Thomas Tuchel has said he wants Christian Pulisic to stay at Chelsea but admitted "no decisions" have yet been taken over the club's summer plans.

The USMNT international has only started in the FA Cup fifth-round win at Barnsley on Feb. 11 during Tuchel's six-game tenure.

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Pulisic is a doubt for Saturday's Premier League trip to Southampton and although the 22-year-old has also recently missed Chelsea's victory at Sheffield United due to personal reasons, a lack of game-time has fuelled speculation he could leave the club this summer.

However, when asked at a news conference whether the forward still had a future at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel replied: "Yes, today, clearly yes but it is not only my point of view. We have to see. For me, clearly yes because Chelsea bought Christian for a reason, for his quality, for his potential and it is our job to bring out the best in him.

"He proved in many weeks that he has the level to be a Chelsea regular player, to have a big impact in this club. It's a challenge now to hold this level, to improve and to maintain the level and keep improving."

Pulisic, who has a contract until 2024, has struggled with persistent injury problems since arriving at Chelsea in the summer of 2019 but particularly following a hamstring injury sustained in last August's FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal.

Former Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard revealed the club were exploring specific training programmes amid fears Pulisic was struggling to cope with the rigours of regular first-team football.

Although Tuchel did not necessarily share that view, he said Pulisic is unlikely to be risked to avoid another "cycle" of fitness problems.

"We are not concerned, we are not worried but the physical, medical department is on that," he added. "Now we have little issues in the calf. He stopped training yesterday before it becomes an injury.

"So I would not say it is an injury, at the moment it is risk-management to not be injured. That relies on his history of having injuries so we do not want to enter the same cycle.

"It is sometimes like this and the main thing for Christian is to stay positive, keep the head up and like I said before be ready because he can have a big impact when he starts and he can have a big, big impact when he comes off the bench with his intensity.

"There are absolutely no decisions made for the summer. There is simply no time for that at the moment and this is not the moment now. There is today no need to think about it."

Thiago Silva has not recovered from a thigh problem and will miss the game against Southampton while Tammy Abraham was expected to train on Friday afternoon despite limping off in Monday's 2-0 win over Newcastle with an ankle problem. Kai Havertz is also fit after shaking off a knock.

IT IS MATCH NIGHT in Bergamo, Italy. The local soccer team, Atalanta, is playing an important game in the Coppa Italia against Lazio, a team from Rome. Atalanta's stadium sits in a neighborhood alongside the Citta Alta, the upper city, the historic part of Bergamo ringed by Venetian plaster walls from the 16th century. The floodlights twinkle, glittering in a cold January sky.

Down the hill, there is a bar. It has dark wood paneling and long, rectangular tables. The bar is named Hog, short for hedgehog. The menu at Hog features a cartoonish animal with playful eyes drawn on its cover.

The owner, Igor Prussiani, is a local, a true Bergamasco. He is from Longuelo, the neighborhood next to his bar. He loves Atalanta. He loves its players and its coaches. He loves its songs and chants. Mostly, though, he loves how it represents the dogged determination of his city. Nearby Milan may be the fashion capital of the world, but Bergamo is blue-collar, Igor says, and Bergamaschi know how to work, how to sweat, how to toil. On the inside collar of Atalanta's jerseys the phrase "La maglia sudata sempre" is written. Roughly translated, it means, "The shirt is always wet."

On Atalanta match nights, Hog overflows with people. It has beer taps that hang from the ceiling. It has a list of original hamburgers, including the "Hipster," which features half a pound of beef, an artisanal bun, egg, cheese, bacon, onions and barbecue sauce. It is a meal that stays with you for days. The Hipster is so adored it is normally made in batches, then delivered to the hundreds of customers crammed into the tables in the dining room. During games, the singing never stops at Hog except for when Atalanta scores and everyone shrieks in ecstasy.

Those moments -- the seconds of sheer pandemonium when the place erupts -- are why Igor opened Hog.

"The best feeling," he says, "is when you see the people explode. When you see the people with their hearts in their hands."

He looks around. Hog is empty tonight. In COVID-19 times, Igor explains, only takeout is allowed. There is no music, no buzz. No screaming. A few lonely patties sizzle on the grill in the back.

Atalanta's fans watch their team beat Lazio from home. Igor watches from his restaurant. It is how it has been for months, through lockdowns and quarantines and, of course, the staggering coronavirus death toll that this city has endured. You might think the pandemic began in the Western world with Rudy Gobert and the NBA shutting down on March 11; you might think that was the tipping point. It wasn't. It was in Bergamo, where three weeks earlier, everyone went to sleep thinking they had just experienced the best day of their lives and woke up to a nightmare.

