THE BEST SOCCER PLAYERS

Juventus and Italian national team's keeper Gianluigi Buffon will not join England's club Manchester City. “We know nothing about this news," said Silvano Martina, the agent of Buffon. Reports in Italian and England paper said, Manchester City are preparing to make a world record 50 million pound (59m euros) bid to sign for the 30-year-old. “I haven’t heard anything and, to be honest, the clubs haven’t come forward," Martina said. “Usually the interested clubs will contact either Juventus or the agents but I have not heard from anyone." The wealthy new Arab owners have targeted the Italian World Cup winner as their next major capture. If they pull it off the deal would surpass the world record 48m pounds Real Madrid paid Juventus for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. According to The Times, a delegation from Man City travelled to Turin this month to discuss a possible transfer although it is not thought thy spoke to the player or club directly. Gianluigi "Gigi"

England's club Arsenal, are favourites to buy Ajax striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar. The club will compete with the biggest clubs in Europe, including Chelsea and Real Madrid, but MU would appear to be the biggest rivals to Arsenal in the chase to sign the striker. Report says Arsenal has ready to agree terms worth around £20 million with Ajax in the coming months. Huntelaar has struck personal terms with the Gunners with the view to a move to London at the end of this season. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was born at August 12, 1983 in Voor-Drempt. Before play for Ajax, he played for PSV Eindhoven dan SC Heerenveen. He joined Ajax after a £6.5million move from SC Heerenveen, but his form has been so good this year the Amsterdam giants are now struggling to hold onto him. He topped the Eredivisie scoring charts last season after bagging 33 goals. The Ajax striker has recognized he want to play at Premier League. "I must recognize, I am very interested to play at Premier League," he said

Barça forward Samuel Eto'o is setting new personal and European standards for goal scoring. His four strikes against Valladolid have extended the Cameroon player’s fantastic start to the season. Eto’o has scored 13 times in 10 League fixtures, giving him an average of 1.3 goals per game at a strike rate of one every 58.5 minutes. These are his best figures ever for this stage of the season. In 2005/06, for instance, Eto'o was top scorer in Spain with 26 strikes in 34 matches to average 0.76 per game. However, he ‘only’ found the net 9 times in Barça’s first 10 fixtures. No other striker has scored as many goals as Eto'o in Europe’s top leagues, and only two even come close. AZ Alkmaar’s Mounir El Hamdaoui has notched 13 in 10 like Eto'o, but unlike the Cameroonian has no European goals as Alkmaar haven’t qualified for any of the competitions. The other player close behind Eto'o is Hoffenheim striker Vedad Ibisevic with 13 goals in the Bundesliga. However, his side h

The Football Association are to study Didier Drogba's comments in his autobiography saying he wished he had punched Nemanja Vidic in the Champions League final. The Chelsea striker was sent off in the final in May for slapping the Manchester United defender - and in his book said he now wishes he had punched Vidic. The FA take a dim view of current players making such comments in books, and will study the remark and the whole book to see whether Drogba may have brought the game into disrepute. An FA spokesman said: "We are aware of the comments and will be examining them in their proper context." The FA are not viewing it in the same light as Roy Keane's book, in which the former United skipper said he had deliberately injured Alf-Inge Haaland. Back in 2002, Keane was banned for five games and fined £150,000 by the FA but similar disciplinary action is unlikely to be taken against Drogba, who may simply be warned. Drogba wrote: "I have seen the match on

The north London club were due to begin negotiating a new deal with Walcott at the start of this month after talks were pushed back during the summer but they have still yet to materialise. Walcott has just 20 months to run on his current contract, which ends in June 2010, and Arsenal have taken a risk by allowing him to run down more time after his excellent start to the new campaign. Walcott has established himself as a regular for club and country this season, starring in all four of England's World Cup qualifiers and scoring a stunning hat-trick in England's 4-1 victory over Croatia last month. The player has not been pressing for a new contract and, privately, is adamant that his development would be best served by continuing to work under Arsene Wenger but he is growing increasingly concerned that he has heard nothing from the club and there will be alarm in some quarters if the situation is still the same by the new year. Arsenal re

