Per a report on Spanish media outlet Fichajes.com, coach of Real Madrid Zinedine Zidane has placed Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi as his prime alternative to Casemiro in defensive midfield.

Zidane is keen on strengthening his options in the defensive midfielder department of his team and after a fee of €75 million was quoted for Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga he has opt against pursing his interest in the 18 year old.

According to the report he is focused on the possibility of luring Ndidi from Leicester City even though the Nigerian is tied to the Foxes till the summer of 2024, as sure as placing a bet on football betting on NetBet Sport Zidane believe he won’t be as expensive as other players in same position.

Since the departure of Marcos Llorente to Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid have been one man light in the defensive midfield department but any move for Ndidi will definitely be resisted by Leicester City as they see him as a part of the project they are building at the club.

Despite that they will be willing to sell if a fee that matched his valuation is lodged particularly if it will see them make a healthy profit for the midfielder they signed in 2016 for a ‎fee in the region of €17 million.

Osas Mahawi

Captain of the senior national team of Nigeria Ahmed Musa has informed his Saudi Arabia side Al-Nassr of his intention to leave the club this summer per reports gathered by Owngoalnigeria.com editorial team.

The 27 year old has a two more years to run on his deal with the Saudi Arabia outfit but an unhappy season at the club where he clashed with the fans has made him push to call it quit with the team he joined after excelling for Nigeria at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Musa have been proposed to some teams in England and talks are progressing nicely with a loan deal the option been discussed and Al Nassr won’t be opposed to seeing the player leave after a season where he didn’t meet up to his level.

He didn’t score in the 17 games he played in the league and in 22 games in all competitions he only scored twice and that came in the King’s Cup where he played four games. A return which was partially down to injuries and several fitness issues.

A deal to Turkish side Galatasaray is still in the works but the former Leicester City forward is waiting for a response from teams in England as he bids to return back to the country where his family are based.

Daniel Martins

Former captain of the U17 team of Germany Chinedu Ekene is working on a plan that will not see him regret his decision to snub Nigeria in favour of Germany after he was called up to the Nigerian U20 team for the World Cup in Poland.

The 20 year old was named in the provisional squad of Nigeria for the tournament but the Hoffenheim forward turned down the chance insisting on progress through the youth ranks of Germany where he has played from their U15 to U18.

Owngoalnigeria.com gathered he spoke with the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr on phone after meeting with the U20 coach Paul Aigbogun but he still went against his words by refusing to turn up for their training camp which took place in Germany.

” I think it was a decision that shocked the Nigerian entourage because they had his words before including him in the squad. He made a dramatic u-turn and it made them look stupid. He will be hoping not to regret that decision “, Germany based journalist Mark Rowland told Owngoalnigeria.com

Yet to make his first team bow for the first team of Hoffenheim since his move from the U16 of Bayern Leverkusen, he has been reduced to game time for the B team who are campaigning in the Regionalliga Sudwest which is the German fourth division.

Coach of Belgium side Genk says the club is keen on signing newly called up Nigerian forward Cyriel Dessers from his Dutch side Heracles following his fantastic goal return of 15 for the season that was ended prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Confirming their interest in the striker, Peter Maes who coaches the Nigerian at Lokeren pointed out that the 25 year old has some qualities that his team will need and praised his mental strength in repositioning his career after a torrid time at fellow Dutch Eredivisie side Utrecht.

” What I like in Cyriel is that he has built up his career well. After Utrecht with it’s up and downs, he has fought back from his mentality. He has taken a step back to put two ahead. Genk can be a nice sequel “, Maes told Het Belang van Limburg.

” In Genk new players usually get the time to prove themselves. That can play to his advantage. Maybe I will not count on him from the start. He will certainly claim his place here. Although as a striker you will of course also depend on the supply “, he concluded.

Aside Genk, Dessers is also wanted by the trio of Spanish side Celta Vigo, SPAL of Italy and Turkish side Fenerbahce but it appers he is keen on a return to Belgium to play for Genk. The team he supported as a child.

