Orkpekyandega:
[b][size=14pt]
Manchester City's Iheanacho to buy closest pal £2 million mansion
[/size]

Iheanacho (right) flanked by Kingsley Ogbodo (middle) and Eagles star Leon Balogun recently

Generous Manchester City ace Kelechi Iheanacho will celebrate his new bumper contract, which now pays him 85,000 pounds a week, by buying his closest friend a £ two million mansion in a choice neigbourhood of Manchester.


Nineteen-year-old Iheanacho, who earned between 10,000 and 18,000 pounds a week before his new deal at The Etihad, is now in the big time and now wishes to splash on Kingsley Ogbodo, who has helped him to settle down in Manchester.

Ogbodo from Enugu State was himself a footballer and even tried his luck in Hungary before he came down to England “to hustle”.


He first hooked up with Chidiebere Nwakali, who is also on the books of City but currently on loan at Norwegian club IK Start, after a chance meeting at a Manchester night club.


And it was Nwakali who introduced him to Iheanacho, and ever since Nwakali left Manchester to first start out on loan in Spain, Iheanacho and Ogbodo have been inseparable.

“They are like twins, they are everywhere together and often wearing the same designer clothes and accessories,” revealed a top source.


“He is Kelechi’s trusted travel companion, he accompanied him back to Nigeria on holidays at the end of last season. He was also by his side for the recent international duty against Tanzania in Uyo.


“Ogbodo is Kelechi’s righthand man, his closest confidant, after he dedicated the last few years to make sure the football star is very much at home in Manchester.


“He is street-smart, a man about town and totally committed to Kelechi.”

It is that dedication that Iheanacho now wishes to repay with the gift of a mansion in Greater Manchester.


http://africanfootball.com/news/647643/Manchester-City-s-Iheanacho-to-buy-closest-pal-2-million-mansion
[/b]

BascoVanVeli:
What can Nigeria learn from their Olympic football campaign?

Surrounded by a chaotic buildup to the Games, including a war of words between Nigeria's Sports Ministry and football federation, the Olympic football team delivered the country's lone medal from Rio.

Bronze it may have been, but seeing as it was a very marginal improvement (cough cough) over the grand total of zero from 2012, there was some reason to be, well, less glum.

In any case, there are a four key lessons to take away from Dream Team VI's face-saving campaign:

1. Siasia has not changed much

In his second spell as under-23 coach, and 11 years after his first job as national coach, Samson Siasia's tactics remained as gung-ho as they have always been.

At their best, his striking department wreak havoc like a wrecking ball wielded by refined berserkers.

But at the back, they look about as solid as eggshells resisting a UFC fist. Nigeria's opening and final games of the tournament at once represented the best and worst of a Siasia team: Scoring goals with reckless abandon, and letting them in with equal gusto.

Here's the thing though, as long as they show heart in the brawl, Nigerians would rather play Siasia-ball and lose by the odd goal or two, than be subjected to some of the static staleness they have had been made to put up with sometimes.

2. Mikel has grown into a leader

It seems like just yesterday that John Obi Mikel was that wide-eyed innocent being pulled in three different directions by Manchester United, Chelsea and Lyn Oslo.

Actually, it's been 11 years. Incidentally, that's the same amount of time that Siasia has been a coach. What's not coincidental, is that Siasia was Mikel's coach back then in 2005, and has looked to him on each occasion he found himself managing a Nigeria team that the midfielder was eligible to play in.

While Siasia has remained essentially the same tactically, Mikel has evolved into a leader. It's doubtful that the Nigerian squad would have overcome their pre-tournament ordeal without his strength of character and guidance.

Even more doubtful they would have got as far as they did, or ended up among the medals without his stabilizing influence.

With just two games under his belt as the full Nigeria captain, no doubt the Olympic experience would have given him a more hands-on crash course about what it takes to lead the national team.

He handled it all with a mature, level head. Barely heard, but always getting the job done via a carrot and stick approach.

The Chelsea midfielder has also finally allowed himself (after years of strong resistance and bolting from Twitter after one bad experience) to be reunited with social media, although his team would do well to give his social media persona more of the Mikel voice and less of the sterilized PR-speak.

Samson Siasia
In true Samson Siasia fashion, Nigeria's Olympic team threw caution to the wind when it came to their tactics.

3. Nigeria will always overcome the worst of adversity

Prior to their opening game, and despite all of their troubles, I did warn our Japanese opponents on Twitter to underrate this team at their own peril.

