22 year old Santa Clara left fullback Zaidu Sanusi has joined the Gestifude Player Agency owned by Jorge Mendes, the agent who over sees the affairs of legendary forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

His move to the agency was brokered by Valdir, a former left fullback who played at Sporting Lisbon years ago and now works for one of the branches of the agency regarded as one of the biggest in the world.

Zaidu as he is called has caught the eyes this season for Santa Clara in what is his first season at the club following his move from third division side Mirandela. As expected it has placed him on the radar of several teams in Europe.

However it appears FC Porto will likely win the race for his signing following his move to the agency of Mendes who is known to have close links with the club who are also set to lose their first choice left back Alex Telles this summer.

Ligue 1 side Angers are the other team interested in the winger turned left back who can also play as a central defender. This season he has played 14 league games in Portugal with three team of the week nomination.

Already he has been contacted by coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has who is looking for more options at left back currently occupied by Jamilu Collins who plays for Bundesliga side Paderborn.

Daniel Martins

Liverpool star Sadio Mane says the Nigerian national team is among one of the team in Africa who are talented enough to challenge any country from any part of the world.

Rated as one of the best footballers at the moment, Mane was speaking in a YouTube interview monitored by Owngoalnigeria.com editorial team on the rise of African teams and if they can challenge countries from other continents.

Mane while analysing the strengths of African teams when compared with Nations from Europe, Asia and South America said it’s just a matter of time before African countries catch up with the rest of the world.

” Yeah we are up there with Algeria as African champions. Ghana is a traditional super power in African football just like Ivory Coast then the North African teams are very hard to play against. Nigeria has always been there and they are building a strong team with lot of players coming through”, he said.

” It’s just a matter of time and other African countries will step up against the rest of the world. Reaching the knock out rounds of the World Cup is nice but very soon a team from this continent will play in the final. The potential is there”.

Ade Emmanuel

The coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr is warming up to the idea of partnering Samuel Chukwueze and newly invited Kingsley Ehizibue on the right flank of the Super Eagles.

Ehizibue agreed to switch allegiance to Nigeria from the Netherlands and was subsequently invited for the game against Sierra Leone which was botched due to the coronavirus crisis rocking the world.

Rohr has been searching for a natural right back since taking over as coach and the coach revealed he is more than relieved to have the Cologne man in the team now as it will bring the balance he has been looking for.

” Ehizibue is a natural right back. You know we have used players there who have done well but not like it’s their preferred position. With Ehizibue we have that now and when Tyronne Ebuehi returns it will make it two”, Rohr told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” It will help us in attack where Chukwueze plays form as Ehizibue is confident on the ball in the opponent’s half and also love to attack. It’s something we hope to perfect before games”,he concluded.

Ade Emmanuel

Former Valencia and coach of the national team of Egypt Hector Cuper was hoping to succeed the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr if his contract extension with the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) had not gone according to plan.

Cuper according to his Egyptian assistant Mahmoud Ahmed was interested in the Super Eagles job and that of the national team of Ghana as he was still keen on working in Africa after his spell with Egypt.

The Argentine was however frustrated when the NFF agreed to a new deal with Rohr despite the fact that he was offered a pay cut beside other conditions that were not contained in his first deal. That move according to ‎Mahmoud frustrated the coach as well as the decision of Ghana to award the job to an indigenous coach.

“Mr Cuper is ever ready to work in Africa with Nigeria and Ghana as countries of preference because of its abundant talents,” Mahmoud said as reported by Premium Times.

“We had hoped to land Ghana job but GFA decided to close its door on foreign coaches and settled for Charles Akunor. Our attention was shifted to Nigeria and we felt salary problem between Rohr and Nigeria might be a problem.

“But its looks impossible now that Nigeria have decided to extend Rohr’s contract,” Mahmoud concluded.

Ade Emmanuel 

Former Super Eagles striker, Emmanuel Emenike has accused the Nigerian Football Federation of imposing players on late Stephen Keshi when the Big Boss was in charge of the Nigeria National team, Owngoalnigeria.com reports.

Emenike lended his voice to the conversation about alleged bribery in the national team. The former Fenerbache attacker featured prominently in Nigeria’s AFCON winning team of 2013 that was led by the late Stephen Keshi.

Speaking about bribes for national team places, he said “most of the times these things happen, it comes from someone in the NFF. I won’t say anything about Keshi (RIP) but you can’t defend anybody. Remember also sometimes also they brought players to Keshi and said this person must play”.

Chinedu Obasi was first to publicly come out with claims of bribe in the national team and a host of players and coaches have reacted both in support and against him.

Emenike noted that there is need for a rebirth in Nigeria football saying a lot of unsavoury activities abound in the system. “To be honest our football needs to change because a lot of things are going on. The problem is people do things and they get away with it. People should go to jail.”

Emenike was top scorer at the 2013 AFCON as his four goals helped Nigeria pick gold at the tourney.

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Super Eagles Coach, Salisu Yusuf after a long while has spoken about the bribe allegation levelled against him, as he highlighted that the easy access people have to him as a big lesson he picked from the episode.

Salisu was implicated in the scandal after a filmed video was released by Ghanaian investigative journalist, Anas where he was offered gratifications. The coach however denied any wrongdoing stating that the inducement did not affect his decision on players’ selection.

The former Enyimba gaffer said he has moved on but not without a few lessons. “As a head coach, I never had a Personal Assistant, I was so relaxed because I believe you should run things just openly, that is how I do my things.

