The 34-year-old former Barca captain, who had spent his entire career at the Nou Camp, was introduced at a news conference in Tokyo by Kobe owner Hiroshi Mikitani and will wear his familiar number eight jersey for the J.League side.
* Istanbul's Ataturk Olympic Stadium will host the 2020 Champions League final, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin announced after an executive committee meeting on Thursday. The 76,000-capacity stadium hosted the thrilling 2005 showpiece where Liverpool came back from 3-0 down at halftime to draw 3-3 with AC Milan and win a penalty shoot-out.
* Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is on track to regain full fitness in time for next month's World Cup after recovering from a foot injury that has sidelined him for most of the season, national team coach Joachim Loew said on Thursday. Loew has taken 27 players to a training camp in northern Italy.
* Britain's Cameron Norrie beat second seed John Isner 7-6(1) 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Lyon Open on Thursday to record his first victory over a player in the ATP top 10. The 22-year-old saved all four break points he faced against the big-serving American, who is ranked 10th in the world, to set up a semi-final with Gilles Simon after the Frenchman battled past Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin 4-6 6-4 7-6(5).
* Argentine tennis player Nicolas Kicker has been found guilty of match-fixing and other offences, the Tennis Integrity Unit said in a statement on Thursday. The 25-year-old was found guilty of attempting to fix the outcome of two matches, at ATP Challenger tournaments in Italy and in Colombia in 2015.
* Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova beat defending champion Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-3 on Thursday to reach the Strasbourg international semi-finals where she will face fourth seed Mihaela Buzarnescu. Top seed Ashleigh Barty is also in the last four for the first time after the Australian beat China's Wang Qiang 7-5 6-4.
* English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur announced here on Thursday that their manager Mauricio Pochettino has signed a new five-year contract with the club, which runs until 2023. The north London club, which will move to new ground next season, said in a statement that first team coaching staff Jesus Perez, Miguel D'Agostino and Toni Jimenez have also agreed new deals.
* Venus and Serena Williams are set to feature in women's doubles at the 2018 French Open after being offered a wild card by tournament organizers on Thursday. It will be the first time for the Williams sisters to play doubles at a Grand Slam tournament in nearly two years after they won the Wimbledon title in 2016.
