Highly rated Nigerian teen midfielder Kingsley Michael was denied a move to English Premier League side West Ham by Football Academy Abuja, shortly after winning the 2015 U-17 World Youth Championship with Nigeria.

Upon arrival from Chile, where the World Cup took place, officials of the academy smartly collected his passport alongside that of his close friend Orji Okonkwo following rumours that the duo were courting interest from West Ham.

The academy wanted them to go to Italian Serie B side Spezia, who are bankrolled by same individual funding the Nigeria based academy.

However, the father of Kingsley Michael insist on seeing a copy of the contract his son will sign in Italy with Spezia. A contract which the academy failed to produce as the financial terms on offer wasn’t worth it.

Michael’s father, a military man threatened to use force on the academy if the passport of his son is not returned back to him. A threat which scared the hierarchy of the academy who now had no choice but to dip the international passport of the lad in water, which damaged it and claimed his imminent move to West Ham.

He presently has another passport in his possession and will most likely team up with Okonkwo at Bologna when he turns 18 next year.

Nigeria Under-23 trainee Theophilus Solomon enhanced his reputation as a feared striker in the Croatian top flight division with his fifth goal in all competition for Istra in their 6-1 win over Rovinj in a Cup game.

Solomon scored and set up two more goals for Istra, where he is on loan from league leaders Rijeka as they rout the third division side to comfortably secure passage to the next round of the Croatian Cup.

Heavily linked with a winter move away from Croatia, where he is presently one of the top scorers in the league. The 20 year old is reportedly high on the radar of Premier League side Swansea City and Sporting Lisbon of Portugal.

However, Benfica have now joined the queue as their scouts was also at the stadium to run the rule over the forward, who was once upon a time a target of Serie A side Juventus.

His present contract with Rijeka is due to run out in two years time but the Croatian side have option of a further two year deal in his contract, that he reportedly sign under undue pressure from the hierarchy of the club.

In an era where African goalkepper find it hard to make hay in European teams, 20 year old Nigerian David Nwokolor is making waves with top division Bosnian side Vitez.

The Port Harcourt born shot stopper joined Croatian side HNK Rijeka, three seasons ago from Football Academy of Abuja, after impressing at a youth tournament in Croatia.

Same season he joined the team, he rose to the rank of second choice goalkepper before heading out on loan to second division league side NK Sibenik last season , where he made 15 appearance for the team that narrowly missed out on promotion to the top flight.

He returned back to Rijeka this summer, but was loaned out to Bosnian side Vitez where he has successfully displaced the first choice goalkepper and has now kept goal in their last five games.

Nwokolor has three clean sheets in the five games he has been between the sticks for 9th placed Vitez, after 11 league games in Bosnia.

Presently he is the only Nigerian born goalkeeper within the age of 20 based in Europe who is a regular for a top flight team, with only Vincent Enyeama and Carl Ikeme ahead of him in terms of experience in top flight games among active Nigerian goalkeppers presently in Europe.

According to reports exclusively gathered by Owngoalnigeria.com, Chidiebere Nwakali is set for a contract extension at English Premier League side Manchester City following his fine performances for his loan side.

Since joining Manchester City in 2014 alongside Kelechi Iheanacho he has struggled to make a proper impact, with failed loan spells at Malaga and Girona in Spain, where he failed to make a single appearance for the team.

However Nwakali is finally making his mark in Europe after a slow start to his career, as he is has been one of the top performers for his loan side Start.

The 19 year old has made 22 appearances for Start, who are struggling to beat the drop to the second division in Norway, but he is still by far one of their best players in the team and the league at large with three goals to his name from his midfield role.

Manchester City have seen enough to hand him an extension to avoid losing him on a free with his current deal having less than 18 months to run, He will however head out on another loan spell when his current loan deal with Start runs out,

Arsenal rising star Alex Iwobi has earned praises from Kennedy Mweene, the goalkepper of Zambia for his goal in Nigeria 2-1 win over Zambia in a World Cup 2018 qualifiers played in Ndola.

Iwobi was first to a loose clearance from the Zambian defence after a cross, and the 20 year old used refined technique to volley home the opening goal for Nigeria, keeping his well hit strike low and on target.

Mweene, who got his hands to the effort but couldn’t keep it out confessed, the goal which played a very big role in helping Nigeria to a 2-1 win, was hard for him to stop due to factors beyond his control.

” To start with, He (Iwobi) hit the ball with lot of power despite the difficult nature of how the ball dropped for him and secondly I saw it late due to the defender in front of me” He said.

” I did my best to keep it out but not many goalkepper can save a shot inside the box, that is as powerful as that of Iwobi. We are sad to have lose the game in front of our fans but we will bounce back”.

Players of the Super Eagles of Nigeria have given the German coach of the team Gernot Rohr, a new nickname which they call him only when they are speaking to each other.

One of the player, who spoke with Owngoalnigeria.com said, they resorted to giving the former coach of Mali, a nickname to clearly differentiate him from other coaches during discussions.

Rohr who has been widely praised by the players for his man management skills, has rejuvenated the spirit of players of the Super Eagles, which has helped them win their first two games under his guidance.

We gathered the players have resorted to calling him “Baba”, a name which most people call their father in Nigeria or anybody in authority or advanced in age.

” We call him coach to his face, like every other coach but behind, we mostly refer to him as “Baba” (laughs), he is the eldest among the coaches and also to us the players, a fatherly figure” He told Owngoalnigeria.com.

The centre referee who officiated the controversial Federation Cup semi final tie between FC Ifeanyi Uba and Crown FC of Ogbomosho in Kaduna, AA Ibrahim has lifted the lid on why he disallowed the goal scored by Crown FC.

Crown FC scored a late header which would have taken scores to 2-2, but the goal was cancelled by AA Ibrahim, much to the surprise and frustrations of fans, officials and supporters of Crown FC.

The game was subsequently abandoned when irate fans invade the pitch to demand an explanation from the referee as to why the goal, which they deem as legitimate was cancelled.

Owngoalnigeria.com has however seen the match report submitted by the centre referee where he clearly stated that the goal was cancelled due to a foul by a Crown FC player in the box, contrary to report that the goal was ruled out for offside.

True to his words, a look at the video incident when the goal was scored, proved his claims, that a Crown FC player fouled a player of Ifeanyi Uba minutes before the ball was nodded into the net.

A decision on the fate of the tie is yet to be made but AA Ibraheem submission could work in favour of Ifeanyi Uba, who were leading the semi-final tie before it was abandoned.