The recent tour of Europe embarked upon by the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro could open the door for several players to be given a chance in the team.

Peseiro was in Belgium last week , he arrived France two days ago and paid a visit to the training ground of Ligue 1 side FC Lorient where 27 year old defensive midfielder Bonke Innocent plays.

Capped four times at senior level, the midfield enforcer has just one appearance to his name under Peseiro but has been included in the provisional list of players on four different occasions without making the final list for games.

The visit also afforded Peseiro the chance to meet with 18 year old defender Isaac James who plays for the B team following his move from Garden City FC in July. He has played 12 games in the National 2-Grp. D, the 4th division in France where the B team plays.

Comfortably as a left back or right back , his immediate target will be getting into the first team of the Ligue 1 side and making many appearances like Bonke who already has played in 20 league games this season.

James is aware that Peseiro is tracking him and it should be a way of motivating him to push for a step up to the main team and possibly a Super Eagles chance before the Africa Cup of Nations next year.

Osas Mahawi

Nigerian superstar David Adeleke alias Davido breaks records with the fourth album. 1xBet congratulates its brand ambassador on his incredible success. 

Timeless was officially released on March 31. Within a week, the 49-minute, 17-song compilation became the first African album to top the iTunes charts in the USA.

New singles resonated with fans worldwide, with over 50 million streams on various music platforms and the highest number of first-day album sales by an African artist. Circulation exceeded over 1 million copies on its first day of release, breaking the previous record by Burna Boy. Such success is not accidental – Davido’s songs radiate joy and great energy, also present on the earlier album Unavailable. 

When it comes to constantly moving towards maximum results, 1xBet and Davido share the same values and mentality. Our collaboration will bring to life new projects that will interest both fans of African music and betting.  

1xBet is one of the largest betting companies in Nigeria. The bookmaker contributes to the country’s comprehensive development and cooperates with musicians and athletes. The official 1xBet partners list includes Barcelona, PSG, Lille, La Liga, Serie A, Confederation of African Football and other well-known sports brands and organizations.

South Africa have announced the list of players that will be representing them at the U17 Africa Cup of Nations, which will take place in Algeria and will will be played between 29 April and 19 May 2023.

Grouped alongside Nigeria, Zambia and Morocco in Group B. They will open their campaign in the tournament against Morocco on the 30th of April before further games against Zambia and Nigeria on the 3rd and 6th of May respectively.

In their official list of players for the tournament, they picked three foreign based players in Kyle Jansen of MLS side Atlanta United, Waylon Renecke of Norwich City and Michael Dokunmu of Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem.

16 year old Dokunmu is seen as a future star by the Dutch side and only recently signed his first professional deal at the club. He was born in South Africa to a South African mother and a Nigerian father.

He is eligible for Nigeria and South Africa but for now he is settled with the U17 team of latter and will be hoping to help them beat Nigeria to one of the four tickets available for the U17 World Cup via the tournament.

SA U17 squad in full for AFCON:

Goalkeepers:

Takalani Mazhamba – Kaizer Chiefs
Genaro Johnson – Cape Town Spurs
Kyle Jansen – Atlanta United

Defenders:

Xhosa Manyama – Cape Town City
Keitumetse Lesia – SuperSport United
Waylon Renecke – Norwich City
Benjamin Wallis – SuperSport United
Vincent Sithole – Mamelodi Sundowns
Tyler Cicero – Stellenbosch
Thato Sibiya – Mamelodi Sundowns

Midfielders:

Xolani Tshaka – Orlando Pirates
Gomolemo Kekana – TS Galaxy
Vicky Mkhwana – Kaizer Chiefs
Xavier Jodamus – Ubuntu
Dhakier Lee –  Cape Town Spurs

Forwards:

Michael Dokunmu – Vitesse
Orifha Maubelo – Capital City
Bennet Mokoena – Mamelodi Sundowns
Gabriel Amato – Cape Town City
Siyabonga Mabena – Mamelodi Sundowns
Luke Baartman – Cape Town Spurs

Osas Mahawi

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has deferred the decision on the future of Nigeria U23 coach Salisu Yusuf despite his failure to qualify the Nigeria B team for the CHAN tournament and also failing with the U23.

Yusuf is the head coach of both teams and also doubles as one of the assistants of the coach of the main team Jose Peseiro. His position was believed to be untenable following his recent failures but the NFF appear not to be in a hurry to let go off the former coach of Kano Pillars.