Maybe they listened, maybe they didn't. Proved immaterial, as they were blown away by the Dream Team, who in turn contrived to get caught in their own wake.

The message however, is that as Nigerians we are used to adversity. From living without electricity for the major part of daily life, through driving on pockmarked roads, to lack of potable water or affordable healthcare, to even going 12 months and over without salaries, Nigerians have perfected the art of survival against near insurmountable odds.

It doesn't matter what a Nigerian team goes through, once it is showtime, expect a big, unyielding scrap.

4. Not much to pick from

As good as the Dream Team were in Rio, and with the current transitional state of the Super Eagles, it would be easy to want to push a sizable chunk of the squad upstairs.

But let's pause. Apart from the fact that that particular approach has not quite worked for Nigeria in the past, this was a team whose whole was far greater than the sum of its parts.

First, the majority have already had their shot at impressing in the full senior squad and did not quite pass the test.

Second, the ones who did are already in the full squad, like William Troost-Ekong, Shehu Abdullahi, Stanley Amuzie and Oghenekaro Etebo.

Of the others, only goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel, midfielder Azubuike Okechukwu and forward Imoh Ezekiel look anywhere near capable of making the step up.



Colin Udoh is a Nigeria football correspondent for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @ColinUdoh.

Napoleon55:

Pls don't stop laughing.
Anyways, I just listed 15 players which I think r our best for now, Musa Muhamed was the only exclusion from my list ,it was a mistake,so Musa takes the place of Shehu in my list. Musa Muhamed just happens to skip my mind.
No formation, I did not adapt any formations,the coach will sort it out. The list above is just my best players on each positions,nothing else.

And u think u knows football,that an attacking midfielder cannot play the 10 role,and Iwobi cannot play as a number 10? U r wrong.
And Iheanacho cannot lead our attack,watch out 4 our next match.
U believe Ighalo and Ideye is the only lone strikers we have,haw far have they fared?
Of course If Enyeama agrees to come back,he is undisputed.

lakesidepapa:



I totally agreed with you on the issue of iheanacho, dube can do his best and flourish as an AMF, playing him as a lone striker would be like wasting of talent. I think he was an excellent AMF and that's the role he played very good at the 2013 U17.

Honestly, I'm surprised about some people comments here about kelechi? Guys wake up, kelechi best can be seen as number 8, AMF and still he will still score a lots of goals as he always have an eye for goal. We have pool of strikers, the likes of Isaac success, Olanrewaju Kayode can do better than ighalo, even Musa can bring more as a striker than being a winger.

TheGoodJoe:


City is Kelechi Iheanacho to become the most lethal forward to the game. He is the understudy of one of the best attackers in the world today, Sergio Aguero.

Why waste all the training and drills to score goals to stick him as a creative attack midfielder or support striker?

TheGoodJoe:


The number 8 role, is a Support Striking Role. It is different from a ten role. Also, the ten role is not a CMF role but an attack midfield role.

I disagree with you and agree with Napoleon55. Iwobi can play the ten role. He played there against Egypt in Alexandria.

Iheanacho played as a lone striker also. He was not paired with De Bruyne. De Bruyne made his moves from the midfield to attack.

Iheanacho played as a lone striker many times last season and he was the lone striker against Manchester United in the derby.

lakesidepapa:


I don't understand the point u're trying to prove. I insist, the best of Nacho can only be seen as 8 and AMF.

Normally, he's a goal puncher regard or regardless of a goal scoring drills and trainings, playing him as as Number 8 or AMF will bring the best in him and he will score goals.

lakesidepapa:


I don't understand the point u're trying to prove. I insist, the best of Nacho can only be seen as 8 and AMF.

Normally, he's a goal puncher regard or regardless of a goal scoring drills and trainings, playing him as as Number 8 or AMF will bring the best in him and he will score goals.

BascoVanVeli:

Why Gernot Rohr must build his Nigeria team around Kelechi Iheanacho

Kelechi Iheanacho was Manchester City's third highest goal scorer last season, despite starting less minutes than most of the team, tallying 9 goals from 13 shots. Add another two goals and one assist within the space of four days this week, and it's clear to see that the Nigeria international is chalking up some impressive numbers.

Wednesday's late Champions League goal against Borussia Moenchengladbach, coming just days after his winning goal against city rivals Manchester United, cemented his place as a genuine and proven talent.

