Manchester City completed the first of an anticipated six summer signings yesterday by announcing they have recruited Jerome Boateng, the Germany defender, on a five-year-deal.
The 21-year-old will officially become a City player on July 1, after the club, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, agreed a reported fee of ?12.5m (Dh54.9m) with Hamburg, his former club.
The arrival of Boateng will cast doubt on the future of Micah Richards and Nedum Onuoha who have been frustrated by their lack of action under Roberto Mancini, the manager. Richards has been linked with a move to Arsenal, the club he supported as a youngster, and Tottenham Hotspur.
Boateng was in Manchester yesterday to confirm the details of the move before jetting off to South Africa to join up with the Germany team.
"This is a very good signing for Manchester City and I am pleased to bring Jerome to the club," Mancini told the club's website. "He is a young player who is already of a very high quality, but I think he can continue to improve at City.
"He can play a number of positions in defence, which is important. He has proved his ability in Germany and I think he can be a very important player for Manchester City in the Premier League. It's good for Jerome to have agreed terms ahead of the World Cup, so he can now concentrate on playing for Germany. And I will be very interested to see how he gets on in the tournament, before welcoming him back to meet his teammates in pre-season."
Meanwhile, another German, Thomas Hitzlsperger, has joined West Ham from Lazio on a three-year contract.
The midfielder returns to the Premier League after a five-year absence. He played for Aston Villa between 2001 and 2005 and becomes Avram Grant's first signing.
* Agencies
Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
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FIRST TEST SCORES
England 458
South Africa 361 & 119 (36.4 overs)
England won by 211 runs and lead series 1-0
Player of the match: Moeen Ali (England)
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press