The skipper of the Nigerian team to the 2012 edition of Copa Coca-Cola International Football tournament, Iduitua Deba David is living his dream of at Portuguese side CD Feirense.

Iduitua’s presence at the team brings to three the number of Nigerian players at the club, owned by Nigerian businessman Kunle Soname. Ogenekaro Etebo and Dele Alampasu are the other Nigerians at the team.

19 year old Iduitua is registered with the first team of the newly promoted Portuguese first division side, and he is currently facing competition in his role from Rio 2016 ace Ogenekaro Etebo.

He came to prominence in 2012 during the Copa Coca-Cola tournament in South Africa, where he distinguished himself playing for a team of Nigerian teen selected from around the country.

Comfortable as a striker or behind the main striker, he is still waiting for his first appearance of the season after the first two league games in Portugal.

Southampton teen prospect of Nigerian heritage, Olufela Olomola was one of the star performers for Southampton U23s, in their 2-0 win over their Manchester United counterparts.

Although he failed to get on the score sheet, he had an all round performance which will no doubt help him in his drive to break into the main team.

Olomola had the game first shot on target in the 3rd minute with a well hit drive which was easily gathered by Dean Henderson in goal for Manchester United.

Ten minutes to the half time break, the power playing forward who made the bench for Southampton, in their final Premier League game last season came close to breaking the deadlock with a dipping left foot strike.

Five minutes after the restart he came close to punishing the Manchester United backline but a last ditch tackle from Axel Tuanzebe saved the junior reds from going behind.

Five minutes after the hour mark, Olomola who was quite a handful for the Manchester United backline came close to converting a cross that would have doubled Southampton lead.

He was a part of the team pre season camping and is reportedly highly rated by manager Claude Puel, who might hand the 18 year old his first team bow before the end of the season.

Enyimba FC of Aba forward Christian Obiazor won’t be joining Isreali side Kiryat Shmona, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Obiazor was supposed to spend a week with the Israeli side but the forward failed to pass the medical tests he underwent today, ahead of his first training session with the team tomorrow.

A deal has already been agreed with Enyimba for Obiazor to join Kiryat Shmona on loan for a reported fee of €50,000, with the option to buy the forward next summer for €100,000.

However the forward was was carrying an injury which his agent Yomi Itshekure tried to hide in order to pull the deal through, after hijacking the deal from the Israeli agent who initiated the deal.

The Kiryat Shmona deal was initiated by an Israeli agent who pulled all the stops to make the deal work and wasn’t dettered even when he discovered that the CHAN 2014 forward lied that he is a free agent.

Yomi, allegedly appeared from the blues to lay claim as the bonafide agent of the forward, who also didn’t help matters as his desperation to move abroad saw him hand a transfer mandate to a Greek agent who also tried to get involve in the botched deal.

Kiryat Shmona endured all of the drama regarding his true representative but his failed medical test forced them to pull the plug on the deal.

According to leaks gathered by Owngoalnigeria.com, Manager of Manchester City Pep Guardiola will rest star forward Sergio Kun Aguero for Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League qualifiers reverse tie against Steaua Bucuresti of Romania.

Guardiola will reportedly hand starts to 19 year old Nigerian forward Kelechi Iheanacho, who will pair Spanish forward Nolito in the tie which City are leading 5-0 from the first leg.

In his breakthrough season which was last season, the 19 year old Nigeria international made four appearances in the UEFA Champions League, all as substitutes.

Iheanacho was an unused substitute in the first leg tie played in Romania, but the need to give Aguero a breather has opened the door for him to be handed a rare start under the new manager.

He came on to good effect in last week 3-1 win over Stoke City, setting up Nolito for a simple tap in before selling a dummy that set Raheem Sterling who in turn passed to Nolito to wrap up the tie.

Freshly invited Super Eagles defender Chidozie Awaziem has once again been overlooked by the head coach of FC Porto, ahead of their return leg tie against Roma in the Uefa Champions League qualifiers.

Awaziem is still waiting for his first senior appearance for the Portuguese giants this season as he has been confined to playing games for the B team.

Although he is fully registered by FC Porto for their UEFA Champions League campaign this season, he wasn’t given a look in when they played Roma a week ago in the first leg of the qualifiers which ended 1-1.

Ahead of tomorrow’s game he has once again been overlooked by coach Nuno Espirito Santo who has decided to go with the quartet of Felipe, Marcano, Alex Telles, Maxi Reyes and Layun.

Last season, the 19 year old made 10 appearances for the main team and 24 for the B team who emerged as champions of the second division.

This season he has followed that up with three appearances for the B team, where he is teammate to Nigeria junior international Musa Yahaya formerly of Tottenham Hotspur.

Fresh from leading the Nigeria U23s to a bronze medal finish at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Chelsea star Mikel Obi says he wants to play at the Olympics in 2020.

29 year old Mikel, will be 33 in four years time when the next Olympics will take place in the Japanese city of Tokyo, but the midfield maestro is eager to be at the games.

” I won’t mind playing at the Olympics in 2020, was obviously very clear before travelling to Brazil that my target was the gold medal, but to get the bronze is still an amazing achievement,’Mikel said in his Evening Standard column.

‘There was a celebration at the hotel afterwards, we were all jumping around. Everyone was so excited. But we managed to get everyone to sit down together and have a team meal. After everything we have been through, it was great to have something to show for it and we all thanked each other.

