Baumgartner

Liverpool to make £130 offer for Alexander Isak, Rasmus Hojlund nears Napoli move, Brentford’s Maximilian Beier bid rejected and Oleksandr Zinchenko could be on his way out of Arsenal.

Liverpool are expected to make an improved £130m offer for Newcastle’s Sweden striker Alexander Isak, 25, with add-ons and bonuses making it a British transfer record. (Telegraph – subscription required, external)

Manchester United have agreed a deal to send Rasmus Hojlund, 22, on a season-long loan to Napoli, with a conditional obligation to buy at £38m. (Athletic – subscription required, external)

Brentford have had an offer of about £45m for 22-year-old Germany forward Maximilian Beier rejected by Borussia Dortmund. (Athletic – subscription required, external)

RB Leipzig’s Austria attacking midfielder Christoph Baumgartner, 26, is a leading target for Crystal Palace. (Sky Sports, external)

Crystal Palace have also made an £8m bid for 28-year-old Bournemouth winger David Brooks, but the Cherries do not want to sell the Wales international. (Sun, external)

Roma have made an offer to sign Chelsea’s Tyrique George, but Fulham, Crystal Palace and German champions Bayern Munich are also monitoring the 19-year-old English winger. (Sky Sports, external)

AC Milan are pushing to sign Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji, with Crystal Palace also interested in the 30-year-old Switzerland international. (Sky Sports, external)

Chelsea defender Axel Disasi is wanted by his former club Monaco, who hope to sign the 27-year-old France centre-back on loan, but Bournemouth and Aston Villa are also keen. (Footmercato – in French, external)

Liverpool and Roma are working on the final details of a deal that will see Greece left-back Kostas Tsimikas, 29, move to the Serie A club on loan. (Gianluca di Marzio – in Italian, external)

Marseille are interested in signing Arsenal and Ukraine full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, but the 28-year-old’s wages could prove a stumbling block. (Athletic – subscription required, external)

Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma is still eyeing a move away from Paris St-Germain before the deadline and an unnamed Premier League club has joined Manchester City among those interested in the 26-year-old. (Sky Sports, external)

AC Milan have turned down Bournemouth’s loan offer, with an option to buy for about £17m, for their Spanish full-back Alex Jimenez, 20. (La Gazzetta dello Sport – in Italian, external)

Felix Baumgartner’s fatal paragliding crash was preceded by large boom as it spun to the ground, according to witnesses.

Beachgoers knew something was wrong when they heard a loud boom ring out as a paraglider spun out of control, before killing its only occupant, extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, when it crashed next to a swimming pool near the Adriatic Sea.

A 30-year-old mother watched the deadly descent unfold Thursday afternoon from nearby with her two young children, who were entranced by the constant traffic of paragliders above the beach town of Porto Sant’Elipido in central Italy’s Marche region.

“Everything was normal, then it started to spin like a top,’’ Mirella Ivanov said on Friday. “It went down and we heard a roar. In fact, I turned around because I thought it crashed on the rocks. Then I saw two lifeguards running, people who were running toward” the crash site.

When she saw people trying to revive the occupant, she hustled her two children away.

The city’s mayor confirmed the death of 56-year-old Baumgartner, who was renowned as the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound. The cause of the paragliding accident was under investigation. Police did not return calls asking for comment.

“It is a destiny that is very hard to comprehend for a man who has broken all kinds of records, who has been an icon of flight, and who travelled through space,” Mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella told The Associated Press.

Ciarpella said that Baumgartner had been in the area on vacation, and that investigators believed he may have fallen ill during the fatal flight.

Baumgartner’s social media feed features videos of him in recent days flying on a motorised paraglider – known as paramotoring – above seaside towns, and taking off from a nearby airfield surrounded by cornfields.

The Clube de Sole Le Mimose beachside resort where the crash occurred said in a statement that an employee who was “slightly injured” in the accident was in good condition. No guests were injured, and the pool has been reopened.

In 2012, Baumgartner, known as “Fearless Felix,” became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurised suit and jumped from a capsule hoisted more than 24 miles (39 kilometres) above Earth by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.

The Austrian, who was part of the Red Bull Stratos team, topped out at 843.6 mph (1,357.6km/h) – the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of sound – during a nine-minute descent. At one point, he went into a potentially dangerous flat spin while still supersonic, spinning for 13 seconds, his crew later said.

In 2012, millions watched YouTube’s livestream as Baumgartner coolly flashed a thumbs-up when he came out of the capsule high above Earth and then activated his parachute as he neared the ground, lifting his arms in victory after he landed.

Baumgartner’s altitude record stood for two years until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance.

Baumgartner, a former Austrian military parachutist, made thousands of jumps from planes, bridges, skyscrapers and famed landmarks, including the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.

In 2003, he flew across the English Channel in a carbon fibre wing after being dropped from a plane.

In recent years, he performed with The Flying Bulls, an aviation team owned and operated by Red Bull, as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows across Europe.

Red Bull paid Baumgartner tribute in a post Friday, calling him “precise, demanding and critical. With others, but above all toward yourself.”

