Hitzlsperger: Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger has joined Lazio after falling out of favour at Stuttgart. Hitzlsperger, urged recently by Germany coach Joachim Loew to try to play regularly in order to feature in his World Cup squad in June, joined Stuttgart from England's Aston Villa in 2005.
Lavezzi: Argentine striker Ezequiel Lavezzi will be playing for Napoli until 2015 after deciding to extend his deal with the Serie A club. Club owner Aurelio de Laurentiis said: "We put pen to paper last week." Lavezzi is currently out with a thigh strain and will not be back for several weeks.
Del Horno: La Liga strugglers Real Valladolid have signed left-back Asier del Horno on loan from Valencia for the remainder of the season. The 29-year-old Del Horno, who has a contract with Valencia until 2012, is Valladolid's second signing of the January transfer window after Keko, who has joined on loan from Atletico Madrid.
Benfica: Benfica signed Argentine international striker Franco Daniel Jara from Arsenal de Sarandi for €5.5 million. The 21-year-old, who will officially join the club in July, will sign a five-year deal.
Not so Nice: Around 200 supporters of Ligue 1 strugglers Nice clashed with police on Saturday after they invaded the pitch and tried to confront rival fans from Monaco. The pitch invasion followed their side's 3-2 defeat in the Riviera derby which left them fifth from bottom, just six points above the relegation places.
Fernandes: Manuel Fernandes did not clinch a deal at Inter after failing his medical test last weekend, reports said. According to Spanish newspaper As, the Valencia midfielder was found to have an inflammation of the knee ligaments.
Cabanas: Paraguay striker Salvador Cabanas regained consciousness and spoke to his family for the first time since he was shot in a Mexico City bar last week, his doctors said. The prolific goal scorer was shot in the bathroom of the bar last week and the bullet fired into his head remains lodged in his brain.
Ref banned: Benin referee Bonaventure Coffi Codjia has been suspended indefinitely by the CAF after failing to take action against an Algeria player who head-butted him at the Africa Cup. A CAF spokesman said that Codjia, also on the shortlist for the World Cup in June, did not mention the incident in his match report.
Athletics: Britain's Jessica Ennis started 2010 with a bang by beating United States hurdles world champion Lolo Jones in a 60-metre indoor race in Glasgow last weekend. The heptathlon world champion clocked a national record of 7.95 seconds to edge Jones by two hundredths of a second, and then leaped a personal-best 1.94 metres in the high jump to help Britain to a three-point win over the US in the team event. Germany finished third on 51, nine points behind the US.
Mixed doubles: Zimbabwe's Cara Black and Leander Paes of India won the Australian Open mixed doubles title yesterday, defeating Russian Ekaterina Makarova and Czech Republic's Jaroslav Levinsky 7-5 6-3. The win gave Black and Paes another tennis grand slam title, after their US Open triumph in 2008. It also helped erase some of the disappointment of failing to defend their title at Flushing Meadows last year.
Basket, NBA: The Orlando Magic bounced the Atlanta Hawks from first place in the Southeast Division yesterday with a bruising 104-86 victory. Magic (31-16), who trailed the Hawks by a half-game before the clash, took over the top spot with their third successive win over Atlanta this season.
Formula One: Vitaly Petrov will become the first Russian to race in Formula One after former champions Renault named him yesterday as their second driver for the 2010 season. The 25-year-old from Vyborg, near the Finnish border, was the runner-up in the GP2 support series to Germany's Nico Hulkenberg, now with Williams, last year. Petrov will partner Poland's highly-rated Robert Kubica at the team.
Skiing: Lindsey Vonn, beaten for the first time this season in a downhill a day earlier, captured the World Cup Super-G title after winning in St Moritz, yesterday. In the last race before the Vancouver Olympics, the American clocked 1:1.77 to grab her ninth overall victory of the season. With only two races left Vonn leads Swiss Fabienne Suter by more than 200 points in the Super-G standings and cannot be caught.