Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has laid the marker on how he intends to pick his goalkeepers for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers games against Benin Republic and Lesotho respectively.

Rohr has a choice of picking at least four goalkeepers for both games with his team needing just a point from available six to seal a spot at the tournament in Cameroon.

The coach has called up as many as six goalkeepers the past one year with the quartet of Daniel Akpeyi, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Francis Uzoho and Maduka Okoye the preferred options.

However he has extended invitation to the duo of Matthew Yakubu and Sebastain Osigwe as well and now he has given the condition he will use in picking his goalkeepers for the games.

“ The first criteria is the goalkeeper has to be active at club level. It’s very necessary and important. We have a couple who are doing very well both in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. We will pick the best for the games”, the coach said.

For now the Nigerian goalkeepers enjoying regular run of games is the trio of Maduka Okoye , Francis Uzoho and Matthew Yakubu. The duo of Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Daniel Akpeyi have not tested action for one month at their respective teams.

Red hot Almeria forward Sadiq Umar showed his love for big toys with a Mercedes G-Wagon acquired for the sum of $400,000 around 188 Million Naira Nigerian money.

Jololo as Sadiq is fondly called has matched expectations this season at the Spanish second division side where he has 13 goals in 24 games. Powering them close to their ambition of gaining promotion to the top division.

This season he has scored a total of 21 goals from 40 games with seven assists as well in games in Serbia while at Partizan Belgrade and the others in the Copa Del Rey.

The forward who turned 24 on the 2nd of February is heavily tipped to be a part of the senior national team of Nigeria for their upcoming AFCON 2022 qualifiers games against Benin Republic and Lesotho respectively.

One of the group opponents of Nigeria U17 team at the Africa U17 Cup of Nations Algeria have named their squad for the tournament in Morocco.

Algeria is in same group with Nigeria, Congo and Tanzania for the cadet tournament which starts on the 13th of March with Morocco taking on Uganda in the curtain raiser.

While Nigeria and the other teams in same group with Algeria are expected to line up mostly players picked from football academy around the country, Algeria have named 12 foreign based players including three from top French Ligue 1 sides in Marseille, Rennes and Lyon.

Below is the list of foreign based players in the squad of Algeria who will face Nigeria in their final group game on the 20th of March 2021.

Ouchouache Anis (FC Amiens)
Zuliani Edhy Yyan ( FC Toulouse)
Ouali Massil ( EA Guingamp)
Nottebaere Djibril ( FC Amiens)
Beghdadi Yanis ( FC Reims)
Kraouche Reyan ( FC Metz)
Lagha Yanis Alladoum ( Lyon)
Moussaoui Imrane (Marseille)
Tabbouche Joris Jebril ( Nancy)
Khetir Rayan ( FC Istres)
Mahdi Kalem ( Stade Rennais)
Fatahine Amis ( Paris FC)

The coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has picked his final 26 man list for the AFCON 2022 qualifiers games against Benin Republic and Lesotho respectively.

Nigeria will first play in Cotonou before hosting Lesotho in Lagos looking for four points to seal their spot at the tournament which will be hosted by Cameroon.

Ahead of the game Rohr picked his players from a pool of 40 players scouted by himself and the rest of the technical crew including the Technical department of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) led by Austine Eguavoen.

A list of 26 players was arrived at with as many as four goalkeepers with one expected to be picked from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) to
compliment the three from Europe.

We gathered captain of the team Ahmed Musa has been left out of the team due to his inability to secure a club since his departure from Saudi Arabia side Al Nassr.

Rohr gave the 28 year old a deadline to get a club in order to be match fit for the games but since his failure to secure a deal with West Brom nothing concrete has happened to his quest to get another club.

France third division side Cholet FC have agreed a deal in principle to sign four Nigerian players from TBC Academy Abuja, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Owngoalnigeria.com gathered that the team have started the process of formalizing the transfer of the quartet of Nansel Bussa, Penuel Daniel , John Eliseus and Ibrahim Abdullahi.

Nansel formerly of FC Ifeanyi Ubah is the most illustrious of the four players as in 2017 he was among the stars of the NPFL U15 tournament and made the headline the next year when he was named in the match day squad for the league game against Go Round FC.

The players were sighted by officials of the team during a scouting tournament in Turkey where they turned out for fast rising Abuja based Academy TBC Academy.

Babawo Mohammed was once again the brain behind the deal as he funded the expenses of the Nigerian Academy to the tournament which had scouts from all over Europe in attendance.

Fast rising Chelsea goalkeeper Prince Adegoke would have been a part of the Nigeria U17 team of 2019 if not for the behavior of some officials of the team.

Adegoke has since gone on to sign professional terms with Chelsea and also take part in several training with the first team, a sign of how he is highly rated within the youth set up of the team.

His father Alex approached officials of the Nigeria U17 team for his ward to be given a chance with the team during preparations and got the nod to send him over to the camp in Abuja.

