Chelsea's Zola to retire at end of next season

Gianfranco Zola has announced that he will retire at the end of next season. The Chelsea striker then hopes to be offered a coaching role at Stamford Bridge.

Zola has been linked with a return to Italy, but at 36, says he will finish his career as a Chelsea player. "I am not thinking about leaving this club to play for somebody else," he said. "I don't want to leave football and Chelsea with a bad memory."

David Seaman will take the rest of the summer before deciding whether to retire from international football. "I've had discussions with people that are close to me regarding my future with England," he said, "and I've just got to sit down in the summer, have a nice holiday and think what I want.

"Whether that includes retirement I don't know, but it's something that I haven't ruled out. It's just that I need a really good think about it."

Blackburn Rovers have signed the 21-year-old left-sided German defender Marc Sebastian Pelzer from Kaiserslautern on a two-year deal.

Sunderland are planning to sign Wimbledon's Republic of Ireland defender Kenny Cunningham for £750,000.

Everton are competing with Sporting Lisbon to sign the United States striker Brian McBride, who played briefly on loan at Preston under the Toffees' manager David Moyes.

McBride would prefer to move to England where he would be happy to renew his relationship with Moyes, but Sporting are off-loading players to pave the way for a deal that would cost only £1.5m.

Southampton are to sign the Swedish defender Mikael Svensson from the French club Troyes for £2m. The 26-year-old was a member of Sweden's World Cup squad.