Former England youth international and Chelsea ace Calum Hudson-Odoi has agreed to pay for Ghana in their World Cup qualifiers playoff against Nigeria in March.

Reports coming out of Ghana has it that the Chelsea winger met with Chris Hughton who is favourite to be named as coach of the team and agreed to switch allegiance to the team.

The reports still remains unconfirmed and it worthy to note that this isn’t the first time it has been reported that he has switched to Ghana but he denied. However sources in the know about players and their switch of nationality told this portal that he isn’t going to be cleared on time to play against Nigeria.

The switch from England to a different federation in a different continent requires a minimum of six months to be approved as the English FA has other affiliates who need to sign off the papers before he is cleared by FIFA and it requires time.

Former Nigeria U17 ace Akinkumi Amoo has joined Danish side FC Copenhagen three days after denying that he went on strike to force a move to the Danish side.

Reports broke in Sweden that the Nigerian has refused to train with Hammarby upon his return from Nigeria as he wants a move to the Danish side.

He branded the reports as false and misleading insisting that he is committed to the cause of Hammarby, saying missed training as he was exhausted due to the fact that he travelled for 48 hours enroute Nigeria to Sweden.

Despite denying his intention to leave, he made a move to the Danish side yesterday night on a deal which sources say is around the €20m mark on a five year deal.

Photo Credit: Tobi Adepoju

Former Africa Footballer of the Year Emmanuel Amunike has agreed to join the technical crew of the senior national team of Nigeria ahead of the two legged World Cup playoff against Ghana.

Reports has it that the former Nigeria U17 and U20 coach will be a part of the coaching set up, after agreeing to work with Austine Eguavoen and Salisu Yusuf who were in charge of the team for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Amuneke will however not be among the coaches on the bench per what we gathered. His role will be more like a technical assistant to the team and will constantly communicate with them during games but Eguavoen will still be the head of the crew.

Same source also revealed to OwnGoalNigeria.com that an official announcement will likely be made on Tuesday. Same day that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will confirm the retention of Austine Eguavoen as coach of the team for the games against Ghana in March.

Recognizing that Eguavoen need technical help after Nigeria’s round of 16 exit at the AFCON, NFF have decided to add Amunike to the crew who have been given the mandate to qualify Nigeria for the World Cup in Qatar.

Already the football house has pulled the plug on plans to engage Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro who was initially billed to take over after the Africa Cup of Nations per the announcement by the NFF before the start of AFCON.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has defended their decision to shelve the idea of hiring Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro as the substantive coach of the senior national team of Nigeria.

NFF announced the Portuguese as their preferred choice to take over as permanent coach following the sacking of Gernot Rohr. He was to take over from interim coach Austine Eguavoen after the Africa Cup of Nations.

Per the announcement he was also suppose to be in Cameroon to monitor the team at close quarters before taking over after the tournamen, but despite Nigeria crashing out in the round of 16 following a 0-1 loss to Tunisia, the Portuguese still won’t be in charge when Nigeria play against Ghana in the playoff for the 2022 World Cup.

As reported by this portal, the NFF has agreed to stick with Eguavoen for the qualifiers, a move which a top source at the football house said it’s down to the Peseiro omitting some clause in the contract draft sent to him.

” Papers were sent to him to sign and he made adjustments that we didn’t find funny. Around seven clauses were removed by the coach and it didn’t go down well with us because some of the stuff he took out were agreed with him verbally. For that reason we decided to stick with the present technical crew led by Eguavoen”,he explained.

Ex coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr says the Super Eagles of Nigeria failed to live up to expectations at the Africa Cup of Nations following their round of 16 exit.

Nigeria failed to build on a perfect start to the tournament where they won all of their group games as they fell 0-1 to Tunisia in the first knock out stage of the tournament.

Rohr who was an television pundit for Canal+ during the course of the tournament labelled their performance at the tournament as disappointing. He however reserved special praises for Union Berlin forward Taiwo Awoniyi.

The coach explained that the forward who scored once for Nigeria wasn’t a hit for Nigeria at the tournament as he is yet to have an understanding with the rest of his teammates per the fact that he is a new player in the team.

“Nigeria was disappointing – losing to a weakened Tunisia in the round of 16 came as a surprise. Although Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin played a very good tournament,” Rohr said to Sportschau, a German sports magazine on broadcaster ARD.

“You could see his potential, but there was still a lack of coordination with the team – he hasn’t been there very long.”

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has decided to retain Austine Eguavoen as the substantive coach of the senior national team of Nigeria on a short term deal which will likely be a two year deal if he qualifies Nigeria for the World Cup, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Eguavoen won the hearts of decision makers at the NFF with the way the team played at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) despite the fact that they were knocked out of the tournament after losing 0-1 to Tunisia in the round of 16.

