Despite having fancy early years where he played for the likes of Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain, we now get to see him arriving in Brazil, where he’s just signed for Coritiba, who are on the bottom of the league table.

Globo Esporte today features a story claiming Rodriguez should make his debut for the club on Thursday. In quotes with TV Coxa, he claimed he’s already preparing the celebration of his first goal.

“I was thinking a lot these days about how I was going to celebrate my first goal. I’d love it to be at home, with the fans. But if it has to be away from home, it will be. Or I’ll provide the assist for someone else to score. The important thing is to win.”

“When the offer came I was surprised because I’d been watching some Brasileiro matches for a while. I started looking into the club, the league, and I liked what I saw about football and the fans. And, above all, the passion that Coritiba fans have is impressive.”

Rodriguez was loaned to Stoke City from Paris Saint Germain in the summer of 2017. Playing for the Potters, he had one goal and one assist in 13 appearances.

In January 2018, Stoke City sent him back to the French club. The winger then played for Real Betis, Sporting, UD Las Palmas, Ankaragucu and Sampdoria. He was a free agent this summer, and with no big offers from Europe, he decided to move to Brazil.

Coritiba had a bit of a weird mid-season market. Besides signing Rodriguez, they also brought on former Leicester City and Newcastle United striker Islam Slimani, as well as ex-Benfica midfielder Andreas Samaris, hoping that players with European experience can help them get out of the current situation.

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The 21-year-old joined the Premier League side from Liverpool in 2020 and made 25 appearances in his first two seasons at Molineux.

In search of regular game time, the right-back joined PSV Eindhoven on loan in 2022, but this move didn’t work out for him as he was restricted to 384 minutes from eight games in the first half of the last season.

In January, Wolves cut short the fullback’s temporary stay at PSV and then loaned him out to the Championship side the same month.

He managed four goals and an assist from 17 games for Stoke City in the second half of the last season, and has a goal and an assist from seven games this season.

Hoever, who is currently with the Netherlands U21 squad, believes his return to Stoke City would help in his development.

“I wanted to go back. It was also not the best situation at Wolves, with a manager who left a few days before the competition,” he said.

“I just wanted to get back to Stoke. I like it there. I just wanted to play football again for another year. I’m 21 and I feel like I have been with the first teams for four years and I think I have only played six months of those years. Now I just want to complete a year of playing regularly.”

On August 8th, Wolves parted ways with Julen Lopetegui and appointed Gary O’Neil as his successor a day later. They are 15th in the table after collecting three points from four games this season.

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Alex Neil has been very active on the transfer window, bringing in players from all over Europe to try and build a competitive squad, with another midfielder now set to arrive.

The news comes from Fussball Transfers’ Dominik Schneider, who took to Twitter to reveal Stoke’s latest move on the transfer market.

The player is called Wouter Burger (no, that’s not a typo), and he will be arriving from FC Basel in Switzerland.

The journalist claims that the deal is now ‘done’, as the player has ‘passed’ his medical examination and ‘everything is signed’ to ensure the transfer goes through.

The 22-year-old will be putting pen to paper to a four-year contract until 2027, with an option for another season, just in case Stoke want to extend it.

This will be Stoke’s 14th signing of the window, with players arriving from places such as Sampdoria, Ferencvaros in Hungary and even Mladost in Serbia.

Excl.
Transfer of Wouter #Burger to #StokeCity is done. Medical passed, everything signed. Contract until 2027 plus option for another season.#Championship #SuperLeague #FCBasel pic.twitter.com/locAnyaB9g

— Dominik Schneider (@FT_schneidi) August 25, 2023

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That’s according to journalist Gianluigi Longari, who says the Potters have shown an interest in the 25-year-old.

Stoke have had a busy transfer window so far, bringing in no fewer than 13 news faces to Alex Neil’s squad in permanent transfers, loan or various players returning from loan deals away from the club.

They’ve also shown a willingness to spend, when necessary, too, paying €4m to sign Ryan Mmaee from Ferencváros and €1.5m to get Ben Pearson from Preston North End.

It seems their business might not end there, though, with Longari reporting that they are showing strong interest in adding Léris to their list of incomings.

He’s a right midfielder currently plying his trade for Sampdoria and that is an area of the Stoke squad, which is particularly short, with D’Margio Wright-Phillips the only right winger currently in the squad.

Longari makes no mention of the fee Stoke would be willing to pay for him or if Sampdoria would be open to a sale at this point, just that the Potters are interested in the player.

The fact he has entered the final year of his deal with the Italian side could be a key factor, with that sure to determine his price and Sampdoria’s willingness to negotiate.

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According to Dutch outlet 1908, the Potters placed a ‘million-dollar bid’, which is likely to be a figure of speech, for the transfer.

It’s not yet said whether Basel will accept Stoke City’s offer. In direct talks with the player, the English side have agreed to hand him a four-year contract.

As highlighted by 1908, Transfermarkt currently value him at €4.5m, so that’s something the Potters may have to aim at to convince the Swiss side of the sale.

Basel only spent €700k to sign Burger from Feyenoord in 2021. They saw him having a great development at the club, which took him to several youth squads with the Netherlands national team.

He’s one of the players who took the club to the Conference League semifinals, and that’s when he got more attention from European clubs.

This is the first time Stoke City are linked to the 22-year-old, and with them apparently acting fast for the signing, we should soon get to know whether Basel accepted the offer.

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It was claimed by journalist Pedro Sepulveda that the Potters’ offer wasn’t good enough, as they couldn’t even outbid Vitória Guimarães in the race for the 24-year-old.

Now as the reporter comes up with an update, it’s said Stoke City haven’t given up on the chase, and are actually close to getting the transfer done.

