Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle won’t be making any drastic changes to the Super Eagles squad for the upcoming world cup qualifiers games against Rwanda and Zimbabwe respectively, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Chelle will unveil his inaugural list of players call up for both games at the end of the month. The games are crucial to the Super Eagles chances of making it to the world cup 2026 after a poor start to the series.

They are presently 5th in their 6 team group, four points behind the leaders Rwanda and they are also yet to win any games with three draws and a defeat. Chelle will be the third coach to handle them in the series.

Despite that the coach isn’t going to make wholesome changes to the squad and will maintain the core of the players, who have been in team but will leave room for at least two new players per what we exclusively gathered.

The coach will keep the core of the players as he believe that they are the best at the moment and have the needed experience to prosecute both games. He has instead fashioned out a better idea to get them playing to their best capacity which includes better tactics and also a happy environment.

He wants better unity between the players believing that it’s the first recipe to get good results beyond the talents available to him.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Promotion chasing English Championship side Sheffield United completed a late January deadline day move for three players , OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Coach of the team Chris Wilder strengthened the second place team with the loan signing of Rob Holding from Crystal Palace, Jefferson Caceres from Peruvian side FBC Melgar and Nigerian Christian Nwachukwu from Bulgarian side Botev Plovdiv. It takes the club’s signing in January to five.

The signing of Nwachukwu is one that was deemed as a crazy decision by the press and people close to the club, forcing the coach to address why the former Nigeria U17 winger, who has three goals and two assists in 18 games was signed.

“Christian joins the club after being identified through our new data driven transfer strategy. We are discovering something new here and it may take time before we see some results, but we’re open to the new methods and we’re looking forward to working with Christian, and others, to see how far we can go with it.”

A member of the Fatai Amoo team, he is expected to go straight into training with the first team, but will have regular playing time with the youth team as they slowly ease him into the demands of playing in the English Championship.

Daniel Martins

The future of Nigeria international forward Emmanuel Dennis at English Premier League side Nottingham Forest is not certain after he was left out of the list of registered players for the season.

Forest landed Dennis in the summer of 2023 for an initial fee of around £10 million with a number of add-ons taking it to around £20 million according to several reports.

He’s not really impressed Nuno Espirito Santo sufficiently either and the club have been working to offload him for some time in a bid to get his salary – or some of it – off the books.

Dennis hasn’t played for Forest in a competitive fixture since May 2023. As a result, the Reds are very keen to get him off the books and find him a new club before the window slams shut later tonight.

Blackburn Rovers have jumped to his rescue with a loan deal that will see him spend the rest of the season with the English Championship side. Around this time last season he also spent time on loan with another English Championship side in Watford.

Daniel Martins

Norwegian Side Lillestrøm SK have announced the signing of Nigeria U20 striker Kparabo Ariheri and Nigeria U17 defender Tochukwu Ogboji on a four year deal, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Top striker Ariheri joins from Beyond Limit Football Academy while centre back Ogboji joins the team from Nigeria National League (NNL) side Giant Brillars.

Ariheri was a part of the Nigeria U20 team that won the last edition of the WAFU tournament scoring two goals in the final win to help Nigeria book a spot at the U20 Africa Cup of Nations.

Ogboji was a part of the Nduka Ugbade U17 team of two years ago, impressing with his tackling, ball playing abilities and also reading and intercepting of play. The team however failed to make it to the U17 World Cup after winning the WAFU tournament in style.

Both players will start from the youth team of the Norwegian side, but will no doubt be expected to be a part of the first team in the nearest future owing to how highly rated they are within the corridors of the club.

Daniel Martins

The future of Nigeria international forward Emmanuel Dennis at English Premier League side Nottingham Forest is not certain after he was left out of the list of registered players for the season.

Forest landed Dennis in the summer of 2023 for an initial fee of around £10 million with a number of add-ons taking it to around £20 million according to several reports.

He’s not really impressed Nuno Espirito Santo sufficiently either and the club have been working to offload him for some time in a bid to get his salary – or some of it – off the books.

Dennis hasn’t played for Forest in a competitive fixture since May 2023. As a result, the Reds are very keen to get him off the books and find him a new club before the window slams shut later tonight.

Now, according to BBC Sport, Dennis has held talks with Watford and Toulouse in France, whilst Werder Bremen are also monitoring his situation with the window in Germany set to close at 5pm.

There is an issue, however. Finances mean that Dennis will need to reach a compromise on his £60,000-a-week wages with none of the interested parties able to meet that level of salary.

