Many players will be using the new season to get into the plans of their respective coaches in their national team when it gets underway in few weeks time.

The English Premier League will begin this weekend same as the German Bundesliga and the French Ligue 1. Players will begin the road towards catching the attention of their coaches in the national team.

Nigeria international defender Tyronne Ebuehi who has been in and out of the team says part of his aims this season is to use his new club Empoli as a springboard to get back into the Nigerian team.

Shortly after terminating his deal at Benfica, Ebuehi joined Empoli on a permanent deal after a fairly successful time on loan to relegated Serie A side Venezia last season has laid out his priorities going into the new season.

” Joining Empoli is as an opportunity to become a national team player? Yes. If I do well, I will have the chance to go to the national team, this is one of my goals “, he told the official website of the team. He hasn’t played for Nigeria since AFCON 2021 which was played in January this year.

With the transfer window reaching the point where teams are now keen on completing deals, both selling and buying clubs are now under pressure to conclude deals.

The rush will mean a host of Nigerian players who are facing uncertain futures will be on the move in the coming days. One player whose future is up for grabs is that of Genk striker Cyriel Dessers.

However recent reports from Italy suggest that it won’t be for long as newly promoted Italian Serie A side Cremonese are set to complete his signing on a five year deal from Belgium side Genk, where he has scored three goals in the first two games of the season.

Cremonese are willing to pay as high as €6m for the 27 year old, who was top scorer in the UEFA Europa Conference League while on loan to Feyenoord. The reported fee is €2m more than what was in the deal for the Dutch side to sign him permanently. They objected against taking up the option.

Dessers will become the second most expensive signing of the club, €4m behind David Okereke who joined same team last week for a fee reported to be around €10m.

The future of several players of the senior national team of Nigeria still remains unresolved even as various teams get set for the start of the new season.

Players like Shehu Abdullahi and Leon Balogun are even without a club at the moment while the trio of William Troost Ekong, Emmanuel Dennis and Oghenekaro Etebo are facing uncertain futures due to largely different reasons.

Etebo’s case appears to be the one that is worse at the moment as even though he is still contractually binded to Stoke City. He wasn’t registered for the new season and no shirt number was assigned to him.

The Nigerian returnee from a frustrating loan spell at Watford, where injuries saw him miss most of the season hence their decision not to take up the option of signing him permanently.

As things stands now, the club is working on ways to terminate the remaining one year left in his deal as first reported by OwnGoalNigeria.com. That move will bring a sad end to what was a promising start to his career at the club which started with winning the player of the season in his first year at the club.

Spanish La Liga side Celta Vigo have concluded their preparation for the new season as they aim to finish higher than they did last season where they finished 11th.

Coach of the team Eduardo Coudet have been particular about strengthening the attack of the team which is very much dependent on ageing Iago Aspas .

Now 35 years old, he has spent most of his career with Celta, appearing in 418 official games across 13 seasons and scoring 184 goals, the idea going into next season is to begin the process of searching for his long term replacement.

To that extent the club have moved sharply to tie up a deal with Egyptian side Tala’ea El Gaish for Nigerian forward Victory Beniangba, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

The 18 year old joined the Egyptian side on loan in January to help ease their goal scoring issues and he wasted no time in making his mark with a powerful header to hand him team a huge win against Zamalek on his debut.

He ended the season with six goals in 18 games, a form which caught the attention of Celta Vigo who have signed him to their B team but he will spend most of his time with the main team.

“We are counting on Victory, who is a very young player, who comes to B but due to characteristics he can play for the first team like Miguel Rodríguez,” said Carlos Mouriño, the president of Celta Vigo.

Little known Victory came to limelight while playing for his hometown club Bayelsa United. He helped the second division team lift the Nigeria FA Cup called the Federation Cup and went ahead to represent them in the CAF Confederation Cup. They failed to make it past the preliminary stages.

German giants Bayern Munich have officially announced the signing of 2019 U-17 midfielder Daniel Francis on a three year contract as first reported by OwngoalNigeria.com.

The 18 year old has been with their world team for the last two years and has now made the step to the Bayern Munich main set up becoming the first Nigerian to sign for the German giants.

“Daniel played his way to the fore during his time in the FC Bayern World Squad and acted very conspicuously in the test games. He’s attracted the interest of a number of clubs, so we’re delighted he’s signed and that he can now gain match practice at Austria Klagenfurt. We have already had good experiences with Klagenfurt at Timossi Andersson. Liu has also been there for six months and is developing well,” emphasizes Jochen Sauer, Head of the FC Bayern Campus.