For Nigeria, Iheanacho's two senior appearances have yielded one goal and one assist. And these are just the tangibles.

With everyday that passes, the 19-year-old continues to prove the case for why Nigeria can now boast another genuine, world class superstar.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times that the Super Eagles have been scraping the bottom of the barrel in that department since the retirements of the truly last great players with genuine stardust, Jay-Jay Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu.

In his early years, Mikel John Obi threatened to be the next big thing, especially when war broke out between Manchester United and Chelsea over his ownership. But with his career now entering its twilight, it is safe to say that -- despite his successes mopping up trophies at club and finally at international level -- the shine on his star has not quite matched the luminosity of those two.

Perhaps his absolute resistance to take advantage of a disrupted generation where stars could instantly bridge the gap with fans was a key factor. Plus the fact that in Mikel's early days, he was sold as an exciting, creative midfielder, but was turned into an unimaginative, functional workhorse at Chelsea.

Goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama came close, but in his latter years. Largely derided in his early years as an international, Enyeama worked his way to the top. Sadly, just when his star was on the rise, he cut it short.

Between Kanu and Mikel, there have been a fair few pretenders to the throne, but Iheanacho appears to finally be the genuine article, ticking every tickable box.

As a cadet international, he won the World Cup, then saw himself picked up by an emerging European football power where he has avoided the well-trodden path of being farmed out on loan.

Instead, he has not only played his way into reckoning but actually played a seasoned and experienced striker in the mound of Wilfried Bony out of the squad. He did it with better numbers in less minutes.

Which segues right into the discussion about those intangibles. Beyond the goals and assists ratio, Iheanacho's brilliance, skill and intelligence stand him out as the real deal.

And that's why it is time for Nigeria's recently trotted-out, shiny new coach Gernot Rohr, to take the not-so-bold decision of making Iheanacho the centerpiece of his team and build the rest around him.

Mikel will remain as team leader, but Iheanacho should be the poster boy.

Odion Ighalo, occasionally prolific at club level, has not quite found a way to translate that to his national team. And the problem appears to be a simple one. At Watford, he is one half of an effective duo with Troy Deeney. With Nigeria, he is a lone forager.

A simple solution to the Ighalo/Iheanacho conundrum might be to play them together as a twin strikeforce.

With Victor Moses finally establishing what seems to be some sort of traction at Chelsea, and picking up his form, he could alternate the left forward position with Alex Iwobi, another promising youngster who is proving his worth at another European football club powerhouse, Arsenal.

Everybody else can fight for their place.

Nigeria have spent too many years in the wilderness out of reluctance to pick and stick with players on form and talent. The result has been three African Nations Cup misses in the space of five years.

Hard to see things getting any worse if Rohr does the necessary with Iheanacho. He may be young, but he is showing consistency at a very high level. A level where many who have played ahead of him sometimes can only dream of.



Colin Udoh is a Nigeria football correspondent for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @ColinUdoh.

TheGoodJoe:


When we talk of the best, Aguero, Messi, Tevez, Suarez etc became legends when they attacked. Iheanacho's passing and dropping deep makes him a brilliant striker.

He can excel as a creative attack midfielder or Support Striker but he is best breaking records with his goals.

If we pull him from the striking role, he goal scoring rate will reduce. Upfront, we have a legendary striker.

I am not knocking your point. I actually pointed this to a friend in the Gladbach game. When Nacho drops deep, he plays like a midfielder from Barca academy.

However, upfront, he is smoking hot.

Orkpekyandega:
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FIFA Rankings: Nigeria move up, World Cup rivals drop
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Victor Moses of Nigeria (left) against Tanzania during a 2017 AFCON Qualifier

Nigeria moved three spots in the latest FIFA rankings released today, while 2018 World Cup rivals Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia slipped in the ratings.


Nigeria are now 64th in the world after they were 67th the previous month.

They are also 14th in Africa.

The slim 1-0 at home against Tanzania earlier this month will account for this upward climb.


Zambia, who will host Nigeria next month in final round of the qualifying series for the World Cup, are now 92nd in the world after they occupied 91st position in August.


Cameroon, who are also drawn against Nigeria in the World Cup qualifiers, dropped five places to 59th in the world.

