L´article qui concerne Matteo Ferrari:
=>United in Ferrari bargain hunt
By Sam Wallace ( Filed: 16/04/2004)
Manchester United and Chelsea will watch Parma defender Matteo Ferrari against Juventus on Sunday as Sir Alex Ferguson joins the race to sign the player who could be the biggest bargain of the summer.
Ferrari, 24, who has recently won a place in the Italy team and is expected to make the Euro 2004 squad, is one of a group of promising Italians who are being auctioned off by Parma at the end of the season to service the Serie A club´s crippling debt.
Despite failing to pay their players for the last six months, Parma have risen to fourth in the country´s top division and Ferrari has become a target for Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan and AC Milan, all attracted by the possibility of signing him for around £3 million. However, the player tipped by Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni to be his country´s next great centre-back, is considering a move to the Premiership.
United will be cautious about bidding against Chelsea but sources at Parma have indicated that Ferguson was urged by some of his best contacts in Italian football to take a close look at the player. United watched him in Italy´s friendly defeat of Portugal last month and would expect to pay considerably less than the market rate.
David Gill, United´s chief executive has denied reports that Rio Ferdinand could move to Chelsea in the summer but Ferguson will look to sign a centre-back at the end of the season. He tried to get cover for the position in the January transfer window after Ferdinand was given an eight-month ban.
Following the collapse of the parent company, Parmalat, in December control at Parma has been handed over to an administrator who has to sell players to repay some of the club´s £140 million debt.
In January, Inter paid £15 million for Parma´s Brazilian winger, Adriano, but the first payment had barely any effect on the club´s financial state.
Though Ferrari was sold for £4 million when he left Inter for Parma in the summer of 2001, he has since made his international debut and become an integral part of his club´s side.
When Parma host Juventus at the Ennio Tardini stadium tomorrow there will be a collection of England´s richest clubs watching the defender.
Ferrari, who has eight international caps, has an Italian father but was born in Algeria, where his mother comes from, and grew up in Italy.
There is an agreement between Parma and their players to pay backdated wages in the summer and the club, who owe £40 million in tax alone, have indicated to the player and his agent, Giovanni Corci, that he will have to be sold.
The clear-out at Parma, football´s biggest financial meltdown since Fiorentina went bust two years ago, will also see the sale of some of their other coveted young talent. Blackburn made an attempt to sign the Australian international Marco Bresciano in January, and agreed a fee of £2 million for a player who cost Parma £8 million two years ago, but the Italian side pulled out of the transfer.
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