TURIN — Five-times World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo rejoined Serie A champions Juventus for training on Tuesday after an absence of 72 days that included the last two weeks in quarantine.
The 35-year-old was filmed arriving at the Turin club's Continassa training ground in a black car and was due to undergo a medical before joining coach Maurizio Sarri and his teammates.
Italy's Serie A clubs voted in a favor of restarting the season on June 13 during a general assembly on Wednesday, if the government allows.
The Italian top flight has been suspended since March 9 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and, although the government has authorized teams to hold collective training sessions from next Monday, it has not yet decided if and when the championship can resume.
The companies holding the broadcasting rights to Italy's top-flight Serie A soccer championship, including Comcast's unit SKY, have not paid the last installment of the 2019-20 season, which has been halted due to the coronavirus outbreak, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Fiorentina owner Rocco Commisso has said the club will not try to stop talisman Federico Chiesa should he decide to join Juventus.
"Chiesa must decide and, if he wants to leave, I won't stand in his way, as long as the amount is right ... If he wants to go to Juve, there are no vetoes for certain clubs," Commisso claimed.
AS Roma legend Francesco Totti made headlines this week when he discussed his acrimonious exit from his boyhood club with Luca Toni on Instagram Live.
After 25 seasons with I Giallorossi, Totti retired at the age of 40 in 2017 as the club's all-time leading scorer with 307 in 785 appearances. The club legend and long-time captain had intended to keep playing, but felt he was forced out, saying the club hierarchy took the decision out of his hands and reneged on promises they had made him.
The players and coaching staff at Serie A side AS Roma have agreed to go without four months' salary to help the club through the crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Serie A has been suspended since March 9 and it is not known if or when the season will be able to re-start.
The players and staff at Serie A clubs should be tested for coronavirus and then isolated in training camps when they begin preparing for the re-start of the season, the Italian football federation (FIGC) recommended on Wednesday.
The recommendation will be among the guidelines drawn up by the FIGC's medical committee so that the season, on hold since March 9 because of the coronavirus outbreak, can safely restart, the FIGC said in a statement.
During the break from football we saw Lionel Messi's cute son Ciro help him lift weights. Now, Cristiano Ronaldo is stepping it up a notch and using his own children as the weights. Watch as Ronaldo lifts his children and pray he doesn’t drop them.
Who needs fancy training equipment when you have family?
AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic trained with Swedish club Hammarby as the global soccer shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic continues, and a brief bout of coughing didn't appear to trouble him as he practiced his shooting.
Former Sweden forward Ibrahimovic, who is his country's record goal-scorer and owns a stake in the top-flight Stockholm club, took a full part in the training session that had a mixture of bright sunshine and brief showers of snow and hail.
LONDON — AC Milan and Inter Milan will play their first-ever virtual derby on Saturday after joining forces with digital sports broadcaster DAZN, the clubs said in a statement on Thursday.
With Serie A, like the rest of Europe's elite leagues, suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, fans will be able to watch the rival clubs go head to head on KONAMI’s popular soccer video game Pro Evolution Soccer 2020.
At the control will be Milan's Portuguese forward Rafael Leao and Inter's striker Sebastiano Esposito, selected for their self-confessed expertise on video games.