Sudanese giants Al Hilal failed to bolster their goalkeeping ranks after a proposed deal to sign a goalkepper from Nigeria failed to see the light of the day.

The club made it a priority to get a new goalkepper and targets were contacted and Nigeria international goalkepper Adewale Adeyinka was picked as the preferred option.

However a deal with the goalkepper didn’t work out despite reports that he underwent a medical at the Sudanese side. He is now back in Nigeria to train with the CHAN team ahead of their qualifiers against Ghana.

Adeyinka who is now the deputy to Francis Uzoho following Maduka Okoye self exile is reportedly close to agreeing a deal to join CAF Confederation Cup campaigners Kwara United on a free deal, following the expiration of his contract with Akwa United.

He was a part of the Nigeria U17 team to the 2013 U-17 World Cup but an injury picked up during the Africa Cup of Nations saw him miss the tournament, and it led to the emergence of Dele Alampasu who went ahead to win the goalkepper of the tournament.

Former coach of the senior national team of Italy Arrigo Sacchi says he expects to see some improvement from Nigeria international striker Victor Osimhen after working with Luciano Spalleti for a year.

Napoli will open their Serie A campaign with a game against Verona later today and all eyes will be on the Nigerian, who still remains the club’s record signing to show his worth in what will be his third season at the club.

The 23 year old finished last season with 14 goals and 5 assists despite missing almost three months due to a cheek bone injury. The figure is four more than his tally of ten goals in his first season at the club.

Sacchi said there are some areas in his game which still need improvement despite his impressive return and after working a year with Spalleti, he expects him to show improvements not just on the technical side but also on his behavior.

“I am very curious to see Osimhen at work. He has enormous potential, in my opinion not yet all expressed. A year of Spalletti’s lessons, both on a technical and behavioral level, should have served him to improve and get closer to to be that leader that Napoli needs “, he said.

The desire of Nottingham Forest to add another Nigerian to the duo of Taiwo Awoniyi and Emmanuel Dennis has suffered a set back, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Newly promoted Forest signed Dennis from Watford to bring to two the number of Nigerians at the club. Awoniyi still remains their record signing following his move from Union Berlin for around €20.5m. He got off the mark for them in their win over West Ham.

Reports from France had it that Forest who have signed as many as 14 players this summer reached agreement on personal terms with Nigeria international Moses Simon. Talks was expected to take place with Nantes.

Those talks won’t be happening as the president of Nantes Waldemar Kita has told the representative of the wing forward that he won’t be allowed to leave the club this season, OwnGoalNigeria.com gathered.

Simon opened his Ligue 1 account with a goal in their 1-1 draw against Lill. He has two years left to run on his deal at the club but Nantes won’t mind him leaving for free like the case was with the duo of Khalifa Koulibaly and Randall Kolo Muani.

The decision is not only limited to Simon as the president has also told Ludovic Blas that he won’t be leaving the club despite a €10m bid from Lille. He is however opened to letting the duo leave for a fee in excess of €20m each.

French Ligue 1 side Nice, Rennes and Marseille are the other teams to have shown interest in Simon. He also shunned offers from Newcastle United, Brighton and Hove Albion and Leeds United.

The ongoing summer transfer window will slam shut for several countries in two weeks time hence it is expected that several players will be on the move in the coming days.

Players of the senior national team of Nigeria have also made moves and as many as three of them namely Leon Balogun, Shehu Abdullahi and Oghenekaro Etebo are expected to make move with their club career not going as expected.

While the duo of Abdullahi and Balogun are currently without a club, Etebo has been frozen out of the first team set up at English Championship side Stoke City and he is now courting interest from two teams in Spain.

According to Sport, the 26 year old who has a year to run on his deal is in talks with Getafe where he spent time on loan few years ago. Valladolid are also in for him per same publication.

A small fee is expected to seal the move for any of the La Liga side to bring an end to the nightmare the Super Eagles midfielder has endured for the past three seasons at the club. He last played for the team two years ago as he has been loaned out in two consecutive seasons to Galatasaray and Watford respective.

Senegalese forward Ismaila Sarr stole the headline last week when he scored from the halfway line in Watford’s 1-1 draw against West Brom in the English Championship.

Yesterday in FC Porto B 3-2 away win over  Belenenses Sad his feat was equalled by a Nigerian who has two cap for the senior national team of Nigeria. He recently joined Porto B.

Marcus Abraham made his case for a spot in the first team of FC Porto by scoring the opening goal in the win. He let fly an audacious effort from the halfway line which sealed into the net by catching the goalkeeper of Belenenses Sad off guard.

The goal got massive reviews around Portugal and as expected it has once again brought the spotlight on Abraham, who failed to make the best of his time in the Portuguese top flight when he joined Portimonense on loan two seasons ago.

He earned a call up to the senior national team of Nigeria after scoring eleven goals for CD Feirense in the Portuguese second division. His career has since gone off the boil with failed loan stint at Portimonense and later Radomiak Radom of Poland.