Beyond all he has made it clear that his next move will be dependent on the possibility of getting game time in order to keep his spot in the senior national team of Nigeria after getting his maiden call up for the botched AFCON 2021 Qualifiers games against Sierra Leone.

Daniel Martins

Former Nigeria international forward John Utaka has been handed a coaching role at French Ligue 1 side Montpellier, his pet club has announced via a statement on their Facebook page.

Utaka was instrumental in Montpellier winning their only French Ligue 1 title with the now 38 year old scoring a brace in the final day of the 2011/2012 season to power them to a 2-1 win over Auxerre which handed them the title ahead of PSG by three points.

The club named him as coach of the U19 team with his pet team Utaka FC posting a message congratulating him on his new role at the club which is entirely different from when he was last associated with them.

‘It was with great pleasure that I learned of the appointment of John Chukwudi Utaka as a youth team coach in Montpellier HSc of France. Allow me to congratulate you most warmly both on my behalf and on behalf of the John Utaka Football Academy family”, the statement reads.

He will resume training with the group after the easing of the lockdown in France with a mandate to ensure that he coached youngsters to the first team, where he will also act as one of the four assistants coaches at the club.

Ade Emmanuel 

Nigeria U20 and U23 midfielder Tom Dele-Bashiru said his decision to commit his international future to Nigeria ahead of England has shaped his club career after his departure from Manchester City to Watford.

Dele-Bashiru left Man City after featuring for Nigeria at the U20 World Youth Championship and the midfielder who has already made his first team bow for Watford narrows his decision to leave the Etihad to international exposure.

” When you’re at a big club like Manchester City, the desire to leave is not really high but when you play at an international tournament like I did with Nigeria at the U20 World Cup. Your aim becomes the next level of the national team and that you can achieve by playing regularly at club level”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” I was a part of the U23 as well but unfortunately we failed to make it to the Olympic. The aim is to stamp my authority in the first team of Watford and continue my rise with the national team of Nigeria. Playing for the senior team is my aim”.

Longest serving coach of the Nigeria U17 team Manu Garba has given his opinion on why most players who achieved success with the Nigeria U17 team don’t progress as expected.

The coach who has seen eleven of the players who have worked with him at U17 level progress to the senior national team of Nigeria said most times it’s a case of the life they live after making an impression that affects their career going forward.

“The World Cup is the university of football. The highest that comes about every four years and every country that qualifies for the senior World Cup come to the World Cup with their best players playing in top leagues regularly and even with that their preparation encompasses all factors in football fitness that makes a team to perform like physical fitness, psychological fitness, tactical fitness, technical fitness and mental fitness.

“Moreover, you will find out that most of the players that do well winning the FIFA U-17 world cup lack the discipline to manage success, it’s either they are overwhelmed by their new found status earning big money and fail to concentrate or they take to bad social life and you can’t combine playing football at top level and drinking alcohol and womanizing etc”, Garba said.

“Besides most of the players that made it to the top clubs don’t make the first teams in their various clubs in the year of the World Cup. Most importantly, you hardly see the team that wins the World Cup at U-17 World Cup graduate together to the senior team. These are just some factors out of many as to why African teams have failed to go beyond the quarter final of the senior World Cup”.

Garba who was coach of the Nigeria U17 team to the last World Cup in Brazil also said players from Africa are most times ‎backward in terms of career development picking out Toni Kross as one player who was already a part of the first team set up at Bayern Munich before playing at the U17 World Cup.

“Another thing I must add is at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in South Korea, Toni Kross was already playing for Bayern Munich, so the level of exposure and playing at top level is a big plus for Europe and South America,” he added.

The coach is hoping to retain his job with Nigeria as he has applied following the decision of the NFF to declare the job vacant alongside that of the Nigeria U20 and U23 teams.

Former Nigeria U17, U20 and U23 captain Kelechi Nwakali is inching closer to his first appearance for Spanish second division side Huesca as clubs in Spain get set to return to football after the lockdown.

The League in Spain will resume on the 8th of next month and ahead of resumption, group training has already started with Nwakali sighted in one of the trainings of Huesca who are eyeing promotion to the Laliga next season.

Since joining Huesca last summer, the soon to be 22 year old is yet to play for the team due to visa and later registration issues following his free transfer from English Premier League side Arsenal, where he spent three seasons and had four different loan spell during his time at the club.

Failure to properly assert himself at the B team of FC Porto hastened the decision by Arsenal to decide on cutting him loose although they still hold a buy back clause and also a percentage of his future transfer.

His aim will be to help Huesca return to the Spanish top flight a year after they were relegated. They are presently in the promotion play off spot as they are placed 4th on the log standing six points behind leaders Cadiz and five points behind ‎Real Zaragoza who are occupying the final slot for automatic promotion.

Osas Mahawi

Hello again, lads. We find this as a perfect moment to give you another one of our free soccer tips for today. Now we will focus on one amazingly good strategy – betting on draws with progression. In the next few paragraphs, we will explain to you what makes this strategy so good.

We said it before – going for draws is really exciting when betting on football/soccer because the bookies usually give us high odds for this result. What you have to do here is pick a team and keep following it throughout the whole season. That’s what we often do – we see which teams are doing draws most of the teams, and we set our attention on them.

For doing the draw betting successfully with progression, we recommend picking just one team. When you choose the team, always bet on it that this team is going to draw. Here’s an example: you know that this season Parma is doing a lot of draws in the Italian Serie A. Pick Parma as “your team” and start betting on draws, but add some progression to it.

For example, this is how your progression should go:

In your first stake, you make a $10 bet that Parma will draw @ 3.20. Doesn’t sound bad, right? If you lose that bet, next time aim for the draw again but put $15 on the table. You keep raising your stakes by 50% until you have a winning bet. We believe that this way you will have a pretty good profit at the end of the season if you picked one of the right teams for this, of course.

Be careful, though, because progression betting systems could be very dangerous for your bankroll if you keep losing.

That’s the progression system we wanted to tell you about in our free soccer tips for today. If you love putting money on draws, you should really try it. Good luck!

Clubs in England have begun training ahead of the re-start of the Premier League. And while there’s so much excitement about the imminent return of the game, the clubs also have an eye in the upcoming summer transfer window which could see a tussle for players between some of the top clubs.

Nigeria and Lille striker Victor Osimhen has been heavily linked with a move to the Premier League, with Chelsea and Liverpool reportedly on his chase. According to the Express, Lille are ready to part ways with the talented youngster but on the condition that his bogus valuation is met. Lille sold Nicolas Pepe to Arsenal for £72m but they will only accept an offer for Osimhen that would eclipse Pepe’s.

Osimhen has assumed the stature of one of the most talented young strikers in Europe since his move to Ligue 1 last summer. Before the French League was called off, he scored 13 Ligue 1 goals in 27 games, for a little more context, that is an average of 0.51 goals per 90. And this is enough to earn him the attraction of the Premier League clubs but he’s more likely to end up lacing his boots for the Reds.

Rumors that Lille have received a £75m transfer offer from an unnamed EPL side appear to put Liverpool in pole position to land the Nigerian over Chelsea says Paruk from Sports Betting Dime. It’s not that Liverpool is in dire need of offensive help, but Chelsea finished fourth in the EPL in goals for (51) and ninth in goal against.

The Blues should certainly be looking to spend more in the midfield and back end. The Reds, on the other hand, know might lose Divock Origi, who is said to be unhappy with playing a fringe role at the club, hence the need for signing a player that can step into his big boots if he leaves in the summer.

Osimhen has been compared to Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham but he’s unlikely going to get into the first team of The Blues over the aforementioned English star, who is very well preferred by Frank Lampard. Although he might need some times to also adapt to the rigours of the Premier League, Osimhen might be the long term replacement for Roberto Firminho at Anfield.

21-year-old Nigeria’s wonderkid Osimhen is strong on the ball, he has pace and his work-rate is mostly phenomenal. Although he might need some time to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League, he’s built to come good and if he plays under Jurgen Klopp, we’d see him at his best because of their style.