NPFL: Transfer updates

Enyimba's Semiu Liadi to join Warri Wolves.

Heaartland's central defender, Nelson Ogbonna to join Enyimba. 

Crown captain, Segun Ayo has joined Sunshine Stars. 

Dolphins has signed on Heartland's midfielder, Isa Aminu. 

Enyimba's Rasheed Olabiyi is looking for a new club after he said the Aba side is owing him more than 10million naira. 

Akwa United duo of Namso Edo and Ezekiel Bassey have joined Enyimba of Aba. 

Abia Warriors is earger to sign Warri Wolves defender, Ike ThankGod.

Former Heartland goalkeeper who was in Vietnam, Bassey Akpan is back to Nigeria and may join one of the clubs playing in the continent this year. 

Sunshine Stars Musa Newman is at present on trials at Al Masry in Egypt. 

Former youth international, Kingsley Udoh who was dropped by Kano Pillars has joined Sunshine Stars.  

Kano Pillars, Godspower Aniefiok who was signed-on from Akwa United says the Kano side will retain the League trophy this season.

Goalkeeper Moses Ocheje has left Kano Pillars and joined Enyimba International.

Former Sunshine Stars coach, Erasmus Onuh may take over at Heartland fc of Owerri.

...more to come

Gomaa: Patience needed with Ebimobowei like Antwi, Flavio

In a televised interview in Egypt, Al Ahly director of football Wael Gomaa spoke about his team’s transfer targets as well as their newest addition, Peter Ebimobowei.

The 21-year-old Nigerian, who signed for the Red Devils on a three-year contract earlier this week, has scored 18 goals last season playing for Bayelsa United in the Nigerian Premier League.

Gomaa made it clear that patience will be key with the striker, as well as any other new signee: “I would like to ask from the fans that they don’t judge Peter [Ebimobowei] or any other new player we will bring to the club without giving them their time and their adaptation period.”

The ex-defender continued by mentioning foreign strikers who’ve excelled in Egypt, including the league’s current top scorer, John Antwi (Ghana), and famous Ahly striker Flavio Amado (Angola) – with the latter needing an adaptation period with the Cairo giants before becoming the mercurial striker that he was for the team: “He [Flavio] came in and everybody knew his level, but it took him one year to fully adapt and start performing to this level.”

“Antwi came to trial at Al Ahly SC, and now he’s the league’s top scorer with Ismaily.

“We are bringing a forward that scored 18 goals in the Nigerian Premier League, who has very good attributes and even made it to the Nigerian national team lately.
“We believe he is one of the talents that have a great future,” he added.

When asked if the fact that Ebimobowei was not playing with one of the big clubs in Nigeria, and does not have experience playing in African competitions, such as the CAF Champions League, was a point that concerned him, Gomaa replied: “The question is: will the player be able to adapt with your team and does he have the talent to do so? We believe he does as he managed to score 18 goals on a team that has a problem reaching the opponent’s goal on a regular basis.”

“From what we saw from him, he is the type of player that creates the scoring chance for himself.”

It is worth mentioning that Ebimobowei is the author of seven goals with Bayelsa United this season after 20 gameweeks in the Nigerian Premier League and will be included in Al Ahly’s 2015 CAF Champions League list.

Courtesy: kingfut.com

Ofoedu gets set for Samsunspor debut

Chikeluba Ofoedu will make his debut for his new club, Samsunspor on the 25th of January, 2015.

The former Enugu Rangers striker signed for the Turkish first division side this week after he was released by fellow division one team, Karşıyaka.

  Ofoedu signing for Samsunspor (Pix courtesy:ofoedu facebook)
 Ofoedu told Sports Flight that he has started training with his new side and looking forward to his debut.

"I am working so hard in training because I know that my new team has a dream of gaining promotion at the end of the season"
"I will be making my debut against Denizlispor on the 25th of this month and I want to start with a bang" 

Samsunspor will be Ofoedu's third club in Turkey after he joined 1461 Trabzon on loan from Enugu Rangers after he scored 11 goals in the 2012 Nigeria Premier league season.

He was released afterwards and returned home only to travel back to Turkey and signed for Karsiyaka where he scored 11 goals in 40 appearances.

Fenerbahçe deny transfer talks with Tottenham over Emenike

 Spurs apparently bid for Emmanuel Emenike but talks are not ongoing, according to Fener.

Last week, Fenerbahçe chairman Aziz Yildirim said the Turkish club had rejected a €10m (£8m) offer, believed to be from Tottenham, for striker Emmanuel Emenike.

“The offer for Emenike came and they offered 10 million euros. However, I trust him; therefore, I rejected the offer,” Yildirim told the Daily Sabah.
 
Fener signed Emenike from Spartak Moscow for £11.2m 18 months ago, so they were never likely to accept an £8m bid, particularly given his good form since moving to Turkey.
It sounds like Tottenham’s offer was designed to unsettle the player – and it’s worked.

Both Emenike and his agent have since said a move away from the SuperLig club is possible this month, which leaves Spurs in a strong position if we actually want to sign the 27-year-old Nigerian.

The fallout seems to have annoyed Fener, however, and the Turks have release a statement stressing that no transfer talks are ongoing.
“Emmanuel Emenike is a Fenerbahçe player and has a contract with us until 2017, there are currently no transfer talks,” reads the statement.

