Barcelona buy young Japanese Abe for €1m
BARCELONA • Barcelona announced on Monday they had completed the signing of young Japan winger Hiroki Abe from Kashima Antlers of the J-League.
The Catalan football club said they paid €1.1 million (S$1.68 million) for the 20-year-old, the J-League's Young Player of the Year in 2018, and assigned him to their reserve team.
With the new signing, Barca also matched rivals Real Madrid, who last month signed teenager Takefusa Kubo, 18, nicknamed the "Japanese Messi", from FC Tokyo.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
No trade so Cavs let Smith go to free space
LOS ANGELES • The Cleveland Cavaliers waived guard J.R. Smith on Monday, gaining salary cap space after failing to trade the National Basketball Association veteran.
The Cavs released Smith before his US$15.6 million (S$21.2 million) contract for next season became guaranteed, bringing down the curtain on his tenure in Cleveland. Smith, 33, played just 11 games last season.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Fairfax fails in appeal, to pay $286k to Gayle
SYDNEY • Australian media group Fairfax yesterday lost an appeal against a defamation payout of A$300,000 (S$286,400) to West Indies cricket star Chris Gayle after claiming he exposed his genitals to a masseuse during the 2015 World Cup in Sydney.
Gayle vigorously denied the allegations, claiming the journalists behind the series of stories published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers in 2016 were out to "destroy him". He won the defamation case in October last year.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
