Plateau United continued to strengthen their strong hold on the top of the Nigeria Professional League table following their 2-0 win against relegation battlers 3SC on matchday-32 in Jos on Sunday, A goal in each half from Emmanuel Odafe and Ibeh Johnson in the 16th and 78th minute respectively, secured the three vital points for Plateau United. With the win, Plateau United took their point tally to 58, and three points ahead of second place MFM while 3SC maintain 16th spot with 40 points. In Sagamu, MFM FC pipped bottom team Remo Stars 1-0 to keep the pressure on leaders Plateau United. MFM's goal was scored by Austin Ogunye in the 71st minute. In the 55th minute, league top scorer, Stephen Odey missed the chance to take his goals account to 19 after his penalty was saved. The win means MFM retain second spot and are now on 55 points. In Maiduguri, title contenders Akwa United lost 1-0 to El-Kanemi Warriors. Tchoanfine Pade was the hero for El-Kanemi as his 26...

Manchester United defeated Norwegian side Valerenga 3-0 in the Premier League side’s sixth pre-season friendly of the summer on Sunday at the Uleevaal Stadium, Oslo. Marouane Fellaini, Romelu Lukaku and Scott McTominay scored United’s goals in the match. Valerenga paraded 20-year-old Nigerian striker Chidera Ejuke for 80 minutes. He was substituted by Magnus Grodem. United who had participated in the International Champions Cup in the United States before the match looked the more likely to get on the score sheet as early as the third minute as Juan Mata’s pass teed up Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but the midfielder’s shot was saved while Paul Pogba’s effort was just over the bar soon afterwards. Fellaini headed in Mkhitaryan cross with the aid of a deflection to put a dominant United ahead in the 44th minute. New signing Lukaku headed in an Andreas Pereira corner two minutes into the second half for his third goal of pre-season. Youngster Mctominay made it 3-0 for the Red Dev...

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has said that his players need to accelerate their pre-season form to the level Alex Iwobi has attained before the big World Cup qualifying clash with the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon on September 1 in Uyo. Reacting to Iwobi’s super goal for Arsenal against Benfica in the Emirate Cup on Saturday, Rohr urged all his players to raise their game during the pre-season to get the nod to play against Cameroon next month. “I want all my players have to up their game during this pre-season to merit an invitation for the World Cup clash with Cameroon. The season starts on August 11 in Europe and there won’t be enough time to assess the players based on league form,” Rohr told a Nigeria Football Federation official who does not want to be named. “I will have to rely mainly on the pre-season form to select players who will feature against Cameroon. So I expect my players to be firing at full cylinder ahead of the season to get a call-up. I have been mon...

Nigerians will get to know the Super Eagles players who will face Cameroon in 2018 World Cup qualifiers on September 1 and September 4 in Uyo and Yaounde respectively in two weeks’ time, the Chairman of the Nigeria Football Federation technical and development committee Chris Green said. “I expect Gernot Rohr to release his list of players for the game against Cameroon soon,” Green told RMG SPORTS BLOG in Abuja. “All things being equal, the list will be made public in two weeks’ time. The coach is working hard to pick only in-form players for the two games against Cameroon. “Rohr is worried that the pre-season may not bring out the best of the players who are coming from holidays but has decided to use form first before any other consideration. I trust him to invite the best.” On Nigeria’s chances against the tough and physically strong Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, Green assured that the Eagles will cope well to win the first leg in Uyo and go to Yaounde with high hopes thre...

One of the parents of the six abducted pupils from the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe has made a revelation about the football jerseys worn by the teenagers when they were released. On 25 May 2017, six boys of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe were kidnapped from their school premises but they were freed in Ondo State on Friday, 28 July after spending 64 days in captivity. They were later reunited with their parents in Lagos the following day after efforts made by the Ondo State Government. Curiously, all the boys were in apparently fake jerseys of big European clubs Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. One of the parents who spoke on the condition of anonymity told RMG SPORTS BLOG that the kidnappers initially made the pupils wear football jerseys in order to deceive security operatives who were closing in on the criminals. “I just want to thank God he is back home now,” the relieved father told RMG SPORTS BLOG on Sunday. “I don’t...

