Sports
Tickets For Ronaldo ‘China Tour’ Sell Out In Hours
Chinese football fans raced on Wednesday to snap up tickets to see Cristiano Ronaldo play a rare match in their home country, with multiple online platforms selling out within a few hours.
Ronaldo is immensely popular in football-mad China, where many supporters have grown weary of dismal national team performances and the corruption-ridden domestic game.
The Portuguese star’s current club, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr, last month announced a “China Tour” featuring friendlies against Shanghai Shenhua and Zhejiang FC in the southern city of Shenzhen on January 24 and 28 respectively.
Fans frantically vied with each other as the coveted tickets went on sale online a little after 11:00 am (0300 GMT) on Wednesday, with multiple platforms showing no available tickets by the evening.
Several media outlets reported that seats in all but the two most expensive categories had sold out “within seconds”.
Amid a sea of disappointment on social media, some lucky buyers voiced unbridled joy.
“On January 24, I will be the happiest girl in the whole world,” wrote one satisfied customer on Weibo.
“Whatever you think of Ronaldo, you can’t deny his greatness as a player,” said another. “Today his China tickets came on sale, and I actually got one!”
Ronaldo’s perennial rival Lionel Messi electrified Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium last year when he scored after 79 seconds to lead world champions Argentina to a 2-0 friendly win over Australia.
And fans of the South American maestro wasted no time in mocking what they claimed was weaker interest in Ronaldo’s visit.
“Ronny fans must be so happy. His replica shirts get cheaper each year, and now they barely have to scramble for tickets,”
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
