The draws for the fifth round of the Emirate FA Cup has been made with some nigerian players set to square up against each other.

Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers will be at home against Chelsea, in a tie that could see Carl Ikeme return for Wolves after missing the previous round due to suspension.

He will be up against his national team pal Victor Moses who is expected to be fielded by Antonio Conte despite missing their last cup tie against Crystal Palace.

Meanwhile Alex Iwobi will travel with Arsenal to National league side Sutton FC, who are the surprise team in this year FA Cup for coming this far despite their inferior status.

Hope Akpan is expected to be in the line up for Blackburn Rovers when they take on holders Manchester United, while Fred Onyedima who played 18 minutes of Millwall shock win over Liverpool will be eyeing more game time when they play the winner between Derby County and Leicester City.

Omatsone Aluko who was on target for Fulham in the last round will expectedly be in the line up when they take on London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

The games will take place from the 17th to 20th of February 2017.

Super Eagles midfielder Nosa Igiebor has joined Turkish side Caykur Rizespor from Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv, Owngoalnigeria.com understands.

The move will be finalised tommorow as the a deal was reportedly agreed between both clubs few hours ago, bringing his three years association to with the club to a temporary halt.

He will join Rizespor, where fellow AFCON 2013 winner Godfrey Obaboana currently plays on a loan deal untill the end of the season, with the Turkish side having the option of signing him on a permanent deal in the summer.

Igiebor will reportedly cost Rizespor around 1.5 million Euros, if they want to turn his loan deal into a permanent one in the summer according to various reports in Israel.

He is also the second Nigerian to join the club this January with Bright Edomwonyi moving from Sturm Graz to the modest Turkish side, bringing to three the number of Nigerians at the club.

This season he has scored six goals in 24 games for Maccabi Tel Aviv both in European and domestic competitions.

Super Eagles and Watford forward Odion Ighalo is reportedly close to joining Chinese team Changchun Yatai according to reports sourced from the local media in China.

Ighalo has been heavily linked with a move to China in the last three transfer windows, with Shanghai Shenhua reportedly keen on his services.

Chinafussball are reporting that the 27 year old could join the 12th placed Chinese team before the end of the ongoing January transfer window.

The deal could be worth around 27 million pounds according to various news sources, with the frontman expected to seal the move as he has been he can leave by coach Walter Mazzari.

Mazzari has already signed Mbaye Niang on loan from AC Milan to beef up his attack as he prepares for the exit of the man who has struggled in front of goal for Watford this season.

Former Super Eagles left full back Taiye Taiwo has joined Swiss side Lausanne Sport on a six months deal according to reports picked up by Owngoalnigeria.com online editor.

Taiwo who has played for top sides like Marseille, AC Milan and QPR last played for Finnish side HJK Helsinki where he ran out of contract at the end of the season.

He refused to sign an extension with the Finnish side, and he will now spend the remaining six months of the league calendar in most European leagues with Lausanne Sport.

The team are currently 7th on the log standings in Switzerland with 18 points from 18 games in the 10 team league, just two point ahead of bottom team FC Vaduz.

Lausanne Sport will be Taiwo’s seventh club in Europe, as he has turned out for Marseille, Milan, QPR, Dynamo Kyiv, Bursaspor and HJK Helsinki.

On loan Arsenal teen midfielder Kelechi Nwakali has been earning rare reviews for his performances for his loan side MVV Maastricht.

Nwakali has been doing very well for the promotion chasing team, but according to Jermain Leitbig who writes for Dutch Goal, the 18 year old has flourished as a pseudo winger than his traditionally role as a midfielder.

” He has flourished more as a winger in a 4-3-3 formation than when he plays as a central midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation in Ron Elsen team”, Leitbig told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” He is best effective playing close to the opponent’s goal where his abilities to take off players create room for others to operate, also his calmness in front of goal has been very good.

” The few times he has played in the middle, he has been far from convincing, slow in tracking back, power in tackles and his strength in aerial battles is also a concern. He has thrived as a winger even though Arsenal sent him here to build his midfield potentials”.

As some of you may know, I was in Franceville, Gabon, to watch the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final between Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions and Senegal’s Lions of Teranga. It was a very tough encounter, which took a penalty shootout to resolve.

After the match ended, I had to catch the shuttle bus to get back to Franceville airport and get our flight back to Libreville, which did not leave Franceville until 1am on Sunday (today).

In the shuttle bus, I had two legends of African football sitting very close by – former goalkeeper Joseph-Antoine Bell, who sat by me and the great Roger Albert Milla (although his CAF nametag spelt it as “Miller”), who sat a row behind, on the other aisle.

“Jojo” as we fondly call Joseph-Antoine, began to boast that Cameroon, even though they have just two points in the final round of 2018 WC qualifiers – and Nigeria’s Super Eagles have SIX – will still snatch the ticket.

He began to remind me of how many times Nigeria has been bested by Cameroon, with Milla smiling as he talked. This bus was full of Cameroonians, including Geremi Njitap, who were excitedly listening to all Bell said, in English and French. (He speaks both languages excellently).

Senegal’s El Hadji Diouf, who was still feeling the pain of the defeat, was in the bus too, poor chap…

Besides myself, Colin Udoh was the only other Nigerian in the bus. But Colin decided to keep quiet, while Nigeria’s football honour was under attack and being rubbished by Jojo.

