Hot in demand Nigerian forward Henry Onyekuru scored his first brace of the season in Eupen 3-1 win over KV Ostende in one of the Boxing Day fixture in the Belgium top flight league.

The 19 year old grabbed his brace in the 1st minute of play and in the second minute of time added on after regulation time of 90 minutes.

He now has 10 goals this season, four more than he managed in the entirety of last season while playing in the second division in Belgiuim.

Already his form has caught the attention of coach of the Nigeria national team Gernot Rohr who confessed his love and admiration of the quality of the Aspire Acedemy product.

Linked with a host of clubs in Europe, Onyekuru has twice revealed his desire to play for English Premier League giants Arsenal, according to him his idol is the club’s all time scorer Thierry Henry.

oach of Belgian Side Genk Peter Maes has reportedly lost his job at Belgian side Genk after a disagreement over Wilfred Ndidi transfer to English Champions Leicester City, Owngoalnigeria.com understands.

Ndidi will still as expected move to Leicester City for a fee in the region of £15m when the transfer window opens in January but his imminent departure appears to have triggered a disagreement in the team, that has claimed coach Maes.

Maes was promised by the management of the team that Ndidi will remained at the club till the summer before joining Leicester City but was disappointed when he later discovered that the 19 year old will join “The Foxes” on the 1st of January.

Although the club have moved swiftly to replace the Nigerian, Maes felt broken by the club’s decision and that fractured his relationship with the club management which eventually lead to his sack.

However the club played down the row as the reason behind his departure citing their poor run of form in the league as the reason why he was axed less than 24 hours to their cup game against KV Oostende.

Three Liverpool teenagers have been given debuts under Jurgen Klopp this season: bombarding right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, wonderkid attacker Ben Woodburn and rangy midfielder Ovie Ejaria.

But Liverpool’s boss is refusing to take credit for the development of two of these youngsters, claiming he has had very little to do with their progression – although with Ejaria – it’s a bit different!

The former Arsenal man came to the club late and was not especially hyped, but Klopp and Zeljko Buvac specifically plucked him from the youth side to come on pre-season tour of America; and seemingly from nowhere – he now looks destined for a first-team future.

“The players were already there and I had nothing to do with the development of Ben, Trent or Ovie,” Klopp told the ECHO.

“I don’t think 40 or 50 minutes of football or whatever are enough to get the credit for what the players have done.

“Ovie is maybe a bit different because we saw him and liked him and decided to push him a little bit more. But there was no chance to oversee Trent and Ben for example.
“If they are very young then clubs in the past have sent them on loan and I don’t think it is the perfect situation.

“It’s much better that we can work with them together on football at the highest level.”

Instead of sending Liverpool’s best young players on loan, Klopp wants us to have an all-conquering Under-23 side, which will act as a smooth stepping stone to the first-team.

The issue is the competitiveness of the league and the fact our best teenagers are not competing against men, but fellow boys.

But Klopp wants us to batter other teams at this level and form a style of play that enables the best youngsters to seamlessly step up.

“We want to create an under-23 team that is really strong. The centre-backs (Mamadou Sakho and Tiago Ilori) are experienced which is unusual, but all the rest are very young, really skilled, they enjoy playing together and they are getting better results.

“If you are the best player in your team at 15 everyone takes you to the under-17s and the next day you feel like the small guy in a forest with only big trees.

“That is one way of education and you need to use situations like this, but being in a very good team and scoring 25 to 30 goals a season should still be possible so that’s why we changed it a little bit. There is not one solution for all of our situations.”

*Courtesy – Empireofthekop.com

Wilfred Ndidi was hardly a household name outside of Belgium mere weeks ago, but Leicester’s move for the teenage sensation has seen him thrust into the spotlight. His performances in the Europa League earned him a place in WhoScored.com’s team of the group stages, with the 19-year-old earning a rating of 8.19, the second best in the competition.
At his age, Ndidi remains very much a diamond in the rough, but his impact in midfield ensured Genk secured their place in the next round of the Europa League as they topped Group F. Ndidi made more tackles and interceptions combined (71) than any other player in the group stages, signifying his tenacity in pursuit of possession and impressive energy levels. Kante’s greatest quality is his ability to dominate the midfield, often covering as much ground as two men, and his sale was always going to negatively impact Leicester.

The Foxes remain a team who will look to play a direct style, noted in that their average possession this season (44.5%) ranks lowly in the Premier League, but the lack of quality ball winning midfielder hindered their approach. Indeed, four attempts on goal from counter-attacking situations from 16 league games this season, a huge drop from the 18 attempts last term, suggests they have missed the necessary player to help soak up pressure before aggressively robbing opponents to catch teams on the break. Given his performances in Europe this season, Ndidi is the player Leicester require and it’s little surprise to see them look to push the deal over the line as quickly as possible.

