German giants Bayern Munich will be among teams scrambling to sign Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi from Leicester City this summer, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Ndidi has been the subject of interest from several teams in Europe after another stellar season for Leicester City who are expected to be open to offers for the 24 year old in keeping with their tradition.

Every summer, the team sells one top player to fund spendings that will be used to strengthen other areas of the team and Ndidi is looking likely to be the one who will be traded this summer.

It has led to reports about interest from PSG, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona but no bid has been launched officially as many are waiting to see where Leicester City will finish in the league.

For now they are 5th level on point with Liverpool in 4th ahead of the final round of games in the English Premier League. Many expect the Nigerian to push for a move if they fail to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

If he does it will considerably drive the cost of signing him down from the current asking price of £80 million. Bayern are among teams queuing up to slap in a bid in few weeks time.

The top scorer in the Belgium top division Paul Onuachu turned provider with two assist to his name as Genk comfortably dispatch Antwerp 4-0.

Onuachu teed up Kristian Thorstvedt for the second and third goal for Genk before his fellow Nigeria international Cyriel Dessers sealed the win with the fourth goal in the 77th minute.

The goal was Dessers’s second goal in his last two games as he continue to press towards becoming first choice striker next season when Onuachu leaves as expected in the summer.

His goal return of five goals is no where close to Onuachu who has scored a whopping 33 goals this season from 38 games in what is his best goal scoring season since he turned professional in 2014.

Newly invited Super Eagles forward Sadiq Umar once again displayed his love for flashy cars after adding another to his range of exotic cars.

The 24 year old Almeria forward who netted his 19th league goal of the season in 36 games this season in their 2-3 loss against FC Cartagena posted a picture of his new car on social media.

Owngoalnigeria.com reached out and he confirmed the car as his latest car and revealed that it’s a 2020 Porsche Panamera which is worth $87,200 base on checks conducted by our editorial team.

Going by the current exchange rate in Nigeria, the car is worth 42 million Naira nothin close to his other exotic car which he splash heavily on not too long ago.

It is the second time in a space of two months that the lanky forward who has been called up to the Nigerian team has splashed heavily on a car. In March he bought a Mercedes G-Wagon worth 188 Million Naira.

Augsburg centre defender Felix Uduokhai is unhappy with the decision of coach Joachim Low to leave him out of the German squad for the upcoming Euros 2021.

23 year old Uduokhai put the chance of representing Nigeria on hold in November when he was handed a first time call up To the German national team but he didn’t get to play.

A product of the Germany youth set up owing to the fact that he graduated through the ranks from U17 to his first call up he was hoping to make the squad to the tournament after the decision to increase the number of players per team to 26 for the tournament.

His name was conspicuously missing from the list released yesterday and it has left the left footed defender bitter but he won’t rush making a decision on his international future yet due to the snub.

Nigeria are still keen on the defender with coach Gernot Rohr who was in Germany last week severally voicing his admiration of the former Wolfsburg defender.

Nicknamed Patrick Viera due to similarities in his style of play with that of the legendary France playmaker, Adewale Oladoye rise to the top at Gent in just two months has somehow vindicated those who gave him the nickname.

Still a long way from matching the height the French man achieved in his career but it safe to say the teen midfielder is on a steady rise to the top owing to his massive development at Gent.

Signed to the U23 team he has made the step up to the first team after impressing in just one month where he bagged a goal and earned high praises for his display.

Yesterday after twice making the matchday squad for the first team, he was handed his debut as Gent run out 2-0 winners over Standard Liege in the Belgium play offs.

He didn’t have enough time to show what he is made up but many believe he will be a big hit at the club in the future possibly as early as next season when he is expected to stamp his authority in the first team.

His Nigeria Under-20 and fellow Water FC graduate Emeka Chinonso is also tipped for a first team break through next season judging by his display for the U23, where he has two goals including one on his debut. Both players were signed in March from non league Nigerian side Water FC of Abuja.

While Chinonso was a part of the Nigeria U20 team of 2019, Oladoye showed his worth for the Nigeria U20 team of 2020 under coach Ladan Bosso.

Portuguese journalist Luiz Martins has given an insight on what Nigerians should expect from newly invited Super Eagles winger Marcus Abraham who plays for second division side CD Feirense.

The 21 year old is having his breakthrough season at the promotion chasing side following his move in October 2018 from Remo Stars in Nigeria where he scored seven goals in 23 games.

This season he has scored 11 goals in 24 appearances where he has also picked up seven man of the match award and one player of the month award.

Called up for the Nigerian team for the friendly game against Cameroon in Austria on the 3rd of next month, Martins who has watched Abraham play ten times this season said he has qualities that are rare to see in a player playing in the second division in Portugal.

“ Abraham is on fire at the moment. He is seen by many as the best young player in the second division. He came like a whirlwind from no where and he is sweeping everyone off their feet”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.

“ First time I saw him he played as left full back but between then and now he has played as a right or left winger. One thing is certain wherever he plays. He is explosive, deadly and also creative. Just two assists you might say but he opens up space for others to do the damage.

“ In the box he is very decisive and he looks a really hungry and humble kid who has his feet on the ground. Always ready to run and work for the team. Nigerians will be shock at his quality. No way is he remaining in the second division”, he concluded.

Nigeria international winger Samuel Chukwueze is back in training for Villarreal ahead of the Europa League final match against Manchester United on the 26th of May.

Chukwueze went off in the second leg semifinal tie against Arsenal with what was later confirmed to be a muscular damage to the quadriceps in his left leg.

He was originally expected to be out for a month after picking up the injury on the 6th of May but he is back in light training two weeks ahead of schedule.

The speed of his recovery has come as a surprise to the medical team of the Spanish side but they are still very careful with rushing him back so after not to suffer a relapse.

