FC Barcelona are stepping up the chase for Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba, as the club's international sporting director paid a visit to his side’s hotel.

It’s being reported that hours before Juventus took on Inter Milan, Ariedo Braida visited the Turin club's hotel and Pogba’s name was flashed around.

According to Sky Sports journalist Gianluca di Marzio, Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu is toying with the idea of reaching an agreement for the player.

Barcelona realise that the player will only become a Catalan once their FIFA transfer ban is lifted, but the club knows it will be tough to sign him as other big European clubs are also after the midfielder.

Pogba will face Barcelona in the Champions League final on the 6 June in Berlin, and many think this will be an opportunity for the hierarchy of the club to see him and perhaps it will push them to act fast.

The Frenchman has now become one of the most sought after players in the world right now and has previously been linked with Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester City and his former club, Manchester United.

The Juventus ace has no shortage of admirers with Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal all linked to him.

A fee of £70milion is thought to be enough to capture the 22-year-old.

But according to Spanish paper Sport, Pogba appears to be Barcelona bound.

They claim that Pogba is desperate to link up with Lionel Messi at the Camp Nou and he has signalled his desire to join the club.

Since leaving Manchester United, where first-team opportunities were limited, in 2012, Pogba has become one of the hottest prospects in world football and has been linked with a return to the Premier League club, along with a potential move to Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint Germain.

Now Barcelona have joined the race to sign Pogba, valued at upwards of £60million, if he were to leave Juventus, with Braida admitting he has held discussions with his 'friend' Marotta.

We like Pogba, we like him a lot. But that's needless to say. All the big clubs like a champion such as Pogba,' Braida told Tuttosport.

'Marotta is a friend of mine and we talk about a lot of things. We have also discussed Pogba.

'He is still young, but already shows things of the highest level. It would be a hugely important operation for Barcelona, a very interesting one.

'Our situation is complicated, though. We can not register any new players until 2016 because of the Fifa sanction.

'It could be an option to agree terms for a transfer in 2016. That's one of the potential options.

'It also depends on what Luis Enrique and what the board at Barcelona want. I am waiting for the green light from the club. Until then, I am working on it and sowing the seeds.'

Raheem Sterling is expected to tell Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers he wants to leave Anfield this summer.

The England forward has already turned down a new £100,000-a-week contract, and denied being a "money-grabber" in a BBC Sport interview last month.

Sterling will meet Reds chief executive Ian Ayre and Rodgers on Friday, when he is set to tell them he wants to go.

The club have declined to comment but it is understood they still want the 20-year-old, whose deal ends in 2017.

Should he be made available, Manchester City remain the frontrunners for his signature but Arsenal and a number of leading European clubs have also expressed an interest.

While Liverpool insist they will not sell for any price this summer, their resolve may be tested by an offer in the region of £35m.

BBC Sport has learned Sterling raised the subject of his future with Rodgers before the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on 10 May.

Sterling - whose current contract is worth £35,000 a week - said in an interview on 1 April that he "talks about winning trophies" rather than money.

Former Reds defender and BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson said at the time that Sterling had put himself "under pressure" with his comments.

Liverpool's last piece of silverware came in 2012, when they won the League Cup, and they have missed out on Champions League qualification for next season.


Rodgers has previously said: "Liverpool are one of the superpowers of football and if the owners don't want to sell, they don't have to."

Speaking on Friday, captain Steven Gerrard told Sterling to stay and play for a coach who "believes in him".

"I think there is no-one better for him than Brendan Rodgers," said Gerrard, who will join MLS side LA Galaxy this summer after 17 years at Anfield.

"The danger for younger players is they want it all too soon and go to another club and just become a number."

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Former Liverpool midfielder Ray Houghton: "Supporters are coming to the end of their tether with Raheem, he still hasn't learnt.

"The club could take a real stance, but it's not advisable. The best thing is to let him go and invest the £40m-£50m in players that want to come to the club."

Ex-Everton midfielder Kevin Kilbane on BBC Radio 5 live: "It shows the changing face of football, it is very much manufactured. I think it lacks a lot of class.

"If Sterling does not want to stay at Liverpool, fair enough, there may be underlying reasons why he does not want to stay. But surely the negotiations, especially with a lad who has a lot to prove and a long way to go in the game, can be done behind closed doors, in a way that best suits everyone."

Former Reds defender Jamie Carragher said Sterling is "not some flash young kid", but added the thought of him "taking on" Liverpool over contract negotiations annoyed him "to the pit of my stomach".

Speaking on Sky Sports, he said: "Raheem Sterling will obviously move on at some stage, he doesn't want to be at the club and this looks like a tactic to force the club's hand. Liverpool had a chance to win a trophy this season in the FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa - where was Sterling? Trophies don't get handed out, you've got to earn them. You've got to deliver in big games and he hasn't done that yet."