‘It really is a dream come true for me. I might take the medal to the Chelsea training ground to show to the other players – I hope I don’t make them jealous though!’

Nominees emerge for July NPFL-LBA

The shortlists for the Manager and Player of July in the Nigeria
Professional Football League (NPFL) – League Bloggers Awards (LBA)
have been named after long deliberation.

Four players and four coaches were listed among the nominees on Monday
to vie for the NPFL-LBA for the month of July.

In the race for the manager’s award are Kabiru Dogo of Nasarawa
United, Plateau United’s Zachary Baraje, Rafael Everton of FC
Ifeanyiubah and Imama Amapakabo of Enugu Rangers.

Dogo and Baraje helped their teams amass 10 points from five matches
apiece in the month under review and also lost once each. However,
Plateau United under Baraje stunned the bookmakers when they won at
Abia Warriors by a goal on July 3 and also won 1-0 at MFM FC on the
last day of July.

Nasarawa United managed by Dogo notched up two big wins at home
against Sunshine Stars and El-Kanemi with identical 3-0 scorelines
having added Rivers United to the teams they conquered in July. Their
other point came at struggling Ikorodu United where they played out a
2-2 draw on July 24.

FC Ifeanyiubah’s Brazilian trainer, Everton and Amapakabo share the
same stats for July. Both men guided their teams to unbeaten streaks
and got nine points apiece. Rangers’ 3-2 win at Akwa United proved a
major catalyst in Amapakabo making the shortlists for the manager of
July.

The tussle for the July players has quite an interesting field that
includes Plateau United goalkeeper, Danladi Isah. The custodian will
have to face the trio of outfield players in Abdulrahman Bashir
(Nasarawa United), Fortune Omoniwari (Akwa United) and Kingsley Eduwo
(Lobi Stars).

Isah kept three clean sheets in July – two on the road at Abia
Warriors and MFM FC and then at home to Enyimba. The Plateau United
goalkeeper was one of the reasons his team came out of their contest
at Abia Warriors as one-nil winners. He then followed up with superb
performances against Enyimba and MFM FC. Isah also saved a spot kick
at the Agege Stadium in Lagos to help his team to a 1-0 win over MFM
FC.

Omoniwari scored thrice for Akwa United in July in their losses at
home to Rangers and then away at Warri Wolves while Eduwo netted on
matchdays 27, 28 and 29 against Plateau United, Rangers and Warri
Wolves to take his tally to three goals in the month under review.

Nasarawa United striker, Bashir, who has been among the shortlists in
the past two months, notched up five goals in five matches against
Rivers United, 3SC, Sunshine Stars, Ikorodu United and El-Kanemi
Warriors.

The winners of the NPFL-LBA for July will be announced this week.

THE SHORTLIST FOR JULY

Players
Abdulrahman Bashir (Nasarawa United)
Fortune Omoniwari (Akwa United)
Danladi Isah (Plateau United)
Kingsley Eduwo (Lobi Stars)

Managers
Kabiru Dogo (Nasarawa United)
Zachary Baraje (Plateau United)
Rafael Everton (FC Ifeanyiubah)
Imama Amapakabo (Enugu Rangers)

George Akpayen

For LBA

Former Abia Warriors forward Chisom Chikatara will make his CAF Champions League debut this Wednesday when Wydad Casablanca face Zesco United of Zambia, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Since joining the Moroccan side after a protracted transfer battle Chikatara, has only played in domestic games for the team but he will finally make his bow against Zesco United.

The poster boy of Nigeria CHAN 2016 campaign initially objected to a move to the North African side before agreeing to move to the Moroccan champions few months ago.

Wydad are currently top of their group in the Champions League with 10 points, which guarantees them passage into the semi-finals, making the tie against second placed Zesco who are on 8 points a came they can afford to rest their stars.

Angola International defender Bastos Jaccinto Quissanga who recently joined Serie A side Lazio from Russian UEFA Champions League campaigners Rostov, is eager to face Nigeria youth international Sadiq Umar when Lazio clash with Roma in the Rome derby.

Bastos,24, played in both legs of Rostov’s Champions League qualifying victory over Anderlecht, but opt out of the tie against Ajax to push through his move to Lazio.

” We joked about it a lot, Bastos and Sadiq Umar will be tasty you know, Bastos loves the idea and it can only happen in the Rome derby” reveals agent Alexander Bondarenko to Owngoalnigeria.com

Bondarenko is a partner to the Nigerian intermediary of Sadiq Umar, Mohammed Lawal. The duo were instrumental in making Bastos swap Russia for Italy.

He reportedly cost Lazio a fee in the region of €6.5million.

Nigeria Under-23s reserve goalkepper during the recently concluded Rio 2016 Olympics Daniel Akpeyi says, the award of goalkepper with the highest number of saves given to him came to him as a shock.

Akpeyi kept goal in just one game for Nigeria at the tournament but was credited by FIFA on their website, in their tournament review as the keeper with the highest number of saves during the Olympics.

” Of course I was shock to hear about it, the thought never crossed my mind, especially as I kept goal in just one game, but all the same we give God the glory” He told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” Overall I will like to thank those who considered me worthy enough for such a prestigious award, am honoured, it’s a morale booster and another reason for me to always be at my best”.

Akpeyi, who is also a senior international player for Nigeria is expected at his base in South Africa by his PSL side later today. The shot stopper now has two Olympic medal as he won silver with the Nigeria Olympic team of 2008 in Beijing.

*Picture Credit: Baloistalking