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This week ended the speculation about the future of the French national team player and Munich defender Willy Sagnol - the player, with whose departure to Turin's "Juventus" even the German club's president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had reconciled at one point, decided to stay with the team and signed a new contract until 2010. The 28-year-old footballer's previous contract with Bayern was set to expire in the summer of 2006, so he could have become a free agent and choose his team. Juventus showed particular interest in him, and by the end of November, K.H.Rummenigge admitted that the Frenchman would not stay with the Bayern team. However, soon the Bayern manager changed his position - angered by Juventus' unethical behavior in trying to lure the player, he compared the Turin club and its methods to the "mafia" and stated that he would do everything to prevent the player from going to the Italian team. Meanwhile, W.Sagnol did not rush to make a decision and only announced his choice to one of the French television channels on Monday. The defender who moved to Bayern from Monaco in 2000 and won the Bundesliga three times and the Champions League once rejected offers from other clubs and signed a new four-year contract with Bayern. According to the player, the most important thing for him was that he feels at home in Munich: "Staying here was the best choice for my career. I have been playing at Bayern for six years now, I will soon be 29, so I didn't want to move to another country. It was a difficult decision, but I feel at home here, and my relationship with Uli Hoeness (Bayern's general director - ed.) and the team's fans was also important." Meanwhile, regarding the future of another Bayern player - one of the team's leaders, midfielder Michael Ballack, whose contract with the club will also expire next summer, there are many questions. Recently, the president of Inter Milan, Massimo Moratti, expressed interest in the captain of the German national team. It is believed that he is also competing with Bayern for the acquisition of the young striker Valeri Bojinov, who has not agreed to renew his contract with Fiorentina.
