at the time while title rivals Barcelona were well on their way to an eventual 5-1 thrashing of Gimnastic Tarragona. But Madrid managed to recover from the loss of the prolific Dutchman, and two second-half strikes from Jose Antonio Reyes and an own goal from Angelos Basinas earned Fabio Capello's men a 3-1 win and their 30th league title. Van Nistelrooy, who joined the club from United last summer, may not have finished the game, or won the European golden boot - he needed to score twice to pip Roma's Francesco Totti - but the Dutchman was not about to