Pau FC officially recruits another 'attacking midfielder' to compete with Quang Hai; 'Thai Messi' will not attend AFF Cup 2022

Overtaking Chelsea, Barca welcomes the most expensive central defender in the club's history

Barcelona overcomes financial difficulties to prepare to welcome the 5th new player in the summer transfer window of 2022.

Transfer news expert Fabrizio Romano confirmed that Barcelona have reached an agreement to sign Jules Kounde from Sevilla. According to Goal, the Catalan club is expected to spend 60 million euros to complete the deal. Kounde will join Robert Lewandowski, Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie and Raphinha as Barca's new signing in the summer of 2022.

Kounde surpassed Clement Lenglet (35 million euros) to become the most expensive central defender in Barca history.

"The negotiations with Chelsea have ended. All terms have been approved by Barca and Sevilla and are only waiting for both parties to sign. Kounde has also agreed on personal terms with Barca because this player really wants to go to Camp Nou," said journalist Romano.

Previously, Chelsea had approached Sevilla first and reached a few agreements to own Kounde for 65 million euros. However, Barca suddenly jumped in. Coach Xavi came forward and successfully convinced Kounde to join Barca.

This is the second time in this summer's transfer window that "The Blues" have been outbid by "Blaugrana" when recruiting players. The previous case was winger Raphinha.

Kounde's outstanding strength is his good footwork as a central defender. The French player achieved an accurate passing rate of up to 88.9% in La Liga last season. In addition, the 1998-born central defender has an average of 2.4 victories in aerial duels, despite being only 1.78 m tall.

Pau FC officially recruits another "attacking midfielder" to compete with Quang Hai

On the evening of July 27, Pau FC officially recruited another attacking player, Marius Ros. This could be a "competitor" withNguyen Quang Haiin the new season. That is the young French talent, Marius Ros.

Before joining Pau FC, Marius Ros was a student at Montpellier, the team that won Ligue 1 10 years ago. According to transfermarkt, Marius Ros's main position is a striker. This striker born in 2001 is right-footed and could be a player competing with Quang Hai for a starting position in the new season.

Ros could become Quang Hai's new "rival".

Last season, Marius Ros played for Montpellier's reserve team. He played 24 games, scored 2 goals and assisted 5 others. His talent was not enough to convince Montpellier to give him a long-term contract, forcing him to leave as a free agent. Of course, Marius Ros had a hard time breaking into Pau FC's first team at the beginning of the season, as he only signed a contract 3 days before the start of Ligue 2. Last weekend, Pau FC completed their preparations for the new season with a friendly against Niort.

Although Marius Ros has been on trial at Pau FC since the beginning of this month, he has not had the opportunity to get acquainted with his new teammates like Quang Hai. According to the schedule, Pau FC will have their opening match in Ligue 2 season 2022/2023 at 00:00 on July 31.

65 million euro center back officially debuts for MU

On the evening of July 27, Vietnam time, Man United officially introduced the new player worth 65 million pounds - center back Lisandro Martinez from Ajax Amsterdam.

On the homepage, MU announced: "Lisandro Martinez officially completed the transfer from Ajax to Manchester United, signing a 5-year contract, until June 2027 with an option to extend for another year."

During his career, he won the 2021 Copa America with the Argentina national team and also won two Eredivisie titles with Ajax.

Lisandro Martinez was a close student of Coach Ten Hag at Ajax. Not a tall central defender (only 1m75 tall), Lisandro has the ability to read the game well, excels in 1-on-1 situations and is a great passer and initiator of attacks.

Lisandro Martinez is officially a MU player.

On his Red Devils debut, the Argentine international shared: "It's an honor to join this great Club. I've worked very hard to get to where I am today and now I'm here to push myself forward."

"I have been fortunate to be part of successful teams in my career, and that is something I want to continue at Manchester United. There is still a lot of work to do but I am confident that, under the guidance of Coach Ten Hag, we will do it," said Lisandro Martinez.

Lisandro Martinez is MU's third new signing in the summer of 2022, after left-back Tyrell Malacia and attacking midfielder Christian Eriksen.

Although not announced, according to some sources, the fee that MU had to pay Ajax to own Martinez was about 65 million euros, not a small amount for a defender who is still little known in Europe.

"Thai Messi" will not attend AFF Cup 2022

Midfielder Chanathip Songkrasin confirmed he will not attend.AFF Cup 2022with the Thai national team.

"I am not sure whether I will be called up to the national team before tournaments such as the King's Cup or AFF Cup, but I have made my decision not to participate," Chanathip Songkrasin was quoted as saying on the Thai national team's official social media page.

Explaining this decision, the player nicknamed Thai Messi said he wanted to rest after a long period of continuous competition.

"I think I need time to rest. During the past period, I have not had a full month of rest, at most only a week. My body is showing signs of being overloaded and this is the main reason I made this decision," Chanathip said.

Chanathip will not attend AFF Cup 2022.

This year's J-League will end in November. If he participates in the AFF Cup, Chanathip will have almost no time to rest because he still has to train with the Thai national team right after that. Southeast Asia's top tournament will start in mid-December with a tight schedule of matches and travel. The 2022 AFF Cup will return to the home-away format.

Chanathip added: "Actually, every tournament is important, but there also needs to be personnel adjustments. My body also needs to rest, maybe the fans don't see that. We also need to create opportunities for every player to have continuity, the players will help each other to progress together. If we don't do this, our development era will end."

Chanathip is 28 years old this year, not young anymore and needs to consider the tournaments he participates in. In addition, his physical condition is no longer good due to many injuries in the past 3-4 years.

The Thai team is the current AFF Cup champion. In the tournament taking place at the end of 2021, Chanathip is the most important factor helping the Golden Temple team regain the throne. In 2018, the "Thai Messi" did not participate in the AFF Cup and the Thai team was eliminated in the semi-finals.