Nigeria International defender Chidozie Awaziem has turned down the chance of joining Turkish side Rizespor on a permanent deal, owngoalnigeria.com understands.
Awaziem spent last season on loan to Leganes who were relegated from the Spanish top flight last season and with the impact of coronavirus on finances of teams in Europe , the club backed out of a deal to sign him permanently from Porto.
Porto are keen on trading him off to raise cash that they will use to strengthen other part of their team hence gave Rizespor the go ahead to hold talks with the 23 year old.
However, Awaziem told the club in clear terms that he is not keen on returning to Rizespor where he spent the second half of the 2017/2018 season on loan as he has other options to consider.
For now he is expected to resume pre season training with Porto when his leave of absence is over following the birth of his first child last week .
Per reports in the German media Werder Bremen are leading the chase to sign Super Eagles left back Jamilu Collins from Paderborn.
Paderborn were relegated at the end of last season after failing to impress following promotion to the top flight but Collins did enough to catch the attention of teams in the Bundesliga.
Collins will however remain in the top flight division as Werder Bremen have reached an agreement with the player and his representatives over a move to the team that beat the drop via the play offs.
What is left is to thrash out a fee with Paderborn who are opened to allowing the 26 year old leave as they have already secured the signing of another Nigerian in Chima Okoroji to cover up for his impending departure.
Schalke 04 were the other team interested in signing Collins but they have not followed up their interest since the end of the season leaving Werder Bremen in pole position to clinch his signing.
For football fans all over the world, Pele is a familiar name. Although he has retired for a long time, the “king of football” has contributed to making the sport.
It is undeniable that Pele is a legend in the history of world football. Although he no longer plays in football tournaments, Pele is still considered as the best player of all time. He has always been a role model of all young players all over the world.
Pele is even called “The King of Football” for his talent and contribution. Young people today can no longer see his football on the pitch, but through YouTube channels or archived videos, or news from football channels, such as https://tructiepbongda.mobi. You can no longer doubt his exceptional talent. Read on to know more.
Childhood of Pele
Pele’s real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento. He was born on October 23rd, 1949 in a family of football tradition. His father is also a football player: Fluminense Dondinho. From a very young age, he showed the outstanding characteristics and talents of a leader. At the age of 10, Pele set up his football team to compete with other street players. The name Pele appeared this time, the street children also called him Pele.
Pele had to experience many hardships before becoming a famous player.
Pele had to experience many hardships during his childhood. He used to work as a shop assistant, must use newspaper-filled socks or even grapefruit balls to make the ball to play. Pele participated in some amateur leagues and won many local victories. After that, his talent was discovered by coach Santos Lula, which helped him start his career with Santos FC in 1956.
Played for Santos FC
In 1956, Pele started playing at Santos Football Club at the age of 15 and signed a professional contract with the club in June 1956. Pele was advertised in local media as a future superstar. Pele made his debut on September 7th, 1956 with Corinthians Santo Andre and had an impressive performance with a final score of 7-1. That was the time he scored his first goal in his football career.
In the 1957 season, Pele became the top scorer in the tournament at the age of 16. Ten months after signing a professional contract, Pele was called up to the Brazilian national team. After the 1962 World Cup, wealthy European clubs like Real Madrid, Juventus, and Manchester United tried to sign a contract with him, but the Brazilian government declared that Pele was the “treasure” of the country and did not allow him to transfer from Brazil.
Pele won his first title with Santos in 1958 when the team won Campeonato Paulista. Finishing the tournament, Pele was the top scorer with 58 goals. One year later, he helped the team win at Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo with a score of 3-0 against Vasco da Gama. However, Santos could not retain the title Paulista.
Pele had many years playing in Santos FC.
In the 1960 season, Pele scored 47 goals and helped Santos to continue to win the Campeonato Paulista. The club beat Taca Brazil that same year, and won Bahia in the final round. Santos’s most successful Copa Libertadores season began in 1962. The team defeated Universidad Catolica in the semi-finals and met defending champion Penarol in the final. Pele scored twice in the playoff match and won the first Copa Libertadores title for a Brazilian club.
