SAMI KHEDIRA

Sami Khedira’s situation at Real Madrid continues to remain unclear as the defender continues to prolong the contract talks. He is now free to talk with clubs from abroad, but he has confirmed that he is happy to stay at the Spanish outfit.

An injury to Luka Modric has kept the Croatian midfielder out of action for the last months. Khedira has been able to get regular first-team action due to this. The 27-year-old is yet to start a Champions League or la Liga match. He has played in less than 100 minutes of action this campaign.

Despite this, the German international continues to be subjected to transfer speculation due to the quality that he provides to a team when fit. Premier League clubs like Manchester United and Chelsea have been linked with him for long periods of time. Read the rest of this entry »

Video Ranking: 4 / five

Sami Khedira made his way out of the hospital yesterday which means there is nothing dangerous about the blow that he had taken on his head playing in the game versus Cornella the other day.

It was a Cup match and was being hosted by Santiago Bernabeu.

Khedira got involved in a collision in the second half of the match. He did not walk off immediately, but, in a couple of minutes’ time, he realized that he was having a bit of a sighting problem and he withdrew himself.

According to the reports, the 27-year old playmaker went to the hospital where he had to stay overnight after being told to do so by the doctors. He was observed by the specialists during the night and then, in the morning, he got discharged.

An official statement released by Real Madrid earlier today confirmed the news.

That statement read, “The results of the tests done on Khedira have been pretty good and he is out of the hospital now.”

However, it has not been specified yet by any of the Madrid officials how many matches Khedira would be missing.

A player generally tends to take a few days to come in normal shape from concussion. It gets better and better with time. Proper resting is necessary and it can be expected that Khedira would be kept out of the scene by the Madrid management in the next couple of games.

As far as that game between Madrid and Cornella is concerned, the Los Blancos, as expected, just smashed the third division side. They secured the win by a margin of five goals.

It was Madrid’s 17^th win in a row this season. They have not lost any game after the defeat against Atletico Madrid in September.

Video Ranking: five / five

Video Ranking: 5 / 5

Online video Ranking: 5 / five

Italy have been boosted by the news that midfielder Andrea Pirlo will continue to play for the national team amid speculation that he was set to retire in order to focus on his club career. The 35-year-old has been the most important player for Italy in the last decade, as he has often been the creator of many things good in a team that has lacked quality up front since the retirement of Alessandro del Piero. Even though Italy were knocked out of the group stages in the World Cup 2014, Pirlo was one of the better players.

After recently bringing in Juventus manager Antonio Conte to replace Cesare Prandelli, Italy appear to have convinced Pirlo to stay on playing at the national team level. Conte has worked closely with Pirlo in the last three years, as the brilliance of the former AC Milan man has largely been responsible for Juventus winning three successive league titles. Pirlo is already one of the legends at the international fold after having made 112 appearances for the national team. He sits fourth in the list of all-time most appearance makers for the four-time World Cup winners. It remains to be seen if new Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri will be happy with this decision.

“I have been talking with (new Italy coach Antonio) Conte who asked me if I was ready to play again for the Azzurri and I told him that I was. It was a difficult decision to take. I had wanted to stop playing for the national side but he (Conte) took over and he asked me to lend a hand. I am happy to do that and we are hopeful we can achieve great things together,” said Pirlo, whose job now will be to get Italy to the Euro 2016. Conte began his regime with a 2-0 win over Netherlands in a friendly.

Video clip Score: 5 / 5

Movie Score: five / 5

Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez are widely believed to be the trio of midfielders that Carlo Ancelotti will use in the next season of the Spanish League. Ancelotti is expected to utilize the 4-3-3 formation with Modric, Kroos and Rodriguez being the midfielders for the team while the attacking department will be filled by: C.Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale.

This leaves no place for Sami Khedira in the squad of Carlo Ancelotti. The German midfielder has been losing his starting place in Real Madrid since last season when he only managed to make 13 league appearances and things will only be tougher for him taking into consideration that all of the major signings that Real Madrid has completed are mainly midfielders.

Khedira was left out of the UEFA Super Cup match against Sevilla which was played a few days ago and the German midfielder is well aware that his time at the Santiago Bernabeu is reaching its end, unless of course he would be satisfied with having a spot in the sidelines of the team and only playing a role as a back-up option. He still has a contract with Real Madrid which expires in the next season but it will be up to him if he wants to remain in the Spanish club playing a role as a substitute player.

Arsenal and Chelsea are both interested in signing Sami Khedira but it seems highly doubtful if any of the English clubs would be willing to accept his fairly high salary of €3 million each season.

After everything is said and done, a transfer of Khedira away from Real Madrid will ultimately depend on the player himself if he wants to stay on the sidelines of the club and still earn his salary without playing for the majority of the matches or if the German wants to play in a club where his chances of performing in the main squad are guaranteed.