Chelsea on Thursday announced that it signed CESC FABREGAS. The 27-year-old joined Chelsea on a five-year contract after a three-year spell at Barcelona, where he joined the club's youth academy at the age of 10. Before his recent stint with Barça, Fabregas played for Arsenal for eight years (Chelsea). ... Spain's Attorney General's office has requested that Atlético Madrid Sporting Dir JOSÉ LUIS PÉREZ CAMINERO "face a four-year prison sentence for suspected money laundering." Caminero was arrested in '09 "as part of a national operation that broke up three organized groups connected to drug trafficking and money laundering" (EP, 6/11). ... Wasserman Media Group announced MESUT ÖZIL joined the agency. The former Real Madrid player has 55 caps for Germany and became the most expensive German football player of all time when he joined Arsenal in September (Wasserman). ... Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars World Cup winning captain JODIE FIELDS announced her retirement from int'l cricket. She is the seventh most-capped Australian women's int'l, notching four Tests, 67 ODIs and 37 Women's T20 Int'l matches (Cricket Australia).
GIRL POWER: WNBA players NNEKA OGWUMIKE and CHINEY OGWUMIKE are "two of the most prominent Nigerian-American athletes" in the U.S., and last week they "rolled out the details of their relationship with UNICEF." Creating a competition for middle school and high school girls' basketball teams, the sisters have "hatched a fundraising effort in which teams compete to raise the most money to benefit UNICEF's U.S. Fund, including the Girls' Education Project, which aims to give 1 million girls in northern Nigeria access to quality learning, provide scholarships for female teachers and establish safe spaces for girls." The Ogwumikes will "devote their time and energies to the new program while playing through their WNBA seasons" (ESPNW, 6/10).
