Sports
Kroos Opens Up On Transfer Talks With Man Utd, Liverpool
Real Madrid’s midfielder, Toni Kroos has revealed that he came close to joining Manchester United in 2014 and also held talks with Liverpool the same year.
The Germany international has won the Champions League three times and LaLiga once since arriving at Madrid from Bayern Munich six seasons ago.
However, things could have been a lot different as Kroos was on the verge of putting pen to paper with United, only for the Premier League club to pull the plug on a potential transfer.
“David Moyes came to see me and the contract had basically been done but then Moyes was fired and Louis van Gaal came in, which complicated matters,” he told Tidesport Source.
“Louis wanted time to build his own project. I didn’t hear anything from United for a while and started having doubts.
“Then the World Cup started and Carlo Ancelotti called. And that was it.”
Liverpool were also in the running to sign Kroos from Bayern and the 30-year-old received a text from Luis Suarez asking him to make the switch to Anfield.
“It wasn’t a straight chat-up line but they offered to tell me more about the club and so on,” he said of the discussions with the Merseyside club.
Kroos has been linked with Madrid’s Champions League last-16 opponents Manchester City in more recent years, but he has ruled out a reunion with ex-Bayern boss Pep Guardiola.
“I want to finish my career at Madrid, so I’d say it’s very unlikely,” said Kroos, who previously hinted he may retire when his current deal expires in 2023.
“But I loved playing for him and could have renewed my contract at Bayern, of course. I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to sign a deal just because of the manager, however.
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