International Football
It Is Do-or-Die against Super Eagles, Boasts Cameroon’s Bassogog
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Youthful Chinese Super League player, Christian Bassogog is the player Cameroon have saddled goal scoring task to as the Indomitable Lions face the Super Eagles on Friday in the first leg of the back-to-back World Cup qualification fixtures.
The 21-year old Bassogog of China based Henan Jianye appears to be up to the task as he has started talking tough.
The player who was named best player at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations is not a stranger to the Super Eagles.
Apart from the possibility of having crossed path with the nearly half a dozen of Nigerian players in the Chinese League, he was in the Cameroon squad beaten 3-0 by the Super Eagles in 2015 in a friendly match played at Vise in Belgium, the home country of Hugo Broos, the current Coach of Cameroon.
According to information gathered from FIFA, Bassogog is “arguably the fastest player in the entire Indomitable Lions squad”.
He made his debut for Cameroon last November in the 1-1 home draw with Zambia in a World Cup qualifier.
Although he has chalked up a little over 14 international caps, he has scored just twice one of which was the goal that virtually sent Ghana out of the race for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
Bassogog put into effective use, his swiftness which can be likened to that of Nigeria’s former international, the inimitable Segun Odegbami, as he paced past Ghanaians defenders to put score lines at 2-0 in the semi final clash of Africa’s premier competition. In the Chinese Super League, Bassogog has reportedly scored seven goals.
“I am not sure just how fast I am,” the former Wilmington Hammerheads winger told FIFA.com. “I have never tested my speed by running a 100-metre sprint. But I know my pace is my top strength.”
He told FIFA.com that the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year was a learning curve for him. “It was a great experience for me,” he said. “It was my first major competition with the national team. In the first game against Burkina Faso, I tried to play well but I missed a glorious chance.
“I was glad to open my account against Ghana and help my team to the final. And we won it.”
He continued that featuring in the FIFA Confederations Cup has added to his experience. He is aware of the importance of the back-to-back fixtures with Nigeria in the next few days.
That explains the over reliance on speedy Bassogog to unsettle the Nigerian defence when the two teams meet in Uyo. But Bassogog downplayed his individual skill, pointing out that the unified spirit in the Cameroon camp will see the team through in the Uyo battle if Cameroon will have any realistic chance of making it to Russia 2018.
. “Nigeria are a strong team,” he told FIFA.com. “They have very good players and many of them are playing in Europe. But we must defeat them if we are to maintain our qualifying hopes. We should take the game to them. We need to fight to defeat them.
“Our players are young, but we are strong as a team,” he said of Cameroon’s progress under Belgian coach Hugo Broos. “He is a good coach. He knows what the players are good at so he can get the best out of us. In this team, everyone has his chance.”
Having said that, Bassogog is all too aware what responsibility he shoulders.
“These are matches I want to win,” he said. “We are not in an ideal position but these are qualifying games for the World Cup. I will do my utmost to help our team.
“When I was young, I liked watching Eto’o. I watched carefully how he went forward and how he scored. He could always score some unexpected goals in amazing fashions. For a long time, I had thought of becoming a player like him.”
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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