Manchester United midfielder, Paul Pogba has clearly settled seamlessly well into his new club. Pogba was impressive in his debut for United in their 2-0 Premier League win over Southampton on Friday, August 19. It seems the midfielder is already getting along well with his teammates as he was spotted with one of them dining at a popular restaurant in Manchester. Pogba and forward Memphis Depay were seen entering San Carlo restaurant where they enjoyed a meal together. While the pair arrived with a private cab, only Pogba was seen exiting the restaurant around 11pm. Despite his impressive outing on…
Author: David Folami
Petr Cech insists Arsenal will not hide from the responsibility of mounting a Premier League title challenge after beating Watford 3-1 away from home on Saturday. The Gunners opened the new league campaign with a disappointing 4-3 loss at home to Liverpool, before holding last term’s surprise champions Leicester City to a 0-0 draw at King Power Stadium. Arsenal were comfortable winners at Vicarage Road, where a Santi Cazorla penalty, together with goals from Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, sealed a first victory of 2016-17 for Arsene Wenger’s men. And goalkeeper Cech knows Arsenal fans will accept nothing less than…
A Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brace proved enough to secure a 2-1 victory for Borussia Dortmund in their Bundesliga season opener against Mainz. The 27-year-old scored 25 league goals for Thomas Tuchel’s side last term and opened his account for the new campaign by heading home a cross from Andre Schurrle after17 minutes. Schurrle was the most impressive of the four recent signings who started for the hosts, but Dortmund’s victory was not an altogether convincing one. Mainz, who finished sixth last season, more than matched Dortmund for long periods of the game and had it not been for a glaring miss…
Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has no doubt Jamie Vardy will rediscover his remarkable form of last season. England international Vardy fired his side to a stunning title with 24 Premier League goals last season. However, the 29-year-old is without a league goal this campaign, and Leicester are winless from their opening two games. Despite that, Ranieri remains confident over Vardy’s ability ahead of facing Swansea City on Saturday. “Last season he was a dangerous man – dangerous and a goalscorer,” he said. “I’m not worried because Jamie is very focused. “We played well on the counter-attack against Arsenal, they…
Samson Siasia, who helped Nigeria to men’s football bronze medal at the Rio Olympics, says he no longer want to have anything to do with the game in the country. The Dream Team VI coach said in an interview that he no longer wanted to be involved in what he described as “a disrespectful system’’. Siasia, who also won a silver medal at Beijing 2008, claimed he had gone unpaid for five months by his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). He recalled that he and his players had “a turbulent and incredible campaign in Brazil’’ during the Olympics and…
Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has no doubt the “special” Marcus Rashford’s chance at the club and with England will come. Rashford has dropped down to England’s Under-21 squad, while he seems set to have to wait for his chance at United. When his opportunity came off the bench at Hull City on Saturday, the 18-year-old tapped in a dramatic late winner in a 1-0 victory. Rooney, who set up the goal with a fine individual run, is confident Rashford will eventually get the chances he deserves. “It was a big moment for him to go to the Euros and…
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique highlighted the hunger of his squad not to be ousted by Real Madrid as Spanish champions after a hard-fought 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao maintained their perfect start to the season. The Catalans had to win their final five league games of last season to stave off Real’s late charge and claim a fifth title in seven seasons. “It is a start to the season very like how we ended last season. All the players are involved, all the players have the desire and hunger to be first,” said the Barca coach. Four wins to start…
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was relaxed about the possibility of losing star forward Sergio Aguero to suspension after television footage appeared to show him elbowing West Ham United’s Winston Reid on Sunday. Aguero could face retrospective action by the Football Association, and suspension, if the incident in City’s 3-1 Premier League win is judged to have been deliberate. That would rule him out of City’s next game, the eagerly awaited derby away to Manchester United at Old Trafford on September 10. “I didn’t see it,” said Guardiola of the incident at Eastlands following a win that left City top…
Ivan Rakitic’s first-half header maintained Barcelona’s 100 percent start to the La Liga season as the champions withstood a wave of late pressure to win 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. Rakitic finished off an excellent team move after 20 minutes, but with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez uncharacteristically wayward in front of goal, Athletic nearly grabbed a point when Benat Etxebarria’s free-kick flew just wide late on. Barca join Real Madrid and top-of-the-table Las Palmas as the only sides with two wins from their first two games. Champions League finalists Atletico Madrid are already four points off the pace…
Having sold Yannick Bolasie to Everton in the close season, Crystal Palace would be loathe to see another quality wide man leave the club to a Premier League rival and striker Christian Benteke has called on Wilfried Zaha to stay at the club. Zaha was dropped from the starting line-up for Palace’s 1-1 draw with Bournemouth at the weekend after the club rejected a bid from Tottenham Hotspur for the 23-year-old. Benteke, who arrived from Liverpool this month for a fee that could reach more than 30 million pounds, said Zaha had made a real impact when he came on,…
