American defender Cory Gibbs has decided not to follow through with his transfer from German Third Division club St. Pauli to German Second Division club Jahn Regensburg.
''Mr. Gibbs signed over the weekend,'' club official Heinz Groenewold, who was angry about Gibbs' reversal, told NDR. ''We learned of his change of mind in the newspaper. The club has decided to release Gibbs from his contract.''
St. Pauli coach Franz Gerber said he would be happy to keep Gibbs, whose transfer was supposed to garner St. Pauli a $115,000 fee.
The transfer window remains open until Jan. 31. First Division Eintracht Frankfurt is among the clubs that has shown interest in Gibbs, whose St. Pauli contract runs through the end of the 2003-04 season, after which he will be a free agent.
Gibbs, 24, a Florida native who played college ball at Brown, joined St. Pauli in 2001 when the club was in the First Division and quickly won a starting spot. The team was relegated to the Second Division that season. It dropped another tier after the 2002-03 season.
Gibbs made his U.S. national team debut in 2003, when he made seven appearances.