Yilmaz: Galatasaray striker Burak Yilmaz could be on his way to Fiorentina this summer. Reports said yesterday that the Florence club are targeting Yilmaz, having already secured the signings of Bolton full-back Marcos Alonso and Malaga winger Joaquin. Yilmaz, 27, joined Galatasaray from Trab-zonspor last year.
Bodyguards: Bulgarian club Slavia Sofia assigned bodyguards to keeper Georgi Petkov and coach Velislav Vutsov after the pair received death threats following their team’s 1-1 draw at city rivals Levski on the final day of the season on Saturday. Levski had seemed certain to win a 27th league title but, in a dramatic finale, defender Dimitar Vezalov scored a bizarre own goal 16 minutes from time to shock home fans into silence as main rivals Ludogorets beat Montana to lift the trophy for a second straight year.
Odds on: Bayern Munich are 4/1 with Sky Bet to win the Champions League again next season after beating Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in this term’s final at Wembley. The German champions, who started their run at 12/1 to lift the trophy, are now joint favourites with Barcelona for next season’s Champions League, followed by Real Madrid (9/2) and then English trio Chelsea, Man. United and Man. City (all 10/1).
Falcao: Radamel Falcao is set to have a medical with Monaco today before moving to the Ligue 1 club for €60 million, according to reports in Spain. The Colombia striker has long been linked with a move away from Atletico Madrid. However, it appears that Monaco have jumped to the head of the queue with the newly-promoted team having already recruited the likes of highly-rated Porto pair Joao Moutinho and James Rodriguez.
Utrecht: Utrecht clinched a Europa League berth yesterday, despite a 2-1 home defeat in the second leg of their Dutch league play-off against Twente. Utrecht won 3-2 on aggregate after taking the first leg 2-0. For Twente the elimination finishes off a disap-pointing season in which they topped the table for the first 11 rounds but fell apart after the winter break when coach Steve McClaren was sacked. Twente failed to qualify for European football for the first time since 2005.