Atletico’s slow start to the campaign continued as they have now managed just two points from their opening two games, both against newly promoted opposition. Euro 2016 top scorer Antoine Griezmann missed the best chance of the first-half, whilst Leganes goalkeeper Jon Serantes saved from Kevin Gameiro and Fernando Torres after the break. “If we keep playing like this we’ll be fighting against relegation,” raged a frustrated Griezmann to BeIN Sports. Valencia have endured an even more disastrous start to the campaign as they lost 1-0 at Basque minnows Eibar to follow-up a 4-2 thrashing at home by Las Palmas…
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has berated the Nigerian Police for invading and sealing off the Kano residence of the state’s former governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso. Armed policemen had on Tuesday, August 23, laid siege at Kwankwaso’s house located on Lugard road to prevent an alleged mass wedding being planned by the former governor. Fayose said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its supporters have encouraged President Muhammadu Buhari’s dictatorship style by not joining other Nigerians to condemn his undemocratic acts. In a statement issued by his spokesman Lere Olayinkan in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, August 24, Fayose expressed concern about…
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State has accused Governor Rochas Okorocha of high level corruption. The allegation was made by the factional leader of the Imo PDP, Chief Charles Ezekwem during a press conference in Owerri on Wednesday, August 24, 2016. “The gory socio-political and economic situation in our beloved Imo State today, easily gives any right thinking person, goose pimples. There is unarguably, a total collapse of virtually every government institution in the state, as nepotism, favouritism and high level of corruption, have become the trademark of the present APC administration of Governor Rochas Okorocha,” Ezekwem said…
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide, Reno Omokri, has reacted to the statement credited to the emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, where he warned President Muhammadu Buhari to be careful not to make the mistakes Jonathan made. Omokri said Buhari should make the supposed Jonathan mistakes, adding that contrary to Sanusi’s comment, Jonathan made naira stable at N150-N215 to $1 between 2011-2015. He said: “How can anyone say President Muhammadu Buhari should not make Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s mistake? “Rather than avoid GEJ’s mistake, PMB should make the same GEJ mistake that made the economy grow at over 4% every year…
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose has urged Nigerians to rise in condemnation of what he described as President Muhammadu Buhari’s emerging dictatorship. Fayose made the comment in reaction to the recent police invasion of the home of former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso. The Ekiti governor’s comments were contained in a statement released by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, on Wednesday, August 24, 2016. The statement reads: “The fact that Senator Rabiu Kwakwanso is of the ruling APC should worry well-meaning Nigerians because it appears no one will be spared by these anti-democracy agents that have taking over Nigeria.” “When…
Chief Raymond Dokpesi, a national chairmanship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the party zoned the position to the South, not South-West. Similarly, he said that the presidency slot of the party had been given to the North. Dokpesi stated this on Sunday while speaking with newsmen in Nasarawa, Nasarawa state. “I think the media are helping in confusing the matter regarding the national chairmanship position of our party, PDP, as there was no time that the leadership of the party at the national level zoned the chairmanship position to anybody. “Chairman of caretaker committee made it clear…
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has warned transport unions in the nation to to remove their articulated vehicles causing obstruction on federal highways or face penalty. Fashola gave the directive during an inspection tour of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Friday, August 26. The minister said that his ministry will soon recover its Right of Way (ROW) illegally occupied by such articulated vehicles. He said: “Highways are also not places to park articulated vehicles and trucks. “So, I am using this opportunity to appeal to Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) and National Union of Road…
Joseph Yobo, a former Captain of the Super Eagles, says the Joseph Yobo Foundation would work to release as many inmates of Ikoyi Prisons, especially those awaiting trial. Yobo spoke at the inauguration of Ikoyi Prisons Football Academy on Saturday in Lagos. “I have never been to the prisons before but on getting to Ikoyi Prisons, I realised the need to give hope to someone. “The Joseph Yobo Foundation is ready to do everything within its means to grant bail to as many as possible that are awaiting trial, especially those in the facility’s football academy. “I am happy with…
There are reports that the Federal Government of Nigeria might be probing the tenures of two ex-Governors of the CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Charles Soludo. According to a recent report by Sunnewsonline, the two financial experts are on the watch list of the Federal Government for some alleged anomalies that occurred during their tenures as the head of Nigeria’s apex bank. It was further reported that so many discrepancies ranging from the printing of Naira notes to management of CBN’s surplus finances as well as the handling of projects and policies by the two ex-CBN governors between 2007 and…
President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the preparedness of the Federal Government to discuss the release of Chibok girls with the Boko Haram insurgents, who abducted them in 2014. A statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Malam Garba Shehu, the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, said that Buhari made the reaffirmation in an interview with journalists in Nairobi, Kenya. The president spoke to the newsmen at the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI). He said that the Nigerian government had since expressed its readiness to dialogue with bonafide leaders of the…