Sports
Rashidi Yekini NPFL Award: Okpotu Bags Highest Goal Scorer Award
Lobi Stars Football Club of Makurdi, Anthony Okpotu at the weekend Saturday in Ibadan, bagged the Rashidi Yekini NPFL’s Highest Goal Scorer Award for the 2016/2017 Season.
Tidesports source gathered that Okpotu bagged the award with N100, 000 after scoring 19 goals in the just concluded Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) 2016/2017 season.
According to Tidesports source the award organised by the Rashidi Yekini Foundation headed by Mr Jubril Mohammed, the late Yekini’s lawyer, was the third edition.
Okpotu described the late Yekini as a legend and all-time highest national team goal scorer who has not been celebrated enough.
He dedicated the award to his team mates and management, saying that the award would spur him to score more goals in the subsequent season. Okpotu called on sportsmen in the country to emulate the giant strides of the late Yekini, urging them to invest in their lives while they were still active.
“When you climb a ladder, you don’t have to push it down to prevent others from climbing, because you may still need the ladder when you want to fall,’’ he said.
Yemi, the daughter of the late Yekini, called on people to always ensure that they impart more on others in whatever they do.
She said that anyone who was ready to impart on others must be ready to make sacrifices, thanking all for coming together to celebrate her late father and his memories.
In the same vein, Mohammed, the Yekini’s lawyer, said that he would not relent in doing more for the late Yekini’s family, saying that he had a covenant with the soccer legend.
“ We have a covenant where he told me he never trusted anyone, but me.
“He presented to me a special Quran to which we both held to make the covenant.
“Yekini had a premonition of his death and he told me I should not betray the trust he reposed in me.
“He entrusted all upon me and I promised him that I will always be by his family,’’ the lawyer said.
Also, an ex-international, Felix Owolabi, urged sportsmen to always look after themselves while active, saying that many celebrated sportsmen in the country had been abandoned.
“When you are on the stage, people will love you for the services you rendered, but when you are no more on stage, they will turn against you.
“The feeling is that you have been paid for the services you rendered when you are active. Our people needs attitudinal change in this country,’’ he said.
Also Mr Abayomi Oke, the Oyo State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, appreciated the foundation for organising such a laudable project.
He said that it was good to celebrate our heroes while they were alive.
The commissioner also stressed the importance of education in whatever anyone does, saying that education usually gives leverage on every chosen career.
NAN reports that the event was attended by Justice Moshood Abas of Oyo State High Court, Mr Mike Idoko of Lobi Stars Football Club and Coach Festus Allen, former 3SC Coach.
Others were Mr Raheed Balogun, the General Manager of 3SC, Mr Niyi Alebiosu, Chairman, Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Oyo State Chapter and Mr Remi Olaniran, a gubernatorial hopeful in Oyo State.
Isaako All Stars FC of Opuoko and Khana Khana AllStars Football all in Local Government Area of Rivers State will tomorrow engage in a friendly football match at Opuoko Mini Stadium.
Chatting with Tidesports in a telephone interview yesterday the Chairman of Khana All Stars Saro Tap-le said that the encounter is not going to be an easy game in spite it is an AllStars game.
He express his side readiness for the encounter stating that the opportunity as come for them to showcase their talents.
However, the chairman explained that AllStars game is not about winning but the excitement, love, unity and friendship it creates is more important.
” Tomorrow game is not going to be an easy one despite is a AllStars game. We are going there in a full force to do what we know how to do best and to showcase our talents.
“As Chairman of Khana All Stars I believes we have an edge over the Isaako All Stars be we are training so hard for the encounter” Tap-le said.
Also speaking the Chairman of Isaako All Stars Mina Zaasi Iloori sees the match as an opportunity to build relationships.
” My brother it is an AllStars friendly game I think winning is not important but the paramount thing is the relationship we are going to create among both teams and my community at large
” We are training hard because of the encounter because I will not be in my house and somebody will rob soap in my eyes.
” As I speak with you we are just coming from back training ground to ensure all my players are fit for the match.
” I am using this medium to call on football fans to come en mass to Opuoko Mini Stadium tomorrow and enjoy the best of round leather game.
I promise the game will be an exciting display of football talents and sportsmanship”, Iloori said.
Kiadum Edookor
Thierry Henry has called for the return of the away goals rule in the aftermath of the bombastic Champions League semi-final between Inter Milan and Barcelona.
The visitors at the Estadio Olimpic Lluis Companys came within milimeters of clinching the first leg of the final-four clash after former Arsenal star Henrikh Mkhitaryan netted late in the second-half.
But the linesman was quick to raise his flag, and semi-automated offside ruled out what would have been a thrilling conclusion to the high-octane 3-3 draw.
The hosts came from behind twice to share the spoils, chasing Inter Milan from the first minute of the game after Marcus Thuram stunned the Barcelona faithful into silence with his neatly flicked goal.
Denzel Dumfries doubled Inter’s lead 20 minutes later, but it took just three more for the Blaugrana to finally get on the scoresheet courtesy of a moment of magic from teenage starlet Lamine Yamal.
Ferran Torres drew Barcelona level ahead of the break, but Lamal was forced to play catch-up again in the second-half after Dumfries scored his second.
In light of the impressive effort from Inter, Henry wondered if the team should have got more from the fixture ahead of the second-leg at the San Siro.
‘I know it’s been like that for a very time, and we have to accept it,’ Henry said of the removal of the away goals rule, ‘But off air I was talking to Jamie (Carragher), and I was like, “how can you score three goals away from home and you don’t have an advantage?”
‘Away goals for me were massive, you score three goals away and you still don’t have an advantage 0-0 at home,’ Henry shrugged.
UEFA took the decision to scrap the rule which gave goals scored away from home the ability to act as a tiebreaker in the case of level scorelines ahead of the 2021-22 season.
Current FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger claimed during his time as Arsenal manager in 2015 that the away goals rule ‘encouraged the team at home not to attack’ and that ‘the weight of the away goal (was) too big today’.
Without the rules, the tie at San Siro will go to extra time and penalties to decide which teams books their spot in the Champions League final.
But based on Wednesday evening’s performance, Henry seemed to give Inter a fighting chance against the newly minted Copa del Rey champions.
The 2025 London Marathon set a new world record for the number of finishers despite hot conditions on Sunday for its 45th edition.
A total of 56,640 runners crossed the finish line at the end of the 26.2-mile route, Guinness World Records has confirmed.
The number surpassed the previous record of 55,646 set by the New York Marathon in November.
Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events, said he hoped the high number of finishers inspired people to apply for the 2026 race ballot.
“The London Marathon was already the most popular in terms of ballot entries, with 840,318 people applying for the 2025 race,” he said.
“It is also the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event with more than £1.3bn raised for charity since 1981.”
The number of people applying for the ballot to enter this year’s race broke the world record of 578,304 for the 2024 edition.
Of UK applicants 49% were female, while there was a 105% increase in applications from people aged between 20-29.
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa surged to victory in the elite women’s race in a world record for a women’s only field, while Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe triumphed in the men’s event.