Sneijder joins Qatari club Al-Gharafa

Agency ReporterJanuary 5, 2018

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Netherlands international Wesley Sneijder has confirmed he is leaving Nice after a short spell with the Ligue 1 club.

Sneijder, who joined Nice in August after being released from his Galatasaray contract, has started only four league games this season.

And the Qatar Stars League will be the next stop for the 33-year-old after he accepted an 18-month deal to move to Al-Gharafa.

“It’s a nice adventure and a fun challenge,” Sneijder told RTL Boulevard.

“I am really happy to go for it together with my family.”

Sneijder is the most-capped player in Netherlands history but he was left out by Dick Advocaat for October’s World Cup qualifying double-header against Belarus and Sweden.

Former Chile international Luis Jimenez and Slovakia’s Vladimir Weiss will be among Sneijder’s new team-mates at Al-Gharafa.

Meanwhile in the Bundesliga Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng believes he is close to regaining full fitness following a year of injury problems.

The Germany international endured a stop-start 2017, but has returned to training in the new year at a camp in Doha in buoyant mood.

Jupp Heynckes’ side resume their Bundesliga campaign with next Friday’s trip to Bayer Leverkusen and the coach had some words of encouragement for Boateng.

“He told me he has no complaints about me at the moment,” the 29-year-old said in quotes reported by the club’s official website.

“At the moment I feel really good. I’d say that I ended 2017 at 80 per cent. If I can get through this week, I’ll be back at 100 per cent.”

A combination of issues, including chest, thigh and muscular problems, restricted Boateng to featuring in only 24 of Bayern’s 52 games last year and he found that hard to take.

“It wasn’t an easy time. It can take almost a year to get back to how you felt before,” he added, referencing the chest operation he underwent in December 2016.

“The strength in my chest was gone, which changed my running style and my whole dynamic. That’s affected other things again.”

But with his return to the training field complete, Boateng was glad to be testing his body once again.

He said of his current workload: “It’s not too much, but it’s certainly enough. You feel like you’ve done something. I think that’s good. That’s how it is in mid-season training. “I hope now that I can stay consistent and fit.”