LONDON (AP) — Conor Gallagher returned to English soccer by signing for Tottenham from Atletico Madrid on Wednesday for a reported 40 million euros ($46.5 million), in a move that could ignite his hopes of playing at the World Cup.
The 25-year-old midfielder left Chelsea for Atletico in the summer of 2024, mainly to help his boyhood club comply with the Premier League’s more strictly applied financial rules.
He returns to the Premier League to one of Chelsea's fiercest rivals, Tottenham.
“I’m so happy and excited to be here, taking the next step in my career at an amazing club," Gallagher said. “I wanted to be a Spurs player and thankfully the club felt the same. It was very easy, it happened very quickly and I’m ready to get on the pitch."
Spurs did not reveal the length of his deal, but it is reportedly until 2031.
Also Wednesday, Tottenham said Fabio Paratici will leave his role as co-sporting director at the end of the winter transfer window.
Paratici returned to the team in October, 2½ years after his departure amid a false accounting trial at former club Juventus.
He will join Fiorentina in his native Italy on Feb. 2, saying in a Tottenham statement: “I have loved my time at the club, however this opportunity, together with the need to be based in my homeland, has led me to this decision."
If Gallagher impresses in the second half of the season, he could force his way into England's World Cup plans. His last appearance for the national team was against Senegal in June. He wasn't in England coach Thomas Tuchel's squad for games in September, October and November, so is looking to impress the German ahead of the World Cup being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Tottenham moved for Gallagher — amid reported interest from fellow Premier League team Aston Villa — while it has big injury problems in its midfield. Rodrigo Bentancur recently joined a list of absentees already including James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Mohammed Kudus.
“Conor is a top midfielder, who we have worked tirelessly to add to our squad," Spurs coach Thomas Frank said. “He is still young, so has plenty of room for improvement, but also has huge experience across the Premier League, La Liga and with the England national team."
Gallagher was an academy product at Chelsea after joining the club at age 6. He was the team’s vice captain when he left for Atletico and was coming off playing for England at the 2024 European Championship.
Gallagher was 18 months into a five-year deal with Atletico.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Atletico Madrid's Conor Gallagher, right, duels for the ball with Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham during the Spanish Super Cup semifinal soccer match at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Atletico Madrid's Conor Gallagher, second left, duels for the ball with Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham during the Spanish Super Cup semifinal soccer match at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Danish official said Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remains with President Donald Trump after highly anticipated talks in Washington with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The two sides, however, agreed to create a working group to discuss ways to work through differences as Trump continues to call for a U.S. takeover of the semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
“The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told reporters after joining Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, for the talks.
Trump is trying to make the case that NATO should help the U.S. acquire the world's largest island and says anything less than it being under American control is unacceptable.
Denmark has announced plans to boost the country's military presence in the Arctic and North Atlantic as Trump tries to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover of the vast territory by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their designs on Greenland.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the roughly hourlong meeting.
But a few hours before the officials sat down, Trump said on his social media site that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security.” He added that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it” and that otherwise Russia or China would — “AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Løkke Rasmussen told reporters that it remains “clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland.”
“And we made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the kingdom,” he said after the meeting, citing a “fundamental disagreement” with the Trump administration but willing to keep talking.
Both Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt offered measured hope that the talks were beginning a conversation that would lead to Trump dropping his demand of acquiring the territory and create a path for tighter cooperation with the U.S.
"We have shown where our limits are and from there, I think that it will be very good to look forward,” Motzfeldt said.
In Copenhagen, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen announced an increase in Denmark’s “military presence and exercise activity” in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, “in close cooperation with our allies”.
Poulsen said at a news conference the stepped-up military presence was necessary in a security environment in which “no one can predict what will happen tomorrow.”
“This means that from today and in the coming time there will be an increased military presence in and around Greenland of aircraft, ships and soldiers, including from other NATO allies,” Poulsen said.
Other NATO allies were arriving in Greenland along with Danish personnel, he said. Poulsen declined to name the other countries contributing to increased Arctic presence, saying that it is up to the allies to announce their own participation.
Earlier, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X that “some officers from the Swedish Armed Forces are arriving in Greenland today” as part of a group from several allied countries. “Together, they will prepare events within the framework of the Danish exercise Operation Arctic Endurance,” Kristersson said. Two Norwegian military personnel also will be sent to Greenland to map out further cooperation with allies, the country’s Defense Minister Tore O. Sandvik told newspaper VG.
Greenland is strategically important because, as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up the possibility of shorter trade routes to Asia. That also could make it easier to extract and transport untapped deposits of critical minerals which are needed for computers and phones.
Trump says Greenland is also “vital” to the United States' Golden Dome missile defense program. He also has said he wants the island to expand America’s security and has repeatedly cited what he says is the threat from Russian and Chinese ships as a reason to control it.
But experts and Greenlanders question that claim, and it has become a hot topic on the snow-covered main street in Greenland’s capital, where international journalists and camera crews have descended as Trump continues his takeover talk.
“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” heating engineer Lars Vintner said. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships.
His friend, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, adding “what has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is just fantasy.”
Denmark has said the U.S., which already has a military presence, can boost its bases on Greenland. The U.S. is party to a 1951 treaty that gives it broad rights to set up military bases there with the consent of Denmark and Greenland.
For that reason, “security is just a cover,” Vintner said, suggesting Trump actually wants to own the island to make money from its untapped natural resources.
Mikaelsen, the student, said Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark, which provides free health care, education and payments during study, and “I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us."
Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, along with Denmark’s ambassador to the U.S., planned to meet later Wednesday with senators from the Arctic Caucus. A bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers is also heading to Copenhagen this week to see Danish and Greenlandic officials.
Both Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt said while they remain at loggerheads with Trump, but it remains critical to keep talking.
“It is in everybody’s interest — even though we disagree — that we agree to try to explore whether it is doable to accommodate some of the concerns while at the same time respecting the integrity of the Danish kingdom’s territory and the self-determination of the Greenlandic people,” Løkke Rasmussen said.
Burrows reported from Nuuk, Greenland and Ciobanu from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lisa Mascaro, Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert in Washington and Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed to this report.
The demonstration under the slogan Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders is held in front of the American embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, third from left, Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, not shown, and their delegations leave the Old Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the grounds of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speaks at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
Denmark's Foreign Minister, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, right, and Greenland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt, left, prepare at the danish embassy for the meeting with the American Vice President, J.D. Vance, and Foreign Minister Marco Rubio in Washington D.C., Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
A fisherman carries a bucket onto his boat in the harbor of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A boat travels at the sea inlet in Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People walk near the church in Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A bird stands on a boat at the harbour of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People walk along a street in downtown of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