However, when an official letter was sent to Chelsea, the then 16 year old was told he will fund his travels which wasn’t a problem but was told he will be coming for trials with the team.

“ His father told me they were not honest with the letter of invitation which came with a different wordings from what was agreed with the members of the team. He wasn’t pained that he will pay air tickets but the area of coming for trials”, a source close to the family revealed to Owngoalnigeria.com.

“ As at that time Prince was preparing for his senior school exams so it makes no sense for him to abandon it for trials with the Nigeria U17 team. His father felt they weren’t honest and backed out”.

The Nigeria U17 are putting finishing touches to their preparations for the Africa U17 Cup of Nations in Morocco by playing test games at their camp in Abuja .

Coached by coach Fatai Amoo, the only team they have fail to beat so far is Simioben Academy, a Kaduna based football academy funded by Super Eagles star Moses Simon. The game ended in a 1-1 draw with the Nigerian team coming from behind.

They followed the lessons learnt from that game with a resounding 5-1 thrashing of Bayern Munich Academy made possible to a large extent by the brace scored by Ahmed Abdullahi.

Victor Udoh opened the scoring in the 46th minute, but Chinasa Maduabuchi equalised for his side in the 67th min. Ahmed Abdullahi’s sublime header sailed into the net two minutes later and he scored from the spot in the 75th to complete his brace.

Peter Asuquo was also clinical with his goal from the spot six minutes from full time, while Gideon Atoyebi hit the roof of the net in added time to complete the demolition of Bayern Munich Academy in Nigeria beyond redemption.

That win was followed with another resounding win over Emy Football Acadmey with Abdullahi once again among the goal scorers with another brace although this time around Joseph Arumala also weigh in with a brace.

Joseph Arumala opened the flood gate of goals in the 7th minute jabbing the ball into the net and Samuel Akere’s ferocious shot outside the box hit the roof of the net six minutes later.

Christian Nwachukwu had his name on the scores sheet with his low drive that found the back of the net in the 16th minute.

The game was completely under the control of the Eaglets as their opponents had no answer to the fluid football of the Eaglets and they were tormented with another goal by Ahmed Abdullahi in the 29th minute.

Arumala completed his brace in the 39th minute, while it was the turn of Abdullahi to have his brace in the 42nd minute.The first half ended with Eaglets in super goals scoring mood of 6-0.

However on resumption, Emy Football Academy marshalled out strong defensive tactics which made Eaglets to only add a goal through Stanley Iheanacho in the 74th minute to make it 7-0.

As they get set to begin their group matches at the tournament against the likes of Algeria, Congo and Tanzania. One thing is sure. Goal scoring isn’t one of their problems.

Jamal Musiala shocked the English football set up when he decided to shun a chance with England in preference for Germany.

The 17 year old Bayern Munich midfield sensation spoke with coaches of both teams before deciding on Germany even though he is presently a youth international with England.

In making his decision he cited the chance of a regular run of games at international level with Germany than with England where they are several other players in the position he loves to play.

Secondly, he will feel more at home with Germany than England as most of his teammates at club level are part of the set up at international level. Two reasons which show how much he treasures having a fulfilled international career.

Same can’t be said about Crystal Palace midfielder Ebere Eze who to start with doesn’t have age on his side like Musiala yet believe he can break into a team that the highly rated Musiala who plays for the best team in Europe at the moment decided to shun.

Eze presently has around six players ahead of him in the English set up and with one more year for him to play youth football at international level as he will soon turn 23. His decision to snub Nigeria where he will walk into the team with ease is shocking.

Same can be said about Adarabiyio who like Eze plays for a struggling team in the English Premier League but believe he can force his way into the English team despite the numerous options ahead of him.

Both player are sure to have a sustained run of games at international level with Nigeria than with England even if they get to play. However unlike Musiala who want to make a mark At international level, the above mentioned duo won’t mind a cap or two at senior level or maybe switch to Nigeria when all hope is lost.

Coach of Manchester United Ole Gunnar Solskjaer corrected a journalist who pronounced the name of Manchester United teen sensation Shola Shoretire wrongly.

The coach was asked to explain how he feels with his decision to play Shoretire by a journalist after their UEFA Europa League 0-0 draw against Real Sociedad. The reporter pronounced the name as Shore Tyre.

Responding the coach pronounced the name properly Shoray-Ti-Ray during the course of his explanation and went as far as sayin he is a Nigerian.

“ I’m sure Shola wants you to pronounce his name properly. I know it’s not easy Shoretire ( pronounced as Shoray-Ti-Ray). He is a Nigerian hence the name”, the coach stated before replying the question.

As reported by Owngoalnigeria.com, the 17 year old who has played for Manchester United In their last two games against Newcastle United and Real Sociedad in the English Premier League and Europa League respectively.

He is still eligible for Nigeria even though he was born in England and he won’t be requiring a switch of allegiance process as he hasn’t played for England at any level.