Statements like this don’t mean much (remember Tottenham’s ‘we’re not in talks with Frank de Boer’ one, when we obviously were in talks with Frank de Boer), so there’s a good chance you’ll read more stories linking Spurs with Emenike before the end of the month.

I don’t know anything about the Nigeria international but a couple of videos on YouTube suggest he’s a technically-decent player and he’s played on the right wing at times for Fener. That’s versatility that’ll appeal to Mauricio Pochettino.

He also scores goals: in two seasons at Spartak, he netted a whopping 36 in 42 league appearances and he’s managed 25 in 40 since moving to Istanbul. He clearly knows where the net is.

With Emmanuel Adebayor on the head-coach’s blacklist and Roberto Soldado, er, not very good, Spurs desperately need someone to take the pressure off Harry Kane and the reported bid for Emenike at least proves the club are searching for that person this month. Emenike could yet turn out to be our man, despite what Fener are saying.

courtesy: thetottenhamway

Kalou's late goal wins it for Ivory Coast

An 84th minute goal by Salomon Kalou was all Ivory Coast needed to beat stubborn home based Nigeria's Super Eagles 1-0 in Abu Dhabi.

Kano Pillars Rabiu Ali made the mistake that gave the ball away to Tiote who made a good run into the box and sent a pass that was well connected by unmarked Kalou.

Nigeria next plays Sudan on Saturday, January 17 in Abu Dhabi.

Enyeama finishes third in Glo/CAF Awards

Despite the huge expectations, Super Eagles goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama came third in the voting as Ivorien Yaya Toure won his fourth African player of the year award in the awards held in Lagos Thursday night.

Enyeama had 105 points to end at third place behind Gabonese Pierre Emerrick Aubameyang with 120 points and eventual winner, Yaya Toure of Cote di Voire 175 points.

Only two Countries, Guinea and Swaziland gave the Lille of France safe hands full points in the voting.

Nigeria voted Ahmed Musa 5 points, 4 points to Enyeama, 3 points to Asamoah Gyan, 2 points to Yaya Toure and 1 point to Aubameyang.

Manny Pacquiao is a Miss Universe judge

Manny Pacquiao has been burned by judges before.

Now he’ll become one.

The welterweight world champion was named Thursday as one of five judges for the Jan. 25 Miss Universe Pageant, which will occur in Doral, Fla., and be televised by NBC.

Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 knockouts) is coming off a six-knockdown unanimous-decision November win over Chris Algieri in China.
He’ll be joined by reality television’s Kristin Cavallari and Lisa Vanderpump, actor William Levy and fashion writer Louise Roe as judges.

Singer Nick Jonas will perform a medley during the pageant, a venture overseen by Donald Trump, who has previously staged and promoted boxing events.

Pacquiao’s promoter is currently in negotiations to stage a long-delayed fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Among the reasons that have postponed a prior deal is the unbeaten Mayweather undervaluing Pacquiao due to a stunning 2012 loss by split decision  to Timothy Bradley.

Pacquiao avenged the loss in April with a unanimous decision. 

courtesy: Los Angeles Times

Ukoh welcomes Super Eagles to Abu Dhabi

Switzerland based Steven Ukoh of FC Biel was on hand to welcome the 19 man Super Eagles squad on arrival in Abu Dhabi. 

Ukoh arrived earlier and will join in the team's first training session this evening.

Nigeria plays Ivory Coast on Monday, January 12 and takes on Sudan on January 17. 

Here is the full list of the 20 players in Abu Dhabi for the two friendly matches. 

Goalkeepers: Chigozie Agbim (Gombe United); Daniel Akpeyi (Warri Wolves); Theophilus Afelokhai (Kano Pillars)

Defenders: Solomon Kwambe (Sunshine Stars); Idris Aloma (El-Kanemi FC); Chimma Akas (Sharks FC); Nelson Ogbonna (Heartland FC); Azubuike Egwuekwe (Warri Wolves); Bright Esieme (Enyimba FC

Midfielders: Joseph Nathaniel (Sharks FC); Charles Henlong (Giwa FC); Stanley Dimgba (Warri Wolves); Rabiu Ali (Kano Pillars); Kingsley Sokari (Enyimba FC); Austin Godspower, Steven Ukoh (FC Biel, Swizerland)

Forwards: Mfon Udoh (Enyimba FC); Gbolahan Salami (Warri Wolves);Gambo Muhammad (Kano Pillars); Christian Obiozor (Enugu Rangers).

NFF President orders Eduok out of Eagles’ camp

President of Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Melvin Pinnick has ordered Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt star Emem Eduok out of the camp of Super Eagles’ B, preparing for two international friendly matches in the United Arab Emirates.

                           Emem Eduok in Esperance jersey

"Telling him to leave the camp does not mean we are indicting him. We will carry out an investigation and whoever is found guilty, be he/she an agent or player manager or an official of his club, will be duly sanctioned,” Pinnick said Tuesday in Abuja.

He went ahead to mandate the Chairman of Technical and Development Committee, Felix Anyansi-Agwu to conduct an investigation into the matter and report to the Executive Committee at its meeting in Lagos on Thursday.

The Super Eagles B are preparing to face 2015 Africa Cup of Nations –bound Cote d’Ivoire in a friendly in Abu Dhabi on Sunday and will then play Sudan in Dubai on January 17.