Bayern Munich cut the gap to leaders Borussia Dortmund but were far from impressive in their 2-1 victory at Mainz 05 on Saturday as they made it three wins in three matches in all competitions following their early-season dip in form. Leon Goretzka put the visitors ahead in the 39th minute after an earlier effort by Thiago Alcantara was ruled out following the use of the video assistant referee. Mainz did not have to wait long for an equaliser, with Jean-Paul Boetius striding into the box in the 48th to drill in a cross after being left completely unmarked. Spaniard…
Author: David Folami
Andrea Agnelli is standing by Cristiano Ronaldo as the superstar faces an accusation of rape in the United States. Agnelli, the son of former Fiat CEO Umberto Agnelli and a member of the Italian car maker’s board, spoke Thursday at a club shareholders meeting in Turin and threw his support behind the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. “I’m very calm, having spoken to him directly as soon as the case emerged, on his position,” Agnelli said. “And his behavior in the days and weeks that followed only confirm my initial feeling.” Some of Ronaldo’s corporate sponsors, including Nike and video game…
Juventus are not scoring enough goals considering the number of chances they create, coach Massimiliano Allegri said on Friday. The Serie A leaders have 25 points from nine games, four points clear of Napoli, and are the top scorers in the league with 19 goals, but Allegri said there was still a lot to improve on, especially after they dropped their first points in a 1-1 draw with Genoa last Saturday. “We are coming from a wonderful win against Manchester United but also a draw against Genoa in the league,” said Allegri, whose side won 1-0 at Old Trafford in…
Angel Di Maria spectacularly salvaged Paris Saint-Germain a point at home to Napoli in Champions League Group C with a late equaliser on Wednesday. Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens twice put the Italians in front at Parc des Princes but a Mario Rui own goal and Di Maria’s dramatic leveller in the third minute of five added on keeps the French giants within two points of group leaders Liverpool. Just when it looked like it was not going to happen, Di Maria popped up with a moment of magic to spare PSG’s blushes. Had Napoli held out and left Paris…
1Even in his absence, Lionel Messi was the centre of attention on Wednesday. The cameras panned to him, wearing a baseball cap and sitting next to the eldest of his three sons inside Camp Nou, before Barcelona’s Champions League game against Inter Milan and the chanting started. “Messsssi, Messsssi.” How would Barca cope without him? Just fine, as it turned out. The message from Barca had been that you cannot replace the irreplaceable. Ernesto Valverde and Jordi Alba stressed before the game that there is no substitute for Messi. Instead, the rallying cry was for the whole team to step…
Daniel Levy announced on Friday that the club will continue to play all its 2018 matches at Wembley Stadium, thus delaying the opening of the club’s new venue until next year. “I wish I was able to confirm an exact opening date and fixture. However, in light of factors completely outside of our control, contractors missing deadlines and possible future unforeseen issues, we are naturally being cautious in respect of our timetable for our test events and official opening game,” Levy said in a statement. Spurs’ new £850 million home on the site of their former ground was originally due…
Aaron Ramsey wants Arsenal to explain why they withdrew the offer of a contract extension, saying he hasn’t been told the reasons for the decision. Ramsey looks set to leave Arsenal when his current deal expires next summer, after the club rescinded an offer that had been on the table for weeks. The midfielder revealed after Arsenal’s 1-0 Europa League win over Sporting Lisbon on Thursday that he still doesn’t know what led to that decision. “Hopefully somebody will come up and tell me why,” he said, according to the Guardian. “I’ll accept that if there’s a reason. When the…
Cobi Jones said Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s superb play since joining the MLS side could be due to some divine intervention. “Any time that you have a player like Ibrahimovic, who seems to have been kissed by the gods right now, as far as timing of everything goes, anything can happen,” Jones said on The Totally Football Show. Ibrahimovic has taken MLS by storm since joining the Galaxy in March. The former Sweden international has 22 goals in 26 games, is a strong contender for MVP, and even has the top-selling jersey in MLS. The team, currently in 7th place in the…
Pep Guardiola has no doubts that Manchester City’s top-five rivals are capable of winning the Premier League title this season. The Premier League champions are top on goal difference but a defeat in Monday’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur along with victories for Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal would see City drop out of the top-four. “I don’t have doubt about that,” Guardiola told a news conference when asked if all of the top five could compete for the title. “There’s just two points difference between four, five or six teams and they are so strong — you see the lineup, the…
Thibaut Courtois says he is considering taking legal action against Spanish newspaper El Pais because of an article it published on Friday claiming he would not welcome the appointment of either Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte as his club’s new coach. The Spanish giants have endured a nightmare start to La Liga under new coach Julen Lopetegui and there is speculation that a change at the helm is imminent with Courtois’ former Chelsea coaches Mourinho and Conte both linked with the Madrid job. A story published in El Pais suggested that perhaps Courtois, due to his “youth, or by his…