Pele became the second scorer of the tournament with 4 goals. In the same year, Santos succeeded in defending Campeonato Brasileiro (with 37 goals from Pele) and Taca Brasil (Pele scored 4 goals in the final matches against Botafogo). Santos also won the Intercontinental Cup in 1962 after winning Benfica. Wearing the number 10 shirt, Pele had one of the best performances of his career, scoring a hat-trick in Lisbon with the final score of 5-2.
On October 1st, Pele decided to end his football career in a match between Cosmos and Santos.
In Brazil National Football team
The first international match was a 2-1 loss to Argentina on July 7th, 1957 in Maracana. In that match, he scored his first goal for Brazil National team when he was 16 years old. He became the youngest player to score in international football matches. At the age of 17, Pele cried on goalkeeper Gilmar’s shoulders after Brazil won the 1958 World Cup.
On June 29th, 1958, Pele became the youngest player to play in the World Cup final. He scored two goals in that final when Brazil beat Sweden 5-2 in Stockholm. In the 1962 World Cup, Pele was the best player in the world at that time. In the first match of the 1962 World Cup in Chile, Pele assisted in the first goal and then scored the second goal, after passing four defenders to increase the score to 2-0.
He was injured in the next match. This injury forced Pele to leave the match for the rest of the tournament. As a result, coach Aymore Moreira had to make the only change throughout the tournament. Pele’s replacement, Amarildo, performed well in the remaining games of the tournament. However, it was Garrincha who lead the team and brought Brazil to their second World Cup title, after beating Czechoslovakia in the final round in Santiago.
Pele is one of the superstars who made success for Brazil football.
Pele’s last international match took place on July 18th, 1971 against Yugoslavia in Rio de Janeiro.
Pele’s health
In 1977, Brazilian media reported that Pele had a right kidney transplant. In November 2012, Pele underwent a successful hip operation. After that, Pele appeared in a wheelchair at the 2018 World Cup draw in Mokva, where he took photos with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Diego Maradona.
A month later, he collapsed from exhaustion and was taken to the hospital. In 2019, Pele got admitted to the hospital for a urinary tract infection. In February 2020, his son, Edinho, announced that Pele could not walk on his own and did not want to leave his house. In an interview with the Globo Esporte TV channel, Edinho said that his father fell into a severe depression because he could not walk and rarely appeared at big events.
His health is weak as he had to change his hip joints and could not recover as expected.
After many years, Pele is still considered the best player of all time. In 1999, he was voted as the Best Player of the 20th century by the IFFHS Association. In the same year, he was voted as the Athlete of the Century by the IOC and was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Brazilian people are always proud of having such an excellent player as Pele.
Teams interested in signing Moses Simon from Ligue 1 side Nantes have been told that the 24 year old won’t be leaving the club in this summer transfer window, owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Simon was voted the club’s player of the season base on his performance last season with the club exercising their option of signing him permanently from Levante.
Following his permanent signing , Nantes were opened to his immediate departure but they have now made a u-turn, insisting on keeping him till for another season as they aim to make an impression with Simon as the focal point of their attack.
Offers from Lyon, Rennes and Chinese side Shenzen were turned down by Nantes with Simon also agreeing to spend another season at the club following talks with the management.
Already he has resumed pre season with the team in preparation for the new season and has already played in three of their test games as he bid to improve on his last season tally of nine goals and nine assists.
As first reported by owngoalnigeria.com Santa Clara Nigerian left back Zaidu Sanusi has agreed a deal to join Portuguese giants FC Porto In the ongoing summer transfer window.
Zaidu has a solid season last term out in what was his first season in the Portuguese top flight and that led to interest in his services from teams around Europe.
The left full back who can also play as a central defender decided against a move out of Portugal leaving Porto as the favorite for his signing.
Porto agreed a fee of €1.5 million for his signing last week with some players also joining Santa Clara as part of the deal which will likely be announced before the end of this month according to reports exclusively gathered by sources close to the player.