Alexander Hleb admits he is badgering former Arsenal team-mate Cesc Fabregas to join him at Barcelona. Belarus midfielder Hleb quit the Gunners in the summer to move to Camp Nou and wants to play alongside Fabregas again. Fabregas, who left Barcelona for Arsenal in 2003, admitted earlier this week that a return to the club would be 'a dream come true'. The Spain international plans to review his future at the end of the season and Hleb hopes Fabregas will come back to Barcelona. Like a brother "We get on very well on and off the pitch. For me he is like a brother. We call each other a lot to talk about things," Hleb told El Mundo Deportivo. "He tells me he misses me at Arsenal and, without wanting to detract from anyone, I would love it if he came to Barca to be a part of all this. "I don't stop insisting that he should return to Barca and he doesn't stop insisting that he is very happy at Arsenal and with Arsene Wenger. "I will keep boring him

William Gallas admits he has had to reassert his authority as Arsenal captain after conceding he "flipped his lid" against Birmingham City last season. French defender Gallas was given the armband by Arsene Wenger ahead of the 2007/08 campaign, but blotted his copybook in a 2-2 draw at St Andrews in February. Birmingham were awarded a last-minute penalty and, in protest at the decision, Gallas retreated to the halfway line and sat down sulking. The result was seen as a pivotal moment in Arsenal's faltering title bid and Gallas acknowledged he made a mistake with his actions. He believes some of the criticism aimed in his direction was unfair, but is confident he still has the backing of his team-mates to be Gunners skipper. Gallas told L'Equipe Magazine: "The controversy about my captaincy? People had to find a scapegoat as we didn't win any trophies last season. "So, they talked and talked again about the Birmingham match. Indeed I made a mistake. I mus

Steven Gerrard will miss both of England's forthcoming World Cup qualifiers after having an operation on Thursday on his troublesome groin problem. Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez revealed that Gerrard has been playing through constant pain after the Anfield side forced their way into the Champions League group stages. A goal two minutes from the end of extra-time by Dirk Kuyt gave Liverpool a 1-0 aggregate victory over a brave Standard Liege side in the third qualifying round. But it was clear that Gerrard was not at his best, and he will now go under the knife to make sure he is fit to lead Liverpool into the group stages in September. Gerrard will miss Liverpool's trip to Aston Villa on Sunday, the England games with Andorra and Croatia and possibly the Reds' home league game with Manchester United on September 13. Benitez said, "He has a groin problem so he will have an operation and could be out for 10 to 15 days. It is not serious but we need to do it now. He has b

For Philippe Senderos, joining Milan is a dream come true. Now there is, most of all, a lot of desire to work. Senderos has joined AC Milan from Arsenal on a season-long loan deal on 27 August 2008. With already a good knowledge of the Italian language, Philippe Senderos gave his first few declarations as a new Milan player before the afternoon. "I am very happy to be able to play for a team like Milan, for me it's like a dream come true, everything went very quickly, in a week. Here everything is incredible, the people are very simple and I can say they have made me feel right at home." Philippe Senderos then talked about all his personal successes but for him the dream isn't over. "In the past I have achieved some satisfactions, like winning the European Championship with the Under 17 team and then of course at 18 my passage to a great team like Arsenal. in London I learned a lot, it was a life school and Wenger helped me, but today I can certainly say I have r

Robinho's agent remains hopeful the player could still secure a move to Chelsea despite Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon's insistence he is not for sale. Chelsea have already had one offer turned down for the Brazil forward who reportedly has his heart set on a move to Stamford Bridge. Calderon is adamant Robinho is going nowhere, but Vagner Ribeiro believes his client could still leave the Bernabeu this summer. 'He (Calderon) was very polite with us,' he told Globoesporte.com. 'I told him that we had an offer of 32million euros from Chelsea and that Robinho wanted to leave the club.' 'He said he didn't want to hear that a player was unhappy with the team, but at the end nothing much was going to happen.' 'Calderon said that he wouldn't sell Robinho even for 100 million. He was very emphatic.' 'I left the meeting thinking that was that. But then I spoke to other directors of the club and saw that this position could end up changin