GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — Schalke has convinced Bosnia star Edin Džeko to stay another year for its return to the Bundesliga.
The veteran forward’s future was uncertain after he helped Schalke clinch promotion from Germany’s second division last season before he went to the World Cup, but the club said Monday he had agreed to stay on for the upcoming season.
“After a successful second half to the season for the Royal Blues, the captain of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team has signed a new one-year contract,” Schalke said in a statement. “Džeko will begin training at Schalke on Tuesday.”
Džeko, who turned 40 in March, joined Schalke on a short-term deal from Italian side Fiorentina in January. He scored six goals and set up three more in 11 second-division appearances.
Džeko made his return from a shoulder injury in a substitute appearance as Schalke clinched promotion with a 1-0 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf in May. He was cagey when asked if he would stay for its Bundesliga campaign, but now Schalke fans have the answer they were hoping for.
“Edin has given Schalke something special in his roughly four and a half months here so far,” Schalke sporting director Youri Mulder said. “He was a key player and a fan favorite, and he was always a role model with his personality on and off the field. In our discussions over the last few weeks, it became clear that Edin is still passionate about the game. That’s why we’re convinced he’ll help us in the Bundesliga as well.”
Džeko became a star at Wolfsburg where he helped the team win the Bundesliga title in 2009. He also won the Premier League title with Manchester City in 2012 and ‘14 and the Italian Cup with Inter Milan in 2022 and ’23.
“Since winter at Schalke I’ve experienced a super team and fantastic fans,” Džeko was quoted as saying by the club. “The promotion to the Bundesliga is among the highlights of my career. It was unbelievable. Football has made me happy for my whole life and it drives me on. I still have hunger. And I also want to help our team in the Bundesliga.”
Schalke’s first game back after three seasons away is at Augsburg on Aug. 30.
Džeko will continue to wear the No. 10 jersey, Schalke said.
Džeko is Bosnia’s record goal-scorer with 73 from a record 151 games.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Bosnia-Herzegovina's Edin Dzeko during a World Cup 2026 group H qualifying soccer match between Cyprus and Bosnia-Herzegovina at AEK Arena in Larnaca, Cyprus, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican senators who threatened to block acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's bid to lead the Justice Department said Monday that they will vote to advance his nomination, ending an impasse over plans to create a fund to compensate allies of President Donald Trump.
The statement from Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis came after Blanche issued an order late Sunday formally rescinding the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate people who believe they were unfairly prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Cornyn and Tillis had said they would not support Blanche's nomination without written confirmation that the fund is dead.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has issued a formal order terminating President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate his political allies, a move that follows weeks of negotiations with two Republican senators who were blocking his nomination to become attorney general.
A spokeswoman for Texas Sen. John Cornyn, one of the senators holding up Blanche’s nomination, confirmed the deal, which comes ahead of a Tuesday confirmation vote for Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The other GOP senator, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, did not have immediate comment.
Blanche said at a June hearing that the Justice Department would not move forward with the fund to compensate those who believe they were unfairly prosecuted, as he faced bipartisan outrage over the possibility that violent rioters who attacked police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be considered for payments. But Cornyn and Tillis, both members of the Judiciary panel, have said they wanted to see the promise in writing before they endorsed Blanche's nomination — especially as Trump continued to express support for the idea.
In a statement late Sunday, Blanche said the order came after “good faith discussions.”
“My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions," Blanche said.
In a statement accompanying the order, the Justice Department said that “although the Acting Attorney General has repeatedly advised Congress through testimony, including under oath, as well as in written responses, that the Fund is not moving forward, and the Department has repeatedly represented to district courts that the Fund is not moving forward, today’s Order officially rescinds the May 18, 2026 Order.”
Since the settlement of the president's lawsuit against the IRS was announced, “No Members were appointed; no funds were transferred; no process for receiving claims was established; no claims were paid,” the order says. “This order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”
The document released by Blanche on Sunday night also limits the scope of another provision of the settlement that provided broad immunity for Trump and members of his family from tax audits.
The deal clarifies that the tax audit immunity agreement “applies by its terms only retroactively” to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.
Cornyn, who lost reelection this year after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, and Tillis, who is retiring when his term ends in January, have blocked Blanche's nomination as many of their GOP colleagues have criticized the fund.
The Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on Blanche’s nomination that had been scheduled for Thursday morning after Tillis and Cornyn said they needed more from the administration before they could provide the necessary votes.
The two senators have repeatedly said the Justice Department seemed interested in reaching an agreement, but the White House wouldn’t budge even to aid the confirmation of Trump’s loyal former personal attorney, who has aggressively pursued the administration’s priorities as acting attorney general.
“I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page,” Cornyn said Thursday. “But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn’t willing to go along with it.”
Blanche, who served as Trump’s defense lawyer in his criminal cases, entered the Justice Department last year as deputy attorney general. He was elevated to the top post after Pam Bondi was fired in April by Trump, who was frustrated by her failure to successfully prosecute his political enemies.
Though Blanche insisted he wasn’t auditioning for the permanent job, he has moved aggressively to pursue the Trump administration’s agenda and accelerate investigations into the president’s perceived foes.
The two sides have been negotiating for weeks, but Trump has said repeatedly during the talks that he thinks the fund should go forward and threatened to move forward with it if Blanche was not confirmed.
After the Thursday vote was delayed, Trump said in a social media post that he might pull Blanche’s nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year.
On Sunday evening, Trump said that people who had faced charges from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and could have benefited from the fund had “their lives destroyed.”
“This would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffered,” Trump said. “A lot of people like it.”
On Friday, Trump’s attorneys notified a court they would appeal a judge’s scathing ruling that characterized the settlement of the president’s lawsuit against the IRS as an improper exercise in self-dealing. The judge in her order last month referred one of Trump’s attorneys for potential disciplinary action and criticized Blanche’s involvement in the settlement, given his prior representation of Trump.
Blanche has said he disagrees “with the judge’s insinuations” about him. Justice Department lawyers had previously written in court papers that the fund was not moving forward but they refused a judge’s request to have Blanche and other administration officials file a declaration under penalty of perjury that the administration would not take any further action to create the fund.
The Justice Department said the court’s demands were “unnecessary.”
FILE - Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