That being said, there is work to be done on Ndidi’s game that Ranieri will hope to improve upon. A 79.5% pass success rate is low for a midfielder, but then the Nigerian’s stand out trait is not to keep the team ticking over. Genk had four counter-attacking attempts on goal in their six Europa League group games, so their style is not too dissimilar to Leicester’s, which is naturally a boost to the Premier League champions. Ndidi will undoubtedly strengthen this Foxes team with the youngster hoping to prove capable of filling the huge gap Kante left when he departed for Chelsea over the summer.

Courtesy – Talksport

Former Arsenal midfield dynamo Ray Parlour has provided an explanation as to why manager of Arsenal Arsene Wenger can’t afford to drop Alex Iwobi out of his starting line up, despite the not too impressive form of the 20 year old.

Iwobi has not been at his best for the Gunners in the last one month, and his inconsistency has lead to calls for him to be dropped by the manager.

However Parlour is off a different opinion as he believes Wenger can’t afford to drop the Nigeria international due to his qualities, which is a plus to the team even when he is not at his best.

” He’s an up and coming star, he really is. I really like the way he plays and he deserves his spot at the minute. He’s improving all the time, he’s comfortable on the ball, he can see a pass. His footwork is excellent for a big lad”, Parlour said.

” He has to keep his feet on the ground and keep working hard and I’m sure he’ll be a massive star for Arsenal. The most important thing is he’s playing week in, week out and at the moment it’s hard for Arsene Wenger to leave him out”.

Manchester City striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, is suing two lawyers from the Manchester area, over image rights.

The Super Eagles star claims he was lured into signing over rights to his name by Robert Zanicky of Drums and Raymond Hassay of Exeter.

Iheanacho met with Zanicky in 2013 when he was 16, after the Alabama car accident lawyers approached him following the 2013 African U-17 Championships. The player’s father signed an agreement in July 2013 with Zanicky.

The contract, which was signed for $1,000, gave Zanicky, Hassay and their agency, First Eleven Management, image rights to Iheanacho.

When Iheanacho turned 18, Zanicky convinced him to sign another contract, that gave 100% of his image rights to RHRZ LLC and Team Kelechi LLC based in Pittson.

“The assignment governs all of Kelechi’s image rights, defined to include all legal and beneficial rights and goodwill stemming from Kelechi’s name, nickname, initials, autograph, caricature, reputation and endorsements,” the lawsuit states.

The agreement prohibited Iheanacho from signing with another agency for the use of his image or likeness. Images licensed saw First Eleven earn 20% of the gross revenue.

Iheanacho is now claiming that he was not aware Zanicky was suspended from the practice of law, when they first met, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of corruption of minors.

According to Times Leader records, Zanicky was charged in 2011 with corrupting the morals of two girls, who were 16 and 17 at the time.

*Culled From The Times

Highly rated Kaduna United lanky midfielder Gabriel Okoriko has joined former Nigeria League Champions Enyimba FC of Aba, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

The lanky midfielder has been training with the team, and has also dazzled in test games as they gear up to the start of the Nigeria Professional Football League.

Known for his ability to hit passes with precision as well as hit shots, he was the livewire in the midfield of Kaduna United in the Nigeria National League last season, when they fell four points short of gaining promotion to the summit league in Nigeria.

Nicknamed ” Busquet” by some due to the similarity in his style of play with that of Barcelona Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets, some choose to call him “King Gabriel” due to how he commands the middle.

He is part of the reformation the Aba side are currently performing on their team, as their aim is to freshen up the team with talented young players after a disastrous campaign last time out in the Nigeria Premier League.

FC Porto Nigerian forward Musa Yahaya has reacted angrily to reports that he got married to popular Kannywood Star Rahama Sadau yesterday in Kaduna.

It was reported that he got married to the Kannywood star yesterday, but our checks at the ceremony and a phone call from the player himself dispel the report.
The 19 year old called Owngoalnigeria.com editor to clear the air on the woman he got married to, and subsequently apologised to Rahama Sadau over the mix up.

” I got married to Saadatu Ismail Yahaya, not to Rahama Sadau, my wife is not into movies. It’s not fair on Rahama neither is it on my wife as well. Please people should confirm properly before going to press”, Yahaya angrily told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” Rahama has been through a lot lately, and the last thing she deserves is this latest twist. I am on behalf of those who made the error sending my apologies to her. This mix up isn’t from my ends”.