Serie A

Sunday's Serie A match between Fiorentina and Inter Milan was abandoned after Fiorentina midfielder Edoardo Bove collapsed on the pitch.

The Athletic's James Horncastle reported Bove was tying his shoes during a stoppage in play in the first half when he fell to the turf. First responders tended to the 22-year-old before he was placed onto a stretcher and transported to a local hospital. Fiorentina announced Monday that Bove "is currently awake, alert and oriented."

Horncastle noted that players from both clubs "appeared shaken and some were in tears."

Match referee Daniele Doveri initially had the players go to the dressing room during Bove's medical emergency. Officials decided to reschedule the match for a later date rather than continuing on.

Sunday's fixture carried a lot of intrigue with Inter and Fiorentina sitting third and fourth respectively in Serie A with 28 points. Napoli has a four-point lead in first place after beating Torino 1-0 in Matchday 14.

Bove is in his first season with Fiorentina. He came up though the ranks at AS Roma and made 92 appearances across all competitions for the Giallorossi.

Fiorentina signed Bove to a season-long loan in August and the deal allows for the Viola to make the transfer permanent.

Musician Drake reportedly helped to raise €40 million ($43.7 millIon) to help save Italian soccer club Venezia from bankruptcy.

"I got a call from Brad Katsuyama, co-owner of Venezia and a good friend of mine. He explained the problem to me in a simple way: Venezia has to raise €10 million in a couple of weeks, and then at least €30 million in a few months, or the club will go bankrupt," Drake's chief brand officer and a part of his management team, Matte Babel, told the Italian edition of GQ (h/t Francesco Porzio of CBS Sports). "Venezia is an incredible city, and Venezia has always been a special club. I spoke to Drake, then Brad, and I discussed the details of how we could help. Within two weeks, we had a deal, and raised the money needed to pay salaries and avoid bankruptcy."

GQ Italia noted that a number of North American investors joined the efforts and Venezia's ownership group created an Operating Committee to "oversee the strategic direction of the club," (h/t Michael Saponara of Billboard).

In addition, the Italian club made a sponsorship deal with Drake's NOCTA line at Nike.

Venezia, which is based in the Italian city of Venice, has been an operating club since 1907. It has spent 38 seasons in Serie B and 13 seasons in Serie A, and was promoted to Italy's top flight this past season. The club's best finish came in the 1941-42 campaign, when it finished third in Serie A.

Drake is no stranger to the world of sports and sports betting, often popping up courtside at Toronto Raptors games.

"Matte was my first call when I knew the club needed help," Katsuyama told GQ. "Drake's value to any football club is undeniable, given his scale as a global superstar and the reach of his brand. This intersection of culture and sport is exactly where we want to be, and the chance to collaborate with a brand like NOCTA, who is moving along the same lines, is incredibly valuable."

Serie A club Juventus must pay Cristiano Ronaldo $9.7 million euros, worth approximately $10.4 million, after losing a legal battle regarding wages deferred during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Jordi Archs of Mundo Deportivo and James Cohen of the Daily Mail.

The club will have to pay that sum plus interest, according to Gazetta's Marco Guidi.

The dispute involved 19.8 million euros, worth more than $21 million, that Ronaldo agreed to defer during the pandemic, according to Archs.

The Italian police seized a document in which Juventus agreed to pay Ronaldo that amount.

Juventus argued the document was no longer valid, as Ronaldo pursued the matter only after he left the club in 2021, according to Raimondo de Magistris of TuttoSport.

An Italian arbitration tribunal ruled Ronaldo partially responsible and mandated Juventus to pay back just half of the salary promised, according to Guidi and Cohen.

Juventus will have to pay the money out of the club's current budget because the team did not set aside funds in case of losing, Archs noted.

The case involving in Ronaldo is the latest legal battle the club has had to face regarding the way they handled salaries and internal accounting during the pandemic.

Last year Juventus agreed to pay a fine worth more than $750,000 in 2023 as part of a plea bargain for lying to players about receiving deferred salaries after the pandemic.

Ronaldo scored 101 times in 134 appearances through three seasons with Juventus.

The Portuguese star, who became the first active athlete in a team sport to reach $1 billion in career earnings in 2020 according to Forbes, currently plays for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.

