Sports
Ighalo’ll Surely Succeed At Manchester United – Disu
A former Technical Director of the defunct Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Tunde Disu, yesterday said Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo would surely have a successful spell at Manchester United in England.
Disu told newsmen in Lagos that Ighalo would be successful in view of his high level of performance at the various clubs he earlier played for.
Tidesports source reports that Ighalo recently joined the English Premier League side on loan from Shanghai Shenhua in China for six months, with the former English champions having an option to buy.
Disu said Manchester United could not have made a mistake in acquiring Ighalo, adding that his successful spell at various clubs was a testimony of his impressive career.
“Ighalo should have meant something to a great club like Manchester United before they can move for him. He is a good (penalty) box player with a lot of energy.
“He is a type of player that does not miss a scoring opportunity, a penalty box player with proficiency like the late Rashidi Yekini and he is not an injury-prone player.
“Having played top-flight football before now, I think he should also be successful playing with Manchester United, I have no doubt about that because he is also athletic.
“Although Ighalo now have a tougher assignment because of expectations from a top club like Manchester United, I am hopeful that he will do well,’’ he said.
The 30-year old Ighalo had previously played for Julius Berger of Lagos in 2006, where he started his professional career.
He then proceeded to play at Lyn Oslo in Norway and Udinese in Italy from 2008 to 2014.
The versatile striker moved to Spain where he played for Granada and Cesena on loan, before moving to Watford where he was also on loan before being acquired by the club.
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