Ex-Manchester United defender Gary Neville added: "Liverpool haven't handled contracts well at all in the past 18 months."

Gareth Bale would be assured legendary status if he played anywhere else. For his first season alone, he should be guaranteed a lifetime of goodwill.

He has found in the last 12 months, though, that life with Real Madrid isn’t like anywhere else at all. A defining goal in the Champions League final? A stunning effort to beat Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final? It stands for nothing if the locals - who love to find a scapegoat - turn on you.

And that is what has happened to Bale. Watching from the sidelines on Wednesday night, as Juventus destroyed Real’s hopes of retaining the Champions League, I saw a player who was timid and lacking confidence. The spark that made him so scintillating to watch had gone.

To get it back, he should return to the Barclays Premier League this summer. Never mind what some people are saying about sticking it out in Spain for the sake of British football - this is about a young lad’s career. He would not be taking the easy way out. Who benefits from him being unhappy?

A move home would make sense on a number of levels, not least as while Cristiano Ronaldo is there, scoring a goal per game and dominating the agenda, Bale - no matter what he does, not even after a debut campaign that included 22 goals and 17 assists - is in a fight he will struggle to win.

Ronaldo does not want to be upstaged and will always be Real’s main man. I don’t know him but I don’t get the sense he is putting an arm around Bale’s shoulder or looking after him in the dressing room. Why? Look at how he sulked when Bale took a goal off him against Levante in March.

Does Bale have to put up with that? The more Ronaldo sulks when Bale does something he doesn’t like, the more the Bernabeu crowd will react with fury. That was evident when he missed a glorious headed chance against Juventus with the score at 1-1.

Being an £86million player in Madrid means you are gauged differently. Whether he likes it or not, Bale will always be measured against Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, other world-record signings who produced magic just when it was needed.

These past two years will have been a culture shock for Bale, who is clearly down to earth and quite shy. Life at Tottenham couldn’t have prepared him at all for what has hit him in Madrid, where the expectation is to win the Champions League or La Liga - or both - every year.

Had he moved from Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea, it would still have been a massive step but on Wednesday I saw how the pressure was having an impact. He was passive and, though he looked more likely to score than Ronaldo, he couldn’t stamp any authority on the contest.

The Bale I played against demanded the ball and made things happen with his explosive pace, strength and aggression. He had football arrogance but not once did I see him demanding his team-mates give him the ball against Juventus. His personality should have come to the fore.

Perhaps life is just too different for him. He understands Spanish but has not yet given an interview to the Spanish press in their language and, given how long he’s been there, you have to wonder whether that would change next year. But it would be good to see him come home.

First, we have lost too many top players - Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Xabi Alonso to name three - to La Liga in recent years and getting Bale back would reclaim some balance. We want box-office players and he would immediately become the Premier League’s No 1 performer again.

His influence in La Liga might have dipped but in 30 games, he has 13 goals and nine assists - compare that to Eden Hazard, our double Player of the Year, who in 36 games has scored 14 goals and provided eight assists. The difference is minimal.

Second, he would automatically improve whichever team he went to. If Chelsea decided to show interest and he went to Stamford Bridge, nobody would catch them in the race for the title next season. Equally, if the Manchester clubs signed him, they would be right back in the hunt.

Nobody could suggest, either, that he has failed. Bale has won four medals for Madrid.

Of the players who have left the Premier League to join them, such as David Beckham and Michael Owen, only Steve McManaman has enjoyed anywhere near the impact of the Wales international.

Playing for Madrid, it must also be said, does not suit everyone. Do we regard Kaka, Arjen Robben or Wesley Sneijder as being poor players after a bad time in Madrid? No chance. Robben and Sneijder, remember, won the Champions League after they moved on.

Still Real say Bale isn’t for sale and their all-powerful chairman, Florentino Perez, likes him. Meanwhile, Jonathan Barnett, his agent, also maintains Bale will not leave but that will not stop speculation raging about what happens next.

Should he get the chance to come back to the Premier League, he must grab it with both hands. His achievements with Real are there for all to see. Now it would be good to see him playing with happiness again.

                                  ©Tottenham FC



Harry Kane is the striker at the top of Manchester United’s list of transfer targets this summer.

Louis van Gaal has identified a number of players in preparation for United’s return to the Champions League, with a forward, a right back, a centre half and a central midfielder on his radar.

He already has a winger in Memphis Depay but Kane, who became the first Spurs player since Gary Lineker to score 30 goals in a season, is the striker United’s manager wants despite the 21-year-old signing a five-and-a-half-year contract in February.

Manchester United would expect to pay upwards of £45million for Kane, who has already featured heavily in the promotional shots for Tottenham's new home kit for next season.

