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Osimhen eyes African Footballer of the Year award

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Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen, has revealed that his utmost dream is to one day win the African Footballer of The Year Award, reports.

The last Nigerian, to win the award was Nwankwo Kanu in 1999 when he edged Ghana’s Samuel Kuffour and Ivory Coast’s Ibrahima Bakayoko to the gong.

Osimhen’s remarkable form this season for Napoli who are closing in on the Serie A title for the first time in 33 years has put him in good contention for the award which no Nigerian player has won in the last 21 years.

The 24-year-old Nigeria international is the highest-scoring African player in Europe’s top five leagues with 21 goals and he is third overall behind Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Harry Kane of Tottenham who have scored more goals than the former Lille striker. The pair has so far scored 30 and 23 goals respectively.

“I am not going to lie, it would be my dream to be African Footballer of the Year,” Osimhen was quoted by Daily Mail.

“I was at the ceremony in 2015 when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang won the award. As an African, you dream of this prize and maybe I can win.

“I think I still have a long way to go in achieving that dream. I am really working towards that direction and I think I’m on the right path. But as a man, it won’t be easy but I think having my own family (here) has a dream come true.

“I have a long way to go, so, football is the only thing on my mind and I want to keep focusing, and of course, a lot is expected of me so I’m here to deliver.”

Osimhen, who joined Napoli for an African record fee of €81m will however face stiff competition for the award from Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mane as well as Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez.

Meanwhile, The Guardia di Finanza, on behalf of the Naples Public Prosecutor’s Office, have gathered some important documents as they continue investigating Napoli’s deal for Osimhen.

La Repubblica details how the Partenopei agreed to a €71.2m deal for the Nigerian striker with Lille back in September 2020, but around €20.1m of that was made up of four players sent in exchange. The suspicion is that these four players were widely overvalued in order to inflate capital gains.

The Guardia di Finanza – Italy’s financial police – visited Turris, a Serie C team, and gathered the documents relating to the purchase and subsequent sale of Claudio Manzi, one of the four players involved in the Osimhen deal alongside Luigi Liguori, Ciro Palmieri and Orestis Karnezis.

Manzi was sent to Lille in September 2020 for €4m, but in reality, he never went to France, instead signing a loan deal with Fermana immediately.

Less than 12 months later, the Ligue 1 outfit released him on a free transfer and he joined Turris, who then sold him to Virtus Entella for around €120,000 18 months later.

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UEFA 2024 Rankings: Man City, Bayern, Real Madrid lead as Chelsea drops

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Premier League champions, Manchester City, currently tops UEFA’s coefficient rankings.

In the latest ranking released by UEFA through their website, Man City is ahead of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, who are in the top three positions.

Chelsea dropped one place when compared to the previous ranking, but still made the top 10 alongside Premier League rivals Liverpool.

Manchester United are outside of the top 10.

Below are the top 20 teams revealed by UEFA:

1.Man City
2.Bayern Munich
3.Real Madrid
4.Paris Saint-Germain
5.Liverpool
6.Inter Milan
7. AS Roma
8.Leipzig
9.Chelsea
10.Dortmund
11.Man United
12.Barcelona
13.Atletico Madrid
14.Bayer Leverkusen
15.Sevilla
16.Villarreal
17.Napoli
18.uventus
19.Benfica
20.Porto

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Vinicius’s double earns Real Madrid 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich

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Vinicius Junior scored twice as record winners Real Madrid came away from Bayern Munich with a 2-2 draw in their Champions League semi-final first leg on Tuesday.

The stalemate sets up a mouthwatering second leg in Spain next Wednesday.

Brazil’s Vinicius grabbed the leveller from the spot on 83 minutes after Harry Kane netted a penalty for Bayern on 57 minutes. Vinicius and Leroy Sané had earlier both scored against the run of play either side of the break.

Ex-Bayern coach Carlo Ancelotti, sacked in 2017 after 15 months in Germany, is eyeing a fifth Champions League title as a coach and the Real boss will be the happier.

Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel, who leaves at the end of the season after the Bavarians missed out on the Bundesliga title for the first time in 12 years, has never lost a semi-final.

Now he faces a stern test at the Bernabeu next week if he wants to emulate his title success with Chelsea in 2021.

“We made a great start…we should have gone ahead,” Tuchel told Amazon Prime. “You make it 2-1 and then you have chances to score more. But if we win in Madrid we go to Wembley.”

Tuchel was buoyed before kick-off with creative fulcrums Jamal Musiala and Sané passed fit to play and it was Germany winger Sané who had two decent early chances while Musiala also fired over.

LaLiga leaders Madrid had forward Lucas Vazquez as an emergency right back, with Dani Carvajal suspended, while midfielder Toni Kroos faced his former club as Luka Modric began on the bench.

Who else but Kroos popped up out of the blue midway through the first half to play the perfect pass for Vinicius to score.

“There were phases in the game for both teams. The goals sort of fell when the other team was on top,” Kroos said.

Bayern’s Tuchel, widely expected to be replaced by Austria coach Ralf Rangnick from July, reacted by replacing Leon Goretzka with Raphael Guerreiro in midfield at half-time.

But Madrid not Bayern began the second half stronger, Jude Bellingham laying the ball off for Kroos to test the palms of Manuel Neuer.

With the home crowd slightly subdued, Sané cut in from the right and fired inside the near post. It was his first goal since October.

Club top scorers Kane of Bayern and Bellingham of Madrid – both England stars who hope to shine in Germany in June and July’s Euros – went head-to-head and it was Kane who threatened most.

He went close with a free-kick but saw his moment when Musiala danced into the area and Vazquez felled him with a forward’s tackle.

Kane’s superb penalty record since missing in the World Cup quarter-final continued as he struck home soon after Sané’s goal.

Chances at both ends flowed from there on before Bayern defender Kim Min Jae, playing because Matthijs de Ligt was injured, brought down Rodrygo in the box and his fellow Brazilian Vinicius did the honours.

This pairing is the most played duel in the history of the European Cup and Champions League, with 27 meetings now having taken place.

The two teams met in the semi-final in 2012, which Bayern edged on penalties, but the Spaniards triumphed in their most recent last-four clashes in 2014 and 2018.

In Wednesday’s second semi-final, 1997 winners Borussia Dortmund host Paris-Saint Germain, beaten by Bayern in the 2020 final when ex-Dortmund coach Tuchel bossed the Parisians.

Dortmund are in their first semi since 2013, a season which ended with them losing to Bayern in an all-German final at Wembley. A repeat could occur this term, but Tuchel’s men must excel in Madrid.

“It is half-time, it was a very up and own game. it was pretty decent from us today and we’ll see about next week,” Bayern midfielder Konrad Laimer said.

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EPL: David Raya reacts to mistake in Arsenal’s 3-2 win over Spurs

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Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya has said that he is open to learning new things through his own mistakes.

Some of such mistakes were prevalent during Arsenal’s 3-2 win against Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday.

Arsenal were 3-0 up in the first half through Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s own-goal and strikes from Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz.

However, Tottenham came back from the break stronger and were handed a way back in the 64th minute when Raya’s attempted lob ended up at the feet of Cristian Romero at the edge of the box.

The Argentine finished off the chance to make it 3-1.Son Heung-min then scored from the penalty spot with three minutes to go in regulation following a foul by Declan Rice on Ben Davies.

However, Mikel Arteta’s side somehow fended their north London rivals off for the remainder of the contest.

Raya told Sky Sports,
“I’ve learnt from making mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t learn. It’s a part of football, everybody makes mistakes.

“But the thing [is] when a keeper makes a mistake, it’s a goal, it’s more seen, more talked [about], compared to a striker missing a tap-in or whatever.

“But it’s just part of football and you learn from that. That’s the most important thing – you learn from the mistakes.”

 

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