With the transfer window close to winding up for summer business. Players are expected to be on the move in the coming days more than it was the past few months.

Free players are exempted from the closure which is days away but they also have been on the move as teams shore up for the business part of the season, which is usually after the close of the transfer window.

Former Super Eagles captain Ogenyi Onazi has ended his stay without a club by signing for Italian Serie D Caserterna. The division is the fourth division of Italian football, a massive drop from 2013-2018 when he was at top division side Lazio.

He is using the move to build his career up after leaving his last club in Saudi Arabia, a  second division team named Al Adalah. Onazi trained with the home base team of Nigeria popularly called CHAN Eagles before his trip to seal the deal in Italy.

The B team of the senior national team of Nigeria were beaten 0-2 by their Ghanaian counterpart in the first leg of the CHAN qualifiers.

Ghana eliminated Benin in the preliminary round to set up a Jollof derby against bitter rivals Nigeria in the final round of qualifiers.  After an even first half the home team made the Nigerians pay for poor defending.

The Black Galaxies of Ghana went in front through Daniel Afriyie Barnie who scored a spot kick in the 48th minute. After the Nigerian defence failed to deal with a routine clearance resulting in panic which led to a handball. Although the call looks very dubious.

Four minutes from time, Seidu Suraj gave Ghana a good advantage with the second goal of the game and hand Ghana a perfect first leg advantage going into the second leg in Abuja on the 3rd of September.

Super Eagles XI: Adeyinka Adewale, Tope Olusesi, Ebube Duru, Samson Gbadebo, Afeez Nosir, Joseph Onoja, Bello Babatunde, Chijioke Akuneto, Andy Okpe, Abubakar Sadiq

The coach of Italian Serie A side Napoli Luciano Spalleti says he is open to the idea of the team signing Cristiano Ronaldo before the end of the current transfer window.

Spalleti made this known when he was asked by reporters about the rumours linking the Manchester United forward with a move to his side in exchange for Nigeria international forward Victor Osimhen.

Speaking ahead of today’s game against Fiorentina, the coach said he won’t say no to the idea of having Ronaldo in his team but insist that it shouldn’t be in exchange for Osimhen.

“If you ask me ‘would you like to coach Ronaldo’? I would like to see which coach would avoid such a thing to be told for life, but if you go out of the spaces to fill in for you”, he stated.

“It would not be an exchange, but two operations. We are talking about someone who has won more Championships, scored more goals, has the quality to be anywhere on the pitch, he is someone who solves things even on his own.

“The problem is it wouldn’t exist in one way or another. Let’s analyze what we have and what can give us a further good performance in a difficult field like that of Florence and Osimhen and what the protagonist has to do “.

He said the talks won’t distract Osimhen in today’s game as he is used to such rumours, which is normal for a player of his status and level.

“For someone as strong as Osimhen, the market is always open, you can wake up the current owner because he is a great player. The risk of market distraction for Osimhen and those like him always run, they are top players.”

Nigeria international defender Calvin Bassey was once again solid for Dutch champions Ajax as they secure their third consecutive win with a 2-0 win over Utrecht.

Bassey had a nightmare start to his career at the club by getting sent off on his debut game against PSV in the Dutch Super Cup (Johan Cruijjf Shield). He was subsequently handed a three match ban which delayed his league debut until last weekend.

Ajax failed to keep any clean sheet in three games but since the debut of Bassey, they haven’t conceded in the two games he has played so far. His impressive form has also led to the deployment of Danny Blind to left back with Bassey taking his spot in the heart of the defence.

He doesn’t look like he is troubled by the huge amount Ajax spent to sign him from Scottish side Rangers. A fee that makes him the most expensive defender ever signed by the Dutch side. For Rangers he also goes into the record books as their most expensive transfer.

Nigeria international forward Moses Simon was once again decisive for French Ligue 1 side Nantes as he bagged an assist before scoring to fire them to a 3-1 win over Toulouse.

Simon opened his goal account two weeks ago in a 1-1 draw against Lille and with his team trailing 0-1 at the break, he set up Evann Guessand for the leveler five minutes into the second half.

With scores at 2-1 and Toulouse pushing to level, Simon popped up with what killed the game as a contest by finishing off a brilliant team move off a chest pass from Mostafa Mohamed. The goal was given after a review by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).

The win was the first for the Ligue 1 side this season. A much needed win as they needed a morale booster ahead of their campaign in the Europa League for the first time in over 20 years.

Serbian powerhouse Red Star Belgrade has completed the signing of Khalifa Umar , the younger brother of Nigeria international forward Sadiq Umar.

Khalifa is a forward like his elder brother and like his brother he was signed from Future of Africa Academy in Kaduna. The deal is for four years with the option of another year.

