CAF Confederation Cup
SIMEON BOLAJI SAKIN , A FREE-SCORING NIGERIAN WHO COULD BRING ENYIMBA DOWN
Nigeria-born striker Sakin Bolaji would in footballing terms be a ‘public enemy number one’ when his Horoya Athletic Club of Guinea tackle Enyimba in the CAF Confederation Cup quarter final first leg tie in Aba on Sunday.
The 25-year-old free scoring
striker from South-Western part of Nigeria started his professional football
career with Abia Warriors en route to playing in the Nigerian topflight with
Wikki Tourists and Rivers United.
“Of course, I have scored against Enyimba before and I think that was in a league match played in Bauchi when I was with Wikki Tourists,” Bolaji, the moustachioed striker, told CAFOnline.com.
“I just love the style (wearing beards) and it sort of gives me some confidence as a man.”
The broad-shouldered Bolaji indeed cuts a courageous image and could be said to be a proof to the postulation that men that wear beards are dominant and rugged.
Incidentally, Bolaji has shown his scoring prowess since he joined Horoya in 2017 from Rivers United.
In his first season with Horoya, Bolaji scored seven goals and notched ten the following season – the year that coincided with the club’s domestic treble when they won the Guinea Ligue 1; Guinea National Cup and Guinea Super Cup.
Though he has yet to score a goal in the current campaign occasioned by an injury lay-off, he is racing against fitness ahead of the eagerly awaited quarter final battle against Enyimba.
“I’m yet to score this season because I was injured at the beginning of the CAF Confederation Cup campaign.
“I am back to full fitness and have featured in two matches,” explained Bolaji who scored two goals in the 2017 Total CAF Confederation Cup for Rivers United against Uganda’s KCCA and Morocco’s FUS Rabat.
“I have no scoring secrets other than hard work and assisting my team to score.
“I will be happy to score against Enyimba in Aba in front of some of my friends and family members that will come for the match.
“It is an important to my team and even more important to me also; we know about Enyimba pedigree both in Nigeria and on the continent but I’m confident we are going to get a good result,” posited Bolaji who revels in the joy of being the first Nigerian to play for Horoya.
Horoya, fondly called ‘HAC’ remain one of the most-feared Guinea side in Nigeria; and older generation would certainly recall with nostalgia how they bundled out Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan on their way to winning the now defunct African Cup Winners’ Cup in 1978.
The Guinean side actually overcame a 3-1 first leg defeat to dispatch Shooting Stars 4-3 on aggregate after they pummelled the Nigerian side 3-0 in the reverse fixture.
“Horoya are still a very strong force and that is one of the reasons I joined them from Rivers United,” Bolaji, who comes from a large family of nine children, told CAFOnline.com.
“I have experienced both the good and bad times since I came here (Conakry) but the most important thing for me is that I have been playing in the continental competitions since I joined Horoya in 2017.
“There’s little difference between Horoya and many Nigerian teams but I can say Horoya is more organised and very consistent in CAF competitions.”
The Guinea champions have shown such consistency in intervening years since 2002 when they have qualified to play on the continent and have currently achieved a near invincibility without losing any of their six games in the mini-league as they romped to the top of Group B with an impressive 14 points out of available 18.
“I’m happy we are in the quarter finals of the CAF Confederation Cup,” said Bolaji, who had a couple of goals to his name in the 2018/2019 Total CAF Champions League.
“Qualifying to play in the CAF Champions League in my first season was such a great experience and one of the unforgettable moments for me since being here was the dramatic manner we beat Al Nasr of Libya in the first round.
“We were written off after we lost 3-0 to Al Nasr in Cairo but we won 6-2 back home in Conakry and I scored two of the goals and made one assist.
“This is the kind of mentality we have here at Horoya and it will propel us against any team.
“The match against Enyimba in Aba will be tough but what I know is that we are going to get a positive result ahead of the second leg in Conakry,” affirmed the all-action Bolaji who is a huge fan of Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.
–cafonline
CAF Confederation Cup
CAF adjudges Morocco’s Youssef Mehri’s goal as the fastest in football history
Moroccan club, Renaissance de Berkane, beat their Algerian counterparts, CS Constantine, 4-0 in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-finals at the weekend.
The game got off to a dream start for the Moroccan club as it took Youssef Mehri less than a minute to open the scoring in the big win against the Algerians.
Officially, the goal is recorded to have been scored after 13 seconds.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), CAF remarks: “Youssef Mehri goes straight into the history books. The RS Berkane striker scores the fastest goal ever scored in the CAF Cup.”
A deeper search by Sports Village Square indicates that a Nigerian player, Paul Onuachu, had previously scored a faster goal, but not in a CAF Cup duel.
The basketball player-like footballer scored his first international goal in a 1-0 defeat of Egypt on 26 March 2019.
The goal inflicted Nigeria’s first defeat on Egypt in 29 years. But more significant was the timing of the goal. Onuachu, within eight seconds of kick-off, undoubtedly entered the record books as the second fastest goal in international football records after that of Germany’s Lukas Podolsk, who scored after six seconds in a friendly against Ecuador in 2013.
Fans had hardly settled down at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba for the Nigeria versus Egypt match when Onuachu released a thunderous shot that turned out to be the match’s decider.
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The Renaissance Sportive de Berkane delegation will travel to Algeria this Friday to face CS Constantine in the CAF Cup. Tension may be building up for the potentially explosive confrontation that could have a build-up from last year’s fixtures of the Moroccan club and another Algerian outfit, USM Algiers, in the CAF Confederation Cup.
A Moroccan news outlet, Sport.le360, reports that a Tunisian airline will operate the direct flight between Oujda-Angad Airport, which is located about 12 kilometres north of Oujda and about 600 kilometres northeast of Casablanca, near the Algerian border and Constantine Mohamed Boudiaf International Airport.
Last year, political differences between Morocco and Algeria scuttled similar semi-final clashes between clubs of both countries.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday ruled in favour of the Algerian football federation in a row over a map of Morocco on shirts worn by Renaissance Berkane in the 2024 CAF Confederation Cup.
Algerian club USM Alger were kicked out of last year’s competition after both legs of their semi-final against Berkane were cancelled because of a diplomatic dispute.
Neither match took place as USMA and the Algerian authorities objected to a map of Morocco on the Berkane shirts which included Western Sahara.
Algeria cut diplomatic ties with North African neighbours Morocco in 2021, partly over the Western Sahara issue.
The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks the territory’s independence.
The Confederation of African Football awarded Berkane a 3-0 victory for both legs of the semi-final.
CAF at the time responded to an appeal by the Algerian FA by ruling in favour of Berkane, saying the club had been wearing the same jerseys since the start of the tournament.
But the Algerian FA took the case to sport’s highest court in Switzerland, which determined that the shirts in question were “contrary to CAF regulations, as they display a territorial map that is of a political nature.”
“The image of a map of Morocco including Western Sahara on the shirts of RS Berkane depicts a message, a demonstration or propaganda of a political nature as it represents the assertion of a territorial dispute that is contested and still unresolved as of today,” CAS said in a statement.
“By the laws of the game of the International Football Association Board, it is prohibited to convey any content of a political nature on all equipment, including shirts.”
CAS added that the initial decision by CAF to “maintain the approval of the shirts is annulled”, but the court said that it would have no effect on the results of the tournament.
Egypt’s Zamalek beat Berkane on away goals in the final.
-AFP
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