(updates with Inter comment)
By Lisa Jucca
MILAN, Aug 2 - Juventus have sold France
midfielder Patrick Vieira to Inter Milan for 9.5 million euros
($12.11 million), less than half what they paid for him a year
ago.
Juventus said in a statement that they had booked a capital
loss of 8.6 million euros on the sale, part of an exodus of
players from the Turin club following a match-fixing scandal
that led to their demotion to the second-tier Serie B league.
Inter confirmed the deal, saying Vieira had signed a
four-year contract that would tie him to the club until June
2010.
Juve bought Vieira in July 2005 for 20 million euros from
Arsenal. He played for Juventus only for one season in 2005-06.
Vieira, a candidate to take over from Zinedine Zidane as
captain of France's national side, is the latest player to
leave Juventus after the club were relegated to Serie B for
conspiring with referees and linesmen to rig games during last
season.
Inter were awarded the 2005-06 Italian league title last
week after a sports tribunal revoked Juventus's title win.
Vieira returned to Italy last year, having been signed by
Arsenal from Inter's city rivals AC Milan in 1996.
The combative 30-year-old, a 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000
winner with France, moved to Turin after helping Arsenal win
seven major trophies in nine years in north London.
His crunching tackles, deft ball control and unhurried
distribution marked Arsenal's Senegal-born captain out as one
of the best midfielders in English football.
His duels with former Manchester United skipper Roy Keane
became a highlight of the Premier League season and Vieira was
frequently linked with a move to Real Madrid.
A desire for a new challenge and a hunger for success in
the Champions League, whose quarter-finals had proved an
insurmountable obstacle for Arsenal, were behind his move back
to Italy.
Ironically, Arsenal reached the final last season, losing
to Barcelona after knocking Juventus out in the quarter-finals.
Vieira was booked on his return to Highbury in Juve's 2-0
defeat and missed the second leg through suspension.
More recently, he helped France reach the World Cup final,
lost on penalties to Italy, and looked set to stay with
Juventus until the verdicts handed down in Italy's
match-rigging scandal.