The statement underlined the research and courage with which Baumgartner confronted “the greatest challenges.”

“No detail was too small, no risk too great, because you were capable of calculating it,’’ Red Bull said.

Felix Baumgartner lived to leap, becoming the first person to fall faster than the speed of sound during a 24-mile skydiving adventure through the stratosphere in 2012.

On Thursday, the Austrian daredevil died at age 56 while engaged in a far less intense activity, crashing into the side of a hotel swimming pool while paragliding in Porto Sant Elpidio, a town on central Italy’s eastern coast.

According to Sky Austria, he became ill before the crash. A hotel employee was hospitalized after sustaining injuries in the accident, the report stated.

“Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” Porto Sant Elpidio mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella said on Facebook.

Felix Baumgartner jumps out of the capsule during Red Bull Stratos on October 14, 2012.

(Red Bull Stratos/Red Bull via AP Images)

The man known as “Fearless Felix” made history 13 years ago when he parachuted down to a landing near Roswell, N.M., after being lifted 24 miles above Earth into the stratosphere in a capsule carried by a helium balloon. He set a record for fastest free fall, descending 127,852 feet at 843.6 mph and becoming the first human to break the sound barrier without the assistance of a vehicle.

As he exited his capsule and jumped into air that was 70 degrees below zero, Baumgartner gave a thumbs-up to onlookers watching a live stream online. He activated his parachute as he neared the ground.

“When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think of about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive,” he said after landing safely.

“Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are.”

Baumgartner’s altitude record stood for two years until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance.

A former Austrian military parachutist, Baumgartner made numerous jumps from airplanes, skyscrapers and bridges. He also leaped from famed landmarks, including the Christ the Redeemer statue at the summit of Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He once flew across the English Channel in a carbon fiber wing after being dropped from a plane. The daredevil also performed as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows across Europe.

Baumgartner died while engaged in a more prosaic activity. Paragliders are lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched aircraft primarily used for recreation. The pilot sits suspended below a fabric wing.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a representative for Baumgartner’s longtime sponsor Red Bull said, “We are shocked and overwhelmed with sadness to hear the devastating news of our longtime friend Felix Baumgartner.

“Felix was ‘born to fly’ and was determined to push the limits. He was also smart, professional, thorough and meticulous, never leaving anything to chance. He was generous, giving much of his time to help and inspiring so many people.

“We remember Felix as a lovely person, devoted to his family and friends, to whom we send our heartfelt sympathy. Felix, you will be deeply missed.”

In an interview with Red Bull years ago, Baumgartner addressed his meticulous preparation before taking flight.

“We had a very long list of ‘what ifs,’ in other words eventualities that could happen and how we would deal with them in an emergency,” he said. “The list kept getting longer and longer. I was only afraid of the things that were not on the list, the things we had not thought of. To this day, I abort missions if the conditions are not right.”

The legendary daredevil, best known for his record-breaking jump from the stratosphere, lost control of his paraglider and crashed into a hotel pool.

Renowned extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, most famous for jumping from a record 39 kilometres (24 miles) at the edge of space in the 2012 Red Bull Stratos project, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy on Thursday.

The 56-year-old Austrian crashed his paraglider in Porto Sant’Elpidio, situated on the Italian Adriatic coast, after losing control and plunged into a wooden structure next to a swimming pool of the Le Mimose Family Camping Village, according to Italian media reports.

A female hotel employee was injured by a piece of debris and taken to hospital with neck injuries.

Baumgartner died at the scene of the accident, and investigations into the circumstances of the accident are under way.

Italian media reported that Baumgartner had already lost consciousness in the air.

The city’s mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, confirmed Baumgartner’s death in a social media post.

“Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” the mayor said.

Just two hours before his deadly crash, he posted on the social media platform Instagram with the foreboding caption “too much wind”.

From skydiving to the stratosphere

Born in Salzburg, Baumgartner completed his first parachute jump at the age of 16 and later became a parachutist in the Austrian military.

Baumgartner’s reputation as an extreme sports athlete grew exponentially when he turned his hand to the sport of base jumping in the 1990s.

He set a new world record for the highest base jump from a building with his leap from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1999. Later that year, he completed a base jump from the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

On July 31, 2003, Baumgartner again made global headlines for his base jumping feats when he became the first person to cross the English Channel in free fall after jumping out of a plane equipped with specially developed wings made of carbon.

But it was Baumgartner’s record-breaking free fall from space in 2012 that shot the Austrian to worldwide fame.

Over the desert of New Mexico, he jumped from a helium balloon almost 39km (24 miles) above the planet and became the first person to break the sound barrier in free fall.

Baumgartner set three world records for his jump: He reached a maximum speed of 1,357.6 kilometres per hour (834mph), or Mach 1.25; completed the highest jump at 38,969 metres; and recorded the longest free fall with a length of 36,402 metres.

His death was confirmed late on Thursday by the energy drink company Red Bull, which sponsored many of Baumgartner’s stunts.