SPORTS : NEW Sports Minister Sunday Dare declares his priority and Agender

Since he was announced as the new minister the elements have gone to work, churning the fortunes of Nigerian sports to come up with something new, the hope of a better future sprouting, a muted celebration of the departure of the boy’s scout and the arrival of a journalist to the seat of sports.

The first good news is that the new one is different – young, great resume, impressive antecedents and a positive aura!

Although none of the successes at the ongoing All African Games in Morocco, his very first assignment, can be attributed to him, stakeholders have chosen to see them to nature’s way of indicating a new wind blowing in the land of Nigerian sport.

True, once again we were not given one of our own, a tested sports person with the qualifications, experience and vision that will make Nigeria achieve its true potentials in sport, but what is presented us already shows glimpses of new, exciting and interesting possibilities.

So, enter Mr. Sunday Dare, the new minister.

His first words as minister are a revelation of his person.

I am told that as he drove into the premises of his new Ministry in Abuja for the very first time, he immediately observed a discrepancy in the signposted name of the ministry. The letter he had received from the Presidency had clearly stated the role of the fundamental roles of the ministry.

“Where is the ‘Development’ at the end of ‘Ministry of Youth and Sports on the sign-post”.

It was a question that reflected the depth of the man and the attention he pays to details.

The proper name is Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.

Omitting the word ‘Development’ speaks volumes about the shallowness of the past. Noticing and re-inserting now reveals the depth and understanding of the present. That is the critical word in the ministry’s role in sports in the country.

My own immediate response is to give Mr. Dare a resounding pass mark and pledge my humble support to further his appreciation of developing sports in the country.

Of course, Sunday Dare, is not new to those of us who have been in the media for the past two decades. He was a part of the activist media that fought an unpopular autocratic government in Nigeria at a time to a standstill through their guerilla journalism tactics in the emergence of The News, Tempo and PM News.


That he was born and grew up in Jos is also a confirmation of his national outlook. Those of us Southerners that grew up in cosmopolitan Jos in those days did not imbibe any iota of ethnic, religious, or tribal bias.

On Yandoka Street in Jos, we (the Odegbamis, Yoruba, Muslim mother, and Christian father) lived in the same house with the landlord, a Muslim Hausa man with his family of many children and 3 wives in purdah, and a third family, Igbo (the Otakpors from Onitsha Ugbo who were Catholics). We shared separate apartments (room and parlour) that all exited into a common compound. The product was that I ended up speaking Hausa and Igbo languages along with my native Yoruba and never thought of the cultural differences between us. Till this day, the remnants of the three families have remained family friends and are still in touch for over 4 decades. That was the kind of place that produced Sunday Dare.

These days it would be unthinkable, almost sacrilegious, to imagine such a set-up in the same town that has now become the theatre of senseless, endless political and ethno-religious, cultural and political conflagrations.

So, without ever even meeting him, I took it for granted what stock Sunday dare came from, a breed of Nigerian unpolluted by ethnicity or religion, or language. I was not surprised, therefore, when I learnt that he, a Yoruba man, worked (and headed?) in the Hausa Service of the Voice of America during his sojourn in the United States of America after a first-class education.

I may not be former governor, Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s best friend, but one thing everyone gives him credit for is his ability to identify gifted people in the business of government. The list of his choice of close aides is a revelation of quality. Most have them have left indelible marks, needless to go through that long list. That the new minister worked with him and handled his delicate media relations also tells a story about the nature of the man, one who likes to work quietly behind the scene without drawing too much attention to self and taking credit even for what he did so well. He is of the same ‘school’ of professional ethics as Kunle Ajibade, Seye Kehinde, Onome Whiskey, Babafemi Ojudu (before he went into politics) and so on, consummate professionals driven by an uncommon commitment to service, ethics and good conduct.

So, a supreme journalist in sports surely presents something new and something different. So, we must all join hands and support him.

That is, therefore, my attitude to the New Sherriff in town.

Welcome to the world of Nigerian sports, Mr. Sunday Dare.

lee-evans-sports-parliament-segun-odegbami-nta
Lee Evans

Lee Evans Returns to His Roots in Ogun State.

My first suggestion to readers is to google the name ‘Lee Evans’.

Twice in the past, I have written about him on this page.

He is an African-America who has traced his ancestral roots to this part of Africa and has chosen, after crisscrossing the world to teach what he knows best to young boys and girls (athletics), to settle in Nigeria where his DNA testing reveals he is originally from.

Ron Davis, another legendary American former athlete and coach, now settled in Tanzania working with Filbert Bayi, the greatest sports export from that East African country, describes Lee as the best Sprints coach in the world!

Lee Evans’ work and records as a coach lends credence to Ron’s assessment.

Here in Nigeria, those of us who were in various national sports teams of the 1970s and 1980s can easily testify of Lee’s unmatched contributions to the building of the greatest era in sports in the history of Nigeria.

That was the generation when a few African-Americans coaches came into Nigerian sports, brought their Collegiate system philosophy and system and changed Nigerian sport for good.

