Short Corner
Kroos pens new deal
AFP
Germany international Toni Kroos has extended his contract with Real Madrid until 2023 ahead of an expected summer overhaul at the club, the Spanish giants said Monday.
The 29-year-old midfielder has won 12 titles in five seasons in Spain, lifting the Champions League trophy in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Kroos has scored 13 goals in 233 appearances for Real since arriving from Bayern Munich in 2014 after helping Germany win the World Cup in Brazil.
Real finished third in La Liga this term, 19 points behind champions Barcelona after registering their lowest points haul in 17 years, ending with a limp 2-0 home defeat to Real Betis on Sunday.
Coach Zinedine Zidane has promised changes to the squad ahead of next season, with Gareth Bale, goalkeeper Keylor Navas, Nacho, Sergio Reguilon, Isco and Marcos Llorente all tipped to leave the club.
Pizarro to retire next year
AFP
Veteran Peruvian striker Claudio Pizarro says that he will end his playing career in 2020 at the age of 41.
Pizarro, 40, announced a one-year contract extension at Werder Bremen on Saturday, but admitted a day later that next season would be the final act of a two-decade long career in European football.
“Next season will be my last. I want to end my career in good condition,” he said at a friendly match against lower league side Papenburg.
Fan favourite Pizarro is currently in his fourth spell at Bremen, whom he first joined in 1999. He has scored 197 goals in 472 Bundesliga appearances for Bremen, Bayern Munich and Cologne.
Stuttgart appoint Tim Walter
AFP
Relegation-threatened Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart announced Monday that current Holstein Kiel boss Tim Walter will take over as head coach at the end of the season.
Walter, 43, led Kiel to sixth in the second division this season and has now signed a two-year deal to become the long-term successor to former Stuttgart boss Markus Weinzierl, who was sacked in April.
“Tim Walter’s idea of brave, attacking football fits Stuttgart brilliantly,” said Stuttgart sporting director Thomas Hitzlsperger.
“Together, we want to place more focus on our own youth players.”
Walter, who worked as a youth coach at Bayern Munich and Karlsruhe before taking over at Kiel last year, will take over after Stuttgart’s fate is decided in the relegation play-off next week.
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