ITALY: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: French player Patrick Vieira presented at Inter Milan after completing his transfer from Juventus

Midfielder Patrick Vieira was presented at Inter Milan on Wednesday (August 2) after his transfer from Juventus for 9.5 million euros ($12.11 million) -- less than half what Juve paid for the French player one year ago. Vieira signed the deal earlier in the day with a four-year contract that will tie him to the club until June 30, 2010. "I am very happy to be with this great team and I came here because I want to win a lot with all the players we have," he said. Juventus said in a statement on Tuesday (August 1)y that it booked a capital loss of 8.6 million euros on the sale, part of an exodus of players from the Turin club following a match-fixing scandal that led to Juventus' demotion to the second-tier Serie B league. Vieira admitted he had other offers but declined to say he was considering a move to Manchester United. "I don't want to tell how close I was or not," the French midfielder told in English answering to a question from a British reporter. "I had a few options and I chose to come to Inter because after the first meeting I had with Marco Branca, I really feel that the team and the club wanted me to sign for them and that was enough for me. So, the way they approach me and the way and the desire they showed to sign me made a big difference," Vieira added. Juventus bought Vieira in July 2005 for 20 million euros from Arsenal F.C. He played for the Italian club only for one season in 2005-06. The midfielder, who is a candidate to take over from Zinedine Zidane as captain of France's national side, did not want get into the controversy involving the incident which led to his French team-mate being sent off in the final won by Italy after he head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi. "We have not spoken about that. It disappoints me that people only talk about this because in Italy we should talk more about what the (Italian) squad have achieved because in fact they won the World Cup -- and this is more relevant than the problem between Zidane and Materazzi." Inter were awarded the 2005-06 Italian league title last week after a sports tribunal revoked Juventus's title win and Vieira said the decision had to be accepted. "We worked on the field to win this Scudetto (Italian title) but that was the decision. We must accept it. It is a bit difficult to do so but that's the way it is," he said. Vieira returned to Italy last year, having been signed by Arsenal from Inter's city rivals AC Milan in 1996. The combative 30-year-old, a 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 winner with France, moved to Turin after helping Arsenal win seven major trophies in nine years in north London. His crunching tackles, deft ball control and unhurried distribution marked Arsenal's Senegal-born captain out as one of the best midfielders in English football. His duels with former Manchester United skipper Roy Keane became a highlight of the Premier League season and Vieira was frequently linked with a move to Real Madrid. A desire for a new challenge and a hunger for success in the Champions League, whose quarter-finals had proved an insurmountable obstacle for Arsenal, were behind his move back to Italy. Ironically, Arsenal reached the final last season, losing to Barcelona after knocking Juventus out in the quarter-finals. Vieira was booked on his return to Highbury in Juve's 2-0 defeat and missed the second leg through suspension. More recently, he helped France reach the World Cup final, lost on penalties to Italy, and looked set to stay with Juventus until the verdicts handed down in Italy's match-rigging scandal.

ITN Source | August 3, 2006

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