And yet still, hope abides here, even after so much heartbreak. No one knows when, Igor says, but soon the Bergamaschi will sing in the stadium again. Crowd into bars and hug and cheer again. Be together again. Soon they will do those ordinary things again, those everyday-life things that suddenly went from being acts of comfort to acts of danger.

A year ago, it was like that, Igor says. A year ago, it was glorious. So now, when Atalanta takes the field on a match night in Bergamo and the future feels like it might finally be inching just a little bit closer, it is impossible for Bergamaschi like Igor not to think of the match night, one year ago. The one from last February just before all of this began.

Atalanta played that night. The fans sang that night. Hog was packed that night.

Life then, Igor says, was normal.

THEY REMEMBER IT like this: It is Feb. 19, 2020, and Igor opens his bar for lunch. There is a decent rush in the afternoon, but the dining room really starts filling around dinner. Igor has had reservations on every table in the place for months. Atalanta is playing in the Champions League round of 16. For a small team whose only significant trophy came in 1963, Atalanta's game against Spanish club Valencia, a two-time finalist in the competition, is something historic.

The game itself is in Milan, about 40 miles down the road. Atalanta's stadium is tiny and built in 1928. It hasn't been modernized to Champions League standards. So Atalanta plays Valencia in the famed San Siro instead, one of soccer's grandest stages.

The city of Bergamo's entire population is only 125,000, but some 40,000 Atalanta fans make the trip. Those who don't go to watch in person pack into bars like Igor's; those who do find plenty of company on the road. Normally, it takes 45 minutes to drive to Milan; on this night, the ride from Bergamo takes up to three hours.

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Fabio Piana arrives in Milan by about 5 p.m., or roughly four hours before kickoff. Fabio grew up in Bergamo like Igor, and his childhood home was only 200 yards from the stadium. Fabio distinctly remembers being about 5 years old and asking his father on a Sunday, "Papa, why are so many people in the street?" His father simply pointed to the Curva Nord, the north side of the stadium where the most intense fans would always stand. It was instant love. Fabio, now in his late 40s, has been standing in the Curva Nord on match days for decades. His catalogue of Atalanta memories runs deep, the sort of guy who goes chapter and verse on 2-2 draws with AC Milan in 1983.

Fabio and his friends walk to the San Siro from the café where they have been drinking and singing. Scores of Atalanta fans arrive on the dozens of buses that come from Bergamo. Others drive or take the train, and get to the ground on Milan's subways or taxis. Inside the San Siro, the fans stand shoulder to shoulder, shouting the words to "Viaggiare per l'Italia Seguendo Te," or "Traveling Across Italy Following You."

"I live to love you / and will never betray you," they chant. "And with my heart in my throat / I'll sing for you. Ale, Atalanta!"

The mood is delirious. Everyone is smiling and laughing and shouting. Strangers throw their arms over each other's shoulders. It is a festa, a party. Children of all ages are in the crowd too, despite the late hour, including a little boy named Edoardo, whose father posts on social media the note he wrote to his son's school informing them that Edoardo would be absent all day for "cultural-historical" reasons. "He will be experiencing a day in the history books of Bergamo along with his dad," the note says, and even the mayor of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, retweets it with an approving message and the hashtag #GoAtalantaGo.

Gori is at the game, too, sitting with his son. The mayor had a full day at work, including meeting with Paolo Gentiloni, the former prime minister of Italy, but by 6:30 p.m. he was out the door, in the car and on the way to Milan like everyone else. Gori's son is 23 and finishing up at the University of Siena, but Atalanta keeps them close as they live apart. "That game," Gori says, sounding like a proud father, "was a moment of extraordinary union between us on a personal and emotional level."

The match itself is euphoric. To advance to the quarterfinals, Atalanta needs to score more goals than Valencia over two legs, one match in Italy and then another in Spain. With 180 minutes of soccer to be played, it takes barely a quarter-hour for Atalanta, the biggest of interlopers, to show that it belongs. Hans Hateboer, a Dutch defender, opens the scoring and the shock in the stands mixes with rapture. Then Josip Ilicic scores. And Remo Freuler. Then Hateboer scores again and suddenly it feels as though the San Siro stadium might lift off the ground.

The Atalanta fans are incandescent. Four goals? In the Champions League? For us? This is a team whose total payroll is less than what Cristiano Ronaldo makes himself. This is a team that wasn't even in Italy's top division as recently as 2011. This is a team that had nearly 100-to-1 odds to win the tournament at the start and didn't crack the first page of most oddsmakers' betting sheets.