Algeria slipped to 35th in the world and lost top spot in Africa to Cote d’Ivoire.

http://africanfootball.com/news/647522/FIFA-Rankings-Nigeria-move-up-World-Cup-rivals-drop

[/b]

zoboizee:
I noticed that most of you guys tend to concentrate on iheanacho but what of the whole team. if he plays 9, hope you know that supply might be short coming because that will leave him either isolated or ending up in the midfield. We need a very mobile attacking midfielders with guile, stamina & precision. who can quickly initiate attack & equally close spaces in midfield. Moses tend to play to gallery by dribbling & no end result. And Mikel is best suited for the role of defensive midfielder. He is better at shielding the centre-back than Onazi and his understudy should be Ndidi. Players like Iwobi or Etebo are more mobile in midfield. And can quickly release the ball. Ahmed Musa is just too unpredictable. To me, we are better off with:
carl, musa, echiejile, omeruo, balogun, mikel, musa, etebo, iheanacho, iwobi & simon

Napoleon55:

He is saying he should be our main striker as Yekini or Drogba were to super eagles and chelsea respectively. not to support anybody, no. 8 is a supporting role,I guess u knew that one already. In other words, Iheanacho should play 9 not 10, that's what he and majority of us r saying.
It's ur opinions that seems contradicting to me,no offense.

Orkpekyandega:
[b][size=14pt]
Manchester City's Iheanacho to buy closest pal £2 million mansion
[/size]

Iheanacho (right) flanked by Kingsley Ogbodo (middle) and Eagles star Leon Balogun recently

Generous Manchester City ace Kelechi Iheanacho will celebrate his new bumper contract, which now pays him 85,000 pounds a week, by buying his closest friend a £ two million mansion in a choice neigbourhood of Manchester.


Nineteen-year-old Iheanacho, who earned between 10,000 and 18,000 pounds a week before his new deal at The Etihad, is now in the big time and now wishes to splash on Kingsley Ogbodo, who has helped him to settle down in Manchester.

Ogbodo from Enugu State was himself a footballer and even tried his luck in Hungary before he came down to England “to hustle”.


He first hooked up with Chidiebere Nwakali, who is also on the books of City but currently on loan at Norwegian club IK Start, after a chance meeting at a Manchester night club.


And it was Nwakali who introduced him to Iheanacho, and ever since Nwakali left Manchester to first start out on loan in Spain, Iheanacho and Ogbodo have been inseparable.

“They are like twins, they are everywhere together and often wearing the same designer clothes and accessories,” revealed a top source.


“He is Kelechi’s trusted travel companion, he accompanied him back to Nigeria on holidays at the end of last season. He was also by his side for the recent international duty against Tanzania in Uyo.


“Ogbodo is Kelechi’s righthand man, his closest confidant, after he dedicated the last few years to make sure the football star is very much at home in Manchester.


“He is street-smart, a man about town and totally committed to Kelechi.”

It is that dedication that Iheanacho now wishes to repay with the gift of a mansion in Greater Manchester.


http://africanfootball.com/news/647643/Manchester-City-s-Iheanacho-to-buy-closest-pal-2-million-mansion
[/b]

lakesidepapa:


I understand u, its not a must for a player to attack like suarez, aguero, messi other beast strikers to become a legend.

Zidane is an attacking mid fielder and he's a legend, sadio mane is an AMF and he's legend in making, di Stefano
,Platini, Zidane, are AmF, Thomas Muller is naturally AMF and he's already a legend, lots more.
Okocha is a legend Ronaldiho is a legend, Rivaldo is a legend. For me o, I still prefer Nacho as an attacking mid fielder any day, anytime.

The game between Mancity and Manutd, sometimes when Nacho drops deep to exchange passes with his mate, he makes some me to you passes that would later gave his team a free attacking possession, that was when u'll see De Bruyne staying up thr as a lone striker. Nacho loves doing it that way, but if the world want him as a striker, FINE but it boils my heart seeing my boy playing out of his talent.

I agreed with you, he's so clinical in front of goal. He can make a good different as a striker.

joseph1013:
Right now, the Eagles don't have problems with creating chances, the problem we have is converting our chances. Rohr was livid with our poor conversion rate in the last match.

Look at our team, we have too many people who can create scoring chances. Moses Victor, Moses Simon, Imoh Ezekiel, Isaac Success, Musa Ahmed, Iwobi, Etebo, even Mikel, etc. We need someone who can convert those chances at a very regular rate.

