The Brazilian completed his €42 million euros move to Paris on Saturday in the second most expensive transfer for a defender in the history of football after Rio Ferdinand`s switch from Leeds to Manchester United in 2002.
“I’m very happy that Thiago Silva has signed,” PSG’s coach, Carlo Ancelotti, said. “He is a fantastic player. Everyone knows that he is one of the best players in the world.”
Capped 28 times by Brazil, he will be reunited at PSG with the French side’s sporting director Leonardo, his coach at San Siro in 2009/10.
PSG finished second in Ligue 1 under another former Rossoneri coach, Carlo Ancelotti, last term and will contest the UEFA Champions League group stage this season.
France have hired former France captain Didier Deschamps as their new head coach.
Deschamps, 43-year-old, left his job at Marseille last week and replaces Laurent Blanc who resigned after France’s loss to Spain in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012.
The former Chelsea midfielder won the World Cup and Euro 2000 as a player.
Deschamps’ first game in charge is set to be against South American champions Uruguay in Le Havre on 15 August.
Paris Saint-Germain have completed the signing of Argentine striker Ezequiel Lavezzi from Napoli on a four-year deal after he completed a medical yesterday, the French outfit have announced.
No fee has been revealed, but reports say that PSG will pay in the region of €30 million for Lavezzi, making him the third most expensive player in their history behind Javier Pastore and Nicolas Anelka.
Lavezzi, 27-year-old, began his career with Estudiantes de La Plata and also played for San Lorenzo before moving to Napoli in 2007.
Relegated Auxerre were hit with a four-match stadium ban after unruly fans caused a match last season to be halted three times.
The action was taken by French league officials to punish Auxerre whose supporters threw toilet paper, tennis balls and a smoke bomb onto the pitch during the game with champions Montpellier on May 20.
Fifteen years after losing 1-0 to a Ronaldo penalty in the 1997 Cup Winners Cup final, PSG can finally exact their revenge when they host FC Barcelona to the Parc des Princes for a preseason friendly.
The gala friendly match, to be played in Paris on 4 August, just a week before the start of the Ligue 1 season, completes a prestigious list of friendly opponents after Russian giants CSKA Moscow, Champions League winners Chelsea and italian champions Juventus.
Les Rouge et Bleu announced the news on the English version of their official website, PSG.fr:
A mouth-watering match of football against Barça, just a week before the start of the championship: the launch pad for what promises to be a passionate and thrilling campaign.
Cup Winners Cup 1997 Final: Barcelona 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain
Lyon’s French international striker Bafetimbi Gomis yesterday denied involvement in an alleged rape, and confirmed that he has not been arrested by police.
“I formally deny the accusations that have been made against me and, contrary to what has been written, I absolutely did not spend the night in police custody. Thanks for all your support,” Gomis wrote on his Facebook page and also on Twitter.
Earlier, a police official in Lyon told AFP that two Lyon players were the subject of an investigation into the rape of a 38-year-old woman.
Paris city council said that capital club Paris SG “wish to remain at a totally renovated Parc des Princes for the long term”.
The statement, released by the municipal authorities – who own the stadium – said that the Ligue 1 runners-up wish to remain in a stadium that “corresponds to the highest international standards and the sporting ambitions of the club”.
“Work will begin in the coming months,” the statement added, with the city council and PSG agreeing to continue talks over the best way to go about increasing the capacity of the stadium, which presently holds 47,428 fans.
The current capacity is not enough to satisfy the wishes of the club’s Qatari owners as they seek to turn PSG into a major player in Europe.
Ligue 2 side Monaco have appointed former Inter manager Claudio Ranieri as their new Coach.
Ranieri has been without a club since he was sacked by Inter Milan in March and has recently been linked with the vacant managerial position at West Brom.
“AS Monaco Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Claudio Ranieri as the club’s new head coach,” read a Monaco statement.
PSG coach Carlo Ancelotti has admitted the pressure will be on the Ligue 1 runners-up next season, but reiterated his club’s ambitions extend beyond the domestic competitions and into the Champions League.
“We will be playing in the Champions League, we are a big club, with ambitions for the future, so a lot of players want to join PSG. We will look for players with a certain character and international experience.”
“The ideal scenario would be to sign a defender, a midfielder and an attacker. I don’t think there’ll be a revolution in terms of the playing ranks because the spine of the squad is already in place,” he said.
PSG begin their preseason training with a camp in Austria before heading to North America for a pair of international friendlies against UCL winners Chelsea and Scudetto champions Juventus in late July.
Dimitar Berbatov’s suggested that Paris Saint Germain could be an option for future transfer of the client. The big spending French club is willing to make their move for the Bulgarian international.
“In the press, there are many speculations regarding Dimitar,” Berbatov’s agent Emil Danchev told RMC. “But the truth is, that PSG’s project can really interest him because he wants to play the Champions League next year.”
