MIAMI, USA: Inter Miami announced on Friday they are signing former Spain and Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets to team-up with Lionel Messi at the Major League Soccer club.
Messi said earlier this month he was moving to Miami and he will now be re-united with his former Barca team-mate Busquets.
Inter Miami posted a tweeted heralding the arrival of the player.
“Si, Busi” read the twitter post, referring to Busquets’ nickname. The tweet included quotes praising Busquets from several people in the game including former Spain coach Vicente del Bosque.
Busquets said in May that he would leave Barcelona in the summer at the end of his contract.
The 34-year-old made 143 appearances for Spain before announcing his retirement from the team in December.
Busquets has been a central part of Barcelona’s successes in the past 15 years, including nine Spanish league titles and three Champions League triumphs.
Busquets played as pivot behind Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez in an iconic midfield trio, and the three of them also won the World Cup with Spain in 2010.
Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas said this week that the club expected to make between three to five new signings to join Messi.
“We’ve been preparing our roster for Messi’s arrival in ‘23, so we left an enormous amount of flexibility,” Mas told the Herald.
“We will be making additional signings during the summer window, more than what people anticipate... I can say we will potentially be making between three and five signings.”
Busquets is likely to occupy one of the three ‘Designated Player’ spots, an MLS designation for high-earning players, whose wages do not count against the salary cap.
Inter Miami have also been linked with another Spain and Barcelona favorite, left-back Jordi Alba.
Busquets joining Messi at Inter Miami
https://arab.news/mzusp
Busquets joining Messi at Inter Miami
- Messi said earlier this month he was moving to Miami and he will now be re-united with his former Barca team-mate Busquets
- Inter Miami posted a tweeted heralding the arrival of the player
Premier League rings in New Year with goal drought as Man City lose ground in title race
- Second-placed City would have reduced Arsenal’s advantage to two points but instead were frustrated as their winning streak in all competitions was halted at eight
- Liverpool’s attack was also found wanting as they drew 0-0 at home to Leeds United while there were no goals at Brentford as they ground out a draw with Tottenham Hotspur
SUNDERLAND, England: The Premier League’s festive feast turned stale on Thursday as the New Year’s Day program served up three 0-0 draws, most significantly Manchester City’s stalemate at Sunderland which left them four points adrift of leaders Arsenal.
Second-placed City would have reduced Arsenal’s advantage to two points but instead were frustrated as their winning streak in all competitions was halted at eight.
Liverpool’s attack was also found wanting as they drew 0-0 at home to Leeds United while there were no goals at Brentford as they ground out a draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
The only goals of the day came at Selhurst Park where Fulham’s Tom Cairney scored a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw.
Sunderland have proved stubborn opposition on their return to the Premier League and have now drawn with City, Arsenal and third-placed Aston Villa at their Stadium of Light.
They are only the second promoted team to remain unbeaten in their first 10 home games in a Premier League campaign, after Ipswich Town in 1992-93, and were worth their point.
City did everything in their power to make the breakthrough but home goalkeeper Robin Roefs pulled off a series of saves while the closest the visitors came to scoring was Josko Gvardiol’s header which shaved the post in the second half.
“They are so physical. They’re so strong, so it’s not a surprise at that. We take the point,” City boss Pep Guardiola said. “Really pleased with the performances, especially in the second half. There’s still a long way (to go).”
One boost for City was the sight of Rodri back in action as a substitute for the injured Niko Gonzalez having recovered from a hamstring injury that had restricted him to a handful of minutes in the last three months.
Arsenal’s 4-1 thrashing of Villa on Tuesday put them on 45 points at the halfway stage of the season while Pep Guardiola’s City have 41 after just their second league draw of the season.
Next up for Arsenal is a trip to struggling Bournemouth on Saturday while City are at home a day later against Chelsea who parted ways with coach Enzo Maresca on Thursday.
Reigning champions Liverpool are 12 points behind Arsenal in fourth place as they produced a lacklustre display.
Their best chance fell to Hugo Ekitike but his miss rather summed up Liverpool’s day, somehow heading an inviting cross by Jeremie Frimpong away from goal when he seemed set to score.
It could have been worse for Arne Slot’s side too with Dominic Calvert-Lewin having an 81st-minute goal disallowed for offside after latching on to a pass by Noah Okafor.
“You would like to start off (2026) with a win,” Slot said. “But it was difficult. I don’t think we were able to play many times through their low block.
“Sometimes we didn’t have enough bodies in front of the goal and in other moments where we did create or we were close to a goal, we were a bit unfortunate.”
For Leeds it was another important point in their bid to stay clear of the relegation zone. They are in 16th place with 21 points, seven ahead of third-from-bottom West Ham United.
“It doesn’t come along that often that you get a clean sheet and a point at Anfield,” Leeds boss Daniel Farke said.
“We had to defend and suffer but we are newly promoted and came to the defending champions.”
Spurs manager Thomas Frank went back to his old club Brentford but it was a forgettable affair as Tottenham’s 137-game run in the Premier League without a goalless draw ended.
Their last one was also against Brentford in May 2022.
The draw left Tottenham in 12th place with 26 points while Brentford, who had the better chances, are ninth with 27.
Palace are now winless in six matches in all competitions as they were denied victory by a superb curling shot by Cairney.
Jean-Philippe Mateta had headed Palace into the lead but the hosts faded and Fulham would have snatched all three points had Dean Henderson not made a great save to deny Timothy Castagne and had Joachim Andersen not blazed a shot over.
“When the legs and the mind are not that fresh it’s a little bit difficult. It was a good point today,” Palace manager Oliver Glasner said. Palace are 10th with Fulham 11th, both on 27 points.
