Chelsea-bound Timo Werner handed farewell gift from RB Leipzig


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RB Leipzig gave Chelsea-bound striker Timo Werner a farewell gift ahead of the club's final Bundesliga home game of the season on Saturday.

Prior to the match against Borussia Dortmund, which Leipzig lost 2-0, Werner was presented with a special mosaic by sports director Markus Kroesche and managing director Oliver Mintzlaff.

Werner, 24, sealed a €55 million (Dh226m) transfer to Chelsea last week and has signed a five-year contract with the Premier League club. The Germany international will complete his move at the end of the season, subject to a medical.

Werner has been in prolific form for Leipzig this season, scoring 32 goals and registering 13 assists in 43 appearances in all competitions.

After being heavily linked with a move to Premier League champions-in-waiting Liverpool, it was Chelsea who swooped in to complete the deal before Werner's buyout clause expired.

"I am delighted to be signing for Chelsea, it is a very proud moment for me to be joining this great club," Werner said. "I of course want to thank RB Leipzig, the club and the fans, for four fantastic years. You will forever be in my heart.

"I look forward to next season with my new teammates, my new manager and of course the Chelsea fans. Together we have a very successful future ahead of us."

Werner is Chelsea's second high-profile signing of 2020. The German striker will be joined at Stamford Bridge by Morocco international winger Hakim Ziyech, who in February signed a five-year contract after the Blues agreed a £40 million (Dh181.8m) fee with Dutch champions Ajax.

While Werner still has one more match in Leipzig colours - away at Augsburg on Saturday - Ziyech has already played his final game for Ajax after the Dutch season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic - a decision Ziyech slammed as "nonsense".

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Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt

Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure

Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers

Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised

Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels

Step by step

2070km to run

38 days

273,600 calories consumed

28kg of fruit

40kg of vegetables

45 pairs of running shoes

1 yoga matt

1 oxygen chamber

Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

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Company profile

Name: Steppi

Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic

Launched: February 2020

Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year

Employees: Five

Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai

Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings

Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year

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If you go

The flights

There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.

The trip

Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.

The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.