Who better to make that happen than one of the most promising strikers in Europe. Kelechi trains with the most attack-minded coach in Europe. Kelechi is at a club which recognize that he is most deadly in the box and are creating a monster out of it. I watched Guardiola say, "Gabriel Jesus is like Aguero and Keli (Iheanacho) Once you give them the ball, it's a goal..."

Forget it, if Guardiola can recognize you as a great striker, you can start comfortably for any club in the world...for any country in the world. So who is Nigeria?

zoboizee:
I noticed that most of you guys tend to concentrate on iheanacho but what of the whole team. if he plays 9, hope you know that supply might be short coming because that will leave him either isolated or ending up in the midfield. We need a very mobile attacking midfielders with guile, stamina & precision. who can quickly initiate attack & equally close spaces in midfield. Moses tend to play to gallery by dribbling & no end result. And Mikel is best suited for the role of defensive midfielder. He is better at shielding the centre-back than Onazi and his understudy should be Ndidi. Players like Iwobi or Etebo are more mobile in midfield. And can quickly release the ball. Ahmed Musa is just too unpredictable. To me, we are better off with:
carl, musa, echiejile, omeruo, balogun, mikel, musa, etebo, iheanacho, iwobi & simon

CFCman:
Ghead Grisha (Egypt) will officiate the Zambia v Nigeria game.

goldfish80:


Nice points you made, but most times in a football match all the chances created does not fall to the feet of the striker. Like in the game against Tanzanian, Ighalo did not miss all the 14 chances created in that game. I can only remember 2 chances he missed, a header and a shot which was blocked by the Tanzanian defence. A couple of other drew great saves by the Tanzanian GK.

My point is that the goal scoring burden should not fall on the feet of only our Strikers. The attacking midfielders, and especially the wingers should be more productive than they are (am looking at Moses, Musa and Simon).
If we had clinical wingers, the score line against Tanzania would have been a cricket score. Most times, I have noticed African teams are normally sleepy and lack concentration when marking out wingers. That's why Aaron Samuel durring his short spell terrorised people cutting from the right with his left foot. Nsofor and Osaze used to have a swell time cutting in from the wings with the eagles.
Our wingers just need to up their game, in my opinion.

Coming to Iheanacho, I think people comparing his game at Manchester City with his role in Nigeria are making an error. At Manchester City, he has a luxury of world class midfielders who easily string passes from the back up the pitch without hassle but the peculiarity of our national team set up without such luxurious midfielders with such abilities will make iheanacho redundant and isolated for much of the game if he is asked to lead the lines.
In my opinion, Iheanacho would need a foil, someone to bounce off while at the same time help in the build up play, which he is capable of. When the likes of Iwobi, Nwobodos, Ejarias, Etebos, Nwakalis mature to hold their own in midfield, easily, Iheanacho can lead the lines.
Asking him to play as a line striker now would be counter productive not because of his ability but because of other components of the team.

TheGoodJoe:


We do not have problems with Wingers. We create chances from the wings all day when we play. With the likes of S. Moses, V. Moses, Imoh Ezekiel.

We do not have a problem with AMF. With Iwobi, Aluko, Babatunde, Etebo, Rabiu.

Certainly not with CMF with Mikel, Raheem Lawal, Matthew.

Certainly not DMF, Ndidi, Ogu, Onazi.

Our challenge is up front. We have a prolific striker in Iheanacho, trained by one of the best coaches in the game, Pellegrini. Why play him away from his Natural role when the other strikers can not bring in the kind of goals he brings.

goldfish80:

Ironically, most of our chances fell to the wingers and they couldn't weigh in with the goals.
Even the goal Iheanacho scored, although from a set piece, was from the right wing when he cut inside.

If our wingers where clinical, Tanzania would have chopped six. Against Egypt home and away we payed for our wingers unproductivity as they missed begging chances all night long.

When you talk but midfielders, I beg to differ. Our midfield have been in balanced for so many years since Kanu and Jay's exist.
Remember this same Tanzania played us off the pack when we played at Dare Salam. We struggled non stop to control the midfield that afternoon.
Their tactics to the game at Uyo was different, they simply surrendered the midfield and packed the defence. They did not play for a win.

Teams like Algeria, Cameron and even Zambia will contest the midfield with us. Especially Algeria, I frankly don't see us outwitting Mahrez, Fegouli and Brahimi in midfield.
Cutting from the wings, we can easily destroy them.

If our midfield was so good, fans would not call for Okochas return after the Yobo testimonial.