Tottenham signed Portugal midfielder Mateus Fernandes from West Ham for a reported club-record fee of 85 million pounds ($113 million) on Thursday and looked set to add Italian international Sandro Tonali in a huge recruitment drive.
The 21-year-old Fernandes, who wasn't picked to play at the World Cup, was part of the West Ham team relegated on the final day of last season thanks to a last-day win by Tottenham.
Now he has moved across London to Spurs, which is rebuilding its squad with recently hired manager Roberto De Zerbi after just about maintaining its top-flight status of nearly 50 years.
Center backs Jan Paul van Hecke and Marco Senesi have already joined, along with former Liverpool left back Andy Robertson, while midfielder Tonali has confirmed he is on his way to Tottenham from Newcastle in a deal the BBC reported could be worth 100 million pounds ($133 million).
Fernandes, who was only at West Ham for one season after joining from Southampton, said De Zerbi “was a key part of why I have decided to join" for a fee that surpasses the previous biggest outlay by Tottenham — a reported deal worth 65 million pounds ($83 million) to sign Dominic Solanke in August 2024.
“When we spoke, it was very special," said Fernandes, whose one Portugal appearance was as a late substitute in a 2-0 win over the United States in April. "We look at football in the same way — going onto the pitch as a strong team, with fight and energy, to try and win every game."
Tottenham sporting director Johan Lange described Fernandes as “a player with outstanding technical ability, intelligence and maturity.”
“And even at a young age,” Lange said, “(he) has shown he can perform consistently in demanding, high-pressure environments.”
In an interview carried by British broadcaster Sky Sports on Thursday, Tonali said he was parting on “very good terms” with Newcastle after a three-year spell that included a 10-month ban for his part in a betting scandal.
“We're all happy and we're ready for this new adventure,” said Tonali, who also added that De Zerbi's presence was a "huge" factor behind the move.
“It was also a lifestyle and family choice,” the center midfielder added, referring to the birth of his son last year.
Tonali's arrival would take Tottenham's spending above $300 million this offseason.
Tottenham is looking to rebound from the humiliation of a second straight 17th-place finish in the 20-team Premier League, having been in the top division since the late 1970s.
The team will not be playing in Europe next season.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE -West Ham's Mateus Fernandes reacts during the Premier League soccer match between West Ham and Arsenal in London, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Walton, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia hammered Kyiv in an 11-hour drone and missile attack overnight into Thursday morning, killing at least 20 civilians in the city and injuring scores more in what Moscow said was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities.
Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital for hours during the night, with many people sheltering in subway stations after authorities issued air raid warnings. Emergency crews were still digging through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings in search of victims as dawn broke.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the deadly bombardment was in response to Ukraine’s long-range strikes that have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine's increasingly frequent and large-scale attacks — described by Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz — have especially targeted oil refineries, causing a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians, more than four years after Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Ukrainian officials say they are trying to force Putin to the negotiating table, but so far Moscow's response has been to hit back.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war, most recently by the Trump administration, haven’t produced results. Putin thinks that time is on his side, that Western support will peter out and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually collapse under pressure from strategic bombing, Western analysts say.
The attack killed 20 people in Kyiv, according to Kyiv city administration head Tymur Tkachenko. More than 90 others were injured, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “night of horror” in the capital.
Damage was recorded in 30 locations across the city, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Some 20 residential buildings were damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Flashes from exploding drones and missiles lit up the night, and loud booms echoed through Kyiv. Tracers from air defense fire streaked through the air as a huge pall of black smoke rose into the sky.
Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles hit his district of the city. “We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking — the ceiling and floor, everything,” the 24-year-old told The Associated Press.
In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential building, and in the Darnytskyi district six levels of a nine-story building collapsed.
Russia’s General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov reported the results of the “massive retaliatory strike” to Putin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
The bombardment was “exclusively against military or military-linked targets,” Peskov said.
Russia's aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly hit civilian areas. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.
Sybiha said in April that domestic production meets up to 75% of Ukraine’s military needs and accounts for up to 95% of long-range strikes against Russia. The location of the factories making those weapons is secret.
Elsewhere, in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region a Russian guided bomb strike killed a 7-year-old girl and wounded four other people, including an 11-year-old girl, all members of the same family, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said.
The attack used “high-precision long-range weapons” and drones on “military industry facilities and fuel and energy complexes in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, as well as military airfield infrastructure in four other regions of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement said.
It published a list of targets it said the barrage hit, mostly plants manufacturing and assembling Ukrainian drones, missiles and components.
Russia fired 74 missiles, 24 of them ballistic, and 496 drones of various types in the attack, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine's air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in countering Russian drones. But ballistic missiles are harder to stop, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly pleaded with partner countries to supply more Patriot missile systems that offer the best protection.
Sybiha urged countries not to delay decisions on supplying air defense systems and missiles.
He rejected any Russian attempts to justify the strikes as retaliation for Ukraine’s long-range attacks, saying Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter while Russia remained the aggressor.
Sybiha said on X that the death toll may rise as rescue teams continue their work.
Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, Ukraine's General Staff said.
Also, Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said. The bridge was used by Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons and military supplies, according to the General Staff.
Ukraine's recent success with drone strikes that keep Russian troops pinned down on the front line, disrupt Russian supply lines in the rear and damage oil facilities have brought a significant change in the war, Western analysts say.
“Russia’s spring-summer 2026 offensive has failed to achieve operationally significant gains thus far, and Russian forces’ rate of advance in June 2026 (was) a fraction of the rate of advance that Russian forces achieved in June 2025,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment late Wednesday.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A residential apartment building is seen damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Elderly Liudmyla Tsapkova sits in her damaged apartment after the Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
People look at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
People react at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
People look at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
A residential apartment building is seen damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Smoke rises over the city center after a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A woman walks past a burning apartment building after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
An apartment building burns after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