Oliver Johnson worked in basketball, with Ahmadu Bello University as his base. Some 40 years later he is still producing some of the best basketballers in Nigeria. He produced Nigeria’s greatest basketball export – Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon.

Archie Moore, the legendary American Boxer, world Light-heavy weight boxing champion in his time, produced Nigeria’s greatest boxers in Obisia Nwankpa and Davidson Andeh.

Lee Evans produced two generations of the greatest runners in Nigeria’s history – Felix Imabiyi, Taiwo Ogunjobi, Gloria Ayanlaja, Innocent Egbunike, Henry Amike, Joke Dosumu, Kola Abdullahi, Lawrence Adegbehingbe, Kemi Sangodeyi, and so on, a long list indeed, with each of the legendary athletes a testimony of his unique coaching skills and style.

The good news is that I have managed to convince him to spend the rest of his life in his roots here in Nigeria and to help identify, teach and train young boys and girls for the country.

He will be working out of my small sports academy in Wasimi, Ogun State, and extending his training programmes to coaches and young athletes in Ogun State and across Nigeria.

Lee Evans was a Former 400-meter World Champion whose world record, set in 1968, stood unbroken for over 20 years before Michael Johnson shattered it. He was a double Olympic Gold medalist and a distinguished member of the American Hall of fame in Athletics.

I welcome him back to his roots, to work and to a place of rest, Wasimi.

This Qatar World Cup Stadium Is Looking like a shipping container. See photos

Qatar’s Ras Abu Aboud stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final is to be a 40,000 capacity venue built using shipping containers and modular building blocks, each containing removable seats, concession stands, lavatories and other stadium elements, it was revealed at the weekend.

After the World Cup, the stadium may be reassembled on another site or turned into multiple venues.

The stadium was designed by Spanish firm Fenwick Iribarren Architects, German consultant engineer Schlaich Bergermann Partner and the UK’s Hilson Moran.

Work on the 450,000 sq m project is under way and is due to be completed in 2020.
It is located on Doha’s shore, 1.5km from Hamad International Airport.

The project is expected to receive a four-star Global Sustainability Assessment System certification, a green building rating system developed for Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary general of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said: “Innovation has always been central to our plans for delivering a historic Fifa World Cup that leaves a legacy for Qatar and the world, and there is no better example of this than the design of Ras Abu Aboud Stadium.”

We pray that Nigeria  will get to this level.

Manchester United 1-0 Wolverhamton Wanderers

Manchester United defeated opponent leading 1 bill against  Wolverhampton

Join Super Eagles and Celebrate Henry Onyekuru live in Benin city . See live photos

Nigeria forward Henry Onyekuru tied the knot with his spouse in a traditional wedding on Saturday.

The 22-year-old was joined by international teammates including Oghenekaro Etebo, John Ogu, Chidozie Awaziem and Kenneth Omeruo in Benin to celebrate his marriage.

A week ago, Onyekuru was a member of the Nigeria squad that finished third at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, where he played just 12 minutes of football.

                      
                      
                     
See source https://gidifeed.com/super-eagles-players-storms-benin-as-henry-onyekuru-ties-the-knot/

🌟 STAR PLAYER. POGBA FULL BIOGRAPHY, HIS LIFE HISTORY

FULL NAME
Paul Labile Pogba

BORN
March 15, 1993

HEIGHT
1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)

NATIONALITY
French

ROLE
Midfielder

CLUB STATISTICS
TOURNAMENT PREMIER LEAGUE
YEAR TEAM APPS (SUBS) GOALS (P) ASSISTS YELLOWS REDS    MIN                                                                      PLAYED
2018/2019 Manchester United FC 35 (1) 13 (7) 9 6 (0) 0 3011

2017/2018 Manchester United FC 27 (2) 6 (0) 10 5 (0) 1 2151

2016/2017 Manchester United FC 30 (1) 5 (0) 4 7 (0) 0 2609

2011/2012 Manchester United FC 3 (3) 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 68

2010/2011 Manchester United FC 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0

Total 95 (7) 24 (7) 23 18 (0) 1 7839

NATIONAL STATS
COMPETITION/CLUB APPS (SUBS) GOALS (P) ASSISTS YELLOWS REDS MIN PLAYED

WC QUALIFICATION EUROPE 13 (0) 3 (0)
1 5 (1) 1 1158

WORLD CUP 11 (1) 2 (0) 1 2 (0) 0 893

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 7 (1) 1 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 601

EC QUALIFICATION 2 (0) 0 (0) 1 0 (0) 0 180

UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE 3 (0) 0 (0)
0 0 (0) 0 270

U20 WORLD CUP 6 (0) 1 (1) 1 3 (0)

0 570
UEFA U19 CHAMPIONSHIP 6 (0) 3 (1) 0 2 (0) 0 570


ABOUT
Paul Pogba is a French professional footballer, born on 15 March 1993 in Lagny-sur-Marne, France.



Pogba plays for English club Manchester United and the French national team. He is a central midfielder but can switch to both offensive and defensive midfield roles depending on the situation.



