The international future of the top scorer in the English Championship Chuba Akpom is firmly in the hands of Nigeria with the 28 year old confirming that his switch of nationality has been approved by FIFA.

Akpom represented England at several youth levels but two years ago decided to pledge his senior international future to Nigeria. This season is the first time he has really proven that he deserve a chance with the team after an explosive year in the English Championship with Middlesbrough.

He scored 28 goals in 39 games to power his team to a play off spot, which saw them play Conventry in the first leg of the semi final and it ended in a 0-0 draw. The second leg for a spot in the championship play off final will take place on Wednesday.

Looking ahead of the game against Coventry, Akpom who has already been crowned the player of the season in the Championship as well as the top scorer said his international future is certain and he believe he will soon get a call up to play for the Super Eagles.

” I am cleared to play for Nigeria. Waiting for the coach to hand me a chance”, he said when asked if he still harbours the ambition of playing for England. ” My aim was to have a good season and still remains my focus until the end of the season. Every other thing will follow after that”, he said.

Daniel Martins

The camp of the Nigeria U20 team in Argentina is in a huge financial mess with just one week left to the commencement of the U20 World Cup in Argentina, OGN can exclusively reveal.

Led by coach Ladan Bosso, the team have been in Argentina for the past one week perfecting their strategies for the commencement of their campaign on the 21st, when they will play Dominican Republic in their first group game.

We gathered that all is not well in the team as the coaches and backroom staff, including the players are yet to be paid any form of bonus from any of the three tournaments, they have qualified for.

A member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) made this known to OGN, while explaining the situation around the future of the coaches of the Nigeria U17 team, who have been relieved off their roles following failure to qualify for the U17 World Cup.

” Our major concern is with the U20s now. We are aware that all is not well in the camp of the team ahead of the start of the World Cup and we are pushing to lift the morale which we heard is very low at the moment”, he told OGN.

” The coaches and the players have all not received the agreed qualification bonus for two tournaments. That of the AFCON and that of the World Cup. They are not on a monthly salary plan or match bonus, that is what they take home and if it doesn’t come as and when due then it’s a problem. Bosso hasn’t complained yet but we know he is not happy”,he rounded up saying.

Mohammed Mowiz

A member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has explained the reasons behind the termination of the contracts of the technical crew of the Nigeria U17 team led by Nduka Ugbade.

Nigeria failed to make it to the U17 World Cup after falling to make the last four of the U17 Africa Cup of Nations following their 1-2 loss to Burkina Faso in the quarter final.

The failure appears to have a dire consequence on the future of the technical crew of the team, a move that is now unpopular especially with U23 and CHAN Eagles coach Salisu Yusuf, who failed to qualify two national teams still in his role as coach of the senior national team of Nigeria.

Explaining why their case is different from that of Yusuf, a chieftain of the NFF said only Salisu Yusuf has a written contract with the NFF for a particular period of time. He said every other coach is on a deal that extends after qualifying for any tournament.

He said they are not on salaries but on special bonuses which is tied to qualifying for tournaments, and failure to qualify for any tournament automatically brings the arrangement to an end.

” Their contracts is tied to qualifying for tournaments. That was what we inherited from the Amaju Pinnick led board. So when you make it to any tournament, you get qualifiers bonus. They are not even on match allowances. It’s the same with the U20 and U23 teams. So the moment you fail to make it to a tournament, the contracts terminates. The coaching crew are aware of this”, he told OGN.

Mohammed Mowiz

The fine run of form of former Nigeria U20 striker Jerome Akor Adams has caught the attention of German Bundesliga side Weder Bremen, OGN understands.

Akor has put himself in the shop window for a summer transfer with six goals in his last six games making the forward who represented Nigeria at the 2019 U20 World Cup one of the most talked about talents in the league.

According to Norwegian channel TV 2, representatives of Werder Bremen were in the Skagerak Arena on Friday evening to get an idea of what the striker is all about, and he didn’t disappoint as his goal earned his side a 1-0 win away to Odd.

The interest is said to be at an early stage and the proposed transfer will likely happen only if they are able to move on two of the strikers at the club at the moment. A decision will be made in the summer.

We gathered that they are not the only team weighing up a move for the 23 year old with teams from Belgium, France and Spain also keeping a close watch on his progress this season.

Daniel Martins

The rise of former Nigeria U17 winger Akinsola Babatunde Jimoh at Spanish LaLiga side reached a new height when the 20 year old was handed his debut in their league game against Sevilla on Sunday night.

Akinsola was introduced in the 80th minute with Valladolid losing 0-2 in a game which later ended with the visitors scoring a third goal to clinch a 3-0 win, further compounding the relegation worries of the home team.

For the Nigerian, it has been a remarkable rise to the first team and his career as a whole, which all started from the 2019 WAFU tournament where he represented the U17 team of Nigeria under coach Manu Garba.