Nigerian striker Kim Ojo scored his first goal of the season for 10-man Lyngby who lost 5-3 away to Brondby in their Danish first division clash on Sunday, Ojo scored in the 43rd minute to put Lyngby 2-1 ahead while Bror Blume got Lyngby’s first goal. Brondby’s goals were scored by Masse Vigen (hat-trick), Jan Kliment and Besar Halimi. Lyngby are now 11th in the 14-team league which is in its third week. In the Belgian top flight on Sunday, Nigerian trio Moses Simon, Anderson Esiti and Samuel Kalu were all in action for KAA Gent who lost 3-2 away to St. Truiden in their first league game of the season. Igor Vetokele and Cristian Ceballos (brace) were the scorers for St.Truiden. For Gent, Franko Andrijasevic and Samuel Gigot scored. Former Granada defender Uche Agbo featured in Standard Liege’s 1-1 away draw against Mechelen in their opening game of the new campaign. Agbo, who is on loan from Watford, played the full 90 minutes for Standard Liege. Stefan Dr...

Leicester City assistant manager Michael Appleton has expressed his delight with Super Eagles winger Ahmed Musa's impressive performance in Leicester City's 1-0 win against League Two club Luton Town in Wednesday's pre-season game. Musa provided the assist that led to the only goal of the game scored by Algerian star Riyad Mahrez in the 83rd minute. Also in action for Leicester was Nigeria midfielder Wilfred Ndidi who also impressed. “[Ahmed] Musa was a threat for the majority of the game. He’s always going to be a threat with the pace that he’s got," Appleton told Leicester TV. “He showed some decent composure for the goal and he sucked the full back in to tee it up for Riyad. “He’ll be pleased that he’s got an assist under his belt and we’re looking forward to getting the boys more minutes over the weekend.” Leicester will kick off their 2017/2018 Premier League campaign with an away trip to the Emirates against Arsenal on Friday, August 11.

Nigeria have been drawn in Zone A of the 2017 West African Football Union Cup of Nations (WAFU CUP) billed for 9 September to 24 September in Ghana. The tournament will be held at the Sekondi Stadium and the Cape Coast Stadium. In a draw held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra on Thursday, the Super Eagles were drawn to face Sierria Leone in their first game in Sekondi/Takoradi while hosts Ghana will face Gambia in the opening match of the competition. Other fixtures in Zone A will see Mali battle Mauritania and Guinea tackle Guinea Bissau. In Zone B, which will be staged in Cape Coast, Senegal will face Liberia while Burkina Faso confront Niger. Ivory Coast will rekindle rivalries with Togo in their opening fixture just as Benin Republic will face Cape Verde. The winners of the round robin stage will form Groups A and B while the top two teams from those groups progress to the semi-finals.

The Nigeria Football Federation have concluded plans to make the present home-based Super Eagles squad to represent Nigeria at the 2017 WAFU Cup of Nations tournament billed to hold in Ghana in September. A very reliable member of the Super Eagles crew who disclosed this to RMG SPORTS shortly after the WAFU Cup draw was held in Ghana on Thursday said coach Salisu Yusuf has been instructed to include the WAFU Cup in his programme. "The NFF is not thinking of raising another team for the WAFU Cup, there have been discussions with coach Salisu Yusuf and in few days' time, the public will be briefed. The same team we have for the CHAN tournament is the same team that will play the WAFU Cup for number of reasons,"  "It is the belief of the NFF that maintaining a team for the two tournaments will help in building a strong home team and the coaches have also been told to include it in their programmes." Nigeria are drawn in Zone A of the WAFU Cup where ...

Nigerian-born striker Chuba Akpom scored for an Arsenal selected XI side that thrashed English National League (fifth-tier) side Boreham Wood 4-0 in a pre-season friendly at Meadow Park on Thursday. The Arsenal team was a mixture of their U-23 and U-18 players and also had the likes of Mathieu Debuchy and Carl Jenkinson and Jeff Reine-Adelaide. Akpom opened the scoring for Arsenal after converting a 12th minute penalty. Stephy Mavididi made it 2-0 in the 24th minute. On the stroke of halftime, Arsenal went 3-0 with Jon Toral scoring. And in the 47th minute, Mavididi grabbed his second goal to make it 4-0 in favour.

Nigerian midfielder Rilwan Hassan scored his first-ever UEFA Europa League goal for FC Midtjylland who lost 3-2 to Polish side Arka Gdynia in Thursday’s third qualifying round first leg clash. Hassan scored in the 33rd minute, two minutes after Marcus Vinicius had shot hosts Arka Gdynia into the lead. Marc Dal Hende gave the former Danish champions the lead on 36 minutes but Vinicius drew the hosts level from the spot. Rafal Siemaszko sealed the win in stoppage time. It was Hassan’s 14th appearance in the competition and he has provided two assists. His compatriot, Paul Onuachu was on for 90 minutes before he was replaced by Alexander Soerloth. In Sweden, Alhaji Gero was on for 45 minutes as Oestersunds FK beat CS Fola Esch from Luxembourg 1-0. At the Stade Velodrome, Joseph Akpala was replaced after 64 minutes for Richairo Zivkovic in Oostende’s 4-2 away loss to Olympique Marseille. A hat-trick from Valere Germain and another strike from Morgan Sanson cancelled goa...

