The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, on Friday announced the appointment of Manu Garba as head coach of the country’s U-17 side, Golden Eaglets.

Garba is making a return to the position having guided the Golden Eaglets to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2013.

The former Nigeria international will immediately resume the role and take charge of the team’s preparations for the WAFU B U-17 Championship, taking place in Ghana.

The competition will take place next month.

The WAFU tourney will serve as qualifier for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

The Golden Eaglets were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the last edition of the competition hosted by Algeria.

At least 11 Chelsea players were absent in training ahead of Monday’s Premier League clash against Everton.

According to Standard Sport, Axel Disasi and Enzo Fernandez have joined the injury list.

Raheem Sterling and Robert Sanchez are listed as ill.

Already unavailable are Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu all on the club’s injury report.

But there is a positive update for Chelsea with defender Ben Chilwell returning to partial training.

The Blues go into the game sitting in 9th place with 44 points.

Manchester United will be without Jonny Evans and Raphael Varane for this weekend’s clash with Bournemouth.

The Premier League club confirmed this in a statement on Thursday.

Varane will be out for “the next few weeks” after sustaining a muscle injury against Chelsea.

Evans also has a muscle issue, but it is said to be “shorter-term”.

United are already without six senior defenders. Tyrell Malacia, Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof are also injured.

With Evans and Varane joining them on the treatment table, Erik ten Hag faces a selection crisis.

Napoli have identified Lille striker, Jonathan David as the top target to replace departing Victor Osimhen.

Despite signing a contract extension with Napoli last December, Osimhen is set to leave the Italian side at the end of the season.

Paris Saint-Germain is leading the race to sign him as a replacement for Real Madrid-bound Kylian Mbappe.

Chelsea are also said to be interested in signing the Nigeria international as their marquee forward signing to take the club to the next level.

La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Jonathan David is the top preference for Napoli.

David has scored 23 goals and provided 7 assists in 39 games so far this season, mirroring his output from the 2022-2023 campaign.

Al-Nassr striker, Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off as his team lost 2-0 to Al-Hilal in a Saudi Super Cup clash on Monday night.

Ronaldo received his marching orders for elbowing Ali Al-Bulaihi.

Al-Nassr thought they had taken the lead when Otavio diverted into the net as the first half ended.

However, the goal was chalked off, because Ronaldo made an attempt to touch the ball from an offside position.

The decision left Ronaldo fuming and he argued with the referee about the decision.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner was given a yellow card for dissent, but he then lashed out at an Al-Hilal player and was shown a straight red card late in the game while his team were 2-0 down.

Ronaldo raised his fist at the referee after the card came out and sarcastically applauded the official as he walked off.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Monday announced that the Under-15 national football team, known as the Future Eagles, will not participate in the upcoming UEFA U16 Development Tournament starting in Spain on Friday over visa issues.

According to a statement released by the federation on its official X, formerly Twitter account, players and officials of the team were denied visas by the Spanish Embassy to take part in the tournament.

“Players and officials of the Nigeria U15 team, Future Eagles, have been denied visas by the Spanish Embassy and will, therefore, not be travelling to take part in the UEFA U16 Development Tournament starting on Friday,” the statement said.

The UEFA U16 Development Tournament was established by the European football governing body (UEFA) in 2012 with the aim of helping aspiring footballers across the globe participate in international football.

Each tournament consists of four national teams from both UEFA nations and non-UEFA national boys’ and girls’ national teams.

Fulham midfielder, Alex Iwobi has set a new record for the most minutes played by a Nigerian in the Premier League.

Iwobi surpassed the previous record held by former Chelsea midfielder, John Mikel Obi after playing 90 minutes in Fulham’s 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.

Iwobi has now played 16, 289 minutes in the English top-flight, surpassing Mikel’s 16, 218 minutes.

The 27-year-old previously had stints with Arsenal and Everton before moving to Craven Cottage.

The versatile midfielder has scored five goals in 25 league appearances for Fulham this season.

He joined Marco Silva’s side from Everton last summer.

