Sport

Transfer talk: J-League club says they have offer from Chelsea for Yoshinori Muto

FC Tokyo said on Thursday they had an offer worth roughly £4 million from Chelseafor the young Japan striker Yoshinori Muto, who said he was 'honoured' to receive an offer from the Premier League leaders.

Agence France Presse

April 09, 2015

Premier League leaders Chelsea have made a formal offer for Japan striker Yoshinori Muto, his club FC Tokyo said Thursday.

Japanese media reported the offer was worth US$5.9 million (Dh21.7m).

“It is true that we have received an official offer from Chelsea for Muto,” said a spokesman for the J-league club.

“But nothing has been decided,” the spokesman told AFP, declining to comment further on details, including the amount of money offered.

However, Sports Nippon said Chelsea offered about £4m, which would be a J-League record from an overseas club.

“I’m honoured to receive an offer from this wonderful team,” the 22-year-old Muto told the sports daily. “But I have not made any decision yet.”

Muto began his professional career at FC Tokyo last year, scoring 13 goals in 33 games to match the first-division record for a player in his rookie season.

The baby-faced striker also made his debut for Japan last year and scored his first international goal in a 2-2 draw against Venezuela in September.

Muto has scored three goals in four games this season, helping FC Tokyo move into joint second place in the J-League standings just two points behind leaders Urawa Reds.

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Uefa Nations League: How it works

The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.

The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.

Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.

MATCH INFO

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Barcelona 0