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The Real thing?

Madrid club says it may clinch Anelka signing

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Posted: Saturday July 31, 1999 11:32 AM

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Real Madrid may announce one of the top signings of the summer Saturday as it looks to lure French star striker Nicolas Anelka from Arsenal for 5.5 billion pesetas (US$34 million), a Spanish newspaper reported.

"We are signing the best player possible at this moment and one which no one in Europe has been able to buy," club chairman Lorenzo Sanz told the daily ABC. "Not Juventus, not Lazio nor any other club."

Lazio this week announced it was giving up trying to sign the 20-year-old. On Friday, Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger said he no longer counted on the player, regardless of whether he was sold or not.

Anelka, who has four seasons left in his contract with Arsenal, has repeatedly said he wishes to leave the club.

Two Spanish sports papers showed front-page photographs of Sanz aboard a yacht Friday in the Mediterranean along with Arsenal vice president David Dein and Anelka's agent Mark Rogers. The papers said the signing could be announced later Saturday before Real Madrid's season warm-up game against Internazionale of Milan in San Siro stadium.

 

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