The chances of Genk Nigerian forward Paul Onuachu leaving the team this summer looks unlikely owing to the fact that clubs are unwilling to meet his valuation.

Onuachu scored 35 goals for Genk last season and as expected it caught the attention of teams around Europe and it led to Genk slamming a €25 million price tag on him.

The 26 year old who finished as the top scorer and also Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the Belgium league appears to have already accepted his faith and knuckle down to work at the club.

He has scored two goals in his last two games in all competitions amidst rumors of the club pulling the plug on a deal to sign Ike Ugbo from Chelsea, who is seen by many as the top pick in the likely departure of the Nigerian.

“ A move away from Genk looks bleak at the moment for obvious reasons. I will say 70% chance of him staying at the moment. We keep trying to help achieve his ambitions of moving to another league but if it isn’t possible. He will continue at Genk”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

Former coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jo Bonfrere says the problem of the senior national team of Nigeria in recent times has to do with poor usage of players and not the quality of the players.

The man who piloted Nigeria to Africa’s first ever gold at the Olympics in 1996 with Nigeria beating Argentina 3-2 made this known in an interview with Nigerian online portal The Cable.

While speaking on a range of issues that has to do with Nigerian football, the Dutch coach who was assistant to Clemens Westerhoff in 1994 when Nigeria qualified for the World Cup for the first time believe the present team still has quality players.

He however lamented the usage of the players and blame it for the recent dwindling performance of the team under the tutelage of German coach Gernot Rohr, Rohr has been at the helm since 2016.

“Nigeria football is not the quality that I think the nation’s football should be in right now. Nigeria football must be respected across the continent. We have very good players in the national team but the thing is that they use them wrongly on the pitch of play. That’s the problem”, he said in the interview.

Kelechi Iheanacho match winning goal against Manchester City in the community shield has earned him high praises from Leicester City legend Gary Lineker.

The Nigerian was introduced in the second half against his former side and he ended up scoring the lone goal of the game, which is the traditional curtain raiser for the return of league football in England.

Iheanacho was fouled late into the game by Nathan Ake after robbing the defender off the ball, the forward who missed a penalty in a pre season game last week showed no nerves as he stepped up to bury the spot kick.

Lineker was impressed with his courage to step up for the kick and he praised the 24 year old as a player who thrives in big games, a mentality which comes with talented players “ He (Iheanacho) loves to do it in games like this. Talented players show their worth in big games”, Lineker said.

He backed the forward to continue to prove his worth in the Leicester City team next season despite the arrival of Patson Daka and the return of Harvey Barnes to full fitness “ Every player will get his chance and when you do. Grab it like Iheanacho. Daka, Vardy, Barnes, Perez it’s nice to have them all”.

When young Arsenal goalkeeper Ovie Ejeheri signed professional terms with Arsenal as announced by the club three days ago. It automatically sparked a debate about his international future.

The 18 year old who is highly rated within the corridors of the Emirate is eligible for Uganda, Nigeria and England but he has only been called up by the latter but he didn’t get to play as the tournament was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Born in London to a Nigerian father and a Ugandan mother he told Goal in an interview early this year that his aim is to be the first choice goalkeeper of the Nigerian team in three years time.

His statement no doubt has given Nigeria an edge if it comes to a tug of war over his international future, when he makes the expected step up that many has predicted for him in the future.

Esperance of Tunisia will in the coming days conclude a deal to sign Enyimba FC of Aba forward Anayo Iwuala, OwnGoalNigeria.com understands.

The Tunisian side as reported by this portal have been in talks with Enyimba for a while now and a deal is set to happen in the coming days with paperworks already in progress.

We gathered it will be a four year deal with an annual increase in his wages which is a little above $45,000 a month for a start, amounting to over 20 million naira in Nigerian currency.

Capped four times by Nigeria at senior level , the 22 year old is keen on a move abroad with a late interest from a Dutch side making him to stall on signing the dotted lines even though the financial package is tempting.

His desire is to play for a team in Europe but so far only Esperance have come close to matching the €1 million transfer tag slammed on him by Enyimba. The Tunisian side are willing to pay around $450,000 including add ons.

The senior national team of Nigeria have two major injury concerns as they build up to the start of the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup which begins on the 3rd of September with a game at home against Liberia.