Now, Atalanta is soccer's feel-good story, the fearless upstart whose fans have no interest in simply being happy to be here. Fabio barely even sees the third and fourth goals go in the net because there is so much bouncing and chanting and shouting and beer flying all over the area where he is standing, the Bergamaschi crushed in so tightly it is as if they share a face.

The final score is 4-1 and, as he leaves the stadium that night with his son, Gori, the mayor, is already planning what to do for the second leg. The atmosphere inside the stadium was incredible, Gori thinks, so wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a big screen set up in the middle of Bergamo for the return match in a few weeks' time?

Everyone could come together again, Gori thinks. Another festa, this time in the city's main square. It would be magnificent.

IT IS IMPORTANT, at this point, to repeat: This was Feb. 19. So while now we are inured to the frantic pace of coronavirus news, at that moment it was still something new, something foreign. Should there have been an inkling? Maybe. But it is only human to look away from something scary for as long as possible, to imagine, to hope, it won't come near.

On Feb. 19, the people of Bergamo see the virus as something in China, telling each other, "OK, it's 15,000 kilometers away from here and that's not our business," says Andrea Losapio, a journalist who has covered Atalanta for years. On Italian television on Feb. 19, Andrea says, the ratio of news stories about Atalanta in the Champions League to stories about the coronavirus is "at least 10 to 1."

That ratio, obviously, flips fairly quickly in the aftermath of the game, and Gori does not hesitate to say that "the week following the game was one of the strangest weeks of my life." On Feb. 20 -- the day after the match -- Gori learns of the first reported COVID-19 case in a nearby town. On Feb. 21, 14 more positives are reported in the Lombardy region, including the doctor who was treating one of those initial cases. On Feb. 23, the first two cases in Bergamo are identified.

"Then every day?" Gori says. "More and more."

At first, Gori and other Bergamo officials are unfazed. They continue with discussions about the outdoor watch party for the next Atalanta game.

Then on March 5, Gori checks his email at 11 p.m. and sees a note from a regional public health official whom he does not know: "Mayor I have to explain what's really happening -- you have to realize what's really going on."

Late at night, nearly ready for bed, Gori feels chills as he reads in this email about exponential spread and a possible shortage of PPE and the potential for hospitals to be crippled by overwhelming demand. Within weeks, it all happens, just as predicted. Rising positives. Resource issues. Overflowing hospitals.

By March 24 -- about a month after the game -- nearly 7,000 people in Bergamo have tested positive and more than 1,000 are dead. On March 27, The New York Times publishes a story detailing Bergamo's devastation as, essentially, the first city outside of Asia to be completely enveloped by COVID-19. The headline quotes a local funeral director: "We Take the Dead from Morning Till Night." One local newspaper is overwhelmed by death notices.

The significance of the Atalanta-Valencia game in spreading the coronavirus in Bergamo quickly becomes a divisive point. Fabio, the fan who grew up just a few hundred yards from the stadium, says that early on, some "people from Italy look at us like bad people, like the people that go around and spread the virus." A pulmonologist in Bergamo is quoted in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera describing the Atalanta-Valencia game -- with 40,000 people together in the stands -- as "a biological bomb."

Amidst all the fear and loss, that sort of description gains traction. Some see the match as a symbol for what has gone wrong in Bergamo, if not its primary symptom. The Associated Press publishes an article labeling the Atalanta-Valencia match as "Game Zero." More than a third of Valencia's team and staff turn up with positive tests after returning home, and the second leg is played at an empty stadium.

The science is complicated, and not entirely definitive. According to Dr. Seema Lakdawala, an expert who studies the transmission of viruses at the University of Pittsburgh, there are complex analyses still to be done on aerosol dispersion patterns in an outdoor environment. Fans jumping all over each other at the San Siro, she says, poses a risk of transmission, but in her opinion, on a game night, restaurants and bars like Igor's would be even "more of the disaster scenario," because "every time you talk, breathe [and] shout, you're expelling viruses and aerosols ... [which] are going to stay in the air for longer, especially in poorly ventilated spaces."

Dr. Guido Marinoni, a longtime family doctor in Bergamo and president of the province's medical association, says the buses and trains and subways that Atalanta fans took -- again, indoor, contained spaces -- were likely environments rich for spreading the virus as well. He believes that while the match itself might well have been an "accelerant" in Bergamo's deterioration, it was "not the only mass event that could have influenced the situation."