NFF believe the result was badly affected by the red card shown to Alex Iwobi hence won’t judge the coach on the defeat and with time not on their side as the World Cup playoff against Ghana in March draws near, Eguavoen has been told to continue as coach.

It means Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro who was announced as coach won’t be handling the team again with sources close to the NFF saying he isn’t an option for now, which is why he wasn’t in Cameroon to monitor the team as said in the statement announcing his appointment as coach.

We gathered the NFF could beef up the technical crew of the Super Eagles with two indigenous coaches to work as assistant to Eguavoen for the World Cup qualifiers playoff against Ghana in March.

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Former Chelsea defender Celestine Babayaro said ex captain of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Okocha smartly deflected blames from his nephew Alex Iwobi to goalkepper Maduka Okoye after Nigeria’s 0-1 loss to Tunisia.

Nigeria crashed out of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations with Iwobi picking up a red card after coming on as a substitute with Nigeria chasing the game. Okocha was working as a studio pundit during the course of the game.

Okocha faulted defender Ola Aina for not fouling the goal scorer after his poor judgement made the ball beat him, he went further that Okoye should have also done better as the ball travelled some distance before getting to him.

It led to Nigerians questioning the abilities of the Sparta Rotterdam goalkepper who will be heading to Watford in the summer, so much that he had to deactivate the comment section of his social media handle.

Although Iwobi wasn’t spared as well, Babayaro said it could have been worst if not for Okocha who smartly laid the blame on two players. He referenced Sani Kaita red card at the 2010 World Cup as a reason why Iwobi should be blamed for the defeat.

“It’s clear what Okocha did. Protect his nephew who got sent off and lay the blame on the goalkepper and defender. Iwobi should be blamed because if he wasn’t sent off then the team chances of coming back would have been a lot better”, he stated.

”Remember the case of Sani Kaita in the game between Nigeria and Greece? You saw who was roundly blamed but why not Iwobi? You know the answer “, he concluded.

The star of the Super Eagles Africa of Nigeria at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations Moses Simon won’t be leaving Nantes in January despite receiving lot of offers, OwnGoalNigeria.com understands.

Simon has been on the radar of several teams in Europe owing to his exploits for Nantes in the Ligue 1 and he gained continental respect for his impressive showing at the AFCON.

As expected teams stepped up their interest to snap him up in January but were told he won’t be sold this window with Nantes insisting that any deal should wait till next summer.

We gathered Leeds United were the first team to contact Nantes for the 26 year old in view of a deal in January, that will see him stay at the club on loan till next season when he will join them but their approach was flatly rejected.

Nantes are also demanding a fee in the region of €20 million, an increase from the €15 million they were demanding from suitors in the summer. Their valuation is expected to be a lot less in 2022 when Simon will have just a year left on his deal at the club.

Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro is losing patience with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over their delay in confirming him as coach of the senior national team of Nigeria.

He was announced as the new coach of the Nigerian team on a short term deal which begins after the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations with an immediate target of qualifying the Nigerian team for the World Cup 2022 via the play off.

The arrangement was for him to monitor the team at the AFCON where Nigeria crashed out at the round of 16 stage after losing to Tunisia, but he wasn’t at the tournament owing to the fact that he didn’t sign the dotted lines as coach.

All attempts by his representative to get the NFF to formally sign the contract papers has so far no yielded any success with reports circling that interim coach Austine Eguavoen might continue as coach until at least after the World Cup playoff.

” We don’t know what’s going on at the moment and Peseiro could walk away if this persist. The NFF don’t seem to be keen anymore. All attempts to sign the contract isn’t working at the moment. March isn’t far off and as we speak now nothing has been said”, a representative of the coach told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

Watford ace Emmanuel Dennis might not get another chance with the senior national team of Nigeria according to a chieftain of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Dennis famously snubbed a call up to play for Nigeria at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations where Nigeria crashed out of the tournament at the round of 16 following a 0-1 loss to Tunisia.

His decision for not honouring the call up was down to his club unwillingness initially but he later decided not to honour the call up when it was down to him to make a decision.

It didn’t go down well with coach of the team Austine Eguavoen who wanted to give the 24 year old a fresh start to his international career after a fall out with ex coach Gernot Rohr.

Speaking to OwnGoalNigeria.com a chieftain of the NFF said the although the decision will still be in the hands of the coach who will be in charge of the team, he is unsure if there will be wholesome changes to the squad that played the AFCON.

” I guess he is out of the team and it might be for a long while. My thinking is that he might never get another call up especially as the present coaches appear not to be keen on adding more players bar three. It’s still in the hand of who will be coach at the end but it’s looking like he won’t get another chance”, he concluded.