International Football
ACCRA BUBBLES FOR HISTORIC AITEO CAF AWARDS CEREMONY
The city of Accra, Ghana’s sedate but attractive capital is the venue for another watershed in the history of the African Football Awards as the event begins another quarter –century life under a new headline sponsor.
Aiteo Group, Nigeria’s leading energy solution company and Official Optimum Partner of the Nigeria Football Federation, signed a contract with the Confederation of African Football in Lagos in October 2017 and is bankrolling the event for the first time.
Nigeria’s specific interests in Thursday’s event can be found in the Women African Player of the Year award (with Asisat Oshoala again in contention), Men’s National Team of the Year (where the Super Eagles, first African team to qualify for Russia 2018 and also with a match to spare from a so –called ‘group of death,’ is involved) and the Women’s National Team of the Year (featuring the Nigeria U20 girls).
Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, is in the race for Coach of the Year award and flew into Accra on Wednesday afternoon.
Also on Wednesday afternoon, CAF President Ahmad, in company with FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, CAF 1st Vice President Kwesi Nyantakyi and Nigeria’s CAF Executive Committee member Amaju Pinnick, paid a courtesy call on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo at the Flagstaff House.
They were accompanied by CAF Secretary General Amr Fahmy and Deputy Secretary General Anthony Baffoe.
From the inaugural Awards in 1992, there have been 16 winners including four Nigerians (one of them, Rashidi Yekini, now of blessed memory), while John Mikel Obi (now Super Eagles’ captain) was runner –up in 2013 and goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama came third in 2014.
For many Nigerian football fans and aficionados, one of the biggest mysteries of the Awards is that former Super Eagles’ captain Jay Jay Okocha is not among the 16 previous winners.
Many still feel he was good enough for it in 2004, when he was the Most Valuable Player of the AFCON and had a year to treasure with Bolton Wanderers in the English Premiership.
However, it is a new day and another event in Accra on Thursday night, with all the living 15 previous winners, including Nigeria’s Kanu (the first man to win the African Player of the Year award twice), Emmanuel Amuneke and Victor Ikpeba to turn up at the Accra International Conference Centre.
They will be joined by Liberia’s President-elect George Oppong Weah (who is the only African to have won the World Player of the Year title, and did a treble by also winning the European Player of the Year award in the same 1995), former Black Stars’ captain Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew (winner of the maiden award in 1992), four –time winners Yaya Toure and Samuel Eto’o Fils, two –time winners Didier Drogba and El-Hadji Diouf, and Frederic Kanoute, Patrick Mboma, Mustapha Hadji, Emmanuel Adebayor, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Riyad Mahrez, who won in 2016 but is not in contention for the 2017 gong.
Only Cote d’Ivoire, with Drogba’s double and Toure’s quadruple, have taken more titles than Nigeria.
It is also the first time in the history of the event that all previous winners have been invited.
Also for the first time ever, football fans and the general public were presented with the opportunity to have a say in the selection process for the African Player of the Year and Africa’s Finest XI.
Public voting opened on the CAF website on Sunday, 24th December 2017. The outcome will be tallied with results from the earlier phases of the selection process for the contenders. Voting for Africa’s Finest XI has been on CAF Facebook.
This year, Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Senegal’s Sadio Mane (both of English Premiership giants Liverpool, and whose countries, like Nigeria, are both headed for the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia) are in contention with 2015 winner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Oshoala is in the race with Cameroon’s Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene and South African Chrestina Kgatlana.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
1992: Abedi Pele (Ghana)
1993: Rashidi Yekini (Nigeria)
1994: Emmanuel Amuneke (Nigeria)
1995: George Weah (Liberia)
1996: Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)
1997: Victor Ikpeba (Nigeria)
1998: Mustapha Hadji (Morocco)
1999: Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria)
2000: Patrick Mboma (Cameroon)
2001: El-Hadji Diouf (Senegal)
2002: El-Hadji Diouf (Senegal)
2003: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)
2004: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)
2005: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)
2006: Didier Drogba (Cote d’Ivoire)
2007: Frederic Kanoute (Mali)
2008: Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo)
2009: Didier Drogba (Cote d’Ivoire)
2010: Samuel Eto’o Fils (Cameroon)
2011: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)
2012: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)
2013: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)
2014: Yaya Toure (Cote d’Ivoire)
2015: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)
2016: Riyad Mahrez (Algeria)
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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