He will be hoping for similar success like his elder brother Sadiq had at the rivals of his new team Partizan Belgrade. 25 year old Sadiq who is now at Almeria scored 23 goals with 19 assists in 52 games in two seasons in Serbia.

Speaking on Khalifa, award winning Kaduna journalist Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman says he is more skillful than his elder brother, who is however more refined owing to experience.

” He (Khalifa) is more skillful and very quick. Dribbles really well and has nice techniques. Football runs in their family. His father played for defunct Ranchers Bees of Kaduna, he was very famous back then and was nicknamed Mega. His two sons are following in his footsteps”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

Nigeria international forward Sadiq Umar scored his second goal of the season to power Almeria to their first win in the La Liga with a 2-1 win over Sevilla.

Sadiq opened his goal account last weekend in a 1-1 draw against Elche and he showed his predatory instinct to go past his man and tap into an open net to seal a 2-1 win over Sevilla. The goal ten minutes into the second half decided the game.

He is well on course to match his record from the last two seasons where he was top scorer for Almeria , lifting them to promotion to the La Liga. However his future still remains uncertain.

Speaking after the game against Sevilla, Umar who was linked with a move to Sevilla, Getafe, Villareal and also Atalanta will be allowed to leave the club at the right price according to the general manager of the team.

“If we have the price that we want, we will seel him”, Mohammed El Assy was quoted as saying by DAZN. Almeria want a fee of €30 million for the lanky forward who still has three year to run on his deal at the club.

English Championship side QPR are still in the business of strengthening their squad ahead of what they see as a campaign to return to the English Premier League.

QPR have won only one of their five games this season which was the 3-2 win over Middlesbrough. In all games this season they have failed to keep a clean sheet making reinforcement in defence a priority.

To that extent they have officially announced a deal to sign 34 year old Nigeria international defender Leon Balogun on a free transfer following the expiration of his deal at Scottish side Rangers.

The deal is a one year deal and it affords him the chance to link up with his former coach at Rangers Mick Beale. Balogun credit his move to the presence of the coach at the English Championship side. “He is obsessed with football and what I always admire about him is the way he treated the players, and the way he got ideas into your mind,” Balogun said of the manager in his first interview as a player of the club.

Hello

Despite denial from the camp of Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen, Sky Sports journalist Francesco Modugno insist talks is still going on the proposed swap deal involving Osimhen and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Reports broke out yesterday evening that Ronaldo has been offered on loan to Napoli in a deal which will see Osimhen move to Manchester United as his replacement for a fee of around €100m.

Osimhen’s agent Roberto Calenda earlier today denied the reports and insisted that his client is focused on having a fine season at Napoli, where he has found the back of the net consecutively in the first two games of the new Serie A season.

“There are no negotiations or swap deal talks in progress. Osimhen’s Napoli player and he wants to play Champions League with Napoli, he’s proud of being in UCL”, Calenda was quoted as saying.

However Modugno insist talks are underway but it all depends on the camp of Osimhen accepting the proposal from Ronaldo’s entourage led by super star agent Jorge Mendes.

In an interview which was watched by OwnGoalNigeria.com editorial team, the respected journalist summed up the entire situation as quoted below.

“Cristiano Ronaldo wants to play the Champions League and Jorge Mendes is working for this. The sentiment could lead him to Portugal, in the last week he has knocked on the doors of Bayern Munich and Milan. Then there is Napoli: his friend De Laurentiis has listened to the proposal, evaluates, reflects and does the accounts.

At the moment it is a more or less strong suggestion. It depends on the mood, on the tweet of Osimhen’s agent who said he wants to stay in Naples and denied the exchange with the Portuguese.

We are in a phase in which Jorge Mendes is trying to understand if the conditions can be created to start the negotiation which is linked to two conditions: United should take on all or almost all the salary of the Portuguese and then arrive in Naples and offer at least 100 million for Osimhen “.

The future of several players remained unresolved despite the fact that the summer transfer window has one more weeks to go in most of the major leagues in Europe.

Players and their representatives are now pulling the strings to ensure that their clients get the best for their career, but so too are teams who are either keen on holding on to their key players or otherwise.

French Ligue 1 side Nantes have taken a stand on the future of Nigeria international winger Moses Simon, who has been linked to several teams in France and even around Europe.

Coach of the team Antoine Kombouare has already told the owners of the team that they can’t afford to lose the 27 year old Nigerian. Particularly this late in the transfer window as it will be difficult to find his type of player with the limited time available.

This has already been made known to the representatives of Simon who were pushing for the club to accept a proposal from Rennes. Nice were the other side in the French Ligue 1 to have made a bid for the winger.

Outside France, a host of teams which includes the English Premier League trio of Newcastle United, Brighton and Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest checked on his availability but were told he is keen on remaining in France due to family reasons.