NIGERIA
Super Eagles midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi has vowed that the team will do their best to secure a place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The Super Eagles failed to qualify for the last mundial hosted by Qatar, as the team lost on aggregate to eternal rivals, the Black Stars of Ghana, in the playoff round.
Jose Peseiro’s side will battle South Africa, Benin Republic, Rwanda, Lesotho and Zimbabwe for a place in the 2026 World Cup finals.
Nigeria’s first game in the qualifiers is against the Crocodiles of Lesotho on thirteen November.
Also, Sao Tome and Principe assistant coach, William Barbosa has backed the Super Eagles to win the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The True Patriots were walloped six-nil by the Super Eagles at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo.
Having witnessed both demolitions from close quarters, Barbosa now tipped the Super Eagles to go all the way in Cote d’Ivoire in January.
Kano Pillars technical adviser, Abdu Maikaba, says he is delighted with the team’s preparation for the new season.
The Sai Masu Gida defeated Katsina United two-one in their recent pre-season friendly at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano.
Maikaba said the players performed to the standard that is required in the Nigeria Premier Football League.
Rangers have announced the signing of Kazeem Ogunleye from Plateau United.
The Nigeria Premier Football League side made the announcement on social media.
Ogunleye signed a two-year contract with the Coal City outfit.
Super Eagles forward, Paul Onuachu has linked up with Turkish Super Lig club Trabzonspor on a season-long loan deal.
Onuachu joined Trabzonspor from English Championship side, Southampton.
He will be the third Nigerian to play for Trabzonspor following in the footsteps of Ogenyi Onazi and Anthony Nwakaeme.
ENGLAND
The Professional Footballer’s Association will ask Britain’s trade unions to support the call for “equal rights and conditions for female footballers”.
Its chief executive, Maheta Molango will highlight the issue at the Trades Union Congress TUC in Liverpool on Tuesday.
The motion has been backed by England players Lucy Bronze and Katie Zelem.
Former Arsenal attacker, Kevin Campbell has given his verdict on Declan Rice and Thomas Partey as the Gunners return to the Champions League this season.
Campbell believes Arsenal fans and football lovers will see the best of both Rice and Partey in the Champions League this season if the Ghanaian international is fit to feature for the club.
Arsenal are already in Group B of this season’s Champions League, alongside Sevilla, PSV and Lens.
Arsenal midfielder, Declan Rice says the team’s manager, Mikel Arteta was the main reason that he decided to sign for Arsenal from West Ham.
The English midfielder joined the Gunners for a club-record fee of one hundred and five million pounds in the summer.
Rice hit the ground running and scored his first goal in the three-one victory over Manchester United.
Former Chelsea defender, Gary Cahill, has identified two things the Blues need under their manager, Mauricio Pochettino amid the club’s poor start to the 2023/24 Premier League campaign.
Cahill, who won two Premier League titles with Chelsea during his time at Stamford Bridge, believes the Premier League giants need ‘time and patience’ to turn things around under Pochettino.
Chelsea currently sit in twelve position on the Premier League table with four points from four matches.
Chelsea legend, John Terry is charging fans five hundred pounds-a-head to have dinner with him and one hundred pounds for an autograph on his one-man tour.
The former England captain appeared in Basingstoke and will appear in Bournemouth next month, London in November and Birmingham in January.
General admission tickets begin at twenty-five pounds for the former defender’s ‘An Evening with John Terry’ event but fans must pay an extra one hundred pounds to get an autograph.
Former Aston Villa star, Chris Sutton, says Manchester United winger, Jadon Sancho put himself over the team with his social media outburst over Erik ten Hag’s comments.
Sancho was left out of the squad for United’s three-one defeat by Arsenal, with Ten Hag stating after the match that he dropped him over his performances in training.
Sancho fired back on social media that the claims were ‘completely untrue’ and said that he has been made a scapegoat at Old Trafford.
Manchester United footballer, Antony has hit back at an assault allegation made by Ingrid Lana and published a series of WhatsApp messages in an attempt to discredit her.
Lana, a banker, alleged in an interview with Record TV in Brazil that Antony was aggressive towards her in October.
She accused Antony of pushing her against a wall after he tried to kiss her.
Manchester United striker, Rasmus Hojlund has delighted supporters after delivering a rousing megaphone speech on international duty with Denmark.
The seventy-two million pounds frontman, who joined the club from Atalanta this summer, was brought during his country’s one-nil win over Finland in Euro 2024 qualifying.
The victory saw them take a giant stride closer to sealing their spot at the tournament next year and moved them top of Group H.
Manchester United bidder, Sir Jim Ratcliffe insists he cannot contemplate failure’ if he is selected to purchase the club as the Old Trafford takeover saga rumbles on.
The British billionaire, who heads up the INEOS group, is one of two contenders to take over the Red Devils from the Glazer brothers Avram and Joel who have been in charge since 2005, alongside Qatari Sheikh Jassim, with both men submitting offers in the region of five billion pounds.
