Newcastle: Newcastle United made a late deadline-day double swoop for Bolton Wanderers defender Abdoulaye Faye and Olympique Marseille defender Habib Beye on Friday, the English Premier League club said on their website. The two Senegalese players signed three-year deals.
French League Cup: RC Lens were drawn with arch-rivals Lille in the French League Cup round of 32. Lens gave new coach Jean-Pierre Papin a winning start with a qualification for the UEFA Cup first round following a 5-1 thrashing of Young Boys Berne on Thursday. Lille should be able to count on surprise signing Patrick Kluivert of the Netherlands to break the deadlock at the Stade Felix-Bollaert. Other all Ligue 1 ties feature troubled AJ Auxerre taking on St Etienne and Paris St Germain travelling to Lorient.
Germany: Germany coach Joachim Loew was able to recall strikers Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Mario Gomez among a group of returning players for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Wales on Sept 8. The forwards were joined in the squad by midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and left-back Marcell Jansen, who also missed the recent friendly victory over England because of injury. The situation is still not perfect for Loew, however, with captain Michael Ballack among a group of players still missing through injury. The others include midfielders Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski and forward Jan Schlaudraff.
Clemente: Serbia's Spanish coach Javier Clemente will be in charge of their Euro 2008 qualifiers against Finland and Portugal despite suffering severe injuries in a freak accident at his Bilbao home on Thursday. The 59-year old Basque is in hospital with four broken ribs, a fractured collar bone and a damaged lung after slipping and falling heavily in his garage, but is determined to take charge of Serbia's key Group A qualifiers this month.
Macho: AEK Athens have signed Austria goalkeeper Juergen Macho from German club Kaiserslautern. The former Chelsea and Sunderland player, who has seven international caps, has signed a two-year deal and could make his debut in tomorrow's Champions League third qualifying round second leg against Sevilla who lead 2-0 from the first leg.
Cisse: Olympique Marseille striker Djibril Cisse has been included in a 20-man squad for today's Ligue 1 game at arch-rivals Paris St Germain, the club said. Cisse missed the 2-0 home defeat by Nice earlier this week with a thigh injury.
Israel: Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun and Chelsea central defender Tal Ben Haim have been included in a 23-man Israel squad for their Euro 2008 Group E qualifier against England at Wembley next Saturday. The pair will team up with the rest of the squad named by Israel coach Dror Kashtan on Saturday when it arrives in London this week.
Pauleta: Former Portugal striker Pauleta, who had threatened to leave Paris St Germain because he was not playing enough, has now decided to stay and should start the match when the Parisians entertain arch-rivals Olympique Marseille today.