Olympiakos says yes to Ivory Coast’s Ne
Greek first-division leaders Olympiakos said yesterday they had signed Ivory Coast’s midfielder Marco Ne on a three-year contract from Beveren of Belgium. The 22-year-old, who has represented his country once, will join Olympiakos on July 1. No financial terms of the deal were revealed by the club. It should be noted that the African was rated as Beveren’s most lucrative player on the transfer market by a recent edition of a leading German sports magazine. Ne, an attacking midfielder who had a trail with Arsenal in England last summer, joined Beveren from Ivory Coast’s Abidjan in 2002. This season Ne has played in 10 matches for Beveren, scoring one goal. The reported deal came as a surprise with no information disclosed about the Greek club’s interest in advance. Seeing his side end at the bottom of its Champions League group this season and bid the competition farewell earlier than had been hoped for, the Greek club’s Norwegian coach Trend Sollied has requested new signings from his administration. Ne played alongside compatriot Yaya Toure of Olympiakos at Beveren before the latter transferred to Ukraine’s Metallurg ahead of last summer’s move to Piraeus. Belgian press reports have described Olympiakos’s latest signing as a leading player on Beveren’s roster this season. On another front yesterday, struggling Portsmouth signed Poland striker Emmanuel Olisadebe until the end of the season to bolster their bid to stay in the Premiership. The Nigerian-born 27-year-old, who has made 25 international appearances, joins from Panathinaikos after a two-day trial at Fratton Park at the end of last year. «I am very happy to be joining Portsmouth and excited about the prospect of playing in the Premier League, which for me is the best league in the world,» said the player. «I hope to play and do well for the team and it feels good to be back after my trial last month.» (AFP, Kathimerini)
