Charleroi midfielder Tim Smolders will leave the Zebras in January to join Michel Preud D’Homme’s Gent. Smolders has signed a three and a half year contract with the Buffalos, and becomes their second winter signing after Westerlo’s Stef Wils.
Smolders previously played for Club Brugge and RBC Roosendaal before joining Charleroi.
Some big transfer news ! And it is really big !!!
Real Madrid have announced that highly rated Ajax striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar will join them in January. Los Blancos will pay Ajax an initial €20m fee which could rise to €27m depending on his appearances and other clauses. When the deal does officially go through, Huntelaar will become the sixth Dutch player in the current Madrid team, with Arjen Robben, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael Van der Vaart and Royston Drenthe being the other four.
Huntelaar has already passed a medical, and should he agree to personal terms, will be at the Bernabeu till June 2013. The 25 year old will also be eligible to compete in the latter stages of Madrid’s Champions League campaign this season.
Huntelaar’s former club, SC Heerenveen, will also get some €2.5 million from the deal. Huntelaar had joined Ajax from Heerenveen for €9 million + incentives in 2005.
Manchester City are the latest club to join the growing list of admirers of young Hibs striker Steven Fletcher. Fletcher, a product of the youth academy at Easter Road, was also linked with a £4m move to Real Madrid in the summer. Middlesbrough, Bolton, Everton and Aston Villa are among the other Premiership clubs that have kept track of the striker’s progress.
Fletcher was part of the Scotland U-19 team that lost to Spain in the final of the European Championships two years ago. He made his debut for Scotland in a friendly against Croatia in March 2008.