Jose Mourinho has ruled out bringing Zlatan Ibrahimovic back to Manchester United but admitted he has got striker problems ahead of the Premier League game against Everton. Mourinho said he will have to keep faith with out-of-form Romelu Lukaku at Old Trafford on Sunday because Alexis Sanchez, who missed the midweek defeat to Juventus, is likely to be ruled out again. The United boss also replied “no” when asked whether Ibrahimovic was an option to ease the goal-scoring burden on Lukaku, who has gone eight games without a goal. “Well, against Juventus to give him [Lukaku] a break, I don’t…
Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigeria is `too big and too diverse to blindly sign agreements’ without understanding the consequences of such actions. According to him, Nigeria is still assessing the impact of this agreement on its backward integration and import substitution policies. He said: “Specifically, the provisions on rules of origin and transhipment were matters of concern to us. “Already, some of the treaties we are party to have been significantly abused resulting in massive smuggling which has crippled many of our local industries and destroyed millions of jobs. “To avoid these past mistakes, we conducted vast consultations across the…
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said that over $183 million has been invested so far in the National School Feeding Programme in Nigeria. Osinbajo made the disclosure in Tunis, Tunisia, in a keynote address at the closing ceremony of the 20th Annual Global Child Nutrition Forum held at Four Seasons Hotel in Tunis. He said that over nine million primary pupils are benefitting in 26 states already. The vice president said that the programme has been, by all accounts, a remarkable success. He said that by the end of 2018, with more states in the country joining the National Homegrown School…
Muhammadu Buhari has expressed his disappointment in the Nigerian media for their refusal to adequately report the achievement of his administration in the agricultural sector. While hosting young political appointees and supporters of his administration during a dinner at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday, October 24, 2018, he said his government has not been given enough credit for achieving food security, according to a report by The Punch. He boasted that his administration’s “Go back to the land” programme made agriculture so attractive that people abandoned white collar jobs for farmlands. He said, “I’m very disappointed in the Nigerian press.…
Ibikunle Amosun has said state governors across the country will struggle to pay N30,000 as national minimum wage because many states already cannot afford to pay the current N18,000 in full to workers. While speaking during a town hall meeting in Abeokuta, the state capital, on Thursday, October 25, 2018, the governor said state governments can only spend what they can afford with their resources. He said, “The situation now is like an old woman with load walking gently, if she now adds more loads, she won’t walk at all. “With N18,000 minimum wage, as we speak in this country,…
Godwin Obaseki of Edo has called for improvement in air safety management in Nigeria to ensure a culture of safety, regularity, efficiency and economical operations of the aviation industry. Obaseki made the call at the 5th Annual General Meeting/Conference of the National Air-traffic Communicators Association of Nigeria (NACAN) which held in Benin on Friday. “NACAN has to work hard to improve the air transportation record and air-traffic communication in line with the provision of International Civil Aviation Organisation. “Members of NACAN should avail themselves with regular training to come up with the best practices to be at par with what…
Atiku Abubakar seem confident about the 2019 presidential polls after getting an endorsement from UK’s The Economist. The UK-based news site predicts that President Muhammadu Buhari will lose to the former VP in next year’s elections. On his Twitter, Atiku is enjoying a boost following the prediction which reveals him to be Buhari’s likely successor. n recent weeks Atiku Abubakar has reiterated his issues concerning governance in Nigeria and thinks himself a better candidate to do the job. A report by The Economist has given him the needed boost. “With the vote likely to be split in the north, Mr.…
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was applauded by the world for accepting loss at the 2015 presidential elections, but it may have been to avoid ruling Nigeria during an economic recession. Babatunde Fashola thinks so in a report published recently. Fashola reportedly mentioned this at a meeting “organised by the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed”. The Premium Times confirms this in the report. ALSO READ: Donald Duke says Buhari caused 2016 recession because he didn’t know what he was doing At the Emeritus Professor Theophilus Ogunlesi Hall in Ibadan, the minister blames the Jonathan administration for the debts inherited by his team.…
The UK based Economist Magazine predicts that President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC will lose the 2019 presidential election to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP. Recall that the Economist predicted that then candidate Buhari of the APC was going to win the 2015 presidential election. The Economist also endorsed Buhari ahead of the 2015 elections and famously referred to then President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP as an “ineffectual buffoon”. In a report published by its research unit which is known as the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the renowned magazine forecasts that “President, Muhammadu Buhari will lose power at…
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has assured that the commission would not suffer any difficulty in conducting 2019 general elections due to the delay in the passage of its budget and amendment to the Electoral Act. Yakubu expressed the hope while fielding questions from newsmen on Friday in Abuja. He explained that there were no discrepancy between the figure of N189.2bn the commission submitted to the executive and what the National Assembly appropriated for the commission. He said that INEC had discussed with the Ministry of Finance on the disbursement of fund for the elections…