However they are optimistic that he will be fit for the May 26 showdown against Manchester United in the Europa League final with starting from the bench one of the options coach Unai Emery is looking at.

In the Europa League, the 21 year old has scored one goal with five assists from 12 games with his last goal contribution coming in the first leg semi final tie against Arsenal which they won 2-1.

When Super Eagles first choice goalkeeper Maduka Okoye was first called up to the Nigerian team two years ago, his invitation generated a whole lot of controversy back then.

The talks were all about the rationale in inviting a goalkeeper who was playing amateur football for the B team of German side Fortuna Düsseldorf who were then close to gaining promotion to the Bundesliga.

They did made it to the Bundesliga but Okoye was still with the B team save for couple of games of the first team where he made the bench. That further heaped pressure on coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr but he was defiant.

Fast forward to now and Okoye has risen to the position of first choice at Sparta Rotterdam and the Nigeria national team and in the Netherlands he is seen as one of the best goalkeepers in the top division.

It took the recommendation of legendary German goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel For Rohr to keep the faith in the then 20 year old Okoye who was also at the time having an inglorious record of conceding tons of goals in the German Regionalaliga.

Credit must however go to a Nigerian Mohammed Adesoji Elias who was the first to contact Okoye and handed his contact to NFF President Amaju Pinnick who in turn passed the name to Rohr.

Rohr contacted Lutz who gave him a comprehensively breakdown of the talent of Okoye who he signed while he was Sporting Director of Fortuna Düsseldorf, but who exactly is Lutz Pfannenstiel and why is he so respected in Germany and beyond.

Lutz Pfannenstiel’s football career is like no other. He was locked up in a Singapore prison, he was declared dead on the pitch, he was signed by 25 clubs in 13 countries and he is still the only professional to have played in all six of Fifa’s confederations.

Along the way the German keeper, now 38, went from the youth team at Bayern Munich to Brazil, New Zealand, Malaysia, Finland, South Africa, Canada, Albania, Namibia, Armenia and Malta, via Nottingham Forest and the “crazy gang” at Wimbledon.

I had a normal career at the start and I played for the German junior national team but I was always a little impatient,” Pfannenstiel told the BBC’s World Football programme.

“So when it didn’t work my way I decided to go overseas and I left aged 19 to go to Malaysia, which is kind of a strange thing to do when you have a good offer from Bayern and you end up playing for the Penang football association in South East Asia.

“I didn’t really plan to play for that many clubs, circumstances went like that. The coach got fired, the club went bankrupt, a thousand things happened in my career which were not so nice.”

The worst moment came during a spell in Singapore when he was accused of match fixing and spent 101 days in jail.

“I don’t think there are very many tougher prisons in the world. I was living it large in Singapore, I was modelling for Armani, I had my own TV show and football was good but then suddenly I woke up in a tiny concrete cell and everything was in shambles for me. So the shock was the biggest.

“The area where I played – South East Asia – is basically the capital of match fixing. In my case it was strange because I was actually accused of playing too well. Two games we won and one game was a draw where I was man of the match. If a judge in court tells you you’ve played better than you normally do it’s not really logical.

“In the end I got out of it, the evidence was basically cleared as no money changed hands.

“I came out of that after 101 days and became a better person. It was the toughest time in my life but also the time when I learnt the most.”

Not long after fighting to clear his name, Pfannenstiel was battling for his life after his heart stopped beating during a match in England.

“I was on loan from a club in New Zealand to Bradford Park Avenue, it was a normal Boxing Day and I had a collision after 30 minutes.

“Basically my lungs collapsed, I had no pulse anymore, then I was declared three-times dead on the football field.

“But I woke up in hospital three hours later.”

And his first spell in English football was equally eventful. Back in 1994 he was signed by Wimbledon and experienced the full force of Vinnie Jones and the “crazy gang”.

“Two or three days after I arrived we went for a run in a park and suddenly someone gave some command, they grabbed me and got me undressed so I was completely naked in November in the freezing cold,” he said. “They took all my clothes and my shoes and just left.

“I was lying in a ditch and wasn’t sure what to do, then I had to run for three miles back with nothing on in front of loads of ladies walking their dogs.

“It’s funny now but it wasn’t funny at the time.”

His playing days may be over but Pfannenstiel’s passion for environmental issues is now taking his career into even more unpredictable directions.

Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr says he doesn’t know the eight players he will drop from his list of 31 players called up for the June friendly game against Cameroon in Austria.

The coach in his squad called up the players with doubts surrounding the availability of some players who will likely be involved in play off games at the end of the regular seasons.

Rohr want to use the game against Cameroon to run the rule on some new players and also prepare his team for the start of the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup which was postponed by CAF.

Ahead of the game, there have been talks about players who will miss out on the game and those who will likely be dropped from the list but Rohr who is in charge says he has no knowledge yet of who will be dropped.

“At the moment, I don’t know which player will not be coming with us to Austria. When we have our training, then we know who we will select,” said Rohr.

Players of the Nigeria Professional Football League have been handed a golden chance to stake a claim in the Super Eagles team as they will prosecute the friendly game against Mexico, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

The game billed for the 3rd of July on Los Angeles will coincide with when most of the foreign based players in the team will be in the middle of their holiday after the end of the season in Europe.

According to sources close to the Super Eagles of Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr, the Franco-German Coach has decided to hand the chance of impressing him to players playing in the Nigeria Professional Football League.

Rohr will use the chance to run the rule on the players with a view of including them in his squad when the qualifiers for the World Cup 2022 resumes later in the year.

We gathered that the bulk of the players expected to take part in the game will be largely the set of players who will represent Nigeria at the next Africa Nations Championship popularly called CHAN Championship.