Sports
Man Utd, Chelsea Chase Dortmund’s Star
Manchester United lead Chelsea in the chase for Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho.
The former Manchester City winger is a priority target for both Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but it is understood United is currently front of the queue for the 20-year-old.
However, with the transfer window currently up in the air due to the suspension of leagues because of Covid-19, there is potential for the situation to change and it is understood that no agreement has yet been reached with any club for the sale of Sancho.
Dortmund is reportedly already planning for life without the England star, who has remained tight-lipped about his long-term future. He was quizzed about a potential return to the Premier League earlier this month but refused to be drawn on a transfer back to England.
It is understood Dortmund want €130 million (£115m/$143m) for Sancho and their chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has warned that they will not be willing to accept a cut-price offer for the winger.
“I can clearly say that despite the existential crisis [for football] even the richest clubs don’t have to believe they can go bargain hunting at Dortmund,” Watzke told our source. “We must not sell anyone below value.
“Even before the coronavirus outbreak, we said that we prefer that Jadon stays with us. At the end of the day, however, you always have to respect what the player wants.”
Boyhood Chelsea fan Sancho, who is close friends with Tammy Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi, left Manchester City in 2017 for Germany and has been a success in the Bundesliga, but disciplinary issues at the start of the year led to speculation the attacker could be on his way.
United were interested when Jose Mourinho was in charge back in 2017 but Sancho decided to make the move to Germany instead. City have the right to match any bid accepted by Dortmund for the winger but there is no clause in his contract that would stop him from joining United.
Both Chelsea and United are keen to strengthen their attacking line whenever the transfer window opens again.
Sports
Bundesliga: Kane Scores Hat-Trick As Bayern End Winless Streak
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Sports
Dosu Survives Ghastly Accident, Again
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Sports
Sports Development Going Down In Nigeria – Ex-International
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor