Sports
Fans Kick Against Ebi’s Inclusion In Falcons Friendly
Some sections of fans have raised eyebrows over the inclusion of Onome Ebi in the Super Falcons squad for next month’s Revelation Cup tournament in Leon, Mexico City, insisting she is too old and inactive to play for the nine-time African champions, Tidesports source reports.
Last Thursday, head coach of the Falcons, Randy Waldrum, called up 23 players for the friendly tournament.
Top on the list of the players invited are captain Ebi, Barcelona forward Asisat Oshoala, goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie and Leicester City’s Ashleigh Plumptre, with Desire Oparanozie, who was unceremoniously kicked out as captain of the women’s national team after leading a bonus protest against officials at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, once again omitted from the squad.
The tournament, which serves as preparation for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer, has hosts Mexico, Nigeria, Costa Rica and Colombia in attendance.
Some fans expressed concerns as they questioned the addition of Ebi, who turns 40 before the World Cup.
So far this season, the defender has made just one appearance for her Spanish club Levante Las Planas, playing a total of seven minutes.
Her low turnout for Levante and her age has been a source of concern to fans, who queried her inclusion in the squad.
Reacting to the Nigeria Football Federation’s tweet on the invited players, a Twitter user Alex Ibeneme wrote, “Please we need good and young defenders and with all due respect Ebi should retire. What happened to Onyinyechi Zogg? She needs to be invited back to the national team, I’ve been following her and she is doing well.”
Moolah79 added, “What is Ebi doing on this list? She’s played just one match since AWCON and doesn’t even make it to the bench of her club plus she has just been kicked out by the club Levante Las Palmas. Waldrum doesn’t mean well for Nigeria.”
Vitalis Iwuchukwu, however, urged the central defender to retire and give way for younger players.
“Onome Ebi doesn’t retire? 39 years and counting. This is not fair to younger players. Even her club terminated her contract on a mutual basis. Waldrum can do better with the selections.”
“This coach is sinking Super Falcons. Onome Ebi at what age? What is going on in this country is unbelievable,” Asiru ABBAS wrote.
“Nigeria will be disgraced at the world cup. It’s never late to get a new coach. Look at the losses against South Africa, Zambia, Morocco, USA. How many of such are coming?”
Belinda Monday added, “It really baffles me that we still have Ebi on this list and some younger players overlooked. I don’t see us doing well at the World Cup if these are the players we want to parade.”
David Oku also tweeted, “Waldrum’s decision to drop Oparanozie, Efih and Monday Gift is ridiculous. Those players are in good form scoring goals. Waldrum needs to up his game & improve his scouting Cos at the moment it’s not the top stuff we’re so used to with the Super Falcons & it’s 6 Months to #FIFAWWC.”
At the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco last July, Waldrum’s team had a mix of the old guard and new blood, with Ebi (39), Tochukwu Oluehi (35), Rita Chikwelu (34), Osinachi Ohale (30) and Ordega (29) the veterans in the team.
The nine-time African champions, however, struggled against young South African, Moroccan and Zambian sides losing all three games against them, with many blaming the old players for the team’s underwhelming performance in Morocco.
Ebi was one of the players blamed for Falcons’ poor outing as the defender struggled against younger players and was easily outpaced.
Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy has said that criticism that he and other players chased money by moving to Saudi Arabia is wide of the mark.
The 33-year-old left Chelsea for Al-Ahli in a £16m ($21.4m) deal in 2023, and in May the Africa Cup of Nations winner helped his Saudi club win the Asian Champions League, making him one of the few players to win both that competition and its European equivalent.
But, like many others, Mendy has been criticised for playing for money rather than prestige in the lucrative Saudi Pro League.
When asked about such criticism, Mendy told a Tidesports source, “Al-Ahli’s project came along and they made me feel I had a big role to play.
“Two years later, we won the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. So yes, that validates my choice. And I hope the coming years will validate it even more.”