Former Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm has been named the German Footballer of the Year for 2017. Lahm retired in May after winning eight Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokal crowns, one Champions League and the 2014 World Cup in an extraordinarily distinguished career. The defender’s roll of honour includes being added to Bayern’s Hall of Fame, while he was voted Footballer of the Year after leading the club to another league title last season. German sport journalists voted Lahm the clear winner of the award, with Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos in second and Borussia Dortmund’s 31-goal Bundesliga top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finishing third. Lahm succeeds his Bayern colleague Jerome Boateng.in taking his first German Footballer of the Year award, having previously finished second and third in the voting “It’s a real honour and I’m truly pleased with it. I think the journalists in the vote have watched me fo...

Super Eagles chief coach Salisu Yusuf has revealed to SportingLife that Home-based Eagles will be having two training session every day. The nation’s local professional players are camping in Kano in preparation for their fifth African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier against Benin Republic. Yusuf said the team will have morning and evening training which will begin at 7am and 4pm respectively. The former Kano Pillars gaffer said the technical crew took the decision because of the limited time before their first leg encounter against Benin Republic. The team play Benin Republic at the Stade De L’amitie in Cotonou on 13th August and return to Kano for the second leg on 19th August. “I am happy with the turn-out of the players. They reported on Monday despite the fact that all of them played on Sunday. We will start the first training session by 7am on Tuesday and the second training by 4pm. We are here for business and I know that the players are ready too,” Yusuf s...

Premier League club West Ham have completed the signing of Mexico striker Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez from Bayer Leverkusen. West Ham made the announcement on their official Twitter handle on Monday. Former Manchester United striker Hernandez, 29, signed a three-year deal with West Ham believed to be worth £16m. He joins Austria’s Marko Arnautovic and Joe Hart as West Ham’s new signings. While at Manchester United, Hernandez scored 59 goals in 156 appearances. Incidentally, Chicharito’s first competitive match back in England will be the Premier League opening fixture against Manchester United. Hernandez also went on loan to Real Madrid from Manchester United in the 2014/2015 season.

Ado Den Haag right-back, Tyronne Ebuehi has expressed his delight at the club's impressive run in the ongoing pre-season programme. Ado Den Haag have won seven pre-season matches so far, and the fair-skinned defender who played for 71 minutes in their 1-0 win against MVV  Maastricht on July 18, hopes the winning run will continue when the Dutch Eredivisie kicks off. “I am happy with the club's performance in the pre-season, and the win over MVV is a good sign of good things to come for the club,” Ebuehi told  omroepwest.nl ADO midfielder Danny Bakker  scored the solitary winner in the 60th minute of the game played at the Cars Jeans Stadium, off a corner kick  by Donny Gorter. Sheraldo Becker and Delano Ladan also had the opportunity to open the score but were put at bay by hardworking MVV reaguards. Ado Den Haag have since travelled to China for further  pre-season programme. Ebuehi was first called up to Nigeria squad in 2016 for the 20...

The board of English FA Cup champions Arsenal took the right decision to stand by manager Arsene Wenger despite thirteen years of not winning the Premier League title according to Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho. The Telegraph on Tuesday quotes the Portuguese as saying that Wenger who has won the FA Cup thrice in four seasons has been treated fairly and has got a good deal from the Gunners' management who offered him a new two-year contract. "I think after the champions Chelsea, Manchester United is the second club that we can say was most successful last season and Arsenal the third, for me that's absolutely clear," Mourinho stated. "To finish second, third or fourth [in the Premier League] is like finishing first, second, third of the losers because there is only one winner. Arsenal won a competition, we won two-and-a-half, I like to say, so the other clubs won nothing so they have to improve. "It's fantastic treatment [of Wenger...