Unlike Imama Amapakabo who was sacked under similar circumstances with both teams, Yusuf is set to stay in his role judging by the communique issued by the NFF after their recent meeting.

While expressing their displeasure at the performance of the Super Eagles and that of the  U23 team, the football house stayed silent on the future of Yusuf but warned players of the teams mentioned to give their all as the football house won’t be held ransom by any player.

Item 6 of the communique read thus:

“The Board expressed distaste with recent results of the Super Eagles and the U23 Boys, and fully endorsed the NFF President’s stated position that the Federation will never beg any player to wear the nation’s colours. It added that whoever is not motivated for one reason or the other to represent Nigeria should always be bold enough to state this at the point of invitation. Any perceived lackadaisical attitude by any player wearing Nigeria’s colours at international level will no longer be treated with kid gloves”.

Mohammed Mowiz

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has amended the regulation around the age test system popularly called Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) ahead of the U17 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria, OGN reports.

In a correspondence on their official website CAF announced that they have revised the guidelines and amended the part that says an entire team will be disqualified if one player fails the test. The new guideline will come into effect from this year’s tournament.

It says a team will only be disqualified if four or more of its players fail the test. It also says if one, two or three of the players fail the test which is pegged at grade 6. The concerned team will be allowed to play in the tournament but the players involved will be disqualified with the team also not given the window to replace them.

Below is the new regulation by CAF which will benefit the Nigeria U17 team with three of their key midfielders on grade 5, which is a grade above the limit set by Nigeria, and the NFF decided to exclude them in order not to get the team disqualified, with fears hinged on the players possibly growing above the limit when tested at the tournament proper.

Mohammed Mowiz

Crystal Palace star midfielder Ebere Eze reminded all who might have forgotten of his star quality by hitting a brace that helped his team beat Southampton 2-0, their third consecutive win under new manger Roy Hodgson.

Eze struck in the 54th and 68th minute of the game to once again put himself in the frame for a discussion over a possible call up to the senior national team of England. A long term injury cost him his first chance at playing for the country at senior level.

Now back at his best and playing with a lot of freedom under Hodgson, his national team choice would have been the senior national team of Nigeria if the then coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr had foresight to see that he has a bright future.

While at Millwall and struggling to find his feet, the then 19 year old attended a training camp of the senior national team of Nigeria in London, where they played Senegal in a friendly game on the 23rd of March 2017.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw and another game was scheduled to be played by Nigeria but it was cancelled leading to a hasty decision to organize a test game involving players of Nigerian descent living in the United Kingdom. Eze was one of the players.

Chuba Akpom and Ola Aina were the other two known names who took part in the training game but while the aforementioned duo have been cleared to play for Nigeria, Rohr made it clear back then that he has enough quality in his midfield and didn’t follow up the task of monitoring the development of Eze.

One year later after Eze has blossom to a certain aspect with QPR in the English Championship, Rohr came calling again but this time around the player has already been contacted by the handlers of the U21 team of England. He picked going with them especially as there was no guarantee from Rohr on a spot in the Nigerian team.

After that failed move, Rohr contacted former NFF president Amaju Pinnick to speak with the 20 year old as at that time. A meeting was set up with Eze by Pinnick but he omitted his representatives who were not happy by what they termed as unprofessional by the present FIFA congress man.

His representatives saw it as a form of disrespect and following his move to Crystal Palace two seasons ago urged him to make the best of his time in the English Premier League, and he could be in the frame for a call up to the English team.

While at Crystal Palace, he met with Pinnick twice in London and even posted their picture together but around that time he has his mind made up on playing for England. Injury robbed him the chance to be a part of the pool for the European Championship.

He revealed that he saw a message on his phone about his call up to the English team for the Euros, when he got into the locker room after picking up the injury which kept him out for eight months. Now back to his best level another chance is likely on the horizon.

Mohammed Mowiz

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro was in Belgium over the weekend to run the rule on players who are eligible to the senior national team of Nigeria.

Peseiro watched the striking duo of Gift Orban and Victor Boniface in action for Gent and Union Saint-Gilloise respectively. He also watched Raphael Onyedika of Club Brugge in action as well as Antwerp holding midfielder Alhassan Yusuf.

On Friday he was at the Stade Maurice Dufrasne to watch the game between Standard Liege and Charleroi with fringe Super Eagles defender Valentine Ozornwafor fingered as the player the Portuguese coach wanted to watch at close quarters.

However, he wasn’t the only one the coach had his eyes on as he also watched 20 year old striker Noah Ohio who scored the first goal for Standard Liege in the 3-1 win. The goal was his fifth of the season, he also has three assists this season.

