AFCON
AFCON: Osimhen in Abuja, but set to return to Italy
Super Eagles’ hit-man, Victor Osimhen who made tremendous recovery from eye and cheekbone injuries is reportedly at the camp base of the Super Eagles but will likely return to Italy before the training sessions of the Nigerian team begin.
According to Nigerian daily newspaper, Thisday, the player arrived Nigeria last week for Christmas and planned to report to the Super Eagles camp this Wednesday.
His being there is however just to mark the attendance register as he will be returning to his Napoli club in Italy to be part of the Serie A encounter against Juventus.
ThisDay’s report indicates that Osimhen arrived Abuja late last week for yuletide and planned to report to camp today before flying back to Italy to help Napoli role back to the summit of the table.
He wants to be part of the action against the Biaconeri side on January 6th and then join the rest of the team in Garoura same night via chartered flight.
According to top Italian blog, Tuttusports.com, the quest of the Nigerian star is generating tension between the club and NFF but the club hopes to reach an agreement with Nigeri by Thursday evening in their bid to delay the striker much longer than the stipulated period of time.
“Napoli are on the defensive in the negotiation with Nigeria football house owing to the fact that the initial arrangement was to allow the Italian doctor confirm the fitness level of the Nigerian forward before he can be released to join the African football party in Cameroon.
“The club is also aware that Osimhen is obsessed at playing for his country and will not want to hurt his feelings and are delighted that he also wants to lift Napoli back to the top of the league in Italy,” it staed.
The blog also quoted Sky Sports that the player is getting closer to fitness and he will undergo a control scan tomorrow (December 31st) from Professor Gianpaolo Tartaro who operated him the first time.
“The Nigerian has a dream to play on January 6th against Juventus before leaving for the African Cup of Nations. Going by the initial agreement, Osimhen is scheduled for January 3rd but Napoli hopes to find an agreement with the Nigerian federation to temporarily detain the player in Italy, in order to make him play against Biaconeri and then let him leave for the cup,” Tuttusports.com stated .
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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