He joined the Spanish side in the summer from Nigeria League One side Valiant FC and made the step up to the first team after impressing with the B team in the Segunda Federacion- Group 1 league.

His rise has been coming after he was officially promoted to the first team in January and now with his debut, his next target will be to nail down a permanent spot in the team especially if they manage to beat the drop. They are presently just one spot and one point above the drop zone.

Damian Waziri

The trip Manchester United made to Nigeria in 2008 has been labeled as a distaster by one of the players who was a part of the team that took on Portsmouth at the Moshood Abiola stadium in Abuja.

United defeated Portsmouth who were then the FA Cup champions in an exhibition game in Abuja but the memories of that visit which was part of their tour to Africa left a bitter taste in the mouth of one of the stars in the team.

Writing in his biography, Carrick who is now at the helm as coach of Middlesbrough lamented the entire trip to Nigeria, which they made after a touring South Africa. He said the Abuja experience will go down in his mind as his worst ever as a professional footballer.

He went on to reveal how some players developed certain ailments upon returning from Nigeria making the club to take their samples for medical examination. He said the results showed faeces of monkeys and rats in the meal they had in Abuja.

“The trip lasted only 16 hours, but Abuja effect lasted longer. I vomited for a week, but some lads had it far worse. They were so sick that United sent a sample off to some university and, I’m not kidding, they found monkey and rat shits in the sample”, he said in his biography.

“The  university docs said they’d never seen anything like it before. So no, I won’t remember Abuja happily and I can’t imagine the other lads will either. Those are the type of souvenirs you don’t want to bring back from tours abroad”,  he ended his narration on the trip to Abuja.

Osas Mahawi

Nigeria international forward Taiwo Awoniyi scored twice to help Nottingham Forest to a 2-2 draw against Chelsea, who were looking for their second consecutive win under caretaker coach Frank Lampard, OGN reports.

The Nigerian put his team ahead in the 13th minute with a well placed header and he was on hand again to cancel Raheem Sterling’s brace with another header to bring scores to 2-2 after two goals from the English man in the 51st and 58th minute.

It was his eight goal of the season and it lifted his team out of the relegation zone to 16th on table, a spot away from the relegation zone with two games left to play in the English Premier League.

Coach of the team Steve Copper said he is hoping that the Nigerian will continue his fine form in front of goal with games against Arsenal and Crystal Palace up next for the newly promoted side.

The Nigeria U20 team warmed up for the U20 World Cup by beating second division Argentina side Club Almirante Brown 3-2 in their first friendly game in their camp in Argentina, OGN reports.

Led by coach Ladan Bosso, the team have been in Argentina for a week now as they perfect their formation and tactics for their first group game against the Dominican Republic on the 21st of May, a day after the start of the tournament.

Bosso’s side edged what was a five goal thriller 3-2 with goals from the Bulgaria based duo of Tochukwu Nnadi and Emmanuel Umeh. Salem Fargo of Mavlon FC got the other goal for the Nigerian side.

Nnadi and Umeh are both players of Botev Plodiv of Bulgaria and they are two of the five foreign based team in the Nigerian team with Mohammed Beji of Spanish side Cartagena, Abel Ogwuche of Swedish side Trelleborgs FF and Victor Eletu of AC Milan completing the list.

They will next take on Colombia on the 16th of May just five days before their opening game of the tournament. Bosso has all but one of the 21 players in his list for the tournament. AC Milan youth team midfielder Eletu is the only player yet to arrive at the camp of the team.

Mohammed Mowiz

Head coach of Burkina Faso Brahima Traore insist that his team deserve to go through to the semi final of the U17 Africa Cup of Nations ahead of Nigeria after a 2-1 win yesterday.

His statement came after coach of the Nigerian team Nduka Ugbade lamented missed chances claiming that his team were unlucky not to have won the game as they were better in all areas .

“I am happy with the performance of our players and in such competitions, even if you lose, you gain something by developing the players for the future.”

“Everything worked as we had planned, but we could not score with the chances we had. We paid dearly for that. We learn the lessons and move on,” he said

The win sealed a spot at the World Cup taking place in India for Burkina Faso and Traore, whose team were dominated in terms of chances created and ball possession by Nigeria , said they are proud to go through ahead of Nigeria and deserve their spot.

“It was a heroic match and our players gave everything they had. Qualifying for the semi-finals and the World Cup was one of our goals from the beginning. We had promised the Federation and the Burkinabe people that we would seek to achieve this and also go for our second AFCON title,” the tactician said after the match.

He added; “After our first loss against Mali we were under pressure but we managed to calm down and get back on track to win against Cameroon and then Nigeria who are both considered as favorites in this competition.”

Damian Waziri