Noah Chidiebere Junior Anyanwu Ohio was born in the Netherlands to a Nigerian father and an English mother making him eligible for all three
countries. He has since gone ahead to represent England at U16 level after playing for the U15 of the Netherlands. Since playing for England he appears to have settled for the Netherlands.

From 2018 till date he played for their U16 and U19 respectively making seven appearances and scoring four goals in the process. It appears Nigeria have now joined the list of his admirers with the visit of coach Peseiro.

As at the time of filing of this report, there is no evidence to suggest that the coach met the forward who has in the past played for clubs like  Manchester United, Manchester City, RB Leipzig and Austria Vienna.

Daniel Martins.

The camp of the Nigeria U20 team has officially opened today for the U20 World Cup which will take place in Argentina from 20 May – 11 June, according to world football governing body FIFA.

FIFA stripped Indonesia off the hosting right of the tournament over a row on the participation of Israel in the tournament on their soil. The decision didn’t affect the date for the tournament as it will hold as earlier planned.

Head coach of the Nigerian team Ladan Bosso has picked 39 players from the Nigerian local football scene for a training camp in Abuja, with the foreign based players expected to join the team next month.

In the list, the coach handed a chance to Nasarawa United forward Aliyu Adamu popularly called Aguero by friends and admirers. Injuries and administrative issues made him miss out on a spot to the WAFU tournament as well as the AFCON.

The Flying Eagles, who finished third at the Africa U20 Cup of Nations in Egypt last month, are one of four teams that will fly Africa’s flag at the finals, with the others being Senegal, The Gambia and Tunisia.

ALL THE INVITED PLAYERS:

Goalkeepers: Nathaniel Nwosu (Water FC); Chijioke Aniagboso (Giant Brillars); Saheed Jimoh (B. E. Arena Academy); John Otomblon (Mavlon FC)

Defenders: Augustine Njoku (Abia Warriors); Ezekiel Bala; Muhammad Abdulsalam (Rising Stars); Solomon Agbalaka (Broad City FC); Israel Domingo (Family Worship FC): Benjamin Frederick (Nasarawa United); Femi Abubakar (Madiba FC); Daniel Bameyi (Yum Yum FC); Wisdom Udoh (Akwa United); Akinwale Akanbi (Lionheart FC)

Midfielders: Caleb Uchedikwu (Mavlon FC); Ogbelu Onuche (Nasarawa United); Daniel Daga (Dakkada FC): Samson Lawal (Pro-Success Academy); Bilyaminu Musa (Mailafia FC); Hitler Eniye (36 Lion FC); Muhammad Aminu (Gombe United); John Joshua (Nasarawa United); Musa Usman (Mailantarki FC); Ibrahim Abdullahi (Samba FC)

Forwards: Haliru Sarki (Mahaniam FC); Kehinde Ibrahim (Green Light FC): Shettima Abubakar (Central Academy); Jude Sunday (Real Sapphire FC): Obiaku Ifesinachi (36 Lion FC); Abdullahi Usman (Samba FC); Salem Fago (Mavlon FC); Godwin Ositgbami (Kwara United); Babangida Abubakar (Mailantarki FC); Nurudeen Bala (Maikunkele FC); Olaitan Fabode (3SC); Adams Olubi; Adamu Aliyu (Nasarawa United); Ibrahim Beji (Cartegina FC); Ayatollah Usman (Niger Tornadoes).

Mohammed Mowiz

Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has arrived Belgium as part of his trips to countries where players eligible for the senior national team of Nigeria are doing well, OGN can exclusively reveal.

Peseiro has visited, Italy, England and Germany and has a visit to France on his travelling list as well with the final round of games for the Africa Cup of Nations around the corner. Nigeria will take on Sierra Leone and Sao Tome and Principe respectively in their final two games of the qualifiers.

Ahead of the game, the coach has taken the first step towards growing his options with his trip to Belgium, where he will run the rule on the duo of Victor Boniface and Gift Orban. They have accounted for a combined goal of 27.

Orban has hit 14 goals in 13 games for Gent while Boniface who is the joint highest goal scorer in the Europa League with six goals in nine games. He also has seven goals and six assists in the Belgium League.

The coach will watch and access the duo at close quarters in view of handing them a call up. He will also take out time to see two midfielders in Alhassan Yusuf of Antwerp and Raphael Onyedika of Club Brugge.  The duo have earned rave reviews by followers of the league in Belgium.

Damian Waziri