What is certain is the spread. Twenty percent of the people from Bergamo who attend the match in the San Siro ultimately show symptoms of COVID-19 within a few weeks, according to one study. That includes Fabio. His fever is high but, fortunately, his symptoms do not become dire. As he recovers in isolation, he follows the anguish on his phone.

Every morning, he says, he wakes up and checks a group text with friends from Bergamo. And every morning for 16 straight days, he says, "I was obliged to make condolences to someone" for the death of a parent or in-law or uncle or aunt.

Igor, the restaurant owner, becomes ill, too. His symptoms are more serious. An ambulance comes to his house because he cannot fully inhale. He is taken to a Bergamo hospital, but it is full. He stays there only one night, then is intubated and transferred to a Milan hospital where a bed is available. He is placed in a ward for emergency cases.

"There were constantly sick people coming in," Igor says, "sick people scattered everywhere and the thing that made you ..."

His voice catches right then, his eyes suddenly moist. He feels it happening all over again. He takes a few beats, sniffling, trying to gather himself. Then he describes the anguish of what he saw:

People on stretchers all around him, prone and trembling, reaching their hands up above them, their arms thrashing. They were so desperate, he says, it was as if they were trying to claw the air into their lungs with their own fingers. "They couldn't breathe," Igor says finally. "I saw them basically taking their last breaths. So many people on those stretchers with just white covers on them."

Igor spends one month in the hospital -- two weeks of it in intensive care -- before being released, and he knows he is one of the lucky ones. But that timeframe is just a physical one; the total recovery, of course, stretches much wider and deeper. Even once he can breathe again, Igor has to figure out how to save his restaurant. How to take care of his family and himself. How not to be afraid.

The recovery is work, Igor says, and that is ultimately what Gori, the mayor, points to as his city's salvation. The work. Even amidst an unprecedented crisis, Gori says, Bergamaschi are always able to fall back on the thing they know best. They organize. They volunteer by the thousands. They distribute masks. They deliver groceries and medicines to seniors. They build, within weeks, a makeshift hospital in Bergamo's fairgrounds to help ease the overload.

They work. Through lockdowns and quarantines, through school closings and business restrictions, through spikes and valleys in infection rates, they work. They work to hold their city together.

IN 2010, ATALANTA began a program to send a tiny, replica jersey and two bottles of formula to the family of every single baby born in Bergamo and surrounding areas. The idea behind it was simple: Around here, rooting for Atalanta is nothing less than a birthright.

"The relationship between the city and the soccer team is stronger than any other situation I've seen," says Gori. "It is a total commitment, a total identification."

That is why, Gori says, it is not some politician's bromide for him to point to Atalanta as a "rainbow" for his city during the pandemic, a beacon that both distracts from the awful present and, as he puts it, "suggests a better future."

In August, more than five months after the Valencia game, Atalanta loses to superstar Neymar and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarterfinals in a close game. Some wonder if this will be the end of the fairy tale for Atalanta, but after a (very) short summer break, Atalanta picks up the new season just as it left the old. It wins its first three games. It scores 23 goals in its first eight matches. It pulls off an upset of Liverpool, the English juggernaut, in a Champions League group stage match.

There are no sold-out stadiums, of course, no singing and chanting, but there are still the matches, still the connection. Fabio, who lives in New York now for his work, watches on his computer. Since the broadcasts are much quieter without crowd noise, he can sometimes hear the bells of the church located right near the stadium. That was his church growing up, he says. It reminds him of home.

Igor watches, too, and talks with other restaurant owners about when, finally, the COVID-19 vaccine will be so widespread that he might open Hog's doors again. He has lost nearly 700,000 euros during this crisis, but his faith in Bergamo has never wavered. As the restrictions lift, he says, he is thinking of opening a second location. "It would be nice to have a full bar and eat a lot of Hipster burgers," he says.

One thing you don't hear very often from Bergamaschi is a desire to "get back to normal." There is no such thing. Not here. Not in a place that has lost so much. Nearly 28,000 have died in Lombardy, the region that contains Bergamo. Too much has happened to this city, to these people, for there to be a return -- a resumption -- of anything.

Next week, Atalanta will play in a Champions League knockout round again, facing a Spanish team again. This time it is Real Madrid, one of the titans of Europe. The game will even be in Atalanta's own stadium; enough improvements have been made that the old place is now up to standard.

There will not be a full stadium that night, and even once there is on some future night, it will be impossible for it to feel the same. The love for Atalanta might not waver, but that doesn't mean it can't change.

