21032019 - PDP, Atiku in post-election trauma, depression — APC

Don’t bench Balogun,
Brighton boss tells Rohr
Brighton & Hove coach Chris Hughton has sent a message to Super Eagles
coach Gernot Rohr, urging him to play defender Leon Balogun in Friday’s
Africa Cup of Nations group E qualifier against Seychelles and the
international friendly against Egypt in Asaba, Delta State.
Balogun who is coming back from a shoulder injury and according to Hughton
he needs those games to regain his match fitness.
‘’The good thing, particularly with the cup run, is the players that haven’t featured
so much have at least had games,’’ Hughton said to Brighton’s official website.
“Leon Balogun, for example, is going away on international duty with Nigeria
and we’re hoping he plays both matches.”
Balogun has gone the distance in seven of the last eight Super Eagles international
matches; the central defender was not in the team that played out a goalless draw
with Uganda.
Seychelles players who can
cause Eagles problems
s the Pirates of Seychelles prepare
Ato face off against Nigeria in the
inconsequential AFCON 2019 qualifier at
the Stephen Keshi Stadium tomorrow, it
is important to learn a thing or two about
the opposition.
Though the Gavin Jeanne-led side put
up little in terms of creativity or trying to
stop the Super Eagles when they clashed
at the Stade Linité in Mahè, the players
picked to execute this dead-rubber fixture
should not expect a walk in the park lest
they might stand to see their bubble
busted by their less illustrious opponents.
After their 3-0 loss to Nigeria in the first
tie of this
game, the
E a s t
African
nation
who might
be eyeing
a revenge
mission
will rely
on these
players if
they can
FIFA WWC: Why I called homebased
players—Falcons coach
S
uper Falcons coach,
Thomas Dennerby said
he was keen to selecting a
formidable team for the 2019
FIFA Women World hence the
pull it off or even get any result to
massage their ego..
Leroy Coralie: The striker who plays
with Seychelles Second Division club,
Red Star FC is skilled enough to put in
good assists or even a goal should the
backline go to bed at any moment of
the game.
His goal against Comoros after
coming off the bench in a COSAFA
Cup game to earn his team a draw
last year as well as their solitary
goal in a loss to Libya in an
AFCON qualifier are all
testament to his quality.
Benoit Marie: Central
defender.
Marie plies his
trade with
hometown club,
Cote D’or FC and
showed off his defensive
potentials at the utmost
when Seychelles
earned themselves
an impressive draw
against South
Africa last year.
decision to call up homebased
players for two weeks
camping in Abuja.
“First of all, it’s important to
secure the daily training of the
players that will go to Spain,”
Dennerby told Goal.
“It is also an opportunity to
see if any of the domestic
players are at the same level,
or even better than those
already on the team.
“We also need to have some
of them in the long
provisional list which will be
submitted to Fifa in April. All
the players on the list have a
chance to be in the final
squad.
“Now that we are going to
Spain, we will need some
players that we’ve seen a lot
of times and bring in some
others that we’ve not had the
opportunity to see yet.
“We are trying to really
have a good bank of players
that will be useful to the
team.”
•AFOLABI
•Balogun
•Messi
Bash Ali vows to prove critics wrong
A fter
postponements several
and a
fractious romance with the
Ministry of Sports, former
IBF cruiserweight champion,
Bash Ali has stated that the
coast was now clear for the
imminent staging of his
Guinness Book of World
Record fight in Nigeria.
He restated his
determination and readiness
to win a world title and put
his name and that of his
fatherland in the Guinness
•VISIT: L-R: Apostle Dr. Oluwafemi Iroh, General Overseer,
Christ Unity Ministry, Editor, Vanguard Media, Mr. Eze Anaba
and former IBF Cruiserweight champion Bash Ali during the
boxer's visit to Vanguard Head Office in Lagos, yesterday.
Photo: Kehinde Shonola.
Book of World Record.
Speaking during a visit to
Vanguard Newspapers
yesterday, Ali said, “I will
shock the world. I am still in
top shape. Win or lose, my
name will still go down in
history as the oldest boxer to
have climbed into the ring
and fought for a world title.
It will also be another record
as one who has stayed away
from active boxing for over
twelve years to stage a come
back and win a world title,”
Bash told a team of Vanguard
Sports editors.
He said he has been given
a “clean bill of health,” by his
medical team and he is
physically and mentally fit for
the bout, which has been
tentatively fixed for the last
Saturday of June, 2019.
“I am an extraordinary
human being. After 12 years
of preparation, a 63-year old
man to fight a younger
opponent of say 21or 22 years
old. I know the odds are
against me but if one bets
N1m that Bash Ali would win
and I go ahead to win, one
will win ten times that
amount.”
He recalled his romance
with successive Nigerian
governments since President
Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime
and said all was going on
well until the present Sports
Minister, Barrister Solomon
Dalung came on the scene.
“Why has the Minister
refused to call a meeting of
the Local Organising
Committee? Everything is in
place and the federal
government has put
everything in place for the
fight to hold but the minister
has been the clog in the wheel
of progress,” Ali said
Vanguard, THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2019—47
Rohr warns S/Africa not to play for a
draw against Libya
•Baxter
oach Gernot Rohr has
Cadvised the South
African National Team not to
play for a draw in their crucial
Africa Cup of Nations
qualifier against Libya on
Sunday.