The 22 year old played for Nigeria in the double header friendly games against Cameroon which ended with Cameroon winning the first game 1-0, the second game ended in a 0-0 draw. He played a combined 26 minutes in both games and he has since not been called up since then.

The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick says he will be stepping down from his role when his tenure expires next month.

Pinnick has been rumoured to be interested in pushing for a third term in office and last week said he is considering the option. The negative reaction to his statement appears to have forced him into having a rethink.

Speaking on Arise TV this morning, Pinnick who is also a member of the CAF Executive Committee said he isn’t going to be standing for re-election when he was asked if he has the intention of running for a third term.

“It is fine, I am done. There are so many Nigerians that are capable of being there (NFF President). I will assist and work with anyone who wins the elections,” Pinnick said.

“I will work with whoever emerges as NFF President. That i promise. I will intervene but will not interfere,” Pinnick concluded.

As some players of the senior national team of Nigeria continue to trade places, it appears some people are not comfortable with the clubs they choose to join, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Among them Franjo Vranjkovic, the owner of popular football players agency First Eleven ISM. He currently has Nigeria international midfielder Wilfred Nididi as one of his top clients.

Despite his ties with a top player of the senior national team of Nigeria, Vranjkovic didn’t mince words when he reacted to the announcement by Croatian side Hadjuk Split on signing Nigeria international defender Chidozie Awaziem.

Awaziem will spend the entirety of this season on loan to the Croatian side from Portuguese side Boavista. A move which is coming after his return from another loan spell in Turkey with Alanyaspor. Vranjkovic doesn’t think he is better than other defenders from Croatia.

” We have much better centre back Croatians. We don’t need nobody from the bench from another country. But ok Hadjuk need”,he said on Facebook when the signing of Awaziem was made public.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has officially applied for the tenure of present president of the football body Amaju Pinnick to be granted a tenure extension, OwnGoalNigeria.com understands.

According to the print edition of Leadership Newspaper, the NFF sent a letter to world football governing body FIFA on Wednesday August 9 signed by General Secretary, Muhhamed Sanusi, the outgoing board appealed to the world body to allow it to hold the forthcoming election next year’s January instead next month September.

Pinnick’s tenure is due to run out soon and election has been fixed for September with a congress set to hold next week in Bayelsa state . But all plans for the election has now been put on hold with the response from FIFA set to be made known to the congress when they meet.

Already Pinnick has made it known that he is interested in going for a third term in office after initially saying he isn’t going to contest again. His decision hasn’t gone down well with other candidates interested in contesting for the position.

For now, it is expected that he will stay in office till January unless he is impeached or have a vote of no confidence passed on him by the congress, which looks highly unlikely.

It hasn’t been the best of years for Nigerian football, with the Super Eagles having their worst Africa Cup of Nations performance in over 40 years by crashing out in the first knock out round of the tournament. They also failed to qualify for the World Cup.

All hopes were on the Super Falcons winning the tenth Women Africa Cup of Nations title that do ended in disappointment piling more pressure on Pinnick to not go for another term in office.

Fresh from signing Taiwo Awoniyi on a record transfer from German Bundesliga side Union Berlin, newly promoted English Premier League side Nottingham Forest have submitted a bid for another Nigerian.

They paid a club record fee of €20.5m to sign Awoniyi and they have lodged another bid in that region for Emmanuel Dennis, who is expected to leave Watford before the end of the transfer window.

Dennis is rated in the region of £20m by Watford after scoring ten goals in his debut season in the English Premier League but following the relegation of Watford he is keen on a move away but wants to remain in England.

The structure of the bid isn’t known yet but it is believed that talks will accelerate in the coming days for the move to be made official, but for now he will continue to represent Watford in the English Championship. He has so far played in their two games so far.

The dream of Nigeria international forward Sadiq Umar to join German giants Borussia Dortmund has been dashed following a breakdown in talks over the payment of his transfer fee.

OwnGoalNigeria.com exclusively gathered that Dortmund reached an agreement with Almeria for his signing for a fee in the region of €25m with add-ons expected to take it to around €30m.

All parties involved were said to have given the green light for the move to happen but it went all up in smoke when terms of the payment was tabled by the German side. Almeria outrightly rejected the structure of the payment.

Per what we gathered, Dortmund want to make an initial payment of €10m while the rest €15m will be paid in the next two transfer windows. Almeria pushed for it to be around €20m as they also have financial burdens to meet per the La Liga strict financial measures.

Dortmund insisted on what they proposed making Almeria to end talks much to the disappointment of Sadiq who has already started house hunting in Germany. The breakdown in talks worked nicely for other teams in Spain who want to sign the lanky forward.

Getafe failed with a bid two days ago, but Villareal who have a long standing interest are now favourite for his signing and we exclusively gathered that they have accepted to match the bid of Dortmund but with a better structure.

A fee in the region of €30m has been discussed and an agreement in principle reached. If the move goes ahead it will make him the most expensive signing in the history of the team. It will beat the €23.5m they paid Bournemouth for Arnold Danjuma last summer.