Soccer: Five days to go!

Five days to go until the winter transfer window closes and the market is going crazy. Frenzied deals involving Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Ajax, Inter, Benfica, Barcelona, PSG, Liverpool, Manchester United, City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Sunderland and many, many more clubs make for an exciting rest of the season.

Real Madrid look to build on the gain made yesterday, signing Emmanuel Adebayor from Manchester City to bolster the attack and are now going to City's arch-rivals United, the target being defender Patrice Evra. Manchester United continues the quest for a goalkeeper as Edwin Van der Sar comes up for retirement. Initial interest in Atlético Madrid's David de Gea seems not to be bearing fruit because the twenty-year-old player wants to stay at Vicente Calderón.

English Premier League clubs continue to eye up Benfica's players. David Luiz is still very much on the shopping list of Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea FC which is willing to offer the midfield player's  Nemanja Matic as part of the deal. Bolton Wanderers are interested in Benfica forward player Rodrigo Moreno and are said to have offered the Lisbon club five million pounds.

Blackburn Rovers are hoping to land two players, Ruben Rochina from Barcelona and Ronieli dos Santos from Brazil's São Paulo, both strikers.

Ajax insists that Liverpool ups its bid of 12.7 million pounds for Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, 24 - the Dutch club has slapped a price tag of 30 million. Liverpool owner Fenway Sports Group has indicated that 20 million would be the top bid. The Uruguayan striker wants to join Liverpool and is set to meet Ajax General Director Rik van der Boog to see if Ajax can lower the tag.

North-East club Sunderland is interested in midfield players Sulley Muntari from Inter Milan and Stephane Sessegnon from Paris Saint Germain, a club which is also attracting the interest of Arsenal FC, over its central defender, Mamadou Sakho.

Photo: Benfica's David Luiz

Aleksei Federov

Pravda.Ru