New AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca met with skepticism and doubts over the transfer market

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New AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca met with skepticism and doubts over the transfer market

2024-07-08 18:35 Last Updated At：18:40

MILAN (AP) — New AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca was met with skepticism and doubts upon his arrival at the club on Monday.

Fans are upset that Bologna revelation Joshua Zirkzee has apparently chosen Manchester United over Milan and that the seven-time European champion still doesn’t have a replacement for the departed Olivier Giroud at center forward.

Milan has not made a single signing during the opening days of the transfer window — despite finishing 19 points behind Serie A champion Inter Milan last season.

“We all know that we need a center forward. We’re working together to bring in the right striker with the right attributes,” Fonseca said at his presentation after signing a three-year contract last month to replace Stefano Pioli. “If we want to play in the final third of the pitch, we need a player who can dominate in the final third.”

Added Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the new face of Milan’s management as a special advisor under American ownership: “We have someone in mind we’re aiming to sign. I’m not going to give names but there is someone we’re targeting.”

Giroud left after his contract expired and Alvaro Morata and Romelu Lukaku have been mentioned as possible replacements. Francesco Camarda, the 16-year-old considered among Italy’s best young strikers, has been slated to start the season with Milan Futuro, the Rossoneri’s new Serie C side.

“There's a Portuguese expression that says, ‘Hurrying and rushing is the enemy of perfection,’" Fonseca said. "We know what we want and we’ll do it when the time comes.”

Another issue for Milan’s market is that Pioli’s expected move to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia appears to have fallen through, leaving Milan still to pay the former coach and his staff an estimated 10 million euros ($11 million) in salaries.

The gap to crosstown rival Inter has been evident with six straight derby losses for Milan. The first derby of next season comes in September. Napoli, the 2023 champion, is also expected to produce a renewed challenge under new coach Antonio Conte.

“We’ll fight in every match and that will be no different against Inter,” Fonseca said. “We can’t fear anyone.”

Fonseca has experience in Italy, having coached Roma from 2019-21. The Portuguese manager’s most recent job was at Lille. He also gained attention for his performance at Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk from 2016-19.

“I’m well aware that this is a huge responsibility but it’a also a huge source of pride for me,” Fonseca said. “Milan is a global brand.”

During his first day at Milan’s training ground, Milanello, Ibrahimovic showed Fonseca the club’s packed trophy room.

“I want to be part of the club’s history,” Fonseca said.

Fonseca, who is married to a Ukrainian, wore a pin featuring Ukraine’s flag on his suit lapel.

“That’s a personal matter. I think we have the responsibility to not forget what’s going on in Ukraine,” Fonseca said, referring to the ongoing war with Russia.

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A strike on a mosque kills 19 as Israel bombards northern Gaza and southern Beirut

2024-10-06 18:23 Last Updated At：18:31

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in a widening war with Iran-allied militant groups across the region.

Displaced people were sheltering at the mosque that was struck near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. A further four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.

The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men.

Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza a year after the group's attack on Israel, and has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began. Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week.

The widening conflict risks drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as U.S.-allied Arab countries that host American forces. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have already joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. It circulated photos and video footage showing a column of tanks heading toward the area.

Israeli forces encircled Jabaliya as warplanes struck militant sites inside, the military said. Over the course of the war, Israel has carried out several large operations there, only to see militants regroup.

Israel reiterated its call, from the opening weeks of the war, for the complete evacuation of northern Gaza. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million fleeing to the south.

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.”

Palestinian residents reported heavy Israeli strikes across northern Gaza. The Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government — said several homes and buildings had been hit and they were not able to reach them because of the bombardment.

Residents posted about the airstrikes and mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid said in a Facebook post that an airstrike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen family members, including his parents. Saeed Abu Elaish, a Health Ministry medic, said he was wounded and bleeding.

“Pray for us,” he wrote on Facebook.

Local journalists said one of their colleagues, Hassan Hamd, was killed in artillery shelling on his home in Jabaliya. He had worked as a freelance TV reporter and his footage had aired on Al Jazeera and other networks. Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera reporter in northern Gaza, confirmed his death.

Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said it has expanded the so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, urging people to head there. Hundreds of thousands of people have already sought refuge in sprawling tent camps there with little in the way of food, water or toilets. Israel has carried out strikes in the humanitarian zone against what it says are militants hiding among civilians.

The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is nearing 42,000, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

In Beirut, airstrikes lit up the skyline and loud explosions echoed across the southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, throughout the night, as Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah militants sites. The strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.

Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with some intercepted.

Hezbollah said it successfully targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “with a large rocket salvo, hitting them accurately.” It was not possible to confirm the claim.

At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group away from its border so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return to their homes.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians. Hezbollah and Israel’s military have traded fire almost daily.

Last week, Israel launched what it said was a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in ground clashes that Israel says have killed 440 Hezbollah fighters.

It is not possible to verify battlefield reports from either side.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel — a demand that prompted an angry response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a written statement, Macron’s office said he favors a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza because a cease-fire is needed “to stop the mounting violence, free the hostages, protect civilians and clear the way to the political solutions needed for the security of Israel and the whole Middle East.”

Macron's earlier similar remarks led Netanyahu to release a video statement in which he called out the French president by name and referred to such calls as a “disgrace.”

Macron's office insisted that “France is Israel’s unfailing friend” and called Netanyahu's remarks “excessive and irrelevant to the friendship between France and Israel.”

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war