Coach Gernot Rohr is warming up to the possibility of not having the services of two of his most trusted lieutenants in Joe Aribo of Scottish side Rangers and Samuel Chukwueze of Villarreal.

Aribo is still struggling to be fully fit after ending last season with an injury. He was in and out of the team for pre season games and despite playing in the first league game of the season he was conspicuously missing from the squad for the UEFA Champions League qualifiers 1-2 loss to Malmo.

Coach of his team Steven Gerrard explained after the game that the 25 year old missed the game due to injury and it was why he was substituted in the 3-0 league win over Livingstone which was their first competitive game of the season.

Chukwueze is also yet to resume full training with Villarreal as he is yet to recover from the injury that brought his season to an early end last term out. He is almost certainly out of the UEFA Super Cup clash against Chelsea on Wednesday.

Nigeria have less than a month to the game against Liberia and Rohr will no doubt be worried about the duo as they will likely even miss the second game against Cape Verde which is three days after the Liberia game.

Italian Serie A side Napoli prove they can cope without their Nigerian star Victor Osimhen as they ran out 2-1 winners over Polish side Wisla Krakow in yesterday’s pre season game.

Osimhen who has scored seven goals in four pre season games so far including a brace against Bayern Munich over the weekend was given a rest by coach Luciano Spalleti for the game in Poland.

Matteo Politano and Zinedine Machach who scored the third goal against Bayern Munich were the goal scorers in yesterday’s comeback win against the Polish side making light work of the absence of the Nigerian.

Last season Napoli struggled for goals when Osimhen wasn’t available and it appears Spalleti want to forestall a reoccurrence by trying to set up his team without the Nigerian.

One key factor can also be the fact that he won’t be available for some games in January as he will be at the Africa Cup of Nations with the senior national team of Nigeria in Cameroon.

Akwa United and Super Eagles B defender Olisa Ndah has arrived South Africa where he will undergo trials with top PSL side Orlando Pirates, OwnGoalNigeria.com understands.

Ndah was pivotal in helping Akwa United lift the Nigeria Professional League title with a game to spare after their 5-2 win over MFM in Uyo at the weekend.

His departure is why he won’t be playing in today’s dead rubber game in Makurdi against Lobi Stars as his trials will begin tomorrow base on scoops gathered by our editorial team.

Rated as one of the best in the NPFL for the past two seasons he was a part of the Nigeria U23 team that crashed out at the group stages of the Africa U23 Cup of Nations tournament in 2019.

Same year he played for the Nigerian B team that also failed to make it to the CHAN and WAFU championship losing out in the qualifiers. Most recently he was a part of the B team who were trashed 4-0 by Mexico in an international friendly.

Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria has explained why he prefers playing players based abroad as opposed to players playing in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

Some section of the Nigerian media have criticize the coach severally for his preference for majorly players plying their trade in Europe as they believe the local lads should be given a chance to stake a claim in the team.

Rohr has called up lot of players based in the Nigerian local league but bar goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa and when captain Ahmed Musa was at Kano Pillars for a while, he is yet to play any other in a competitive game since he became coach in 2016.

While defending his decision, Rohr explained that players playing in the NPFL need to be better than those in their position before they can be given in a look in. He also explained he mainly call up young players to encourage them.

“Of course I will invite local players if they were better than their foreign-based counterparts. That’s why we invite younger players from the local league to encourage them and when we have friendlies, we test them.”

Genk of Belgium forward Paul Onuachu has for the first time spoken out about his future at Belgium club Genk where he scored 35 goals last season to emerge as the most valuable players and also top scorer in the league.

He was largely expected to have been sold even before the start of the qualifiers for the UEFA Champions League but the price tag placed on him has made it impossible for interested teams to sign him.

Coach of Genk who dropped their lanky forward for their weekend game against Kvv Oostende claimed the transfer speculation has made the 26 year old to lose focus. He was however back in the team from the start against Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.

He responded with the opening goal of the game before the Ukrainians fought back to claim a 1-2 win. Shortly after the game , the Nigeria international was asked about his future at the club with West Ham, the team that has shown the most desire to sign him.

“ I just played a game. That shows that I am still 100 percent at Genk. I try to have an impact on the team and just stay here for the time being,” it said to Het Laatste Nieuws