Bursaspor have announced the signing of Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand on loan until the end of the season.
The 27-year-old had made just nine English Premier League appearances for QPR this campaign and has opted to join the Turkish Super Lig side to get more playing time.
The Istanbul outfit have the option of making the signing of the Peckham-born centre-back permanent at the end of his temporary deal.
Ferdinand has been at Loftus Road for just one-and-a-half seasons after joining QPR from Sunderland in August 2011.
The defender, brother of Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand, began his career at West Ham United.
Bursaspor are seventh in the Turkish Super Lig, nine points behind leaders Galatasaray.
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Bournemouth were able to get the job done this time as they held on for a crucial 1-0 win over Liverpool at Vitality Stadium.
A week after Bournemouth had thrown away a two-goal lead at Arsenal, Philip Billing s first-half strike secured an advantage they protected admirably on Saturday.
Mohamed Salah missed a penalty for Jurgen Klopp s men in the second half as a team who put seven past Manchester United only six days prior failed to break down their lowly hosts.
Defeat is a blow to Liverpool s top-four hopes, but the win sees Gary O Neil s side climb out of the relegation zone in the Premier League.
Liverpool went close to taking the lead in the sixth minute when Virgil van Dijk headed a Trent Alexander-Arnold corner goalwards, only for Jefferson Lerma …
Brighton and Hove Albion have issued a statement denying they have reached an agreement for the sale of defender Marc Cucurella, following various reports of a deal with Chelsea.
The Blues are pushing to sign the Spain international in a deal reportedly worth in excess of £50million, having leapt ahead of Premier League champions Manchester City in the hunt for his services.
Progress was seemingly made on Wednesday when a number of media outlets reported Brighton had agreed to the sale of Cucurella to Chelsea, which would have seen the Blues spending in the window extend following the captures of Kalidou Koulibaly, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Slonina – the latter remaining with Chicago Fire on loan.
Brighton moved swiftly to make it clear that was not the case…
Mark Hughes has held preliminary talks over extending his contract at Stoke City and says he is very happy at the club.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has revealed he has held preliminary discussions over extending his contract with the Premier League club.
Hughes signed a three-year deal when he was appointed as Tony Pulis successor at the Britannia Stadium in May 2013.
The former Manchester City boss has enjoyed success in Staffordshire, guiding Stoke to a first top-half finish in the Premier League last term and generating further optimism ahead of the current campaign with the high-profile signing of Bojan Krkic from Barcelona.
Bojan has played an integral role in putting Stoke on course for a second successive top-10 finish and the club s board app…
Barcelona defender Dani Alves admits he is hoping Atletico Madrid prevail over bitter rivals Real Madrid in Saturday s much-awaited Champions League final.
Diego Simeone s Atletico knocked defending champions Barcelona out of the tournament in the quarter-final stage, before edging past Bayern Munich in the semis.
Madrid are the only team that stand in Atletico s way of a maiden Champions League crown, in a rematch of the 2014 final that ended 4-1 in favour of the former after extra time.
But Dani Alves is hoping for a different result at the San Siro, with the Brazil international of the belief that Atletico are more than worthy winners of the competition.
I want Atletico to win in. But not just because I want Madrid to lose, the 33-year-old told A…
Isaac Chansa says he has no hard feelings about leaving Orlando Pirates and is proud of his time at the club.
Chansa last week joined Chinese club Henan Jianye for an undisclosed sum, ending a second stint at Pirates, whom he rejoined in 2010 after three seasons at Swedish club Helsingborgs.
The Zambia midfielder said he had made up his mind earlier this year that he would leave Pirates.
My main priority was going back to Europe, but it didn’t happen and I ended up coming here (to China), Chansa told Kickoff.com.
I made up my mind and I was looking forward to the move because I achieved a lot in the two seasons I was at Pirates.
Chansa won back-to-back league titles with Pirates after retaining the Absa Premiership this past season.
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Arsenal star Emmanuel Adebayor ended a one-month national team boycott by scoring four goals as Togo sank Swaziland 6-0 Saturday in a 2010 World Cup-African Nations Cup qualifier.
The striker told London newspapers he would shun the key Group 11 clash in neutral Accra to protest poor organisation of a team which defied the odds by reaching the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
But Swazi hopes of not having to contend with the gangling goal poacher were dashed as he had a last-minute change of heart and struck once before half-time and three times in the second half.
Salifou Moustapha and Olufade Akekami also scored for the Sparrowhawks as they spectacularly avenged a 2-1 loss in the tiny southern Africa mountain kingdom last June.
The result confirmed Zambi…
Liverpool have handed a start to teenage defender Rhys Williams for their top-of-the-table Premier League clash with Tottenham.
The Reds are without Joel Matip after he was forced off at half-time of last weekend s 1-1 draw at Fulham due to a back spasm.
And, with the centre-back having failed to recover in time for Wednesday s game, he gives up his starting place to 19-year-old Williams, who will make his Premier League debut.
Jurgen Klopp s team is otherwise unchanged, though he will have Naby Keita to call upon from the bench after the midfielder recovered from injury.
A debut for tonight
— Liverpool FC (@LFC)
As for Tottenham, their team shows two changes from Sunday s draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Ben Davie…
Manchester City cruised into the quarter-finals of the Champions League despite falling to a 2-1 loss at home by Basel, Pep Guardiola s men progressing 5-2 on aggregate.
A comprehensive 4-0 win in Switzerland three weeks ago gave City a foot in the last eight and the chance of a Basel comeback was always extremely remote, but the hosts struggled for cohesion after nine changes and slipped to a first home defeat in any competition since December 2016.
Guardiola took the chance to rest stars including Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, Ederson and David Silva, with Phil Foden starting to become the youngest English player to start a knockout game in the Champions League.
Teenager Foden featured alongside Yaya Toure 17 years his senior in midfield but the duo strugg…
Tito Vilanova believes Barcelona fully deserve the La Liga title, especially after their 2-1 comeback win at Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
Real Madrid handed the Catalan club their fourth title in five seasons with a 1-1 draw against Espanyol ahead of the match at the Vicente Calderon.
The Catalan side, who were welcomed onto the pitch with a guard of honour, fell behind to a Radamel Falcao strike and lost Lionel Messi to injury but still claimed three points with ten men courtesy of Alexis Sanchez and an own goal from Gabi.
Vilanova told the club s official website: We have been the best team in La Liga, without a doubt.
We knew that we had to win as many points as possible at the start of the season because big teams usually drop points in the first games of the year.
When e…