04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

46 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
ONE CHANCE:
Sarri begs Chelsea
for one more
chance to
deliver title
MAURIZIO SARRI has
told Chelsea and his
critical fans he will deliver a
title challenging side if he is
given one pre-season to work
with them.
Sarri’s future at Stamford
Bridge is in doubt amid
growing unrest among
supporters who have turned
on their manager this season.
The 60-year-old has to
deliver Champions League
football next season or face
the axe - with the club looking
at Nuno Espirito Santo or
Frank Lampard as potential
replacements.
But the Italian insists he
CAN get the Chelsea squad
firing - if he is finally given
the chance to impose his
methods on them on the
training ground over one preseason.
Chelsea’s bungling last
summer in deciding the fate
of ex-boss Antonio Conte
meant their new manager
had just two weeks with his
players before the start of the
season.
He insists that was not long
enough to overhaul the
cautious tactics his stars were
used to playing under Conte.
And he is convinced he has
the players to be able to fight
for major honours.
Sarri said: “I need to work,
I think. And in the first
season, it was impossible to
work.
“I think that, at the
moment, we are not playing
very well our football. We
need to improve playing our
way of football. So we are
trying to do this, but it’s not
easy.
Juventus
forward
Cristiano Ronaldo has
hailed the man
management skills of his
former coach at Real
Madrid, Zinedine
Zidane.Under the
Frenchman, the Portugal
international won three
consecutive Champions
League trophies, before
departing to The Old Lady
last summer.”I think Zidane
knows how to handle the
team in an intelligent way,”
Ronaldo said in the
documentary called ‘Zidane,
Realement Madrid’ that
RMC Sport 1 will broadcast
on Wednesday.”it’s not an
easy situation because all
“It’s not easy, especially in
the first season because we
started to work only in the
middle of July.
“At the beginning of
August, we played the first
official match. Then we
worked for a couple of weeks
and then we started to play
every three days.
“So it’s not easy for me to
play my football.
“I think this squad can fight
for honours next season,
Pele, 78, admitted
to hospital
in Paris
BRAZILIAN legend Pele
was admitted to a
hospital in Paris last night
after he attended a
promotional event
with Kylian Mbappe.
According to RMC
Sport, the 78-year-old
was taken to hospital
with a strong fever
“as a precaution”,
but his condition
is not believed to
•Pele & Mbappe
be lifethreatening.
They state that he will continue to
be observed by doctors over the next
few hours.
Both Pele and Mbappe were
speaking in the French capital at an
event organised by Swiss watchmaker
Hublot.
Pele is widely regarded as one of the
best footballer’s of all time - helping
Brazil win three World Cups between
1958-1970. It’s not the first time the
Ronaldo: Zidane knows
how to handle Madrid in
an intelligent way
the players like to play a lot,
but he knows how to work
intelligently and he
manages to involve all the
team.”Sergio Ramos is
another player that praised
his current coach in the
documentary, highlighting
Zidane’s success over the
years.”Zidane’s career
speaks for itself, both what
he did as a player and what
he does as a coach,” he
noted.”He found a way to
transfer the talent he had as
a player to his role as coach
and manage a dressing
room.”He does a fantastic
and unique job, and the
results are not a
coincidence.”
Super Falcons in Spain for two games
A
delegation of the Super Falcons of Nigeria, including
24 players, have fully settled down in Spain as the
African champions continue their preparations for the 8th
FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in Spain this summer. A
number of the players left on Monday night while the rest
of the delegation departed Nigeria on Tuesday.
Having already taken in two matches at the China
Tournament in Meizhou in January and four matches at
the Cyprus Women’s Cup in February, the Falcons will play
two matches in Spain, including a high-profile clash with
the Canada Women National Team.
They first play a first division club, UMF Selfoss today
before the potentially –explosive encounter with the
Canadians on Monday, 8th April. The matches will hold
in the city of Murcia.
•Sarri
Santos
icon has
h a d
health
scares,
after he
w a s
•Hazard
because we have a lot of
young players who can
improve a lot in the future.
“Callum, Ruben,
Christensen... and so if they
are able to improve, we will
be able to improve as a team.
•Pele
placed in intensive care
in 2014 after picking a
urinary tract infection
following surgery to
remove kidney stones.
While he was also forced to withdraw from
the opening of the Rio Olympics in 2016 over
his health, as well as collapsing through
exhaustion in 2017 ahead of the Football
Writers’ Association dinner in London.