So, when the stadium finally opens to the public again, of course they will go. Igor, Andrea, Dr. Marinoni -- even Mayor Gori and his son. But it will not be like it was before. There will be holes. Fabio will stand in the Curva Nord again, but when he looks to the side or behind him or down the row, he will not see all the faces he had seen for so many years before. The losses are everywhere. "Diego, Bruno, Evan, Marco," he says. Those are just four of the names he mourns.

"It will be tough," Fabio says of going back to the stadium. "Tough, but also happy. Happy because we need to be happy. Happy because we will be there and we will remember them."

It is the only choice. They will chant, Fabio says. They will shout. They will sing "Viaggiare per l'Italia Seguendo Te," shouting the words out together, however far apart they have to be to make it safe. They will sing as loud as it takes to make up for those who can't sing with them.

Near or distanced, with a mask or without, a Bergamasco's love for Atalanta is unbreakable. The shirt is always wet.

The New York Mets have reached a deal with free-agent starting pitcher Taijuan Walker, a source confirmed to ESPN on Friday.

The right-handed Walker, 28, was 4-3 with a combined 2.70 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings for the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays in 2020.

With the Mets, he will compete to join the back end of a starting rotation that includes Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, Marcus Stroman and David Peterson.

He has a career record of 35-34 with a 3.84 ERA in eight major league seasons. He made just one appearance in 2019 with the Arizona Diamondbacks after recovering from Tommy John surgery, which he had after just three starts in 2018.

Walker's deal with the Mets was first reported by SNY.

The popular Croatian high jump great is ready to start a new chapter after calling time on her successful athletics career

After jumping, and dancing, her way to four world senior titles and multiple major medals, Blanka Vlašić has officially announced her retirement from competitive athletics.

A hugely popular figure both on and off the track, Vlašić’s impressive high jump career included a total of 165 clearances over 2.00m, topped by her 2009 PB of 2.08m which ranks her second on the world all-time list behind only Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova with 2.09m.

Following such success, it was her ambition to become Olympic champion after her silver medal win in Beijing and bronze achieved in Rio which motivated her through a further Olympic cycle, despite her injury struggles.

But confirming her retirement decision on Friday (Feb 19), Vlašić said it had “come naturally”.

“Every athlete will understand me – parting is not easy,” she explained. “We leave behind great emotions, conquered peaks, victories over ourselves, and magnificent moments that cannot be described in words. But it all remains a part of us – a part we carry into the future. And I carry all my successes and failures and I will weave them into a new story.

“I will always stay in the sport. With my experience and knowledge, I want to permanently and actively contribute to the further development of world athletics and sports in general.”

The 37-year-old has already given the sport so much. Her high jump journey began when Vlašić was at primary school, when she won her debut competition, and that set the tone for the success which was to follow.

She was coached by her father Joško – who remains the Croatian decathlon record-holder thanks to his 1983 Mediterranean Games performance in Casablanca, from which Blanka was named when she was born a couple of months later – and Bojan Marinović, whom she started working with as a teenager.

Her first major title was achieved in Santiago in 2000 – the year in which she also qualified for her first Olympics aged just 16 – when she won world under-20 gold and she retained the title two years later in Kingston with a 1.96m clearance. She then won the European Under-23 Championships in 2003 before world indoor bronze in 2004, silver in 2008 and double gold in 2008 and 2010. Outdoors Vlašić gained her two world gold medals in 2007 and 2009, with silver secured in both 2011 and 2015.

“Ever since Rio, I have been trying to overcome injury, a full four years of hope that I will stand in front of the bar and challenge myself once again,” said the former AW cover star. “I have been breathing sports since I was born, the high jump is an integral part of me, and it will always be that way. So, I let the decision to end my career come naturally.

“Before I won bronze in Rio many people told me to give up as I have already done a lot in the sport. But if I had listened to them, I would not have won another Olympic medal, a medal that has a special meaning to me because I won it literally with one healthy leg. That competition took everything out of me, even what I didn’t know I had.”

She added: “I am proud of my career. First of all, I am grateful to God for the blessing of talent and the circumstances in which that talent could flourish. To friends and fans who believed and jumped along with me. Although athletics is an individual sport, I always felt like part of a team because I didn’t jump just for myself. Running the victory lap with the Croatian flag has always been the greatest honour for me. With peace in my heart, gratitude for every inch and every applause, I turn to the next page in my life.”

