International Football
Victor Moses Tips His Career Reviver, Conte to Win FIFA Award
BY BOLAJI OKUNOLA.
With the top three of the seven The Best FIFA Awards unveiled on Friday, Nigeria’s Super Eagles’ forward, Victor Moses is excited that his club coach at Chelsea, Antonio Conte made the final list of the original 12 announced last month. The award ceremony will hold in London on October 23.
The Italian Conte who led Chelsea to win the English Premier League last season and also to the final match of The FA Cup is contesting for the Men’s Coach Award with his fellow Italian, Massimiliano Allegry of Serie A side, Juventus and Frenchman, Zinedine Zidane who led Real Madrid to win the UEFA Champions League last May.
Conte had in his first season of handling a top flight English Premiership club led Chelsea to the title in impressive fashion, by setting a new Premier League record of 30 wins in a single season. He also emerged as the
2016/17 English Premier League Manager of the Season and showed tactical versatility as a player and that has translated into his career in management.
Last season, during Chelsea’s run to lifting the domestic league title; Conte switched the side’s formation to a 3-4-2-1, which proved a masterstroke. Along with his high tactical understanding of the game, Conte’s infectious energy and enthusiasm on the touchline affects every team he coaches. The Italian’s latest challenge is to get Chelsea competing on multiple fronts as they return to European competition.
Expectedly, Victor Moses’ allegiance to Conte will not be a surprise as the Italian is not just his coach, but he also helped the Nigerian to revive his career in club after previous coaches often sent him on loan spells to other clubs where he hardly got playing time.
The lack of playing time also affected his form in the Super Eagles. But all those are history now.
Sports Village Square monitored Moses as he spoke affectionately about his coach on Chelsea TV channel.
“I will be very happy seeing him (Conte) emerge as the winner. He has done a great job by reshaping the image of his club. For me, I rather go with Conte ahead others”, he remarked.
It appears both Conte and Moses have mutual respect for each other. Earlier in March this year, Conte spoke flowerily on Chelsea website about the Nigerian player.
He believed Moses was deserving of all the praise he received last season for the work he has put in to improve every aspect of his game. The Nigerian international excelled since adopting a wing-back role and was rewarded for his stellar performances in the season when he was handed a new contract by the club.
The Italian manager remarked he was surprised at how well Moses had performed and adapted to his new role at wing back.
“If you asked me before the change if I imagined him in this new position, I would say no, because we started to try to play with the 4-2-4 and I always saw him as a winger, very good one-on-one, but a bit poor defensively,” Conte told the Chelsea website.
Conte went to praise the Nigerians willingness to learn and develop as a player and the Blues boss later labelled him as a complete player, who has the ability to performance ‘offensively and defensively’.
“When I decided to change the system, I wanted to try him in this role, to work with him in a different situation, and he showed me great commitment to understand and to study the new role, above all in defensive situations. Now we have a complete player, offensively and defensively, ”he added.
Conte admitted that after seeing Moses in action he had no doubt and never considered placing the player on loan or selling him to make a profit.
“I realised, quickly that Victor could stay with us. I spoke with him during pre-season, when we stayed in America, and told him he will stay with us,’ Conte said.
“I’m happy to have this type of player. I knew him before, but to see him in person is very important to judge a player. He deserved to stay with us this season, but also now he deserves to play.
“Victor was very, very happy when I told him he would stay. He said to me ‘I am ready to stay here, to fight for the club; I need to have my chance to show that I deserve to play with Chelsea’. It happened and we are very happy for this because he’s showing he’s a good player.”
Incidentally, Jose Mourinho who was Chelsea’s manager at the time Moses was in one of his loan spells out of the club did not make the final cut of the 12 original nominees.
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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