But I could not be quiet and I had to answer back. The disrespect to Nigeria was getting too much.

“Yes, you have beaten us in three AFCON final games,” I told him.

“But you know, very well, that only the victory in 1984 was clean. The second, in 1998, we were cheated. Roger tricked the referee (Idrissa Saar of Mauritania) into giving him a fake penalty. And the clean goal of Henry Nwosu was disallowed,” I told him.

“As for the 2000 Nations Cup, the Tunisian referee (Mourad Daami) denied us a penalty goal that Victor Ikpeba scored. We have been cheated many times in the AFCON final.

“We are in the World Cup qualifying driving seat now and you will never take over. We beat Zambia away and Zambia disgraced you at home. And we will do the same to you,” I told him.

But Jojo did not let up, telling me that Nigerian players tremble when they face the Indomitable Lions and they will never get over this mental block.

“August will soon be here and you shall see,” I told him.

Let anyone tell me that football is just a game or that national pride and honour is not at stake, when games are played.

The Nigeria Football Federation – and Amaju Pinnick particularly – better not tell me or any Nigerian any story about Russia 2018. We MUST be there.

After failing to qualify for two successive AFCON finals and with none of Nigeria’s teams, including the U-20 and U-17 teams – playing in any African or FIFA competition this year, Nigeria and Nigerians have suffered enough football humiliation. Enough is enough!

I believe that with the players Nigeria now have and with the serious-minded coach that we also have, we shall beat Algeria and Cameroon to the ticket – AS LONG AS THE NFF DO THEIR PART and ensure the coach and players have what is required to deliver.

But if we don’t? In fact, let me not think about that… Failure is not an option for Nigeria.

Amaju Pinnick knows what will happen to him, should we fail.

He will go and seek political asylum in Mogadishu, Somalia. There will be no place in Nigeria that will be big enough to hide him…

*Culled from FootballisAfrica as written by Osasu Obayiuwana

Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr says Nigeria next opponent in the race to qualify for the World Cup 2018 in Russia Cameroun have improved a lot.

Rohr who is working as a pundit at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon made the remarks shortly after analysing Cameroun’s progress to the semi-final of the tournament at the expense of Senegal.

Nigeria will take on Cameroun in back to back 2018 World Cup Qualifiers later in the year, and Rohr has called for his team to treat them cautiously due to their new found form.

” They have improved tremendously, young, physical and very organised at the back. The cup of nations has helped them a lot in terms of organisation and this qualification for the semi-finals will definitely boost their belief”, Rohr said.

” Teams need to treat them cautiously henceforth. I have seen a lot of improvement in the team. We (Nigeria) play them later in the year and we will treat them with a whole lot of respect”.

The Football Association of Tunisia has introduced new rules regarding the transfer of foreign players, which could hamper the hopes of many Nigerian players hoping to join the league.

Owngoalnigeria.com gathered that the FA in agreement with the league body has agreed to a new rule, which states that clubs are only allowed to sign foreign players with ten appearances for their national team.

However the rule only applies to foreign players from the age of 19 and above, and it also involves games for youth teams and B teams of their country.

The new regulation is meant to curb the constant flow of players into the Ligue 1 in Tunisia, with Nigerian players particularly cited in the local press in Tunisia.

During the last transfer window in Tunisia, four Nigerian players saw proposed move broke down due to various issues but this new regulation will curb that amount in the next transfer window.

Kenneth Otigba who reportedly turned down the chance to represent Hungary few years ago in a bid to keep alive his dream of playing for Nigeria is making a strong case to be invited to the Super Eagles.

The 24 year old has always been known for getting goals from his role as a central defender, but this season he has improved on his statistics with his goal scoring abilities for his loan side Kasimpasa.

Otigba who is on a season long loan to the Turkish side from Dutch side Heerenveen has found the back of the net three times this season, once in the league and twice in cup games.

He has also improved on his defending abilities, although his rash tackles still need a little bit of polishing as he been sent off once this season, aside the five bookings he has picked up.

His performances and desire to play for Nigeria ahead of Hungary that he captained at youth level should at least earn him a look in for the Super Eagles upcoming test games.

Germany Bundesliga side RB Leipzig have denied reports that they are interested in signing hot in demand KAS Eupen Nigerian forward Henry Onyekuru.

Onyekuru took the Belgian league by storm by scoring 10 goals in the first stanza of the league for newly promoted Eupen, and expectedly gained the attention of top teams.

While the likes of Fenerbahce and CSKA Moscow have all been linked to the 19 year old, Celtic are the only team to have submitted a bid which was turned down by Eupen.

A chief of the Belgian team claimed they will prefer the forward to move to the Bundesliga where RB Leipzig are reportedly interested in signing him in the summer.

However it appears there interest is nothing but speculation, with German newspaper Bild claiming that the high flying side are not in for Onyekuru according to one of their director.

” We are presently not close to signing any player. We know the player (Onyekuru) but we have not submitted any bid for him, even talks with his team over him has not even taken place”, he was quoted as saying by Bild.

Meanwhile Onyekuru has not trained for four days as he continue to push through a move to Celtic. Yesterday he was missing when they got thrashed 3-0 by Royal Excel Mouscron.