READ MORE | Blanka Vlasic: “I feel that I was born to do high jump”

Speaking with AW’s Stuart Weir in 2016, during her last year of competition, Vlašić explained how she felt she was born to do the high jump and on her victory celebrations, she added: “Every competition is a challenge. When I am dancing you know that competition is going well. And when things are going well, it is easy to dance.

“Not every jump is a good one so I don’t dance after every jump. But every jump is a challenge and I try to do my best. I feel that I was born to do high jump. That is why there is no place I would rather be than in the field.”

Manchester City have not opened transfer talks with Lionel Messi and will wait for him to decide his Barcelona future before considering formal negotiations, sources have told ESPN.

City chiefs have been angered by reports the club have already tabled an offer to Messi ahead of a possible free transfer move to the Etihad Stadium in the summer.

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Messi, who has won the Ballon d'Or six times, is free to leave Camp Nou at the end of the season as his contract expires and City, as well as Paris Saint-Germain, are among the clubs interested.

Messi has been free to talk to clubs outside Spain since January but sources have told ESPN he has not yet made a decision on where he will play next season and his representatives have not held talks over potential moves.

Sources have told ESPN that City will wait to see what Messi decides before making any potential move at the end of the season.

It is the same stance they employed in the summer when the 33-year-old looked set to leave after submitting a transfer request, before agreeing to stay with the Spanish giants for another year. City insist no offer was made in the summer before his decision was announced.

Barcelona, meanwhile, have seen their finances hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic while there is continued uncertainty at Camp Nou because of the ongoing presidential elections. A new president is set to be elected on March 7 following the resignation of Josep Maria Bartomeu in October.

Barcelona's financial problems, plus a potential early exit from the Champions League following a heavy 4-1 defeat to PSG on Tuesday, have fuelled speculation that Messi is set to end his association with the club in the summer.

Joan Laporta, Victor Font and Toni Freixa are the three candidates in the running to replace Bartomeu, with each saying publicly they want to keep Messi and ensure he ends his career at Barcelona, where he has scored 654 goals in 760 games.

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid could end up paying Barca €11 million for Luis Suarez, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

Suarez, 34, joined Atletico last September in a deal reported at the time to be worth just a few million in performance-related add-ons.

However, La Liga leaders Atletico actually agreed to an initial fee of €5m for the striker, who is the top scorer in the Spanish league this season with 16 goals, and a further €6m in variables.

Atletico have already paid €2m of those variables because Suarez has made 20 appearances and they will have to pay €2m more if they reach the Champions League quarterfinals by beating Chelsea. The final add-on, also worth €2m, is related to performances next season.

The Rojiblancos did not have to pay the initial €5m out of their own pocket, though. The money was knocked off a debt Barca have with them relating to the signing of Antoine Griezmann in 2019.

Barca paid Griezmann's €120m buyout clause but also paid an additional €15m -- officially as a first option on several Atletico players -- when Atletico threatened to take them to court in search of €80m more because talks with the French striker began while his clause was still €200m.

That €15m is being paid in instalments, but €5m was knocked off when Suarez made the move to the Wanda Metropolitano.

Barca are also topping up Suarez's salary until the end of the season, when his contract would have expired at Camp Nou. He earned around €20m annually with Barca, but Atletico are paying less, so the Catalan club are making up the difference.

Information from ESPN's Barcelona correspondents Moises Llorens and Sam Marsden was used in this report

Bangladesh have left out left-arm spinner Taijul Islam from their 20-man contingent for the white-ball tour of New Zealand, where they play three ODIs and three T20Is. Uncapped left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed got his maiden call-up, while opener Mohammad Naim, middle-order batsman Mosaddek Hossain and seamer Al-Amin Hossain returned to the side.

Apart from Taijul, the only other absentee from the squad that beat West Indies 3-0 in Bangladesh's previous ODI series was Shakib Al Hasan, who was granted paternity leave by the BCB. The break will also give him a chance to recover from the thigh injury he suffered during the first Test against West Indies in Chattogram.

On Thursday, some of the New Zealand-bound squad members, including Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mohammad Naim and Taskin Ahmed, and support staffers were administered Covid-19 vaccines in Dhaka. The remaining members are expected to be inoculated by Sunday.

The team will depart for New Zealand on February 23.

Squad: Tamim Iqbal (capt), Mosaddek Hossain, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Liton Das, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Naim Sheikh, Taskin Ahmed, Al Amin Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rubel Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed

More to follow

Former Sri Lanka seamer Chaminda Vaas has been appointed as the national team's fast bowling coach for their upcoming tour to the West Indies. He replaces Australian David Sekar, who resigned as the fast bowling coach on Thursday for personal reasons.

