Portuguese fifth-tier side Os Belenenses are hoping to tempt iconic Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to join them at the end of the season with an offer including custard tarts and museum tickets.
Buffon said he will leave Juve when his contract expires at the end of the season, but the 43-year-old has left the door open to continuing his career elsewhere.
"We heard that you are looking for a new challenge and are receptive to listening to a 'crazy and stimulating' proposal," the Lisbon club wrote in an open letter.
"Therefore, we decided to present you with something irresistible: how about moving to Lisbon and helping us to quickly return to our place in Portuguese football, the I Liga [top flight]?"
The club promised to include in their contract offer tickets to various tourist attractions around the city, including an annual pass to the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology.
They also offer "a pack of six Pasteis de Belem [custard tarts] a week, one of the most popular specialities of Portuguese sweets, which you will certainly enjoy without tweaking your diet."
Belenenses are one of Portugal’s oldest clubs, but split with Belenenses SAD in 2018 over a dispute and were forced to start again from the bottom of the Portuguese football structure.
They have one Portuguese title to their name and three Portuguese Cups.
They also tried to tempt Buffon by making a comparison with his first club Parma, who were sent to the fourth tier of Italian football in 2015 after going bankrupt.
"Despite our rich history and being the fourth club with the most fans in Portugal, we are currently competing at the fifth national level. Do you remember the route your dear Parma took? Ours is somehow similar," they wrote.
Considered one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, Buffon won 10 Serie A titles and four Coppa Italia trophies with Juve, as well as achieving World Cup glory with Italy in 2006.
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The Specs:
The Specs:
Engine: 2.9-litre, V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Power: 444bhp
Torque: 600Nm
Price: AED 356,580 incl VAT
On sale: now.
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Scoreline:
Cardiff City 0
Liverpool 2
Wijnaldum 57', Milner 81' (pen)
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German intelligence warnings
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Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
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Flyweight: Lina Fayyad (JOR) beat Sophia Haddouche (ALG) Round 2 TKO (ground and pound)
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