Chelsea boss, Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that the set of players at his disposal are not mature enough to compete.

Following their midweek 4-3 victory over Manchester United, the Blues played out a 2-2 draw against relegation-bound Sheffield United on Sunday.

The Blues conceded the second equalizer in the 93rd minute at Bramall Lane.

“At 52, you identify really quickly whether the team is ready to compete or not,” he told reporters after the game.

“Maybe this group is not mature enough to compete in games every three days.

“It’s a new team and we are still learning about their profiles. The process always takes time”.

Manchester City’s transfer deal for Cavan Sullivan has been revealed.

According to football transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, Sullivan will join Manchester City for a fee close to $1million plus many add-ons.

He disclosed this in a tweet via his X handle on Saturday night.

“American wonderkid Cavan Sullivan to Manchester City, here we go!

“Deal agreed as revealed weeks ago and now all the documents being signed with Philadelphia Union. Fee close to $1m + many add-ons.

“2009 talent will join #MCFC in the next year,” Romano tweeted.

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has admitted he prefers to win the Premier League than the Champions League.

City could still repeat last season’s historic Treble, as they are fighting for the league, Champions League and the FA Cup.

Of all the competitions, Guardiola has been most successful in the Premier League, winning it in five of the last six years and the last three in a row.

But the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has said the league remains his overriding priority.

He told reporters: “Of the domestic trophies, it is the most important — Premier League or La Liga. I’m not going to say the Champions League is not nice, of course it is.“So now we have it and know how it feels in our soul and we are at peace, for the fact we’ve got it.

“[The Premier League] is just the nicest because it’s more difficult, there are more games, you know every week, two or three games.

“The Champions League, of course, is important, but it depends on something you perhaps can’t control. Both are incredibly important, but the Premier League proves a lot. It shows the mentality of the teams, being there all the time for many, many years.”

Chelsea staged a last-gasp comeback to beat Manchester United 4-3, with Cole Palmer bagging a hat-trick to turn a madcap Premier League match on its head.

This was after the Reds seemed to have staged their unlikely turnaround in a thriller on Thursday.

Chelsea’s top scorer Palmer struck twice deep into added time at Stamford Bridge to save the Blues, who were on the verge of a 3-2 home defeat.

United remain in sixth spot and still 11 points behind fourth-placed Villa, with a game in hand.

Timed at 100 minutes and 39 seconds, Palmer’s clincher was the latest winning goal on record in a Premier League game.

Chelsea had raced into a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes with a strike by captain Conor Gallagher and a Palmer penalty.

Alejandro Garnacho’s goal—after a Moises Caicedo error—and Bruno Fernandes’s before halftime and another by Garnacho in the 67th minute turned the tide towards United, who are chasing qualification for next season’s Champions League.

But with the Blues looking beaten, Diogo Dalot brought down Noni Madueke in the box, and after a nail-biting VAR check, Palmer stroked home from the spot for the second time on the night to level the match at 3-3 in the 10th minute of added time.

A minute later, he blasted a shot that deflected off United’s midfielder, Scott McTominay, into the net to claim his 16th league goal of the season and send the home fans into raptures.

The victory moved Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea up to 10th, five points behind United with a game in hand.

Despite their stop-start season, Chelsea is still hoping to snatch a Europa League spot.

Former Manchester United forward, Garth Crooks, has given a piece of advice to Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, over his penalty style.

Crooks, who was speaking on BBC, warned Palmer that he could land in trouble for disrespecting his opponents with his Panenka penalty style.

He went on to say that players know how to handle such audacious finishes.

“The way Palmer dispatched his penalty showed he has supreme confidence in his own ability,” Crooks said.

“But his dinked finish was bordering on ‘taking the Michael’ and players have a way of dealing with that. If he is not careful he may have his wings clipped.”

Palmer scored a brace, including a cheeky Panenka, against Burnley in their recent Premier League match at the weekend.

However, Chelsea drew 2-2 with the Clarets, despite Palmer’s excellent performance, after conceding twice to a 10-man side.