Vaas has previously coached the Sri Lankan team on three occasions, in 2013, 2015, and temporarily in 2017.

Vaas, Sri Lanka's most successful fast bowler with 355 Test wickets 400 ODI wickets, has been part of SLC's development program and holds the post of fast bowling coach at their high-performance centre, where he works with emerging and national team players. He has also previously held coaching roles with Ireland and New Zealand.

Sri Lanka's West Indies tour begins in under two weeks, with a three-match T20I series starting on March 4, followed by three ODIs and two Tests.

More to follow

The IPL is mulling the possibility of conducting the entire league stage of the 2021 season in Mumbai before moving to Ahmedabad for the knockouts. This is according to Parth Jindal, co-owner of the Delhi Capitals, during a chat with ESPNcricinfo soon after Thursday's auction in Chennai.

"From what I'm hearing and seeing, if England can come and tour, if the ISL (Indian Super League) can happen all in Goa, if Vijay Hazare Trophy (domestic 50-over competition) and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20 competition) can happen across venues, I can't fathom the IPL moving out of India," Jindal said. "I do believe the IPL will happen in India.

"I believe they're contemplating whether to have the league phase at one venue (city) and playoffs at another venue. There's a lot of chatter about Mumbai being possibly being one venue because it has three grounds (Wankhede Stadium, Brabourne Stadium, DY Patil Stadium) and enough practice facilities, and Motera (Ahmedabad) hosting the knockouts, but it's all unverified, it's all just what I am hearing."

Jindal further stated having the league phase in Mumbai, for example, could be advantageous to the Capitals, who have a number of players from the city in their mix. Although the possibility of playing in Mumbai could be slim given Maharashtra's recent spike in Covid-19 cases which has prompted a new round of lockdowns.

"If you look at our selection of Steven Smith, we felt the wickets in Mumbai will suit his style of batting."

"The fact that we have so many Mumbai boys - Prithvi [Shaw], Jinks [Ajinkya Rahane], Shreyas [Iyer] helps. Mumbai has true bounce, the ball moves a bit because it's not he coast, and all that played a role. The other option is being mulled right now is, why not open up all venues, go everywhere and show the world we're ready for the T20 World Cup? They [BCCI[] are still unsure, I think it all depends on how the covid situation plays out in India over the next two weeks."

A few other key personnel from other franchises offered a straight bat. VVS Laxman, mentor of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, said "things were still uncertain regarding venues", while Venky Mysore, chief executive of Kolkata Knight Riders, echoed Laxman. Anil Kumble, head coach of Punjab Kings, meanwhile, said they'd picked a composition of their squad keeping "all options" and conditions in mind.

"We're extremely delighted with what we could manage," Kumble said. "We had the largest purse which meant people would chase us and keep upping the price, but the squad looks like what we wanted. We have all bases covered. If the tournament's going to be in India, we have all options covered. If in case it moves out, we wanted to cover those options as well [at the auction]."

Mysore, meanwhile, said: "Every team you can see has gone for that balance to adapt to whatever conditions we're given. These are unusual times and we're all very supportive of the BCCI. That the IPL was held itself was fantastic given the pandemic. If it happens in India, we're supportive of working through that and if it's elsewhere too. Most important the collective effort towards the tournament happening and in the most unimpeded way."

The ongoing England series is BCCI's first full International series at home since the pandemic broke out in February last year. After hosting the first Test in Chennai behind closed doors, they opened up the venue for the remainder of the series with crowds up to 50% of the stadium's capacity, despite the Indian government allowing outdoor sports events to have capacity crowds. England are scheduled to play five T20Is in Ahmedabad followed by three ODIs in Pune to wind off the tour on March 28.

"This year is going to be big as well because of what it is," BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said earlier in the week, without divulging further details on the venue. However, over the past few months, he has been vocal about prioritising hosting the tournament in its entirety in India. "We'll see whether we can get the crowd back into the IPL, it's a decision we'll have to take very shortly. But it's going to be another great tournament."

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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Daniil Medvedev simply does not lose right now. Not to top-10 opponents. Not to anyone, really. Certainly not to a drained Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Australian Open semifinals.

Now let's see what happens against Novak Djokovic in Rod Laver Arena.

Medvedev made it to his second Grand Slam final as he pursues his first major championship, overwhelming fifth-seeded Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 on Friday at Melbourne Park to run his winning streak to 20 matches. That includes a dozen victories against members of the top 10.

Asked in an on-court TV interview to explain his success of late, Medvedev replied: "To be honest, I don't have an answer. I was just working hard for it all my life."