Egypt's table tennis star, Omar Assar, says he will be banking on his huge fan base in Lagos to emerge victorious in the men's singles at the 3rd International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Challenge. This year's edition runs from August 9th to 13th inside the Indoor Sports Hall of the Molode Okoya-Thomas, Teslim Balogun Stadium Lagos. According to ITTF-Africa, Assar who has won the event in the past but was absent at the 2016 edition, says he cannot wait to claim his title back. “I cannot wait to return to Lagos this year because last year, it was a bit tight for me as my club had two crucial matches to beat the drop in the French league," Assar who recently moved to Germany to sign for Werder Bremen in the German Bundesliga said," Assar said.  "It was the same situation that affected Aruna Quadri as he could not also make it to the tournament last year. But this year, I cannot wait to come to Lagos again as I am eagerly looking forward to re...

Benin Republic captain, Mama Seibou, says he expects a difficult game for his side when they face the home-based Super Eagles of Nigeria in the Final Round of the qualifiers for the 2018 CHAN, Benin edged Togo 7-6 on penalty shootout in the second leg, First Round qualifiers in Cotonou on Sunday. The game ended 1-1 withaggregate score  at 2-2 . Reacting to the win against Togo and their next game against the home-based Eagles, Seibou said it's only hard work that will see them overcome coach Salisu Yusuf's side. "The win against Togo now means back to work as soon as possible because Nigeria is not a small team," Seibou told Benin Football Federation official website. "We are happy to qualify (for the final qualifying round) in front of our fans. It did not happen as planned, but we are happy to get there." "I encouraged the team. I knew that as long as it is not over yet (penalty shootout), nothing is done. And that's what helped ...

Manchester City have launched their new away kit for the 2017/2018 Premier League season. The new kit was announced on Tuesday and was modelled by Leroy Sane, City youth player Phil Foden and new signings Ederson and Danilo in Los Angeles. Nigeria forward Kelechi Iheanacho, who has usually been involved in recent Manchester City kit launches but is on his way out of the club, was not involved. City are expected to don the new kit in the International Champions Cup clash against Real Madrid in Los Ageles on Thursday. A statement on City's website on the launch of the new kit says: "The all-maroon outfield kit will be paired with a green shirt, shorts and socks for the goalkeepers, which is sure to please the football purists. Play Video "If the design pays reference to the past, then Nike’s Aeroswift technology most certainly gives the kit a truly modern feel. "As the most advanced apparel innovation to date, the Aeroswift kit has engin...

Former Nigeria international Nduka Ugbade feels the increase in the number of participating countries from 16 to 24 for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon is not a guarantee that the Super Eagles will qualify. CAF's executive committee on Thursday decided to expand AFCON and move the calendar from January/February to June/July from the 2019 edition billed for Cameroon. The Super Eagles failed to qualify for the last two AFCONs in 2015 and 2017 and Ugbade believes that the team will face stiff competition from other countries for a 2019 ticket. Nigeria lost their opening qualifying match 2-0 at home to South Africa and are already playing catch-up as Libya defeated Seychelles in their group's other match. "Expanding the number of countries will only give opportunity to everybody and not just the big teams," the 1994 AFCON winner with the Super Eaglessaid. "It will serve as motivation to even the small teams especially those who have n...

Monaco defender Benjamin Mendy has travelled to the United States for a medical before his £52m transfer to Manchester City. Mendy is expected to have his medical in Los Angeles, where City are based for their game against Real Madrid on Wednesday. His transfer will take City's spending on full-backs this summer to £123.5m. The 23-year-old France left-back joined Monaco from Marseille last summer. He played 34 times for the club last season and helped them to their first Ligue 1 title in 17 years. Mendy would become the Premier League club's fifth major signing of the summer and take their spending to more than £175m, following the recruitment of England international Kyle Walker (£45m), Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva (£43m), Brazilian keeper Ederson Moraes (£35m) and defender Danilo from Real Madrid (£26.5m). They have sold left-back  Aleksandar Kolarov,  31, to Roma for £4.5m.

Nigerian midfielder Joel Obi was among the goal scorers for Serie A club Torino who thrashed Serie C club Renate 5-0 in a pre-season game on Sunday. Andrea Belotti opened the scoring for Torino from the penalty spot in the 10th minute. Iago Falque doubled Torino’s lead when he scored in the 20th minute. Seven minutes later, Torino were 3-0 up thanks to a goal from Emiliano Moretti. Obi scored in the 29th minute to bring the score to 4-0 before Manuel De Luca completed the rout when he got on the score sheet in the 65th minute. The game against Renate is Torino’s third pre-season friendly game and their third straight win. Their next pre-season friendly game is against French Ligue 1 club Guingamp on Saturday.