Author: Chief Editor

Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo has said he is contemplating a return to international football with Nigeria after he quit last year. “I am still thinking about returning to the national team,” Ighalo told local sports radio Brila FM late Thursday. “But right now, I want to concentrate on my club career. “I left the national team because of the distance between Nigeria and China, but now that I am in Manchester, you never can tell.” The former Watford striker quit the Super Eagles after he emerged top scorer of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt with four…

Lionel Messi has sustained a “minor” thigh injury, but Barcelona remain confident he will be fit for the team’s first game back against Mallorca on June 13, the club said on Friday. Messi has not trained with the rest of the squad since Tuesday after working separately in the gym on both Wednesday and Friday, while on Thursday all the players were given the day off. Barcelona said Messi should return to training “in a few days’ time”, but his absence raises doubts over his fitness ahead of the trip to Mallorca. Like all La Liga teams, Barca will have…

The NBA’s board of governors approved a return-to-play plan on Thursday, paving the way for the league to resume in Florida following a three-month coronavirus shutdown. The NBA said a proposal put to the league’s board that will see 22 teams based at a single location had passed comfortably. “We are in the equivalent of the first inning. We’ve got a long ways to go here,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told American cable station TNT on Thursday night. “We have always been looking for a safe way to resume, knowing we are going to be living with this virus for…

Neymar, the world’s most expensive footballer, was approved to receive a $120 welfare payment meant for low-paid Brazilian workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic, in an apparent case of identity theft, a report said Thursday. The Paris Saint-Germain star’s name, date of birth and Brazilian ID number were used to register for the 600-real stimulus payment from the federal government, news site UOL reported. The emergency payments are meant to help Brazilians employed in the informal sector — such as cleaners or cooks — whose jobs and incomes have evaporated with stay-at-home measures to contain the virus. With a contract…

Pep Guardiola’s former boss Juanma Lillo left his post in the Chinese Super League on Friday with reports saying he could be Manchester City’s next assistant coach. Qingdao Huanghai said Lillo had departed as head coach because his mother was “seriously ill in Spain and needed urgent care”. But Marca in Spain said the 54-year-old was poised to fill the void left at Premier League club City, who have been without a number two to Guardiola since Mikel Arteta joined Arsenal in December. Lillo began his long coaching career in the 1980s and has gone on to manage more than…

Fola Ojo Monday, May 25, 2020. He walked into a Minneapolis grocery store to purchase a pack of cigarette. He brought out a $20 bill.  The store attendant adjudged the legal tender a counterfeit and called the police. Within minutes, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Keung, all white and Asian Minneapolis police officers, surrounded 46-year-old black man, George Floyd. They shoved him out of his van and bundled him into back of the police vehicle. A struggle ensued. Another white cop, Derek Chauvin, joined the band of brutes-in-blue. With the help of his colleagues, Chauvin dragged claustrophobic and…

History repeats itself because man in his usual frailty learns the stories but never the salient lessons. This weakness of man ensures that events are perpetually recycled when such needless rigmarole could have been nipped in the bud. In the build-up to the 2015 governorship election in Lagos State, the question on the lips of most Lagosians was, Ambode who? Akinwunmi Ambode had no political antecedent after leaving the state civil service. The then incumbent governor and current Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had his preferred candidate in the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Supo Shasore. At…

Portuguese professional footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, has emerged as the first soccer billionaire, The PUNCH reports. The 35-year-old Juventus star is the third athlete after Tiger Woods and Floyd Mayweather to hit the $1 billion earnings mark while still actively competing, according to Forbes. Forbes via its  Twitter handle said Ronaldo earned $105 million in the past year (2019), making him number 4 on the 2020 Forbes list. Ronaldo raked in £85million last year from his wages and endorsement deals, pushing him into becoming a billionaire. His capital for the past year was second only to tennis superstar, Roger Federer, in the athletic world…

• Lagos govt to reverse Land Use Charge, says, commissioner • ‘State disbursed N139m housing loan to civil servants in one year’ A panel of inquiry set up by the Lagos State House of Assembly to investigate the corruption allegations against the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, has said that those invited by the committee failed to honour the invitation yesterday. It, however, noted that those invited still have tomorrow, Friday and Saturday to show up and clarify certain issues. Those invited, according to a list obtained by journalists, include Babajide Kolade-Otitoju of Television Continental (TVC); Bayo Oluwasanmi of Sahara…

Southampton winger Moussa Djenepo has set his sights on emulating former St Mary’s favourite Sadio Mane. Djenepo joined the Saints from Standard Liege last summer for £14million and has two goals and two assists to his name in his first Premier League season. He is the latest in the long line of exciting wide players to appear for the South coast club, with Mane also on that list. The Senegal forward made his name in England at Southampton, before moving to Liverpool where he has established himself as one of the most potent attackers in Europe. And Djenepo believes he…