The Frenchman is a powerful box to box midfielder who can really draw immediate attention by his skillful play, creative playmaking and goal scoring capabilities.





Background



Pogba started playing football at a very young age of six, back then he used to play for US Roissy-en-Brie. After his success at US Torcy, where he was the under thirteen captain, Pogba decided to join Le Havre for playing professional football.



Pogba joined Manchester United’s youth team on 31 July 2009. Following his successful run with the youth team he was called to join the first team 2 years later, however he continued with the youth side.



Debut



Pogba was promoted to the senior team on a permanent basis in the 2011-12 season.

He made his Premier league debut on 31 January 2012 against Stoke City, coming on in the 72nd minute of the game.



Pogba made his international debut for French national team on 22 March 2013 against Georgia in world cup 2014 qualifier match which France won 3-1.



Rise to Glory



After ignoring the Manchester United contract, Pogba finally decided to move on to Italian club Juventus in early 2012. His first goal came against Napoli in a 2–0 win and later contributed with many game winning performances that season.



In August 2013, Pogba was the made a mvp performance against Lazio, winning the match 4-0.

He was also named 2013's Golden Boy for the best young player in Europe later that year.



Pogba was already making headlines and was one of the most promising young talents of Europe. He was a key player in Juventus securing the Italian league title in 2015 and topped the assist list of Series A. In his career with Juventus Pogba made 124 appearances and scored 24 goals.



The young frenchman returned to his former English club Manchester United on 8 August 2016 on a exorbitant fee of €105 million plus bonuses of €5 million.



Pogba played 51 games in all competitions and scored 9 goal, made 6 assists in the 2016-17 season, proving to be a very effective middle man for the Red Devils.



So far Pogba has already made 27 appearances in all competitions for United, scoring 3 goals and assisting 9 times.



Pogba is a big part of the national team, he was selected to play in the 2014 World Cup and helped France secure multiple victories. He was also awarded tournament's Best Young Player title.



Although Pogba didn't start Euro 2016 with a bang, he found his lost form in the quarter final match against Iceland which he won 5-2 by scoring and bossing the midfield.

He helped by assisting Antoine Griezmann to secure a win against Germany in the semi finals, however lost to Portugal in the finals by one goal.



Low Points



Pogba always has one thing constant in his career, that is lack of discipline on the field. He is highly susceptible to getting a card and doesn't usually behaves in the nicest fashion.



He was accused and sent off for spitting on an opponent player after getting slapped on face.

He is criticized by football pundits due to his behaviour and unruly character.

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AFCON 2019! No more visa for super eagles supporters

The National Chairperson, Nigeria Eagles Supporters Club, Bunmi Ogunfunwa, on Saturday said that the Super Eagles were missing the supporters club at the ongoing African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Egypt due to visa hitch.

Ogunfuwa made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on the sidelines of the Olympic Day celebration held at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

NAN reports that the Super Eagles are already playing at the AFCON 2019 in Egypt and have qualified for the round of 16 after winning their first two games against Burundi and Guinea.

Ogunfuwa said that many of the supporters club members were still left stranded in Nigeria due to the delay in the issuance of visa to those qualified to cheer the team at the tournament.

“We didn’t expect this to happen to us, if we knew, we would have applied about two to three months earlier before the competition.

“The criteria for applying for visa for members going to Egypt by CAF is the match ticket and the Supporters Clubs’ Identity card, but we did not get our tickets until the competition came very close.

“CAF should have come out with a process that is more flexible and devoid of this complexity because I think our Identity Cards should have sufficed for our attendance at the competition.

“This was the criteria used during the last World Cup in Russia, though the competition was just for a month, we were granted six months visa to go in and out of Russia,’’ she said.

Ogunfuwa said that the visa regime had affected cheering the national team in Egypt, adding that they lacked adequate support during the previous games.

“This visa delay has not helped us as supporters club as well as the national team, they must have missed us because our presence was not felt inside the stadium.

“If we are in the stadium, who knows maybe the Super Eagles would have done better in their previous games. Right now, we don’t have enough of our members in Egypt.

“What we did in interim was one of our members who mobilised some Nigerians in Egypt to cheer the team when they are playing because we want them to go beyond the quarter-finals.

“We sincerely hope that the Egyptian Embassy will grant visa to our members on time so as to give support to our team,’’ she said.

Ogunfuwa also added that the supporters club was in the support of the Rafiu Ladipo and Samuel Ikpea-led Nigeria Football Supporter club.Click here to continue

I Must get my Belt back says Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua has vowed to get his belts back after calling his sensational heavyweight world-title defeat by Andy Ruiz Jr a "minor setback". Joshua, 29, was floored four times as Ruiz defied underdog status to win in seven rounds and deliver a true shock to the sport at Madison Square Garden. He said: "It's a test of character. I'll see what is next and move on." Promoter Eddie Hearn said a rematch is a "must win" because Joshua's options will be "nothing after that". A rematch clause was part of the contract and Hearn said he expected it to take place "in England in November or December". Ruiz himself says he will take the contest at any time.