“It teaches me a lot of things that you cannot be so free or easily accessed because lot of people are not coming with a good mind”, he told Brila FM.

The former Kano Pillars coach added that he would continue to do his job with all honesty as he did before now, as he took the incident as one of the challenges of life.

The 58 year old has since returned from his suspension and was seconded to NPFL side, Enugu Rangers where he helped the Enugu-based side regain their form before the outbreak of COVID-19 put a halt on football in the country.

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Former Super Eagles forward, Peter Osaze Odemwingie has revealed that there were rumours match-fixing making the rounds in Nigeria’s camp during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Osaze who was part of Nigeria’s squad to the Olympics said although he did not care to give it a second thought but there were rumours of agents approaching players to fix matches in an interview on the Super Eagles instagram page monitored by owngoalnigeria.com.

He said “During the Olympic Games, there were some rumours in the dressing room between the players, there were some dodgy things going on but I don’t know if it was true or not because I did not play in the Qualifiers. They were people approaching our players with talks about match-fixing and stuff but I didn’t ask questions”.

The former Stoke player however alluded that there were no signs of that on the pitch as the players gave their all during games until the final.

“But I would see it on the pitch, everybody played their hearts out, we got to the final of the Olympics. So I dismissed that but that moment I wasn’t sure like how players would be talking about things like this here”.

The coach of the Nigerian team around that time was Samson Siasia who has been banned by FIFA on allegations of match fixing although he has confirmed that he will appeal the decision as he is innocent. The covid19 pandemic has halted his quest to clear his name due to the lockdown in several countries.

Odemwingie went ahead to speak on the state of their camp during the tournament. “That camp was a mess. It was a mess in terms of the FA wasn’t with us, we had problems with kits, how we got to the final of the Olympics, I don’t know but to God be the glory we were happy. We fought hard for the colours of the country and got to the finaTeam Nigeria finished with a silver medal at the event, losing to Argentina in the final after an impressive run beating teams like USA, Ivory Coast and Belgium en route to the final”.

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Nigeria have succeeded in convincing Bournemouth midfielder Philip Anyanwu Billing to dump Denmark and switch allegiance to the senior national team of Nigeria, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

The 23 year old Bournemouth midfielder has already filled his switch of allegiance papers with FIFA for the process to commence in earnest and hopefully it will be concluded before the next round of international games.

Billing who is yet to be capped by Denmark at any level revealed Alex Iwobi tried talking him into playing for Nigeria but he insisted on Denmark but after he was snubbed for a Championship player he decided that his future is best with Nigeria.

His decision to switch allegiance to Nigeria is seen as a big coup by coach of the Super Eagles Gernot Rohr who refused to give up even when the player snub the first approach to switch allegiance insisting on Denmark where he has played for their U19s to U21s.

He has been ever present for Bournemouth this season with 27 league appearances to his name before the league was halted due to the lockdown which was brought about by the coronavirus crisis.

Already his decision has sparked outrage in Denmark with many blaming the national team coach Age Hareide who appears not to rate the left footed despite his consistent displays for Bournemouth.

Daniel Martins

QPR midfielder Ebere Eze has played down the chances of switching allegiance to Nigeria in the immediate as he is focused on his career with his clubside and also the youth team of England, Owngoalnigeria.com reports.

The midfielder trained with the Super Eagles in 2017 but he has since represented England at U21 level and even though he met with the president of the NFF in London few months ago, he still hasn’t decided on Nigeria.

In an exclusive interview aired on YouTube on the Podcast the Beautiful Game. The 22 year old who is having one of his best season with QPR where he has emerged as a prime target for teams in the English Premier League revealed his plans in the immediate regarding his international future.

Ask by a keen follower of Nigerian football @Nigerianscamsss on if he will consider a switch to Nigeria owing to his form, Eze revealed he has met with the handlers of the Nigerian team and told them he want to maintain his current international status for the time being.

‎”Yes of course and that’s why I don’t want to make any decision on my international future until it’s time I think it’s right. I don’t want to make a rash decision as much as it is a privilege to play for either country. It will be a great honor ‎ to play for both”, he responded when asked if he will consider playing for Nigeria.

He however poured cold water on any immediate plan when probed further ” To be honest I spoke with the Nigerian football people but they understand where I am at. I’m just enjoying my football right now, I don’t want any added pressure until my mindset is settled.

” I don’t want to be focused on the wrong thing, I just want to focus on what has got me to this position and continue doing it and wherever it takes me, it takes me”, he concluded.

Former Nigeria international forward Osaze Odemwingie has taken a swipe at coaches handling the Nigerian national team and at the same time representing players in the team.

Odemwingie who was a part of the Super Eagles from 2002 to 2011 said the practice meant most times coaches play players they are representing ahead of others who are better.

He particularly named Amodu Shuaibu as the guilty coach even though he said he enjoyed working under the late coach of the team who was always ready to step in if needed.

“Some picked a weaker player over a stronger one who played in a better club because they wanted to market their player,”Osaze told the Super Eagles media team in an interview via Instagram Live.

“Some of our coaches did get involved in a bit of player management, they had management companies. Shuaibu Amodu for instance had a management company.

“He was in and out as a coach and an agent, but he was a great man. I used to talk with him whenever I could about it. I loved Amodu.

“We used to fall out at times with him when they changed our hotels to a very poor one in Abuja. I would raise questions because it was disgusting and downgrading.”