Melbourne Victory have laid down the gauntlet early for the 2014-15 A-League season with the signing of Besart Berisha from Brisbane.

Berisha will move to Victory as their international marquee for the next two seasons, making the move as the most lethal striker in the A-League s history with 41 goals in just 65 appearances since joining Brisbane before the 2011-
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12 campaign.

Victory head coach Kevin Muscat claimed he cannot wait to work with a player who has given him plenty of headaches as a coach.

Besart has been performing at the highest level week-in, week-out for Brisbane and has caused plenty of headaches for opposition defenders and coaches, including myself, Muscat said in a statement.

He s a proven goal-scorer and a player that we can t wait …

Monaco have signed Belgium international winger Nacer Chadli from West Brom, the Ligue 1 side confirmed.

Chadli swapped England for France for a reported £10million on a three-year deal after West Brom were relegated from the Premier League last season.

The 29-year-old, who scored six goals in 36 league appearances following his arrival from Tottenham in 2016, played an important role at the World Cup in Russia, where his dramatic last-gasp goal sent Belgium past Japan in the round of 16.

I am very happy to join AS Monaco, a great French club that participates in the Champions League, Chadli said. The results of the last seasons prove the quality of the project and the ambition of the club.

I will do everything to help AS Monaco achieve great things an…

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos says he would have become a tennis player if he wanted individual trophies as he delivered a dismissive appraisal of The Best FIFA Football awards.

Lionel Messi took the men s prize for 2019 at the gala in Milan on Monday, beating Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo. United States star Megan Rapinoe won the women s trophy.

Jurgen Klopp won The Best FIFA Men s Coach award for guiding Liverpool to Champions League glory, edging out Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and Tottenham s Mauricio Pochettino.

Ramos was present at the ceremony after being named in the FIFA FIFPro Men s World11 for the 10th time in his career, but he would prefer to swap any individual accolades for team trophies, with …

German football great Franz Beckenbauer said he was not optimistic about his country s chances of success at the World Cup, in an interview to be published in the German press on Sunday.

Without Michael Ballack, it will be difficult. Our team is weakened, he told the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.

We ll have to work hard just to reach the semi-finals.

Germany s preparations have been hit by the injured-enforced withdrawals of captain Ballack, goalkeeper Rene Adler, defender Heiko Westermann and midfielders Simon Rolfes and Christian Traesch.

Coach Joachim Loew s re-organised side hit back from a goal down to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-1 in a warm-up match in Frankfurt on Thursday.

We re never been artists on the pitch like the Brazilians, …

Mikel Arteta was delighted by his players’ unquenchable drive for more goals and wins after Arsenal racked up their fifth Premier League win in a row at relegation-threatened Burnley.

The north Londoners are in the middle of a tough title tussle and kept the pressure on both Liverpool and Manchester City by running amok at Turf Moor.

Martin Odegaard opening the scoring inside four minutes at embattled Burnley, where Bukayo Saka’s brace was complemented by Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz efforts in a 5-0 win.

Saturday’s five-star performance followed on from last weekend’s 6-0 shellacking of West Ham, leaving boss Arteta delighted by his players’ hunger and drive for more.

“Really happy with the performance, with the result and the individual …

Patrick Bamford has signed a new three-year contract with Chelsea and immediately joined fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace on a season-long loan.

The 21-year-old moved to Stamford Bridge from Nottingham Forest in January 2012 and has enjoyed loans with MK Dons and Derby County.

However, he rose to prominence during his loan spell at Championship club Middlesbrough last season, where he scored 17 league goals and won the division s player of the year award.

Bamford was linked with a return to the Riverside Stadium, but is keen to test himself in the top flight and will link up with Alan Pardew s side for the 2015-16 campaign after committing his long-term future to the Premier League champions.

I m delighted to sign a new contract with Chel…

Bayern Munich sporting director Matthias Sammer has branded speculation linking Mario Gotze with a move to Liverpool as nonsense .

The Germany international has been linked with a possible reunion with former Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp at Anfield.

But Sammer was brusque in his assessment of the latest talk surrounding the 23-year-old s future, telling Sport Bild:  Every day new nonsense comes along. That is all I am going to say on this.

Gotze has been continuing his rehabilitation work at Bayern s training camp in Doha, having been out of action since October due to a serious groin injury.

Sammer hopes Bayern can welcome him back to the first team soon but stressed we must not take any risks there .

We need to get into the best possib…

Didier Deschamps is reluctant to back Thierry Henry to take charge of Monaco as the Ligue 1 side are yet to part ways with Leonardo Jardim.

Reports in France have suggested Jardim, who led Monaco to the title in 2016-17, will be dismissed after a poor start to the current campaign.

Henry started out with Monaco before developing into one of the world s top strikers at Arsenal, while he played with Deschamps for France during a glittering playing career.

The Belgium coach has been linked with taking over at Monaco b
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ut Deschamps referenced Henry previously being lined up for the Bordeaux job earlier in the year, only for the deal to fall apart.

I don t know if you always have the right information but so far nothing is official yet, Desch…

Granit Xhaka scored a superb free-kick and Mesut Ozil was also on target as Arsenal won 2-1 at Newcastle United to claim a third successive Premier League victory.

After opening defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal have found their groove under Unai Emery against lesser opposition and they survived a poor first half to see off winless Newcastle.

Xhaka opened the scoring in stunning fashion, beating Martin Dubravka from 25 yards, and he played a part in the second as Ozil effectively sealed the points.

Newcastle s heads dropped thereafter and, despite Ciaran Clark s stoppage-time header, they have just the solitary point from a daunting start to the season, while Arsenal s bid for a return to the top four is gathering steam.

Goalkeeper Petr Ce…

John Stones has insisted Manchester City believe another treble is a possibility this season.

City tasted Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup success last year and remain in each of those competitions.

A hard-fought 1-0 win at Bournemouth on Saturday helped Pep Guardiola’s team close the gap to divisional leaders Liverpool to one point before they turn their attention to Tuesday’s trip to Luton in the FA Cup fifth round.

— Manchester City (@ManCity)

“That’s what we’re all here for and what everyone wants us to do. We want to try recreate what we did last season and that’s still possible,” Stones said.

“Games like this are one of the reasons why we made that possible last season.

“So, we go to the next…