Already he is scheduled to have his medicals in two weeks time with his management team led by super start agent Jeorge Mendez putting final touches to the deal.
The Kebbi born left back arrived Portugal four years ago after impressing in a scouting program in Kaduna and walked his way from the lower league to the top division in Portugal. He is set to be named in the next squad of players for the senior national team of Nigeria upon the resumption of international football.
Nigerian forward Henry Onyekuru has started on a sound note upon resumption for pre season training with Monaco by putting up a five star performance in a training game against the B team of the Ligue 1 side.
Onyekuru is aiming to establish himself at the club after struggling to nail down a permanent spot last season which prompted his decision to spend the second half of the season on loan to Galatasaray in Turkey.
Reports from the team’s training game against the B team has it that the game ended 6-0 in favor of the first team with Onyekuru emerging as one of the stars of the main team in the game.
With the league set to resume in three weeks time he will be keen on maintaining his impressive start as he bid to relaunch his career in mainstream Europe and force his way back into the senior national team of Nigeria.
Already there is a vacuum for him to fill at the club with the impending transfer of Keita Balde to Valencia freeing up his favourite position on the wings.
Ex Nigeria U23 top scorer Sadiq Umar helped himself to a brace for Partizan Belgrade in their 4-0 win over Javor in the Serbian League .
He scored his fist of the net with a tap in inside the box in the 13th minute and five ministers later he added another with a back heel profiting from an error from the goalkeeper of Javor.
The brace is his first set of goals for the Serbian side this season although he might be unable to match his feat of last season with a move away on the cards .
Owngoalnigeria.com gathered that Lille have submitted an improved bid for his signing after failing with their initial bid as Partizan are holding out for a fee in the region of €15 million.
Last season Sadiq scored 17 goals and also picked up 17 assists as well and bar Lille fellow Ligue 1 side Monaco are also chasing his signature but all are yet to meet the asking price of Partizan Belgrade.
Heerenveen wing forward Chidera Ejuke says his target next season is to improve on his goal scoring abilities even if it means cutting down on his dribbling during games.
Ejuke ended last season as one of the revelations of the Dutch league following his move from Norwegian side Valerenga last summer with ten goals and six assists to his name in all competitions.
However he is determined to improve further next season and he has his sight set on his effectiveness in front of goal .
“ I scored ten goals last season and I intend to score more next season. My desire is to improve further for the good of my team. Maybe getting into goal scoring position more will mean dribbling less”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com after scoring in a pre season game.
“ I want to dribble less and score more. It’s what I intend to do next season. As a player constant improvement can’t be overruled “.
German second division side Hannover 96 are leading the race to sign out of favor Super Eagles midfielder Uche Agbo following the relegation of Deportivo La Coruna where he spent the season on loan from Standard Liege of Belgium.
He was signed by the relegated second division side in January as they aim to beat the drop to the third division but he failed to inspire them to keep their status and although the club have the option of signing him permanently, it’s highly unlikely that they will sign him this summer.
Hannover 96 who only recently signed another Nigerian in forgotten Super Eagles forward Solomon Okoronkwo are currently leading the race to sign him for one million euros.
That was the amount agreed with Deportivo La Coruna for his permanent signing and it is believed it will be okay for Standard Liege if Hannover 96 offers same amount.
Malaga are the other team interested in the 24 year old who was a part of the Gernot Rohr squad form 2016 to 2018 but didn’t get to play a single game despite making all the squad for qualifiers and friendly games .
Sebastian Osigwe has made a shock move to FC Lugano on a free transfer from second division side SC Kriens, owngoalnigeria.com reports.
26 year old Osigwe made 20 appearances for Kriens in the second division but did enough to catch the attention of top division side Lugano.
He left Kriens on a free transfer and was announced as a player of Lugano by the president of the club alongside two others as their first acquisition ahead of the start of a new season.
His rise has been remarkable in the last three years as he rose from the third division to the first division in just three years with two of the years coming at SC Kriens.
The move has no doubt put him in the frame for a call up to the senior national team of Nigeria, one of the things he said will be a dream come true for him after failing to make the Under-20 team of 2013.
