The top scorer for Nigeria U23s at the Rio 2016 Olympics Sadiq Umar has been rated among the top 20 youngsters to watch in Italy in the year 2017.

On loan to Bologna from Roma, the 20 year old was listed alongside other top prospects in the Serie A, in a list compiled by respected international tabloid Guardian.

Read below how he was rated in the piece.

Umar Sadiq, 19, Bologna (on loan from Roma), Nigeria
One looks at Umar Sadiq and immediately thinks he’s not fit for Serie A. Maybe not even for football in general. This is probably what people used to think of Peter Crouch when he first wore a football shirt, but this didn’t prevent him from scoring plenty of goals. And nor is it stopping Sadiq.

Last season, the Nigerian centre-forward’s supremacy was quite embarrassing for the opponents of Roma’s youth team – he scored 14 goals in just nine appearances in the Campionato Primavera and Coppa Italia Primavera, five in nine appearances in the Uefa Youth League, plus two in six games in Serie A. Such impressive numbers speak for themselves.

In the summer, Roma decided to loan the 19-year-old to Bologna so he could step out of youth football, where he’s too strong for defenders. Unfortunately he has missed most of the season so far due to an ankle injury but, if the surgery shows positive results, the long-limbed striker will be ready to show everybody his killer instinct remains among the grown-ups.

Legendary Dutch forward Marc Overmars says the talent of Kanu Nwankwo and Finidi George was clear to see from the first day they arrived at Ajax.

Overmars share same dressing room with the Nigerian duo before reuniting with Kanu once again at Arsenal, remembers clearly the impression the Nigerian made on him and his other teammates wheb they arrived at Ajax from Nigeria.

In an interview in the January edition of the Arsenal Magazine, which is on arsenal.com, Overmars who also played for Barcelona, confessed both Finidi and Kanu had qualities that were admired back then at Ajax by other players.

“I don’t think Kanu had ever played on a normal pitch before he joined us at Ajax,” the Dutchman said, laughing.

“He didn’t know where to run. I remember once he had to take a throw-in and we called for the ball, so he pushed the ball out from his chest!

“These guys didn’t have the education as young players but we saw in the first training session that they were special. Kanu had so much quality and it was the same with Finidi George.

“They had something that we didn’t have. We had all learned how to play football on the streets, but their football upbringing was much more raw, and you can see how they benefitted from that.”

The former governor of Abia State Orji Uzor Kalu says he can convince former Super Eagles goalkepper and captain Vincent Enyeama to return to the team.

Enyeama has been on AWOL since leaving the team camp after a disagreement with former coach Sunday Oliseh, and has since then stayed away from the team despite approaches from new coach Gernot Rohr.

However Kalu who is largely credited for turning around the fortunes of Enyimba FC of Aba during his reign as governor of Abia state believes he can bridge the gap between Rohr and Enyeama.

“I think there is communication gap between Rohr and Enyeama. I am ready to bring them together. We need good keepers to support Carl Ikeme. The Eagles also need to play friendlies with Senegal and Burkina Faso. They are francophone and play like the Indomitable Lions,” Kalu said.

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has saluted the performances of Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi despite the 0-3 loss suffered by Leicester City in the hands of Neville’s former club Manchester United.

Neville who was in the studio as a pundit during the course of the game, praised the Nigerian for keeping the world most expensive player Paul Pogba silent for the entire duration of the game.

Ndidi who was voted Leicester City man of the match by the BBC made a good impression on the former Valencia boss, who described his performance as near perfect.

” I can’t fault his (Ndidi) performance, he was very big in the game. He made Pogba a passenger in the middle. The boy is good in tackles and he is not afraid of running with the ball either”, Neville said.

” He got Pogba booked and was fouled severally, that said I can’t remember when he fouled any opponent. He did well despite how poor his team were on the day”.

FIFA can today confirm the worldwide extension of sanctions imposed by the Nigerian Football Federation’s (NFF) Disciplinary Committee on 12 May 2016 against the officials Christopher Giwa, Muazu Suleyman, Yahaya Adama, Sani Fema and Johnson Effiong for breaches of the NFF Statutes and the FIFA Code of Ethics.

In accordance with art. 136ff of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to extend the five-year ban from taking part in any kind of football-related activity imposed on the five officials to have worldwide effect.

The relevant member association as well as CAF have been duly notified of the chairman’s decision.

Members of the media with questions relating to the substance of the decision are kindly requested to contact the NFF.

Courtesy: FIFA.com

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri reportedly angered his players when he substituted Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa in Leicester City 0-3 loss to Manchester United.

Musa was substituted by the manager at the start of the second half by Andy King, and his substitution alongside that of Shinji Okazaki who was replaced by Demarai Gray didn’t go down well with some of the players.

According to leaks gathered by the online version of UK Tabloid Dailymail, senior players of Leicester City were unhappy with the Nigerian over the removal of the duo in the tie that saw them drop to just two points behind basement team Sunderland.

Musa a big money buy by the manager has been sparingly used by the manager since his transfer from Russian giants CSKA Moscow in the summer, with the forward playing second fiddle to the likes of Jamie Vardy and Islam Slimani.

Rumours of dressing room unrest has also lead to talks about the future of the manager, which some suggesting that he has been given a three match ultimatum to save his job.

Former Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh continued his fine start as coach of troubled Dutch side Fortuna Sittard by coaching them to a 5-2 win over Jong Ajax.

Oliseh’s men were at a point during the game losing 2-0, but turned the tie around in the second half with goals from Finn Stokkers and Perr Schurss to bring scores to 2-2.

The former Super Eagles coach celebrated wildly when Gavin Vlijter gave them a 3-2 lead two minutes after they drew level in the 75th minute.

Apparently not satisfied with the scores at 3-2, Oliseh who only took over the team two months ago introduced Djibril Dianessy for Roald van Hout, and just like his substitutions in their weekend game, it worked for his time.

Dianesey went ahead to score a brace in two minutes finding the back of the net in the 80th and 85th minute to finally put the game to rest for his team, and the victory lifted them out of the relegation zone.

Highly rated Manchester United Nigerian teen prospect Tosin Kehinde was among the goal scorers for Manchester United in their 3-5 loss to Derby County in the Premier League 2.

Derby County were 2-1 up at half time but went 4-1 up with a little over 20 minutes left to play in the game, before Manchester United started a late rally to reduce the deficit.

A fifth goal by Derby was quickly followed by a response from the Manchester United lads to bring scores to 2-5, with a little over ten minutes left to play.

Lagos born Manchester brought up Tosin ensured his team put some gloss to the scoreline with a dinked finish with three minutes left to play in the encounter.

It ended 5-3 in favour of Derby County, as Manchester United fail to make amend to the poor way they started the game.