The Washington Commanders acquired wide receiver Deebo Samuel from the San Francisco 49ers for a fifth-round pick, pending a physical, multiple sources reported.

The trade cannot be official until the start of the new league year on March 12.

Samuel, who turned 29 last month, gives the Commanders another playmaker to pair with Terry McLaurin for reigning rookie of the year quarterback Jayden Daniels going into his second NFL season. Samuel had 51 catches for 670 yards and three touchdowns last season with the 49ers.

Washington reached the NFC championship game before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. General manager Adam Peters went into the offseason with the third-most salary cap space to use among 32 teams.

Some of that is going to Samuel, who in 2022 signed a three-year extension that goes through next season. The South Carolina product has 334 receptions for 4,792 yards and 22 TDs since making his debut for the 49ers in 2019.

The 49ers last month gave Samuel and his agent permission to seek a trade after he requested a move in a season-ending meeting with coach Kyle Shanahan.

San Francisco entertained offers for Samuel last offseason but didn’t have any good enough to make a trade. General manager John Lynch said after the season that the Niners weren’t looking to trade Samuel, who was an All-Pro in 2021 before his production dropped off.

With Washington, Samuel immediately becomes the No. 2 wideout alongside McLaurin, who is coming off his fifth 1,000-yard season in a row.

SKIING

German skier Emma Aicher won a World Cup downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway, for her first victory, one day after she earned the maiden podium result of her career.

Following a flawless second part of her run on the Olympiabakken course, Aicher edged out Lauren Macuga by 0.03 seconds, denying the American what would have been her first downhill triumph.

The 21-year-old German prodigy was runner-up to winner Cornelia Huetter in Friday’s downhill. The Austrian placed third on Saturday, 0.19 behind.

Macuga left the leader seat immediately and went straight over to the German to hug her after the winning run.

After the race, Macuga said she “can’t be upset about (losing by 0.03) as it’s my first downhill podium.”

The second place marked another highlight of the American’s breakout season and came less than two months after she won a World Cup super-G, and three weeks after taking bronze in super-G at the world championships.

Macuga’s previous best in downhill was fourth, from a race in Beaver Creek, Colo., in December.

Downhill world champion Breezy Johnson finished 0.62 off the lead in 10th, after she was third in Friday’s race.

Lindsey Vonn was 0.95 off the pace in 16th in her ninth race since her comeback this season at the age of 40 with a new titanium knee after six years away from racing.

Aicher’s win marked the first downhill victory for the German women’s ski team since Viktoria Rebensburg won a home race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in February 2020. No German skier had won in Kvitfjell since standout Katja Seizinger did so in the 1990s.

“It’s crazy I am one of them now, so it’s weird,” Aicher said.

Henrik Kristoffersen won his first World Cup giant slalom in three years, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, denying runner-up Lucas Pinheiro Braathen what would have been Brazil’s first ever top-level victory in Alpine skiing.

Pinheiro Braathen improved from seventh after the opening run as he led the race with only first-run leader Kristofferson to come down.

The Norwegian lost more than half of his advantage but still finished a commanding 0.41 seconds ahead of his former teammate, who switched nations and returned to the circuit competing for Brazil this season after a year off.

The Norwegian was the 2018 Olympic silver medalist and 2019 world champion, and had his eighth World Cup win in the discipline but first since triumphing here in March 2022.

Swiss star Marco Odermatt, who trailed Kristoffersen by 0.15 after the opening run, was third.

TENNIS

Stefanos Tsitsipas secured his first ATP 500 title by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-3 in the Dubai (UAE) Championships final.

The 11th-ranked Tsitsipas lost all 11 previous finals he played in ATP 500 events — including in Dubai in 2019 and 2020 — but needed just less than 90 minutes to claim his 12th career title and first of the year.

“It’s a big relief that I’m able to hold that trophy after the third attempt,” said Tsitsipas, who lost to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in his previous two Dubai finals. “It’s something that I had in the back of my mind, and I’m happy to say I accomplished it.”

The Greek player won the last four games of the first set and then clinched the win with an ace on his first match point.

Tsitsipas saved all seven break points he faced to improve to 7-3 against Auger-Aliassime. The victory will lift the Greek player back into the top 10 for the first time since May.

Auger-Aliassime, ranked No. 21, was seeking what would have been a tour-leading third win for 2025.

MISCELLANY

Boris Spassky, the world chess champion whose career was overshadowed by his loss to Bobby Fischer in the “Match of the Century” in 1972, died Thursday in Moscow. He was 88.

His death was announced by the International Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, which did not cite a cause. Spassky had suffered a major stroke in 2010 that left him dependent on a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Arkady Dvorkovich, the president of the federation said in a statement: “He was not only one of the greatest players of the Soviet era and the world, but also a true gentleman. His contributions to chess will never be forgotten.”

Spassky had noteworthy accomplishments as a player, but the politics of the match with Fischer, at the height of the Cold War, and the media attention focused on it, turned both of them into pawns in a wider drama.