He added: “Some people will quickly jump to conclusions and say the only reason is money. From the start, I always said that when I left Chelsea, I knew I was joining another team where I could win everything , which was no longer the case at Chelsea.”
The Blues have since won the Conference League, Europe’s third-tier club competition, under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
But it comes after the regime’s trophyless first two years, a period which has frustrated some supporters after the success enjoyed under Roman Abramovich’s stewardship in the previous 19 years.
Mendy has also been celebrating what he describes as a historical win with Senegal against England at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, but days earlier he had been in Dakar delivering a different kind of win.
He is the sponsor of Yakaar, a school in Keur Massar, which seeks to improve funding and access to digital learning tools for local children from underprivileged backgrounds.
Famously, as Mendy grew up in France, he was unemployed, aged 22, while struggling to find a club, with members of his family still living on the outskirts of Dakar.
That is why Yakaar, a word meaning “hope”, was chosen, a word Mendy has carried with him in his career.
“Hope is what kept me going. When I was without a club, it was the hope of getting that first professional contract.
“Then the hope of playing for the national team. The hope of making my family proud by doing the job I had always dreamed of.
“Indeed, hope is the best word to describe my career.”
Mendy was also asked whether the responsibility of being an African goalkeeper had weighed heavily on him.
“Of course. When I was in England, there weren’t many African goalkeepers in top clubs,” he admitted.
“Whether nationally or internationally, I had that responsibility. It’s the same for other African goalkeepers like Andre Onana [Manchester United] or Yassine Bounou (Al-Hilal).”
The entire refereeing committee has been fired by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), with structural reforms soon set to follow.
According to sources, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has dismissed the entire refereeing committee in response to mounting pressure from clubs demanding structural reform. A major shake-up aimed at modernising Spanish refereeing from top to bottom has now been set in motion.
Head of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), Luis Medina Cantalejo and Head of VAR, Carlos Clos Gomez, have been removed from their positions. They are joined by several senior officials, including Antonio Rubinos Perez and three vice presidents, who are also stepping down. A new leadership model will be introduced, led by a CEO and a sporting director, aiming to overhaul how refereeing is managed covering assessments, promotions, and daily operations. While the leadership changes are sweeping, the current pool of referees in La Liga and the second tier will remain, ensuring continuity on the field during the transition.
Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new two-year contract with Al-Nassr that means he will stay with the Saudi Pro League club until beyond his 42nd birthday.
The Portugal captain, 40, joined the Riyadh-based team in December 2022 after leaving Manchester United in acrimonious circumstances, having criticised the club and said he had no respect for manager Erik ten Hag.
Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr deal had been due to expire at the end of June and there was speculation he could leave, but that has now been quashed.
In a post on X, Ronaldo wrote: “A new chapter begins. Same passion, same dream. Let’s make history together.”
Although Al-Nassr have not added to their nine domestic titles during Ronaldo’s time at the club, they have benefited from a flood of goals from the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
Ronaldo scored 35 times in 41 matches across all competitions last term and was the league’s top scorer for a second consecutive season.
He has managed 99 goals in appearances overall for Al-Nassr and is well on his way to reaching 1,000 senior goals in his career, with a current tally of 938 for club and country.
Having helped Portugal win the Uefa Nations League a little over two weeks ago, the former Manchester United, Real Madrid, Sporting and Juventus forward will almost certainly now be targeting a sixth World Cup appearance next summer.
Only a month ago, Ronaldo posted on social media to say “the chapter is over”.
That came after the Saudi Pro League wrapped up with Al-Nassr finishing third and trophyless once again.
The comment fuelled rumours that Ronaldo was ready to leave the league where he reportedly became the best-paid player in football history with an annual salary of £177m when he joined.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino raised the prospect of Ronaldo joining a team involved in the Club World Cup after Al-Nassr failed to qualify for the extended tournament which is being held in the United States.
Ronaldo said he had received offers from participating teams but had turned them down.
The decision to stay until at least 2027, which is certain to be highly lucrative, appears to rule out any future prospect of Ronaldo returning to play at the highest level in Europe.