SHAME: NFF dumps Keshi ?

It appears Stephen Keshi’s days as Super Eagles coach may be over, sooner rather than later, following comments posted by Nigeria Football Federation president, Amaju Pinnick, on social media.
The NFF and Keshi have had a cat and mouse relationship since the end of the 2014 World Cup with the football body going as far as sacking the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations winning coach following the national team’s poor start to the 2015 AFCON qualifiers.

President Goodluck Jonathan however ordered the NFF to reinstate Keshi for the remainder of the AFCON qualifiers which ended on a sad note for the Super Eagles as they failed to qualify for the tournament currently taking place in Equatorial Guinea.
Pinnick has never hidden his desire to get rid of Keshi though and on Thursday posted on Facebook: “Getting a new coach and Technical crew for the Super Eagles has been a sensitive issue though I will say that negotiations are ongoing and in a strict manner that sooner than expected a new coach and technical crew will be announced to the Nigeria public.”
His comment elicited a lot of comments from his facebook followers with most of them in support of the move, while some even urged the NFF to hurriedly appoint a foreign coach for the Super Eagles.

One of Pinnick’s followers, Bala Akuboh, however posted: “My candid opinion about getting a new coach is that it doesn’t matter where he comes from whether indigenous or foreign but to have the structure on ground to support his work.”

Not all were in favour of the move to sack Keshi though, such as Dennis Chike Okogwu who posted: “I am still of the opinion that Keshi and co were in the process of building a new team. I want them to be retained. How long are we going to be relying on foreign coaches? We must use what we have. God Bless Nigeria.”

Kalu Uche returns to Spain, joins Levante

Nigerian forward Kalu Uche has been announced by Levante as their latest signing. He joins the Valencia-based club on an initial contract until the end of the season with an option to extend the deal for a further season if the move works out well for both player and club.
Levante will be hoping that the older brother of Villarreal striker, Ikechukwu Uche, will be able to fire them away from the relegation zone. Levante are currently 19th on the 20-team La Liga table. It will be Uche’s fourth stint in Spain having previously featured for Espanyol and Almeria, the former on two occasions.

His last stint with Espanyol in the second half of the 2011/2012 season saw the Nigerian scoring five goals in 15 appearances. He however left the Catalan side at the end of the season for Turkey’s Kasimpasa, where he found the back of the net 19 times in 34 appearances, before heading out to Qatar where he featured first with El Jaish, then with Al Rayyan.

Oboabona Happy Over Successful knee Surgery

Super Eagles defender Godfrey Oboabona has expressed his delight following his recovery after a successful knee surgery.

The versatile defender returned to full training with his Turkish team Rizespor a week ago and featured in a Turkish Cup game at Adana Demirspor, which they drew 1-1.

He was on for the entire duration of the match.

The former Sunshine Stars captain, who underwent a knee surgery in Turkey on December 21, 2014, to correct meniscus tear and cartilage injury, told AfricanFootball.com he is happy to be back playing again.

“I am very happy and thank God that I am back in action, I started training with the rest of the team a week ago. I am feeling great and I am looking forward to play more games for my team.”

Oboabona has played eight games for Rizespor, finding the back of the net once.

Last season, the 24-year-old Oboabona scored three goals in 19 games.

3SC appoint Omokaro, Oloyede as coaches

Newly promoted Shooting Stars of Ibadan have named the duo of Bright Omokaro and Oloyede Akinde as assistant coach to replace Edith Agoye and Charles Ayodele.
The one-year contract of the duo of Agoye and Ayodele, who both assisted Franklin Howard to lead the Oluyole Warriors back to the Premier League, was not renewed paving the way for Omokaro and Akinde to be drafted into the team for the coming season.
Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, former international, Omokaro, says he is very grateful to the management of the Oluyole Warriors for deeming it fit to appoint him as a coach of the club.

“This is a club that I played for in the past, and it is a great honour to be contacted to be part of the team as a coach. “3SC is a big club in Nigeria and we need to take the club back to where it rightly belongs. Work start immediately as the league will soon resume,” he said.

Obisia offers panacea to boxing revival in Nigeria

Former national boxing coach Obisia Nwakpa has provided tips, he says, if followed could make Nigeria great again in boxing.

“It all bothers on coaching. Right now, none of those engaged as national coaches has the requisite qualifications, none has the training or experience to coaching and none of these individuals holds the expertise to train up a boxer to become a world beater,” he told Sports Vanguard in Lagos.

The former African and Commonwealth super light-weight champion explained his idea this way. “For you to have a coach who can produce world class boxers, that person must have boxed at the amateur and professional levels for years. He would not only have these, such a person must have proved himself well at these levels, winning laurels for the country and during which time he would have gathered the desired experience to pass on to aspiring boxers.

“In doing this the man must have fought at all levels of the major multi-sports events including the All Africa Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games.”

He said it is through this experience the coach would have learnt the noble art of self defense, which is broken into different departments namely; principles, concepts and disciplines.

“My observation is that national coaches these days lack knowledge of the sport and are unable to train up good boxers because they do not even spend up to five years as amateur boxers or as professionals.

