Schalke 04 has signed Ghana international left-back Abdul Rahman Baba on loan from Chelsea for the coming season, both clubs confirmed yesterday.
 Last season, Baba made 23 appearances for Chelsea, 19 of them starts, including his debut in the Champions League, but has been sent on loan by new Blues boss Antonio Conte to Schalke, who finished fifth in Germany’s top flight last season. “I spoke with the new Chelsea head coach and he told me that I would probably not play very often in his system,” explained Baba on the Schalke website. “I want to be on the pitch, so I told the management in London that I wanted to transfer. I found a very good club in the form of Schalke 04 and I’m sure that I have made the right decision.”
 The 22-year-old spent the 2014/15 season with Augsburg, knows his way around German football after a stint with Greuther Fuerth and has played 51 Bundesliga games, plus 24 matches in Germany’s second tier.
 He worked with Schalke’s head coach Markus Weinzierl while at Augsburg. “Abdul is a strong attacking left back, one who I have a lot of faith in. He will fit in well here, because of his excellent attitude,” said Weinzierl.
 Baba signed a five-year contract with Chelsea in 2015 and has made a total of 15 Premier League appearances for the Blues, featuring four times in the Champions League.
 He was part of the Ghana side that reached the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations final, when his side lost to Ivory Coast on penalties.
 Having already trained with his new teammates, Baba says he has quickly found his feet in Gelsenkirchen. “The lads have warmly welcomed me. I have enjoyed my time with the squad so far. I noticed from the very first training session that Schalke have a strong team with a lot of quality,” said Baba. “I already know Markus from my time at Augsburg, we get along really well and he has a lot of confidence in me, which is an important thing for any player.”
 The defender is relishing his return to Germany’s top flight when Schalke play their first game of the season at Eintracht Frankfurt on August 27. “Long balls are used a lot more often in the Premier League,” said Baba. “A lot more value is placed on the technical aspects of the game in Germany.”
Napoli fans fire insults at Higuain
Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik was paraded in front of Napoli fans yesterday ahead of signing an imminent deal with the Serie A giants to replace the now despised Argentina international Gonzalo Higuain.
 Milik, who will join Napoli from Ajax, has been officially announced as the Italian club’s new striker. But on the evening of Napoli’s 90th birthday celebrations at their San Paolo stadium, the 22-year-old walked out on to the pitch wearing a Napoli shirt as fans sung his praises — and threw a few choice insults in the direction of former star Higuain.
 Club owner and president Aurelio De Laurentiis posted a message on his Twitter account which said: “Welcome Milik #ADL.”
 The fallout from Higuain’s shock 90 mn euros ($100.5 mn) transfer—the third most expensive in history after Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo’s moves to Real Madrid respectively—to rivals Juventus is still being felt in Naples. De Laurentiis said Higuain “betrayed” the club last week, while fans of the Azzurri, some of whom posted pictures of their Napoli shirts with Higuain’s name in their toilet, left little to the imagination with a range of insults aimed at the 28-year-old.
 Former club hero Diego Maradona, who helped steer Napoli to both of their league titles in 1987 and 1990, pitched in with a critique of his own. In a message, the Argentina legend said: “Stay calm, I am right behind you, I won’t betray you. Let’s think about making a great team for the people and Higuain can think what he wants. Now, it’s over with Higuain, but my love for you will never die...”