Tsitsipas came out flat, looking drained after his epic five-set, four-hour comeback victory over Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.

In Sunday's final (7:30 p.m. local time, 3:30 a.m. ET), the No. 4-seeded Medvedev will take on No. 1 Djokovic, who already owns eight Australian Open titles among his 17 Grand Slam trophies as he tries to gain on the men's record of 20 shared by Nadal and Roger Federer.

Djokovic, who won his semifinal against 114th-ranked qualifier Aslan Karatsev on Thursday, is a combined 17-0 in semifinals and finals at Melbourne Park.

"First of all, I like that I don't have a lot of pressure, because he never lost in eight times that he was here in the final. So it's him that has all the pressure, getting [closer] to Roger or Rafa in the Grand Slams," Medvedev said about Djokovic. "So I just hope that I'm going to get out here, show my best tennis. As we see, I can win some big names if I play good. That's the main part. He has, for sure, more experience, but more things to lose than me."

Medvedev was the runner-up to Nadal at the 2019 US Open.

"It's experience. It was my first Grand Slam final against one of the greatest," said Medvedev, a 25-year-old from Russia. "Sunday, I'm going to come against one of the other greatest."

He was terrific against Tsitsipas, a 22-year-old from Greece, getting broken just once and accruing 17 aces among his total 46 winners.

The latter count included a sliding backhand pass down the line to break in the next-to-last game, a shot Medvedev celebrated by raising both arms and waving his hands in a gesture that told the world, "Check me out!"

It took just 75 minutes for Medvedev to grab a two-set lead. He went up 3-1 in the third before Tsitsipas made things interesting, if only briefly, by taking three games in a row, including his only break of the match.

But Medvedev, his baseline defense exquisite, proved too tough.

"He's a player who has unlocked pretty much everything in the game," Tsitsipas said.

Down a set and a break in the second, Tsitsipas sat down at a changeover and chucked an open water bottle, causing a splash on the court that forced ball kids to scramble for towels to wipe up the mess. The petulant scene drew a side-eye from Medvedev.

Early in the third set, Medvedev told chair umpire James Keothavong that Tsitsipas' father, who also coaches him, "is talking way too much" from the stands.

Tsitsipas and Medvedev already have a bit of an uncomfortable history, dating to their first meeting on tour at the 2018 Miami Open. Medvedev won that one -- he started their rivalry with a 5-0 edge, although Tsitsipas claimed the most recent matchup before Friday's -- and it ended with some verbal volleying.

They tried to smooth things over through the media in recent days, including Tsitsipas backtracking from denigrating Medvedev's style of play.

"Might have said in the past that he plays boring, but I don't really think he plays boring," Tsitsipas said this week. "He just plays extremely smart and outplays you."

A pretty good summation of what happened in the semifinal.

Melbourne has a sizable Greek population, and Tsitsipas got a much warmer greeting, replete with flapping blue-and-white flags, when he arrived at the court; Medvedev actually heard some jeers.

Attendance at the stadium was capped at 50% capacity -- about 7,500 -- when fans were allowed to return to the tournament after being barred for five days during a local lockdown due to a rise in COVID-19 cases.

As much as the crowd tried to boost Tsitsipas, he never really got going until that late push that ultimately led nowhere.

"I've proven that I have the level to beat these players. It's not that I haven't," said Tsitsipas, who fell to 0-3 in Grand Slam semifinals, with the other defeats coming against Nadal and Djokovic. "Let's hope for something better next time. I really hope it comes."

Daniil Medvedev has another opportunity to land a first Grand Slam title after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the Australian Open final.

Fourth seed Medvedev, 25, will contest his second major final when he meets Novak Djokovic on Sunday (08:30 GMT).

After losing in the 2019 US Open final, Medvedev aims again to become Russia's first male major champion since 2005.

In his way stands top seed Djokovic, who is bidding for a record-extending ninth men's title at Melbourne Park.

Medvedev has won three of their past four meetings but facing the 33-year-old Serb in an Australian Open final - in which he has a 100% winning record - should be a different proposition.

On what he has learned from losing to Rafael Nadal in New York, Medvedev said: "I took a lot of experience. It was my first Grand Slam final against one of the greatest and on Sunday I will face one of the other greatest.

"I don't have a lot of pressure because Novak has never lost here in the final. He has all the pressure to get to Roger Federer and Rafa [in the all-time record of 20 men's titles].

"I hope I will get out there and show my best tennis. As we have seen, I can win against the best names if I play well. He has more experience but more things to lose than me."

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