Sports
Arsenal Eyes £70m Leipzig’s Defender
Arsenal is eyeing a move for RB Leipzig defender, Dayot Upamecano as they battle the clock in their bid to bolster their defensive options ahead of the new season.
The Gunners are in the market to bring in a centre-back before tomorrow’s transfer deadline having agreed a fee with Bordeaux for Laurent Koscielny.
The 33-year-old was in France to undergo a medical ahead of a €5 million (£4.6m/$5.6m) move to the Ligue 1 club, with a deal expected to go through within the 24 hours.
Arsenal had been reluctant to let their captain leave, even after he had refused to travel with the squad for the pre-season tour to the United States.
But having held several rounds of talks with the defender during the past week, he made it clear he was determined to return to France, so a deal has been agreed with Bordeaux.
With Koscielny’s exit now imminent, Arsenal is looking to bring in a replacement and is interested in 20-year-old RB Leipzig defender Upamecano.
Contact has been made with the Bundesliga club, but Leipzig value the Frenchman at around £70m ($85m), a price that would make a deal extremely difficult for Arsenal, given the budget they are working on this summer.
There is also continued interest in Juventus centre-back Daniele Rugani.
Arsenal had a two-year loan offer knocked back by the Serie A champions for the Italy international last week.
Juventus is reluctant to let Rugani leave due to injury concerns over Giorgio Chiellini, who is struggling with a persistent calf problem.
They could be open to a permanent deal, however, but are believed to be demanding a fee of up to £50m ($61m).
Arsenal feels that the price is too high and would prefer to take Rugani on loan, with an option to buy included at the end of the season.
The north London club is also open to allowing Shkodran Mustafi to leave to raise further funds this summer, but the German centre-back has made it clear he wants to stay at the Emirates.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
