The Confederation of African Football (CAF) have revealed their final three for the 2015 African Player of the Year. An initial 37-man short list for the award which was revealed in October was cut down to 11 players in November. At a press conference attended by CAF Executive member Anjorin Moucharafou and Glo representatives on Monday, 14 December 2015 in Abuja, Nigeria, Andre Ayew (Ghana/ Swansea City), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon/ Borussia Dortmund) and Yaya Toure (Cote d”Ivoire/ Manchester City) have been revealed as the final three nominees for the African Player of the Year. Toure has taken out the last…
Author: David Folami
Has Costa finally returned to the form that made him one of the Premier League’s most dangerous strikers in 2014-15? After missing Chelsea’s trip to Manchester United through suspension, the Spanish international followed up his two-goal performance against Watford by creating the Blues’ opener versus Crystal Palace on Sunday and bundling home the icing on the cake in a 3-0 win.
Another manager bites the dust at Real Madrid, and another round of speculation about the future of the club’s star players begins. Reports have it that Gareth Bale is considering his future at the Bernabeu after the sacking of Rafa Benitez and his replacement by Zinedine Zidane. The report states that the Wales captain is “intensely disappointed” by developments after having formed a good working relationship with Benitez. And that is likely to trigger big interest at Old Trafford, where talk of a potential mega-money deal for Bale has never really gone away. But The Times writes that Real president…
Fresh from a 2-1 win over Swansea and an encouraging 0-0 draw against Chelsea, it looks as if under-fire manager Louis van Gaal will live to fight on. However, if the Dutchman is to thrive rather than merely to survive, there needs to be a careful rethink of the club’s transfer policy. It must move away from what Ed Woodward wants, and towards what Manchester United needs. Woodward, as it has been noted in many quarters, is looking to buy a big-name player that will put the club back on the map as one of Europe’s elites. Yet it is…
Barcelona have reportedly registered 77 new players across the club’s various teams as their FIFA-imposed ban on making additions has finally ended. In 2014, Barca were found to have breached numerous violations of FIFA’s youth transfer regulations, with the one-year transfer ban being upheld on two separate occasions by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Summer signings Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal are the most high-profile names on the list reportedly registered with the Catalan football federation when their offices opened for business on Monday Jan. 3, and both are set to make their debuts in Wednesday’s Copa del Rey…
Chelsea star Eden Hazard is now worth more on the transfer market than Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo, according to the CIES Football Observatory. The research group published the bi-annual list on Monday which listed Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi, 28, as football’s more valuable player at €250.7 million. Messi’s Barca teammate Neymar, 23, is second in the ranking at €152.7m, a large increase from his value of €94m back in June’s edition of the study. Hazard, 24, is considered to be worth €130.5m which is more than Ronaldo, who is fourth in the list at €114m — the Portugal international…
Jose Mourinho’s camp are getting “frustrated” with the lack of movement regarding the Manchester United job, sources have told Theinfostride, and his representatives are beginning to investigate other options. Mourinho has long wanted the Old Trafford job and it had seemed the time was finally right for him to get it, with the Portuguese parting ways with Chelsea just at the time when it seemed that Louis van Gaal was set to suffer the same fate at United after an awful December. Sources say that Mourinho’s representatives got in touch with the Old Trafford hierarchy within 24 hours of his…
Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has been voted England’s Player of the Year for the fourth time after breaking his country’s scoring record, the Football Association announced on Tuesday. The 30-year-old took his England tally to 51 goals, breaking Bobby Charlton’s longstanding record of 49, and top-scored with seven goals as Roy Hodgson’s side qualified for Euro 2016 with a perfect record of 10 wins. Rooney, England’s captain, received 37 percent of the votes in a poll of England Supporters Club members. He previously won the award in 2008, 2009 and 2014. Stoke City goalkeeper Jack Butland, who has produced…
Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane promised to put his “heart and soul” into managing the Spanish giants after he was sensationally named as coach following Rafael Benitez’s unceremonious sacking. The three-time world player of the year takes over at the globe’s richest club despite a limited coaching CV which includes his stewardship of Real’s feeder team, Castilla. But Zidane, 43, said he would do his utmost to make sure Real, currently third in La Liga after an unhappy spell under Benitez, land silverware this year. “We have the best club in the world, the best fans and what we have…
Swansea City are aware of how difficult it will be to reinforce their strikeforce in the January transfer window due to a lack of available forwards and increased competition in the market, caretaker manager Alan Curtis has said. The Welsh club have won just two of their last 16 Premier League fixtures, leaving them 17th in the table after 20 matches and just two points above the relegation zone. “I have said before that possibly a striker is needed but finding the right striker, probably at inflated prices, is going to be very difficult,” Curtis told British media. “I think…
Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet has called on his team mates to respond immediately to Saturday’s disappointing 2-0 Premier League defeat by West Ham United when they travel to take on Stoke City in the League Cup semifinal on Tuesday. The Merseyside club have been struggling to pull together a string of results on their travels, having won just one of their last five away fixtures in all competitions. “We’ve got a new game coming up very early, the semi-final, so hopefully we can put things straight there because it’s very important. Hopefully we can do well against Stoke,” Mignolet told…
Injury-plagued Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge has been ruled out of Tuesday’s League Cup semifinal first leg at Stoke after suffering a minor setback in his recovery from a hamstring problem. Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, who has just one fit striker in Christian Benteke, had hoped to get Sturridge back ahead of this week’s cup double-header, with the Reds also set to face fourth-tier Exeter in the FA Cup on Friday. However, Sturridge, who hasn’t played since making a substitute appearance in Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat at Newcastle on December 6, suffered another setback in training which will further delay his return.…
Liverpool’s players must show more desire if they are to get their faltering season back on track, manager Jurgen Klopp has said. With his team having netted just 22 goals in 20 Premier League games this season, Klopp has called for an all-round improvement to set matters right. Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi and Danny Ings are all injured, leaving the German with Christian Benteke as his only orthodox striking option ahead of Tuesday’s League Cup semifinal first leg against Stoke City. The Belgian, Liverpool’s leading scorer, has six league goals this season. To put that in perspective, the league’s joint…
Nigeria head coach, Sunday Oliseh, is pleased with the team’s preparations for the 2016 African Nations Championship (Chan) in Rwanda which kicks off on January 16. The Super Eagles commenced preparations for the Chan a fortnight ago in Abuja and have since arrived in Pretoria, South Africa for the final leg of their tune-up for the tournament in Rwanda. Oliseh has no issues with the preparations of his charges and believes the Super Eagles “can do well in Rwanda.” “We started our preparations two weeks ago in Abuja and now we have decided to come to Pretoria. “It has almost…
It is more than 20 years since Everton last won a trophy and Roberto Martinez says more silverware is long overdue as his side prepare for Wednesday’s League Cup semifinal first leg against Manchester City. The FA Cup in 1995 was the last addition to the trophy cabinet at Goodison Park, which during the 1980s had also been home to two league titles and a further FA Cup success in 1984. That was also the year Everton lost in the final of the League Cup, going down 1-0 to Liverpool in a replay. Only once before, seven years previously, had…
Zinedine Zidane is the right man for the job of Real Madrid coach, former team mate David Beckham said on Monday after the Spanish club sacked Rafa Benitez and replaced him with the French World Cup winner. “Does it get any better than this??,” the former England captain, who played with Zidane at Real after joining from Manchester United in 2003, declared on Instagram. “A man that has been the best at a game we all love, taking over of a club that myself and many more people love… Someone with drive, passion and also doesn’t accept failure on any…
Real Madrid sacked coach Rafael Benitez after just seven months in charge on Monday with club legend Zinedine Zidane replacing the Spaniard. “We have taken the difficult decision to rescind the contract of Rafael Benitez as coach,” said Madrid president Florentino Perez. “The Real Madrid board has decided to name Zinedine Zidane as coach of the first team.” However, the club didn’t announce the length of Zidane’s contract. Benitez’s unhappy reign came to an end after a 2-2 draw away to Valencia on Sunday left Madrid four points adrift of local rivals Atletico Madrid at the top of La Liga.…
Senator Ben Murray-Bruce has praised former President, Goodluck Jonathan saying that the latter “left giant footprints in eternity’s sands of time.” Murray-Bruce also said that Jonathan achieved great things for Nigeria, one of which was the construction of Almajiri schools. The Senator made the comments via Twitter on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. Murray-Bruce had earlier urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop blaming Jonathan for the sad state of the nation. Buhari took over from Jonathan on May 29 and has repeatedly lamented the looting which the Nigeria’s treasury has been subjected to.
Ex-aviation minister and former spokesman of Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani Kayode, has swiped the Buhari led government over the proposed 2016 budget. He described the budget as “fuelled by insincerity” and unrealistic. In a statement issued to newsmen yesterday in Abuja, Fani Kayode commented the Buhari’s administration was spending the country’s scarce resources like a drunken sailor. He also denounced the government for borrowing too much money for white elephant projects. The ex-aviation minister opined the government was directionless and moving to jeopardize the future of Nigerians. He claimed that Nigerians were better-off in Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.…
President Muhammadu Buhari has responded to critics who say his government is too slow, stating that the steady pace is pertinent to avoid disaster. Speaking on Friday in Abuja in an audience with Women In Politics Forum (WIPF), the President said his administration is busy cleaning up the mess done by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governments in the last 16 years. “People say we are slow. We are trying to change structures put in place by our predecessors in office for 16 years. If we hurry it, we will make mistakes. That will be a disaster”, Buhari said. He…