Chelsea signs Belgium international De Bruyne
Soccer Betting Lines
01/31/2012 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chelsea signed Belgian international Kevin De Bruyne from Genk on Tuesday on a 5 1/2- year deal, but will remain with the Belgian side on loan for the rest of the season.
De Bruyne, 20, made his debut for Genk at the end of the 2008-09 season, and made 24 appearances the following season. He had five goals and 16 assists in 22 matches last season for Genk as the club won the league championship.
"To come to a team like Chelsea is a dream," De Bruyne said, " but now it's a reality and I have to work hard to achieve the level that's necessary.
"Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in the world and if you see the level they have compared to Genk then it is a real difference but it's something I want to achieve and I will work very hard to get there."
De Bruyne, a winger, debuted for Belgium in 2010, and has made two appearances for his country.
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks avoided arbitration with catcher Miguel Montero and infielder Ryan Roberts on Tuesday, agreeing to terms on one-year contracts with both players. MLB.com has reported Montero's dea
<< Philadelphia trades Le Toux to Vancouver
Chester, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Union traded forward Sebastien
Le Toux to Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Tuesday in exchange for allocation money.
Le Toux, 28, had 25 goals and 20 assists in two seasons with the Union. He was
acqu
<< Muntari swaps Inter for AC Milan in loan move
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan announced Tuesday that it has reached
a deal with city rivals Inter Milan to secure the services of Sulley Muntari
on loan for the remainder of the season.
The Ghanaian midfielder has struggled to
<< Kelly Clarkson to sing national anthem at Super Bowl
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kelly Clarkson has been chosen to sing the
national anthem and Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert will perform "America
the Beautiful" at Super Bowl XLVI.
The NFL made the announcement Tuesday.
Chris
<< Reid confirms Bowles as secondary coach; Castillo remains DC
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid
said Tuesday that Juan Castillo will remain the team's defensive coordinator
and also confirmed that Todd Bowles will join the staff as secondary coach.
Bowles
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan signed striker Philipp Prosenik from Chelsea's youth academy Tuesday. Prosenik, 18, joined Chelsea from Rapid Vienna in 2009, but played just five matches for the second string and 24 for the youth t
QPR lands Cisse from Lazio >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French striker Djibril Cisse will return to
the English Premier League after completing a move from Lazio to QPR on
Tuesday.
The London club confirmed that the former Liverpool and Sunderland forward
Leverkusen snaps up Corluka on loan >>
Leverkusen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayer Leverkusen landed Vedran Corluka
from Tottenham on loan for the remainder of the season with an option to sign
the defender to a longer contract, it was announced Tuesday.
Corluka has only manag
Kohlschreiber rolls in Montpellier opener >>
Montpellier, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber
was an easy first-round winner Tuesday at the Open Sud de France tennis
tournament.
The German Kohlschreiber handled scrappy Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-1, 6-4 on
the
Bogomolov Jr., Youzhny win Zagreb openers >>
Zagreb, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two of this week's top-three seeds,
Russians Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Mikhail Youzhny, were among Tuesday's opening-
round winners at the Zagreb Indoors tennis event.
The second-seeded Bogomolov drilled
FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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