Sports Briefs
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TAMMY Danagogo, Nigerian sports minister, is confident that Stephen Keshi will sign a new contract to continue to coach Super Eagles. Danagogo disclosed that Keshi and the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, officials had also agreed that the coach would for now take charge of the team in its upcoming two matches.
Keshi’s two-and-a-half-year contract expired after the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
But talks of renewal have become very necessary and urgent in view of the team’s qualification campaign for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, in Morocco, which ends on November 19.
The team is grouped alongside South Africa, Congo and Sudan in Group A of the qualifiers and will take on Congo on September 6 in Calabar and visit South Africa on September 10.
However, wrangling among board members of the NFF had kept the matter unresolved until the minister stepped in.
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Falconets Lost to Tactical Indiscipline
PETER Dedevbo, head coach of the Nigeria female team, has blamed the team’s loss to Germany in the final of the recently concluded Under-20 World to tactical discipline.
Dedevbo told Fifa.com that the team would have won the trophy in Canada if the players were more clinical in front of gaol. “I’ve not spoken to the girls yet, but I will tell them to take this defeat hard and learn from it because we lost this game due to tactical indiscipline,” he said
Dedevbo praised his wards for making it to the final of the tournament in the face of other good teams in the championship, but bemoaned their poor finishing that would have made them champions.
“There are lots of good teams in this tournament who crashed out earlier than us, whereas Nigeria – not generally seen as the best – made it all the way to the final,” he said.
The coach insisted the girls would be better off in the future because they would have learnt from the experience of losing to the Germans.
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Di Maria Joins Manchester United in Record Fee Deal
ANGEL Di Maria, Real Madrid football club winger, has joined Manchester United football club in a record British record transfer fee of £59.7 million. The Argentine international had a medical test in Manchester on Tuesday morning. The deal brought Man U’s summer spending to £132 million.
If all goes well, Di Maria, 26, could make his debut away to Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday, August 30. The fee paid for the Argentine eclipsed the £50m Chelsea paid to Liverpool for Fernando Torres, striker, in 2011.
Man United last broke the British transfer record when it paid Leeds £29.1m for Rio Ferdinand in 2002.
The Old Trafford club has already bought Luke Shaw, a left-back, Ander Herrera, midfielder, and Di Maria’s Argentine team-mate, Marcos Rojo, for a combined £72m this summer.
Di Maria joined Real Madrid from Benfica for £36m in 2010, and won La Liga in 2012 and the Champions League last season.
Ramon Calderon, former Real Madrid president, said he did not like the idea of Di Maria leaving, adding: “Normally a club who owns the very good players don’t like to sell them.”
— Sep. 8, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
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