The takeover has hit a snag in recent weeks after the Glazers were going to take the club off the market, resulting in United’s stock plunging by twenty-one per cent at one stage as the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the report.
England manager, Gareth Southgate will be chewing over his attacking options ahead of the team’s friendly with Scotland on Tuesday, after the Three Lions were held to a one-all draw by Ukraine in their Euro 2024 qualifier.
Southgate may see Tuesday as an opportunity to rotate the squad and trial a new attacking line, which bodes well for Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah after his first international call-up this month.
England boss, Gareth Southgate says he twice talked defender Kyle Walker out of international retirement.
The Manchester City defender, considered ending his England career after Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup but was persuaded to carry on.
Walker scored his first England goal on his 77th appearance in last Saturday’s European qualifying draw with Ukraine.
The Football Association are braced for an approach for England Under-twenty-one manager, Lee Carsley should their Irish counterparts decide to sack their senior team’s boss Stephen Kenny.
The Republic of Ireland manager, Stephen Kenny’s job is under threat after their hopes of qualifying automatically for next summer’s European Championship were all but ended by two-one defeat to the Netherlands.
England women midfielder, Georgia Stanway wants the resignation of Luis Rubiales “to be the start of something, rather than the end of something” for the women’s game.
Rubiales resigned as Spanish Football Federation president in the wake of kissing Spain’s Jenni Hermoso after the country’s women’s World Cup final win.
OTHER LEAGUES
Juventus midfielder, Paul Pogba says he considered retiring from football over alleged extortion and threats from an organised gang, including his brother Mathias.
Pogba filed a complaint with Turin prosecutors in July 2022 claiming he was the target of a eleven point one million pounds blackmail plot.
Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have seen their ratings downgraded ahead of EA Sports FC 24’s official release this month.
A leak suggested that the latest edition of the popular franchise would be released twenty-nineth September on consoles and PC, though it has undergone a drastic overhaul in appearance.
This is because EA Sports no longer holds a partnership with FIFA, meaning the governing body’s name has been dropped fully from the video game.
Laurent Blanc has been sacked as Lyon manager after a torrid start to the season.
The French side sit bottom of Ligue 1 after taking just one point from their opening four games, which have included four-one losses to Paris Saint-Germain and Montpellier.
It comes in stark contrast to a 2022-23 campaign that saw Lyon finish seventh and reach the French Cup semi finals.
LaLiga president, Javier Tebas has referenced the nine to eleven disaster when speaking about the reputational damage to Spanish football following Luis Rubiales’ resignation for kissing Jenni Hermoso.
Rubiales finally announced that he was resigning as Spanish FA president during an interview with Piers Morgan, after weeks of criticism over kissing Hermoso after Spain won the Women’s World Cup.
Scotland manager Steve Clarke says Tuesday’s friendly against England will be the perfect barometer of the progress his team has made.
Scotland are on the brink of reaching Euro 2024 after winning all five qualifiers and have risen twenty places to 30th in the world ranking under Clarke.
Clarke believes the run of matches which would mean Scotland take on England, followed by Spain in an away qualifier, will help accelerate the development of his players ahead of what is now a very likely Euro 2024 campaign.
Meanwhile, Scotland and England meet at Hampden Park on Tuesday in what is being billed as the heritage match to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the oldest international fixture.
The Brazil squad has rallied behind Richarlison after the Spurs striker was left in tears after being substituted during the Selecao’s five-one victory over Bolivia.
The five-time world champions trounced Bolivia in their first World Cup qualifiers, but it was an evening to forget for Richarlison.
Richarlison missed a golden chance to get on the scoresheet and was substituted halfway through the second half.
The German Football Association will reportedly speak to Julian Nagelsmann and Matthias Sammer about succeeding Hansi Flick as manager of the national team.
Flick was sacked as head coach following a meeting with shareholders, just nine months before Euro 2024 on home soil.
The former Bayern Munich manager had a hugely unsuccessful stint in charge of the national team, with a four-one loss to Japan ultimately the final straw.
OTHER SPORTS
In Tennis, the Davis Cup Finals group stage begins this week with Great Britain one of sixteen nations trying to make it through to the knockout phase.
Great Britain take on Australia, France and Switzerland in their round-robin group matches at Manchester’s AO Arena.
Andy Murray missed the three-one victory over Colombia in February but is back in the squad, alongside Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans, Neal Skupski and Jack Draper.
In Cricket, Scotland beat the Netherlands by fifty-nine runs to seal advancement to next year’s Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier.
Sarah Bryce’s forty-nine runs helped set the Dutch a target of one hundred and twenty-three in Almeria, Spain.
Darcy Carter took three wickets as the Netherlands were restricted to sixty-three all out.
Scotland meet France on Tuesday, with the Netherlands up against Italy.
In Rugby, Scottish rugby union player, Finn Russell, says Scotland failed to show a true reflection of themselves after being dominated by South Africa in their Rugby World Cup opener,
The Scots went in at half-time in Marseille just 6-3 down.
They failed to add a single point after the break as the Springboks moved through the gears to comfortably win 18-3.
THOUGHT
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