Sepulveda writes on Twitter that the Potters raised their bid to €500k and ‘guaranteed’ the signing of Vidigal.

Stoke City are sill letting Maritimo keep 15% of a future transfer.

According to the report, the winger is already in England to have his medicals and sign the contract with the Championship side.

Vidigal had joined Marítimo back in 2021, on a €500k deal from Dutch side Fortuna Sittard. In his time at the Portuguese club, he had nine goals and three assists in 73 appearances.

They had been playing the first division last season, and with the relegation, he’s one of those leaving the club.

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The striker announced his retirement this week, bringing an end to a career that has seen him turn out for the likes of Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax among others and holding a press conference at Barcelona.

He had been backed for a huge career after emerging from Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, where he had earned rave reviews for his performances.

He was quickly put into the senior team and continued to impress there, scoring 41 goals and registering 19 assists in 163 games for the club.

By 2014, though, the relationship had begun to sour and he found himself joining Stoke City in a surprise €1.8m deal.

He remained in the Potteries for three years, scoring 16 goals and registering three assists in 85 games before departing on loan in 2017 and eventually leaving on a permanent basis in 2019.

That part of his career is one he, and everyone else for that matter, largely forgets about and he admits that spell was one of his ‘toughest moments’ after cutting the cord from lifelong club Barcelona.

“At the age of 8, 9 I joined this club, which is my family, and at 32 and after many experiences I want to announce that I have finished a stage,” Sport report him saying.

“I am grateful for everything I have experienced. You have to be honest and I think my time has come I have decided to put an end to this stage.

“I have overcome many fears in my career. The stage of leaving Barça was painful but it was important to close some doors and open others. It was fantastic.

“There are many years. The most gratifying part was the first night at the Camp Nou, the first goal, entering the professional world.

“There have been several hardest moments. Surely when I signed for Stoke City it was hard, because I cut the umbilical cord that attached me to the club.”

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The Potters took the winger from Standard Liège. They initially included him in their youth system, before promoting him to their first team two years later.

Verlinden’s time at the Belgian club’s academy convinced West Ham, Everton and Stoke to make an attempt to sign him.

Mark Hughes was then in charge at the bet365 Stadium and played a vital role in helping Stoke beat Everton and West Ham in securing the deal for the attacker.

“Everton and West Ham also really wanted me. But Mark Hughes, the manager of Stoke, gave me a really good feeling,” he said.

Verlinden made 13 appearances for Stoke before leaving them permanently in 2021. During his time with the English club, he had two loan spells at St. Pauli II and Bolton Wanderers.

The 23-year-old has been at Beerschot since 2022. There was a suggestion he moved to England to earn more money, which the Belgian has dismissed.

“The people who thought I went to England for the money don’t know what they’re talking about. In my first season at Stoke I played on a scholarship from the school and earned nothing,” Verlinden explained.

“It wasn’t until a year later that I signed my first professional contract. I made [it to] the match day squad a number of times.”

“In the Premier League, for example, I sat on the bench next to Peter Crouch, Bojan Krkic and Wilfried Bony. My competitors in the starting team were Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri. Not bad, huh.”

“I wanted to prove myself very hard during that period, often claimed the ball during training and therefore also won the trust of my teammates. Unfortunately, injuries have thrown a spanner in the works.”

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L’Equipe cover the player today as part of a focus on four key players in the Australia squad after their qualification for the knockout stages.

Australia are set to take on Argentina in the last 16 today after securing their qualification earlier this week with an impressive 1-0 win over Denmark.

That result, and a win over Tunisia, saw them finish second in the group behind France, a big achievement and one achieved thanks to four players according to L’Equipe.

They say Stoke City’s Souttar is one of those, labelling him as the ‘bankable surprise’ in the team’s defence.

He struggled against France but has been ‘huge’ in his position since, becoming a ‘pleasant surprise’ and by far the best defender in the team.

As he is recovering from a cruciate ligament rupture nobody expected this level of performance, but he has proven to be a ‘monster’ for his side.

His market value is ‘causing the buzz’ and there is a belief that Stoke City will be able to resell him for between €25-30m, after they paid £230,000 for him in September 2016.

Now 24-years-old their belief is that he is ‘made for the Premier League’ and his performances in Qatar could have clubs knocking on Stoke’s door.

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The defender originally joined Tottenham from FC Koln in July 2015 but would spend a disappointing two years with Spurs playing back up to the likes of Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld.

He was thus sold to Stoke City in a £17.46m deal in August 2017, with Tottenham making a major profit and the player believing he would end up with regular first team football.

That did not prove to be the case, though, with him managing just 19 appearances in all competitions for the club before and spending loan spells at Hannover 96, Mouscron and Karlsruher SC.

He eventually left for Rapid Vienna on a free transfer in July 2021, bringing an end to a disastrous spell in the Potteries and England in general.

He’s now reflected on the move to Stoke with Transfermarkt, and admitted he was left shocked by one major difference from life at Spurs.

“The transfer fee was of course a big deal. On the one hand I was incredibly proud, but on the other hand I couldn’t really grasp or even realise that figure,” he told them.

“At that point I was really keen to attack with Stoke, wanted to tackle, make a difference.

“If I’m honest, I was shocked: at Tottenham, every nuance was taken care of, both in training and off the pitch. The best example is the diet: every intolerance was taken care of. There was a gluten-free offer, there was a vegan offer.

“At Stoke you could even order fish and chips for lunch. While at Tottenham you had to beg for a day off, at Stoke, Wednesdays were generally free.

“So, I thought, I don’t know if this can work. So I hired a personal trainer to make good use of the day off.”

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