Speaking of Mbappe at the social function,
Pele - who netted over 1,000 goals in his
career - joked that the Paris Saint-Germain
winner is trying to emulate him.
He quipped: “I think he is envying me,
that’s why he is trying to emulate me.
“His style, the way he is playing, is Latino.
Even Brazilian I would say. It’s a shame he
did not play for Santos. But it’s not too late.”
While Mbappe said of Pele: “Even with the
goals in the playgrounds, goals on the
PlayStation, I could never equal 1,250 (sic)
goals.
“It’s really a long way off. I’ll try and get
as close as I can, but I think it’ll still be a
long way off by the end of my career.”
•Paul Bassey, receiving the Fair Play award at
the NFF Awards Night.
Messi leads
Golden Shoe race
with 64 points
Following his brace against Espanyol last
Saturday, Lionel Messi has reached 32
LaLiga Santander goals and tops the Golden
Shoe rankings with 64 points.The Argentine
has netted five
times more than
Paris Saint-
Germain’s
forward Kylian
Mbappe, who is
placed second in
the race for the
European topscorer
award.The
Frenchman and
the Barcelona
captain are
followed by
Sampdoria’s
striker Fabio
Quagliarella, who •Messi
has sent the ball
into the back of
the net 21 times in the Serie A this season.
Rohr: My Eagles’re Nigeria’s
most talented squad
Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr
has said that the present bunch
of players in the Super Eagles team
for the Africa Cup of Nations are
about the most talented to have
come out of Nigeria in the past few
years.
Since his appointment as coach,
Rohr has twice qualified the Super
Eagles of Nigeria for two major
tournaments with a game to spare
although many will argue that the
•Rohr
team should have done well at World Cup in Russia.
So far the Super Eagles have been beaten once by an
African team under coach Gernot Rohr and that was the
0-2 loss against South Africa in their first AFCON 2019
Qualifiers, a little over a year ago.
They presently boast of an unbeaten run since after the
World Cup with back to back wins against Libya and
Seychelles in the AFCON Qualifiers and a draw against
South Africa. They also defeated Egypt 1-0 in an
international friendly ahead of the Cup of Nations.
Speaking on the talent at his disposal, Rohr said they
are about the most talented to have come out of Nigeria
but adviced that they should continue to work hard for
club and country in order to fufill their potentials.
“We all know that Nigeria once had big stars like Kanu
Nwankwo and Austin Okocha. Since they retired, Nigeria
has not found a replacement. But I can assure you that we
have very talented players among the young people who
are currently playing, but there is still a lot to be done to
make the Eagles become stars. This team has quality, but
you have to work on it to become big stars”, Rohr said.
2019 AFCON: Amuneke dreams
Taifa Stars, Super Eagles clash
Former Super Eagles winger and now coach of
Tanzania’s Taifa Stars, Emmanuel Amuneke hinted
that his team would not be pushovers if they cross paths
with the Super Eagles at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations
billed for June in Egypt.
Amuneke spear-headed Tanzania’s qualification for the
AFCON tournament after a 39-year absence and now he
says the Taifa Stars will not be intimidated by the top
rated teams.
‘If Tanzania is paired along side alongside Nigeria, then
we would play Nigeria,” Amuneke told www.brila.net.
‘If Tanzania can qualify for the Nation’s Cup, that means
we are capable of playing any team in the continent of
Africa,’ he said.
Odemwingie retires from football
Former West Brom and Stoke striker Peter Odemwingie
announced his retirement from football at UEFA’s Equal
Game conference at Wembley yesterday.
The 37-year-old was capped for Nigeria more than 60
times, scoring at the 2014 World Cup, and scored 36 goals
in 129 Premier League appearances between 2010 and
2016.
Odemwingie was the subject of a peculiar story on
Deadline Day in January 2013.
Believing he was moving to QPR from West Brom, the
striker drove to Loftus Road, only to be refused entry to
the stadium after both clubs said that no fee had been
agreed.
On his retirement, Odemwingie said: “It’s an emotional
day, so many memories go through your head.
“I didn’t know how to do it or where to do it, but I think
this is the right place to do it.
“Wembley is a place with a lot of history in football.”
Odemwingie, whose last professional appearances came
for Indonesian side Madura United in 2017, said he
intends to embark on a coaching career.