Tunisia 0-0 Nigeria: Dream Team Avenge Defeat To Tunisia

U23 Eagles avenged their defeat at the hands of their Tunisian counterparts as they thrashed them 3-0 in a friendly played in Tunis on Wednesday.

The coach Samson Siasia-led team lost the first game 5-3, but they avenged this defeat by keeping a clean sheet on Wednesday.

The Nigeria lads opened scoring in the 31st minute, when Oghenekaro Etebor converted a spot kick after Peter Onyekachi was fouled in the 18-yard box.

Onyekachi doubled Nigeria lead with a 56th minute strike after good work in the midfield by Azubuike Okechukwu and Oghenekaro.

Oghenekaro played a penalty kick way over the bar in the 69th minute after Stanley Amuzie’s cross was handled by a Tunisia defender.

Godwin Saviour put the game beyond the Tunisians when he fired home a canon shot in the 88th minute after running down the opposing defenders.

Basketball: Victor Oladipo among young stars in Dunk Contest

Greek 20-year-old forward Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota rookie guard Zach LaVine will also compete in the annual showdown of acrobatic leaps and spectacular ball-jamming staged on the eve of the annual NBA All-Star Game.

The February 14 event will highlight All-Star Saturday festivities at the Barclays center in the city of New York.

The Eastern and Western Conference top players meet in the 64th NBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden in the city.

Dumping a team format used last year, the contest returns to its traditional format of two rounds with players allowed any dunk they choose and no time limits.

Players have a maximum of three attempts to complete each dunk in the first and final rounds, with judges scoring every basket between 6 and 10. After two first-round dunks, the two top scorers advance to the final, their earlier points not carrying over.

Oladipo, a guard, has boosted his scoring average from 13.8 points last season as a rookie to 16.5 points this season and improved his shooting percentage four points to 45.9 percent.

Plumlee is averaging 10.4 points and 6.7 rebounds for Brooklyn this season. The center could become only the fourth player to win the dunk contest on his own home court, joining Chicago’s Michael Jordan in 1988, Minnesota’s Isaiah Rider in 1994 and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin in 2011.

Antetokounmpo, the first Bucks player in the Slam Dunk Contest since Ray Allen in 1997, could become the first player from outside the United States to capture the dunk crown.

Newcomer LaVine ranks second among rookies with 3.4 assists a game and ranks fourth in rookie scoring with 8.0 points a game. At 19, he would be the second-youngest slam dunk champion behind Kobe Bryant, who was 18 when he captured the 1997 title.

Igbeka urges govt to support Agbonavbare’s children

Former youth international and team mate of late Nigeria goalkeeper Wilfred Agbonavbare, Micky Igbeka has called on the Federal government to take over the responsibility of training the children of the fallen football star.

Reacting to the death of the former New Nigeria Bank goalkeeper who died Tuesday in a Spanish hospital, Igbeka described him as “a hardworking person and a very good goalkeeper. I spoke with him on phone late last year while he was in Florida. Another of our former team mates, Humphrey Edobor connected us.

“It is painful to know Wilfred is dead. But I feel government should take over his children’s education. That is the only thing that can wipe their tears,” Igbeka said.

He recalled their years in the Flying Eagles of Mexico ’83 fame. “Agbonavbare was a very good goalkeeper who gave the team and the defenders in particular, a lot of hope. He was fantastic.”

ITTF Africa: Nigeria team heads home as Quadri crashes out

Nigeria’s team will head home before the end of the on-going International Table Tennis Federation Africa Championships after all players crashed out of the remaining events. More shocking is the exit of world’s best player, Aruna Quadri, who was thrown out of the competition on Wednesday.
Quadri who was a huge favourite was stunned by Mohamed El-beiali of Egypt who beat him 8-11,6-11,11-8,11- 8,11-8,7-11,5-11 (4-3) in the quarterfinal of the men’s singles Wednesday evening in Cairo. Similarly, Nigeria’s sole representative in the women’s singles’ quarterfinal, Edem Effiong, could not progress beyond that round as she lost 4-2 to El-dawlatly Nadeen 11-6,6-11,11-6,8-11,9- 11,10-12. Also on Wednesday, Funke Oshonaike crashed out in the round of 16 while Atinuke Olaide could not make it beyond the round of 32. Nigeria will leave the tournament with one gold and one silver medal.

Legia Warzaw Reject Taiwo

Polish side Legia Warsaw have refused to offer Nigerian defender Taye Taiwo a deal after he failed to impress officials of the club.

Taiwo, who underwent trials at the club, needs to improve his match fitness according to Legia Warsaw’s President, Boguslaw Lenodorski.

Unfortunately, the 29-year-old was blamed for the second goal conceded by Legia Warsaw after he uncharacteristically passed to an opponent while playing as a central defender in Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to Qaraba FK in a friendly.

Meanwhile, Taiwo has since revealed on his Instagram wall that he didn’t sign for the club.
“I didn’t sign with Legia Warsaw,” he revealed.

Taiwo having previously represented Marseille, with whom he won the French Ligue 1 title in 2010, also turned out for AC Milan, Queens Park Rangers and Dynamo Kiev.

Legia are currently atop the Polish league with 38 points in 19 games and take on Jagiellonia Bialystok in their next game.