Heading into the last round
of matches in Group E of the
qualifiers, Bafana Bafana sit
second on the table with nine
points and a draw against the
North Africans would be
enough to see them through
to the AFCON.
A SCIENTIST has
revealed it is possible
to CLONE Lionel
Messi using existing
technology and
techniques.
A clone of the Barcelona
superstar would arrive as
a baby with the same
potential as one of the
greatest players ever.
Genetics expert Arcadi
Navarro, head of the
European Genome-
Phenome Archive (EGA)
made the claim during an
interview on Spanish
radio station Cadena SER.
Navarro said: “Yes,
Messi could be cloned
with current techniques.
“We would achieve a
being very similar to
Messi, the result would
look like Messi’s twin, as
if two twins had been
born and we had frozen
one of them for 20 or 30
years.”
However, it is no
guarantee that Mini-
Messi would end up being as
good as the real version -
because of environmental
and educational impacts as
well as experience.
Ahead of 2020 Olympics:
11Nigerian athletes get IOC
scholarships
S
uccour has come the way
of 11 Nigerian athletes
ahead of the 2020 Olympic
Games in Tokyo after they
were captured in the latest
International Olympic
Afolabi hits brace as Ireland take big
step towards qualification for the Euros
HE REPUBLIC OF Ireland have made a very
Tencouraging start to the elite stage of the qualifiers
for this summer’s U19 European Championship.
With Southampton duo Jonathan Afolabi and Will
Smallbone each scoring a brace, Tom Mohan’s side ran
out 5-0 winners over Romania yesterday in Krasnodar.
It was the first of three games that Ireland will play
over the course of seven days in the Russian city.
Azerbaijan and Russia are also in the mix, with the
winners of the four-team group advancing to the
tournament in Armenia in July.
Afolabi and Smallbone both scored inside the opening
11 minutes to put Ireland in the driver’s seat. Smallbone
helped himself to another with eight minutes played in
the second half, and Claudiu Petrila scored an own goal
moments later to leave Romania trailing 4-0.
Afolabi grabbed another for Ireland on 64 minutes,
before St Patrick’s Athletic’s Brian Maher prevented
Romania from scoring a consolation goal by keeping
out Genk midfielder Vladimir Screciu’s effort from the
penalty spot.
The result is particularly impressive in the context of
the calibre of Ireland’s absentees. Defender Lee
O’Connor (Manchester United), midfielder Conor
Coventry (West Ham United) and forward pair Troy
Parrott (Tottenham Hotspur) and Adam Idah (Norwich
City) are all missing from the travelling party in Russia
after being promoted to the U21 squad, although Parrott
has been ruled out of the set-up through injury.
‘’If they say they will go
there and play for a point,
that’s very risky. And I don’t
think Baxter will do so,’’ Rohr
said.
‘’He will want to try and win
the game like we did. He will
attack. I don’t think Libya will
go all out either just because
they need to win.
‘’They will definitely play
aggressive, but not risk
everything. They, too, have
clever players. It will be an
interesting game tactically.
‘’Maybe Baxter will set his
team up for counters, like
they did against Nigeria in
Nigeria when they beat us 2-
0.
‘’Because every time South
Africa need to dominate a
game, they are struggling, as
we have seen against
Seychelles, for example.’’
Nigeria beat Libya home
and away in the 2019 AFCON
qualifiers, with former
Watford striker Odion Ighalo
accounting for five of the
seven goals scored by the
Super Eagles.
Scientist claims he can
clone Messi
The real Messi joined
Barcelona as a tiny 13-yearold
from Argentina’s Newell’s
Old Boys.
He’d had growth hormone
deficiency and needed to
have treatment for four years
from the ages of 10 to 14.
He then spent years at
Barcelona’s famed La Masia
academy honing his skills,
before playing alongside the
likes of Ronaldinho, Thierry
Henry, Xavi and Andres
Iniesta to become one of the
best players in the world.
Navarro says that all those
factors make Messi the
player he is today - something
that might not be replicated
in a Messi clone.
The scientist added: “This
person could have the same
potential as Messi, his
qualities have a genetic
component and another more
educational, environmental.
“Messi isn’t who he is only
because of his genes, but
because of everything he has
lived through, his education,
his stay in La Masia, the
treatment he received.
“Genetics give us potential,
then to fulfil it, it’s our own
work.”
Committee scholarship
scheme.
The list is headlined by fastrising
100 metres hurdler and
reigning Commonwealth
Gold
medallist,
Oluwatobiloba Ayomide
Amusan and Portugal-based
table tennis star, Aruna
Quadri.
The deal brokered by the
Nigeria Olympic Committee
also include Commonwealth
games Wrestling champion in
the 53kg category, Odunayo
Adekuoroye, Blessing
Oborodudu (Wrestling) and
Nathaniel Glory Onome
(Athletics), Nathaniel
Samson (Athletics).
Others are:Adeniyi Aminat
(Wrestling), Adesanmi
Oluwatoyin (Weightlifting),
Italy-based table tennis
talent, Omotayo Olajide and
Taekwondo duo of Adamu
Abubakar and Otuadinma
Uzoamaka.
•TOBI