SUITA, Osaka – Gamba Osaka said Friday Magno Alves will leave the J. League first-division club at the end of the season after the Brazilian striker failed to show up for training for the past three days. Alves is thought to have been in talks with two-time Asian Champions League winners Al Ittihad about a move and the 31-year-old striker is pictured wearing a team scarf and smiling with club officials on the Saudi Arabian team’s official Web site. “It’s hard to think of him as a member of our team any more,” Gamba manager Akira Nishino said after Friday’s training session. “Nobody knew anything about this.”
National
Rice planted in former no-go zone
Farmers in the city of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, have begun planting rice in a district once designated a no-go zone because of radioactive fallout ejected by the disaster-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant.