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Senegal’s unused AFCON goalkeeper win FIFA The Best Award

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Edouard Mendy, the yet to be used goalkeeper of Senegal at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations has won the FIFA  Best Goalkeeper award  in an event conducted  as a virtual TV show from the Home of FIFA in Zurich on Monday evening.

Mendy who is also the goalkeeper of Premiership side, Chelsea, had to be sidelined along with captain Kalidou Koulibaly after both tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of last Monday’s match against Zimbabwe.

But the most coveted award which is the Best Men’s Player was won by Bayern Munich’s forward, Robert Lewandowski while the women’s equivalence went to Alexia Putellas, who captained Barcelona to its first Women’s Champions League title, was voted the best women’s player ahead of teammate Jennifer Hermoso and Sam Kerr of beaten finalist Chelsea.

 Lewandowski in winning, retains the FIFA award he won last year.He thus overturned the result last month of the Ballon d’Or prize where he placed second behind Lionel Messi, who finally led Argentina to a senior title at the 2021 Copa America.

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool was also on the shortlist. Lewandowski broke two Bundesliga records by scoring 41 goals for Bayern in its title-winning 2020-21 season and 43 in the calendar year of 2021. Both marks were held since 1972 by another Bayern great, Gerd Muller.

Chelsea swept the coaching awards in a year when its men’s and women’s teams led by Thomas Tuchel and Emma Hayes reached their Champions League finals.

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Tuchel again edged Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola for victory to repeat the result of their European title game. Guardiola led City to the English Premier League title, and his team is the runaway leader this season after beating Chelsea on Saturday.

Roberto Mancini was the other shortlisted candidate after leading Italy to win the European Championship.

Hayes seemed surprised to win the coaching award for women’s soccer ahead of Lluis Cortes. His Barcelona team beat Chelsea 4-0 in the Champions League final.

Sarina Wiegman, who moved from 2017 European champion Netherlands to take over at England, was the other candidate.

Voting in each player and coach category was by national team coaches and captains worldwide, specialist media, and fans making their choices on FIFA’s website.

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The Puskas Award for best goal went to Erik Lamela for the rabona flick he scored for Tottenham against Arsenal in the Premier League in March.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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Libya sacks coach ahead of AFCON qualifying back-to-back matches with Nigeria

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Milutin Sredojević

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.

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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.

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CAF president blasts Ghana, others over stadium ban

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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.

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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.

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Present and Past as CAF Coaches Symposium unites Rohr, Peseiro and Eguavoen

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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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