But if Van Gaal can also beat Liverpool and pay £5m for Burnley’s Danny Ings, whose contract expires next month, he is certainly prepared to spend big on someone as gifted and prolific as Kane, particularly with Robin van Persie entering the twilight years of his career.

It is sure to concern Tottenham supporters that United have a history of prising their best players away from White Hart Lane.

Sir Alex Ferguson recruited Teddy Sheringham, Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov from Spurs, with United paying £30m for the Bulgarian striker. Indeed United pushed hard to stop Gareth Bale moving to Real Madrid with an offer to go to Old Trafford instead.

United will certainly make money available to Van Gaal. At least as much as the £150m he spent on new players last summer.

With the first £100m instalment from a new £750m world-record kit deal with adidas to boost the coffers, Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, confirmed there would be further new arrivals following Memphis Depay’s £25m switch from PSV Eindhoven.

After releasing the club’s latest quarterly figures, Woodward said the club was delighted with the performance of van Gaal and had already started to implement plans to bring in new faces.

United are set to finish in the top four this season and grab a Champions League spot after failing to qualify for Europe’s top competition under David Moyes last term.

‘We expect to be active again during the window,’ he said. ‘The squad will be absolutely deep enough and ready to challenge on all fronts next year and that involves ins and outs in the summer.’

Woodward said that ‘eight or nine’ of 30 first-team players will be out of contract at the end of next season.

‘That’s a fairly normal ratio,’ he explained, before adding that talks were currently ongoing with those players out of contract this summer whom the club want to keep.

The quarterly figures, for the three months to the end of March, showed United’s revenues took a £20m hit compared to the same period last year thanks mainly to a lack of Champions League football and a period when five fewer Premier League matches were televised.

They made an £11.4m pre-tax loss compared to a £20.4m profit for the corresponding period last year.

©Dong Media Sports

Evra and his Juventus team-mates booked their place in the Champions League final after a 3-2 aggregate win over Real Madrid on Wednesday. Barcelona secured their place a day earlier after a 5-3 win over Bayern Munich.

Asked about facing Suarez again, Evra said: ‘A lot of people ask me this question. It doesn't matter. The most important thing is I play the final, you know.

'I am proud to be what I am, I am proud about my colour and I will shake his hand, it is no problem, but I will make sure he feels my presence on the pitch.’

Uruguay star Suarez bit Italy's Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, though the Juve defender accepted his apology and claimed he had moved on.

Meanwhile, Evra was full of praise for Juve manager Massimiliano Allegri after he guided the Serie A giants to their first Champions League final since 2003.

'I think, you know we work really hard, you have to congratulate as well the boss because tactically he's really, really good,' Evra added.

'You know, game-by-game we believed we could do something big this year. I don't know if people believed we'd make the final. But like I say every time I play this competition I'm really confident to go to the final, like i did with Monaco, with Manchester [United] and now with Juve.'

Suarez, who was banned for 10 games by the FA for biting Branislav Ivanovic's shoulder during a match against Chelsea in 2013, also developed a bad-boy reputation in Holland with Ajax.

In November 2010, as PSV and Ajax players scrapped off the ball, Suarez chomped down on opposing midfielder Otman Bakkal's shoulder.

No red card followed, but a seven-match ban meant he never played in the Eredivise again.  

Radamel Falcao has had plenty of criticism for his disastrous loan spell at Manchester United and now his own mother says he has gone backwards and could leave this summer.

The Colombian striker has scored just four times in 28 appearances since his summer move from Monaco and it is widely expected that Louis van Gaal will not take up the option of a permanent deal.

And after a season that has damaged his reputation as one of Europe's most potent strikers, the latest panning for his United form has come from his harshest critic: his mother.

Carmenza Zarate admitted that her son is unhappy at Old Trafford but urged him to respect Van Gaal's decisions that have seen him complete a full 90 minutes just five times in United colours.

The 29-year-old has had a tough 16 months after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in January 2014 that ruled him out of the World Cup.

'Not everything has been easy in Falcao's life,' she said. 'He had some difficult moments in his career. They slowed his progress and prevented him from participating in important competitions like the World Cup, or have confined him to the bench, like in Manchester.


'I often remind him that after a test or a difficulty blessings arrive. We hope for bigger and better things. God hasn't abandoned us and my son will become again what he has been, a goalscorer.'

Falcao came on as a half-time substitute in United's 2-1 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday but he has not started since a poor showing in last month's defeat by Chelsea.

'Even if he's unhappy not to be in the starting XI, he has to accept the coach's decisions,' Zarate told El Espectador.

It's not a normal situation given what he has experienced in his career, but it happens in football. If God shows him a new path, he'll leave Manchester.'

‘It's opponents like Steven Gerrard that have made me the manager I am’

‘Maybe I'll play against him as Liverpool manager one day’