Serie A club Lecce sacked manager Roberto D'Aversa one day after a 1-0 loss to Hellas Verona, a match that saw D'Aversa head-butt Verona striker Thomas Henry after full time.

"After the events that took place at the end of the Lecce-Verona match, U.S. Lecce announces that it has relieved coach Roberto D'Aversa of his duties," Lecce said in a statement on Monday (via Reuters).

Upon the conclusion of Sunday's fixture, D'Aversa confronted Henry on the pitch and head-butted the French forward.

Lecce said in the immediate aftermath it "firmly condemn the gesture of its coach, as it is against the principles and values of this sport," per Reuters. In an interview with Sky Sport Italy (via Reuters), D'Aversa apologized but said he felt Verona players had intentionally provocated members of his squad toward the end of the match.

The head-butt precipitated his dismissal, but the managerial change may have been inevitable amid a prolonged slide.

Lecce opened with three wins through its first five Serie A matches, raising early hopes of an unexpectedly strong campaign. But the Giallorossi are 15th in the Serie A table after having registered one win in their last 12 matches.

Only one point separates Lecce from 18th-place Frosinone in the relegation zone. Sunday's defeat could be particularly costly with Verona now one point ahead in 13th.

Sunday's Serie A battle between Lecce and Hellas Verona featured an incident after the final whistle sounded at Stadio Via del mare, as Lecce coach Roberto D'Aversa seemingly head-butted Hellas Verona striker Thomas Henry (via ESPN).

"I was wrong and I apologize," D'Aversa later said in an Instagram post. "I got carried away and lost lucidness, but not to the point of hitting another person ... Once again I apologize to Henry, to the Lecce, Verona and Italian fans, to the referees, to the two clubs, to my management, my staff and my team."

Although he apologized, the coach did not agree with the head-butt description and said that he came in "face to face" contact with Henry instead.

In a heated game between two clubs that are looking to avoid relegation, Hellas Verona emerged with a 1-0 victory. The end of the match didn't stop the feuding between both teams, as Henry and Lecce defender Marin Pongracic were in the middle of a heated argument before D'Aversa knocked Henry over.

"Next Saturday we have another big match [against Salernitana] and I didn't want my players to be banned," explained D'Aversa, who revealed that he also apologized to Verona's management. "So I went out to try and separate them from the opponents and then the incident with Henry happened."

Hellas Verona moved to No. 13 in Serie A with 26 points. Meanwhile, Lecce currently holds the No. 15 spot with the club just one point away from a bottom-three finish and subsequent relegation.

Saturday's Serie A match between AC Milan and Udinese was briefly brought to a stop after Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan was the target of racist chanting from supporters inside Stadio Friuli, according to ESPN.

In the 33rd minute, Maignan began to walk off the pitch:

His teammates walked toward the touchline as well with the match becoming of secondary concern.

The club supported Maignan on X, formerly known as Twitter:

The match eventually resumed, with Lazar Samardžić delivering an equalizer for Udinese in the 42nd minute. Florian Thauvin gave the home side a 2-1 lead before Luka Jović and Noah Okafor turned the tide for Milan deep into the second half.

Racism remains a problem in world football writ large and Italy isn't exempt.

Last April, Juventus received a partial stadium ban that was subsequently overturned after then-Inter Milan star Romelu Lukaku received racial abuse. Italian police did, however identify 171 Juve supporters who warranted individual stadium bans for their roles in the racist chanting.

Serie A chief executive Luigi de Siervo said in May the league intended to take a "zero tolerance" policy toward the issue.

"Today with technology and stadium microphones they can be heard and we can punish them," he said. "It's a battle — like a tumor, you have to systematically remove it even if it has recurrences."

Victor Osimhen recently helped lead Napoli to its first Serie A title since 1990, but he's now facing a potential legal battle with the club.

Per Sky Sports, Osimhen's agent said his client is reserving "the right to take legal action" against Napoli following the release of a now-deleted TikTok video by the club that seemingly mocked the star striker.

The TikTok video featured a clip of Osimhen's missed penalty kick from Napoli's match against Bologna on Sunday "with an odd, sped-up voice dubbed over the top," per Sky Sports. The timing of the post was particularly interesting, considering Osimhen had a tense exchange with manager Rudi Garcia when he was substituted off with four minutes left in Sunday's match, which ended in a scoreless draw.

