S. America Stars During Int'l Weekend

Posted on 9/3/2010

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FIFA International dates this weekend means the top leagues in Europe such as GOL TV Canada's La Liga and Bundesliga are at a standstill. But GOL still has live club football from South America. More on that a little later. First, plenty of news came out of Europe this week with the closing of the UEFA transfer window.

The biggest signing on deadline day came from Sunderland, of all places. The English Premier League team inked Ghana international Asamoah Gyan from French outfit Rennes for approximately $21 million (cdn). 

Asamoah Gyan's World Cup ended in tears burdened by the weight of African expectations on his Ghanaian shoulders. He is looking forward to better days with Sunderland in the English Premier League. (Getty

One piece of transfer news that will be of concern to many GOL viewers came from Spain's La Liga. It marked the end of Rafael van der Vaart’s sorry saga at Real Madrid. Like Gyan, the Dutch forward made the move to the EPL. He will suit up in north London for Tottenham. The Spurs paid $12 million (cdn) for his services.

Another GOL TV staple, the German Bundesliga, will see Klaas-Jan Huntelaar join the squad at Schalke. The Dutch teammate to van der Vaart also had an ill-fated stopover at the Bernabeu before being shipped off to Milan. An $18 million (cdn) transfer was forced on Huntelaar when Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived from Barcelona a few days before deadline day.

The Gyan move intrigues me most because after his World Cup performance, I had hoped that the Ghanaian star should leave France to join a top seven EPL side where he could get regular playing time. While Sunderland isn't quite that big, this signing should solidify Sunderland's place in the top 10 this season after finishing 13th in the 2009/10 EPL campaign.

The 24-year old has been heralded as a "top-class striker" by welcoming Sunderland manager Steve Bruce. This was a club record signing for Bruce and he called it "a great piece of business," before continuing that Gyan "works extremely hard … and will complement Darren (Bent) up front" for the Black Cats.

Bent scored 24 goals last season.

Despite most of these stars taking part in international matches for their countries this weekend, GOL TV Canada is not without live club football. On Saturday El Tanque Sisley plays Nacional in a Montevideo derby at 2:25 p.m. in the Primera Division from Uruguay. That will be followed by Corinthians v. Goias from Brazil at 5:25 p.m.

On Sunday, more Brazilian club football with Flamengo v. Santos at 2:55 p.m., just before Atletico Mineiro v. Sao Paulo at 5:25 p.m.

For our full September 3-9 schedule, including the upcoming weekend, click here.