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland says his team can still win the English Premier League (EPL) title in spite of their goalless draw with title contenders Arsenal on Sunday.

The encounter which took place at the Etihad Stadium saw Manchester City and Arsenal handing Liverpool the advantage in the Premier League title race.

Liverpool are now at the top of the table, with two points clear of Arsenal and three ahead of City, after they came from behind to beat Brighton at Anfield.

It was a delight for Liverpool to see their two closest rivals cancelling each other out.

But Haaland took to his Instagram page after the game against Arsenal to confidently claim that City can come from behind to win the title, just like they did last season.

“We’ve done it once. We can do it again,” said Haaland.The Norway international is undoubtedly the best striker in the Premier League and perhaps the world.

He has scored 29 goals with six assists in 35 games, which is a phenomenal return.

However, against William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes on Sunday, Haaland struggled and had zero shots on target.

It was a poor performance that made Roy Keane compare him to a League Two striker.

The draw against Arsenal means Manchester City are still third in the Premier League table and are now three points behind league leaders Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have a better goal difference as well, which makes them the favourites to win the Premier League title this season.

Liverpool would have to pay a compensation package to Sporting CP to secure the services of manager Ruben Amorim, the UK Telegraph reports.

Amorim is looking like Jurgen Klopp’s successor ahead of next season.

And if the Reds decide he is the man to lead the team forward, they would have to activate a release clause in his contract.

Amorim can be allowed to leave Sporting for as little as €15 million (£13m/$16m) when a release clause becomes active in the summer.

That fee drops to €10m (£8.5m/$10.5m) the following season.

Xabi Alonso, who was deemed a big favourite for the Liverpool job, on Friday announced his decision to stay with Bayer Leverkusen.

Liverpool fans were treated to a rare spectacle as former striker Fernando Torres returned to the club to spend a day learning from manager Jurgen Klopp.

Torres, who currently manages Atletico Madrid’s Under-19s, had the opportunity to shadow Klopp and assistant manager Pep Lijnders during their training session ahead of the Brighton match on Sunday.

Speaking to the club’s X (formerly Twitter) page, the 40-year-old expressed his admiration for Klopp and his staff and praised Liverpool’s growing facilities.

Torres said: “I have had the opportunity to see how everything works from the inside, which is great.

“I’m a big fan of Jurgen and his staff and all around the AXA training facility, which is very different than when I was here.

“So obviously the club grows a lot, and I have the chance to see why.”

Four more players in the Chelsea first team have picked up injuries ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash against Burnley.

Earlier this week, the Blues confirmed that Romeo Lavia will miss the rest of the season with a thigh injury.

And on Thursday, the club announced that Carney Chukwuemeka, Robert Sanchez, Trevoh Chalobah and Ben Chilwell have all been added to their injury list.

Chalobah is currently taking part in light training, while both goalkeeper Sanchez and Chukwuemeka are “undergoing a rehabilitation programme”.

Chelsea manager, Mauricio Pochettino is already without Reece James, Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Lesley Ugochukwu and Christopher Nkunku.

Chelsea currently sit in 11th place with 39 points.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has shortlisted seven coaches for the vacant Super Eagles head coach position.

According to a report in SCORENigeria, current interim head coach of the team, Finidi George, is among the coaches shortlisted for the top position.Finidi was in charge of the Super Eagles for the recent friendlies against Ghana and Mali.

The NFF declared the position vacant earlier this month following the expiration of erstwhile handler of the team, Jose Peseiro’s contract.

Peseiro guided the Super Eagles to second position at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.

The NFF reportedly received applications from local and foreign coaches.

The football house is expected to name a substantive head coach for the Super Eagles next month.

Swedish club Ostersunds FK have announced the signing of Nigerian defender Onahi Abraham Ogbu.

Ogbu, who has been on trial at the club, signed a two-year contract with Östersunds FK.

The 21-year-old joined OFK from Nigerian club Tiki Taka FC International.