Daniel Martins

Galatasary have sorted the issue of signing another striker with a deal with AC Milan on an initial loan for Spanish striker Alvaro Morata, but with an obligation to sign him on a permanent basis in the summer, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

The Euros winner will complete his move later today after a routine medical, with all parties involved in the deal agreeing to key areas which includes his wages and also terms of the club to club agreement.

His signing is coming on the back of Galatasary’s failure to land Nigeria international striker Victor Osimhen on a permanent deal from Napoli. Their bid of €65m to convert is loan to a permanent deal was rejected few days ago.

Napoli insist on making a decision on the sale of Osimhen in the summer rather than accept the break clause in his loan contract. His transfer fee will be €75m effectively ruling the Turkish side out of the running for his permanent signing.

It’s largely why Morata was signed as it will mean there will be no vacuum when Osimhen departs in the summer as expected after the expiration of his loan deal in June. So far he has scored 17 goals in 21 games in all competitions.

Daniel Martins

20 year old Nigerian forward Victor Udoh is close to sealing a shock move to English Premier League side Southampton from Belgium side Antwerp, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Details of the deal still remains sketchy but he is more likely a signing for the club’s U21 for Premier League 2 games and Premier League Cup, where they are firmly in the race to win both.

Another option could be sending him on loan upon the completion of his signing today. The club will make likely announce his signing with the next path of his career carefully spelt out.

Udoh trained with the Nigerian U20 team of Ladan Bosso but didn’t make the cut for any of the three tournaments the team played. The left sided forward moved to Belgium two year ago.

He grabbed the headlines last season when he scored 12 goals in 21 matches for Antwerp’s junior team in the third tier of during the 2023/24 season, before being promoted to the first team.

However he hasn’t found the back of the net in 28 first team appearances although most games he has played as substitute. He hasn’t played for the first team since December following his demotion to the U23s.

The deal could be part of the relationship his nursery team in Nigeria have with Sport Republic, the management team of Southampton, whose sister club Goztepe signed key starting midfielder Anthony Dennis around the same time that Udoh joined Antwerp.

Daniel Martins

Victor Boniface who was fews details away from joining Saudi Arabia side Al Nassr might yet leave Bayer Leverkusen when the transfer window opens in the summer, OwnGoalNigeria.com understands.

Boniface agreed a deal to join the Saudi Arabia outfit but they pulled out of the deal , and instead signed Aston Villa forward Jhon Durán’ for more money and for wages higher that what they agreed to pay the Nigerian.

He returned to the Bayer Leverkusen set-up and immediately found the back of the net in the 15th minute of their 3-1 win over Hoffenheim in the German Bundesliga for his seventh goal of the season.

According to SportBild, it is not yet 100% certain that Victor Boniface will stay at Bayer Leverkusen beyond next summer transfer window, and a transfer to the Premier League is still a possibility. The Leverkusen bosses’ would consider a sale if an offer of more than €50m were to come in.

Graeme Bailey reported that the 24 year old striker is being offered to Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United.

Daniel Martins

The newly appointed coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle will arrive in the country this week to begin preparation for the upcoming world cup qualifiers games against Rwanda and Zimbabwe respectively, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Chelle was appointed as coach last month with the task of ensuring that the country’s world cup qualifiers campaign get back on track, after a poor start that has seen them play four games without a win and four points behind the leaders Rwanda.

In March they will return to action with a game away to Rwanda, before hosting Zimbabwe at home three days later. Chelle is expected back in Nigeria after a visit to Europe where he spoke with certain players in the team.

Upon a his return, he is expected to submit a preliminary list of 35 players to the technical department of the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF), who will scrutinize it before letters of invitation will be sent out.

Only 25 players are expected to make the final list for both games. The lucky ones will be made public a week to the game by the NFF.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Lille’s new signing Chuba Akpom has opened up on his international future, which saw him switch his allegiance from England to Nigeria in 2019, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Akpom joined the Ligue 1 side on a loan deal till the end of the season, but there is also an option of making the deal permanent if he meets certain conditions at the end of the season.

An England youth international at several levels, Akpom who started his career at Arsenal was asked if he will honour a call to the Super Eagles if new coach Eric Chelle include him in the squad for the World Cup Qualifiers in March.

“I try to give a 100 percent, I’ve been waiting since 2019, I switched allegiances a long time ago. But if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, I’ll just keep working hard”, he told German based Nigerian journalist Oma Akatugba before going further to explain his absence, which he said he has no clue about.

“I don’t have a clue why I have not been invited to the Super Eagles, maybe because there are a lot of top strikers of course. But I think that for the nation to progress, it needs to be on merit. The players that are performing well need to be selected.

Ade Emmanuel