As also reported by this portal, he will spend the rest of the season on loan to Austrian side Klagenfurt, the club also announced his loan deal hoping he develops as projected.

“With Daniel we get a highly talented lad who, despite his young age, behaves very cleverly on the pitch. He is robust, technically strong and has a good pace. I’m convinced that he can take the next step in his career at Austria and come as a surprise this season,” says sporting director Matthias Imhof about Francis on the club’s website.

As reports linking Nigeria international striker Sadiq Umar with a move to Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund continue to dominate discussions. The president of Almeria has reacted to the story.

Several reports in Spain spoke about Almeria accepting a bid from an unnamed team outside Spain and some outlets suggested it is Borussia Dortmund who have sealed his signing for a fee in the region of €25m, which could rise to €30m as it contains several add ons.

Sadiq also added fuel to the speculation as he vacated his house in Spain and he hasn’t renewed his rent. He his however back in the city and will train later today with Almeria.

Reacting to the story through a link on social media platform Twitter, where Owngoalnigeria.com was quoted, the president of the team Turki Al-Sheikh liked the post where it was detailed that they will get the amount as mentioned above.

https://twitter.com/salva_arm/status/1554821244163432450?s=21

Borussia Dortmund are in the market for a striker after their summer signing Sebastien Haller was diagnosed with cancer hence ruling him out for a large part of next season.

As the English Championship got underway over the weekend, West Bromwich Albion officially resumed their push to gain promotion to the English Premier League by taking on Middlesbrough at the Riverside.

West Brom held their own at a very difficult ground for visiting teams and left with a point following a 1-1 draw. Coach of the team Steve Bruce reserved special praises for Nigeria international defender Semi Ajayi.

Ajayi was by far the best player on the pitch for the visitors and he ensured Boro didn’t snatch all three points. The performance ranks among one of his best since he joined the team.

He joined the Baggies from the Millers in 2019 and has since made more than 100 league starts in Albion colours. Bruce, who took over the hotseat in February, says he has noticed a big step up from the 6ft 4in Nigeria international.

“Ajayi I have to say, he’s improved enormously since I’ve walked through the door,” Bruce said.

“I’ve enjoyed watching him, he’s a hell of a good defender. When he’s like he was on Saturday he’s big, strong, powerful, quick, he gave a mountain of a performance, especially second half.”

Kelechi Nwakali didn’t have a game to remember when his new team Ponferradina took on fellow promotion hopefuls Deportivo La Coruna in a pre season game yesterday.

Nwakali joined the team around two weeks ago on a free transfer following the termination of his contract by Huesca after he turned up late from representing Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Now at Ponferradina and with a lot to prove that he hasn’t lost his way. He will be hoping for better results than what happened in yesterday’s friendly game where he was introduced as a second half substitute.

Ponferradina were trashed 7-1 with Nwakali coming on in the 69th minute with scores already at 6-0 against his team. They will be hoping for better fortune when they get their season underway against FC Cartagena on the 15th of August.

Chelsea officially announced the signing of Carney Chukwuemeka two days ago as part of the process of beefing up their squad for the challenge of the new season.

Chukwuemeka was signed from Aston Villa for a fee of £20m with one year left to go on his deal at Villa Park. The 18 year old is a product of the Aston Villa youth team progressing through till ranks before making his first team breakthrough last season.

He played 12 matches last season and did enough to convince Chelsea that he is worth that high amount with the club seeing him as a part of their long term future under their new project.

An English youth international, his name already suggest he has Nigerian roots and he didn’t shy away from acknowledging it when he was asked about his origin in a podcast from last season.

“Of course I’m Nigerian. My name says it all and I have strong ties with the country due to my parents. I watched their teams play when I am opportuned. I am familiar with most of the players in the team as well”, he said.

Watford started their campaign in the English Championship with a 1-0 win over Norwich City as they bid to return back to the English Premier League following relegation last summer.

In their squad for the game, the senior Nigeria international duo of Maduka Okoye and Samuel Kalu were not listed for the game. With the case of Okoye the most surprising considering the fact that he was at least expected to be on the bench.

It has now been confirmed that their omission has nothing to do with form rather it was due to a new rule in English football tag Rule 11. The Rule of 11 means that there can be no more than 11 non-homegrown players in a match-day squad.

Speaking on the club website, Giaretta said, “The rule of 11 will have some influence for now but we are all committed with Rob Edward’s aim of having only 11 non-homegrown players in the first-team squad after the window.

“It’s important we see August in a different way because things can still change until this month is over.”