The young left-back, reflecting on his move to his new club, told the club’s website: “It will be incredibly fun to become part of ÖFK now. I come to a club where the team spirit is among the best I have experienced. I look forward to taking the club back to Allsvenskan and I’m prepared to put all the power I have into it.”

Sporting director Stefan Lundin, who was delighted to have the player at the club, said: “Ogbu has been in training with us for a few weeks and made a good impression both as a person and as a player. We are getting a full-back who is secure on the ball with a good passing game that will be interesting to follow going forward.”

The Super Eagles duo of Calvin Bassey and Frank Onyeka have left camp ahead of Tuesday’s international friendly against Mali.

Bassey missed the 2-1 win over Ghana on Friday, but Onyeka played in the game.

Both players have now flown back to their base in the UK, where they will continue their recovery as the business end of the season kicks in.

The rest of the Eagles squad have continued training for the next friendly.

All the remaining 22 players are available for selection.

Nigeria will take on Mali at the Grand Stade de Marrakech on Tuesday and interim head coach, Finidi George, is expected to shake up his starting XI.

Cameroon’s football federation (Fecafoot) has cleared Nathan Doualla to play in the country’s Elite League play-offs, without revealing how the international midfielder proved his identity following allegations of age cheating.

The 17-year-old, who was part of the Indomitable Lions squad at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations, was among 62 players suspended by Fecafoot for double identification.

It came amid accusations he had previously played in the Cameroonian league using the name Alexandre Bardelli, with his registration stating he was over the age of 21.

An investigation by French newspaper Le Monde, external unearthed the discrepancy before the Nations Cup.

While Doualla was still selected for the tournament in Ivory Coast, he was then suspended by Fecafoot until he could prove his identity.

But before the top-flight play-offs, which begin on Friday, the federation released a list of 14 players, from the suspended 62, eligible to take part, including Doualla and Victoria United team-mate Nji Richmond, without giving details of how they proved their identities.

However, former international Bernard Tchoutang, a Nations Cup winner with Cameroon in 2000, used social media, external to announce that “Victoria United provided proof to Fecafoot showing that Bardelli is the deceased brother of Doualla, and the public should back off and allow Doualla to focus on the play-offs”.

Victoria United also defended its players, using its now deactivated Facebook account to say “Fecafoot confirms two of our players Wilfried Nathan Doualla and Nji Richmond don’t have double identity. Both players are eligible to play the play-offs”.

Both Doualla and Richmond have been linked with moves to Turkish club Antalyaspor but the Super Lig side has refused to be drawn into the controversy.

Doualla’s surprise inclusion in Cameroon’s Nations Cup squad led to much speculation about the player’s age, especially when squad pictures were first published.

Tournament regulations state that if a fraud or a forgery has been committed, the national association concerned will be suspended from the next two editions of the continental showpiece.

The suspension is reduced to one edition for any administrative error in player registration.

BBC Sport Africa has contacted Fecafoot to explain the irregularity and how it arrived at a decision on the matter but is yet to receive a reply to any of its requests for information.

This is the latest scandal to hit Cameroon after 21 members of the Under-17 squad failed age tests in January last year.

Those tests were ordered by former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto’o, now the Fecafoot president.

Fourteen players were blocked from taking part in the Under-17 Nations Cup in Gabon in 2017 after they failed age tests, while 44 players faced hearings over identity fraud in 2022.

“It is sad to note that Fecafoot kept some grey spots in the whole story as they couldn’t tell us what justification documents were presented for a player with the same picture but two different player identities on Fifa’s Transfer Matching System (TMS),” said Philemon Mbale, a Cameroonian journalist who works for SportsNewsAfrica.

“The saga only goes to further dampen an already tarnished image of our football.

“We just move from bad to worse in the eyes of the international community. From poor results, to match fixing accusations, through the fact that the Indomitable Lions are without a new coaching staff after Rigobert Song.

“Cameroon’s men’s national team do not have any fixtures scheduled during the current international window and are yet to make an announcement on a new head coach after former Liverpool and West Ham defender Song was sacked last month.