Osimhen's agent, Roberto Calenda, wrote in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter:

"What happened today on Napoli's official profile on the TikTok platform is not acceptable. A video mocking Victor was first made public and then, but now belatedly, deleted. A serious fact that causes very serious damage to the player and adds to the treatment that the boy is suffering in the last period between media trials and fake news. We reserve the right to take legal action and any useful initiative to protect Victor."

Osimhen reportedly "expects an apology from the Italian champions with the player and his management wanting the club to firmly distance themselves from the social media post," per Sky Sports.

In addition to a potential legal situation, CBS Sports' Francesco Porzio noted that club owner Aurelio De Laurentiis and Napoli "were investigated for false accounting regarding the deal that brought Osimhen to Napoli in 2020" on Tuesday "over allegations that the transfer fees that included multiple players in the deal were artificially inflated to boost capital gains."

The 24-year-old Nigerian scored 31 goals across all competitions for Napoli this season. His contract is set to expire in the summer of 2025, and he has not signed a new deal after reportedly garnering interest from Manchester United and Chelsea this year.

Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for testosterone following a 3-0 win over Udinese on Aug. 20, according to Fabrizio Romano.

ANSA previously reported the failed doping test.

Pogba, 30, could now be facing a multiple-year ban from the sport if he's indeed found guilty of doping.

Pogba has made two appearances for Juventus but no starts this season after making just one start in the 2022-23 campaign. Injuries largely kept him off the pitch both for Juventus and France, which included him missing the World Cup in Qatar.

He also was allegedly the victim of a €13 million ($13.9 million) extortion plot from his brother Mathias and friends from his childhood.

"Money changes people. ... It can break up a family," he told Al Jazeera's Generation Sport (h/t ESPN). "It can create a war. Sometimes I was just by myself thinking, 'I don't want to have money anymore. I just don't want to play anymore. I just want to be with normal people, so they will love me for me—not for the fame, not for the money.' Sometimes it's tough."

Pogba has starred for Manchester United, Juventus and the French national team, most prominently winning the World Cup in 2018 and four titles with Juventus.

But his second spell at Juventus has largely been a struggle, and Pogba was hoping to prove he was still one of the game's biggest talents.

"I want to make them eat their words," he said of his critics. "... I want to show them I'm not weak. They can talk bad about me. I will never give up."

"Football is very beautiful, but is cruel. People can forget you in one day. You can do something great, but the next day you are nobody," he continued. "People are waiting for you, saying: 'He's done, his career is finished.' You get these comments after scoring goals, and winning the World Cup. People forget it. So you have to prove all the time."

Now, however, it's unclear if Pogba will ever feature in a Juventus shirt—or any other kit, for that matter—again.

Longtime superstar and AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimović announced his retirement from football on Sunday.

Ibrahimović played for Malmö FF, Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, two stints with AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and LA Galaxy during his 22-year career.

Ibrahimović addressed the San Siro crowed after the club's final match (h/t Francesco Porzio):

"I can't breathe but it's okay, so many memories and so many memories inside this stadium. The first time I came here you gave me love, then happiness. I want to thank my family for their patience. I want to thank my second family, my teammates. I thank the coach, the staff, the managers. Lastly, but with my heart, I want to thank you fans. It's time to say goodbye to football, but not to you," the player said.

Ibrahimović, 41, has scored 561 career goals between club and and the Swedish national team, 14th in the history of the sport. He is also Sweden's all-time leading goalscorer with 62 tallies.

He was one of his generation's most clinical finishers and one of the sport's most colorful characters.

The footballing world paid its respects to the unique superstar after his announcement on Sunday:

The news doesn't come as a major shock. Ibrahimović only played four matches this past season for AC Milan due to injuries, and the club announced it wouldn't be renewing his contract.

"AC Milan will bid farewell to Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a brief ceremony involving all the crowd," a club spokesperson said on Saturday. "AC Milan would like to thank Zlatan for the magnificent years we spent together."

But Ibrahimović helped AC Milan win its first title since the 2010-11 season last year, marking his second title with the club. He was also a three-time leading goalscorer for the club.

While he never won a Champions League title, he earned 14 domestic league titles with Ajax, Juventus (both were since revoked), Inter Milan, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan.