Category: ⚽Supers Sport

The family of late Nigerian football legend and former Super Eagles coach, Christian Chukwu, has announced that his burial will take place on Friday, August 22, 2025.

The announcement was made on Monday in Enugu, where the former Super Eagles captain and coach hailed from.

According to the family, preparations are already in place for a national burial to honor the life and contributions of the iconic football figure.

In addition to the burial in Enugu, a special memorial event will also be held in Lagos, where Chukwu spent a significant part of his football career.

The Lagos event is intended to give fans, colleagues, and friends who may be unable to attend the Enugu ceremony a chance to pay tribute and celebrate his enduring legacy.

Christian Chukwu, aged 74, passed away on Saturday, April 12, 2025. Widely regarded as one of the pillars of Nigerian football, he captained the national team to their first Africa Cup of Nations title in 1980 and later coached the Super Eagles.

The MTN CHAMPS Grand Final kicked off in spectacular fashion at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on Tuesday, with athletes delivering stellar performances across various categories.

Reigning NDDC Sports Festival Champion, Victor Sampson emerged as the fastest qualifier in the men’s 400m, clocking an impressive 46.55s, Johnson Nnamani (47.00s), and Micheal Ighogboja (47.54s) followed in second and third positions respectively.

In the women’s 400m, Odot Udo dominated with the only sub-54 performance, setting a Personal Best time of 53.85s. Rhoda Adisa also recorded a lifetime best of 54.01s to finish second, while Rita Munachiso came third with 54.69s.

Team MTN’s Ezekiel Asuquo, fresh from his gold-medal winning feat at MTN CHAMPS, breezed through the Junior men’s 400m, posting the fastest time of 48.00s. Chidiebere Obed (49.33s) and Stephen Adejumo (49.57s) completed the top three positions.

Miracle Sonny emerged as the quickest qualifier in the Junior women’s 400m with a time of 54.75s. Elizabeth Olumide (54.85s) and Team MTN’s Toheebat Jimoh (55.83s) were the next best performers.

Onyemech Onoriode narrowly missed breaking the Youth Boys’ 100m Championships Record of 11.09s, set by Team MTN’s Alvin Onyeama in Season 1, finishing with 11.10s. Team MVP’s duo of Tunmise Ebimetan (11.34s) and Akolo Emmanuel (11.36s) followed closely.

Team MVP dominated the Youth Girls’ 100m, claiming the three overall fastest times through Enilolobo Rebecca (12.64s), Bernice Onoriode (12.69s), and Promise Egbebe (12.71s).

At the end of Day 1, Delta Secondary School topped the Youth women’s category with 10 points, followed by Charity School (8 points), Ikot Ibiok Girls (6 points) and West Itam (5 points).

Akwa Ibom led the Junior Mixed category standings with 20 points, ahead of Ikot Ibiok Girls (8 points), St Brains Model College (8 points), and Ikot Okubo Community (6 points).

Cross River secured the pole position in the senior mixed category with 21 points, establishing an 11-point lead over Chosen International. Charity Of the Most Precious Blood occupied the third position with 6 points, while Nnamdi Azikiwe Secondary School finished fourth with 4 points.

The four-day competition, running from May 6 to 9, features 2,187 athletes representing 136 secondary schools and 93 junior and senior teams all competing for honours at the Grand Final.

 

 

Nigeria’s table tennis prospect Taiwo Mati has cited financial constraints as the main barrier to reaching the next level in his international career, following a tough stretch of results at recent WTT events including the 2025 Contender Tunis.

In an exclusive interview with PUNCH Sports Extra, the 20-year-old remained upbeat despite an extended run of losses in men’s singles stretching back to January’s WTT Contender Muscat.

“Firstly, I don’t feel negative about the results,” Mati said. “I feel more motivated to keep on going and hope for the best moment.”

Mati is ranked 10th in Nigeria and 562nd globally by the ITTF, and he recently bowed out of the singles competition in Tunis after losing both group matches, 3–1 to Malta’s Kim Taehyun and 3–0 to India’s Snehit Suravajjula. In the men’s doubles event, pairing with Taehyun, Mati also exited in the round of 16 after a straight-sets defeat to Germany’s Benedikt Duda and Andre Bertelsmeier. The Nigerian-Korean pair lost 11–7, 11–8, 11–7 at the Salle Omnisport de Rades.

Although the defeats continued a challenging run for Mati, his analysis of the problem goes beyond technique.

“There’s really nothing missing specifically. All I just need is to get used to the environment, which means attending more WTT events. The more I do, the more I get better feelings and more confident,” he explained. “Also, the reason affecting my performance is inability to attend enough WTT events due to lack of sponsor and fund.”

Between October 2024 and April 2025, Mati has competed in three major WTT singles events, Cagliari, Muscat, and Tunis, losing all of his last six singles game. After a promising start in Cagliari where he defeated Switzerland’s Simon Boccard 3–1, he fell in straight sets to Germany’s Tobias Schweiger.

In Muscat, he suffered three consecutive defeats, including a tight four-setter against Lam Siu Hang, where he led by two games before being overpowered. In the Tunis opener, Kim outscored Mati 44–34 in total points, winning more return points (20 to 11) and building longer point runs. Against Suravajjula, the disparity widened, 33 total points to 18, with the Indian leading throughout all three games.

Despite the string of losses, Mati insisted he is mentally equipped to navigate this phase.

“As an athlete I’m always hoping for the worst and great results, so whichever way it goes I’m always ready to face the challenges. So mentally I’m stable enough,” he said.

Mati sees areas for growth, both tactically and physically. “There’s always room for improvements, which means I still have a lot to improve on and adjust in my game mentally and physically,” he noted.

Beyond Tunis, he says he plans to return to France to resume club duties. “My next plan is to go back to France and prepare for my club league matches.”

Scott McTominay headed Napoli level on points with Inter Milan at the top of Serie A with the only goal in Saturday’s 1–0 win at Monza, but coach Antonio Conte lashed out at owner Aurelio De Laurentiis with angry post-match comments.

The Scotland midfielder nodded home his 10th goal in all competitions this season from Giacomo Raspadori’s cross in the 72nd minute, saving Napoli’s blushes after a drab display in northern Italy.

McTominay’s third goal in a week boosted Napoli’s bid for a second league title in three seasons and piled pressure on reigning champions Inter, who visit high-flying Bologna on Easter Sunday.

Beyond that goal, Conte’s team created little against the division’s worst team. Monza are 12 points from safety with five matches remaining and appear set for relegation.

“It’s a match that seems like it should be easy, but the prize up for grabs is so important that there is a lot of pressure,” said Conte.

“A lot of these boys are in a head-to-head (for a league title) for the first time. And it’s an unexpected head-to-head… Just to be there is unexpected and extraordinary.”

Conte continued to fuel rumours of his departure at the end of his first season as Napoli coach, after raising eyebrows on Friday with open frustration over the January sale of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

‘Not stupid’

De Laurentiis later remarked that Conte should have waited until the end of the season before making such comments, prompting a visibly irritated Conte to respond while speaking to broadcaster DAZN.

“You have to live in the present… the people want to win and are ambitious. I’m open to everything, but we need to see where we are,” said Conte, when asked about his future.

“I’m happy in Naples and I’m working for fans who give me something emotionally. That’s very important. But you know that whoever hires me knows I bring with me expectations.

“People hire me and think, ‘You have to finish first or second, even if you finished 10th the year before, and you have to fight for the title. Qualifying for Europe isn’t enough’.

“I can handle all of that, but I’m not stupid if there aren’t the resources in place to achieve that.”

Conte also criticised the pitches at Napoli’s Castel Volturno training ground, saying they were supposed to be relaid. He suggested the club’s failure to do so was behind recent calf injuries – the latest affecting Kvaratskhelia’s replacement, David Neres.

Regardless of where Conte is next season, he and Napoli have a strong chance to win the Scudetto. After Easter, they face only one team in the top half of the table – 10th-placed Torino – and have no other commitments.

Como eye safety

Meanwhile, Inter face a packed schedule, with the second leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final against AC Milan on Wednesday, followed by a Champions League semi-final clash with Barcelona.

Inter will remain top on goal difference even if they lose to Bologna, who are chasing a Champions League place. Should both teams finish level on points, the title will be decided by a play-off.

Earlier, Assane Diao fired Como towards safety with a brace in his side’s impressive 3–0 win over struggling Lecce, who sit one place and two points above the relegation zone.

Como are 13th with 39 points, 15 above the drop zone with five matches remaining in their first Serie A season in over two decades.

Diao has been instrumental to the club’s near-certain survival, scoring eight goals since arriving from Real Betis in January, when Como invested heavily in new players to avoid relegation.

Later, Roma take on Verona hoping to move within two points of Juventus, who sit fourth and travel to Parma on Monday.

AFP

 

 

 

Tragedy strikes the boxing world as legendary boxer, George Foreman passes away at 76, leaving an indelible void.

George Foreman’s passing was announced by his family via an Instagram post, confirming he passed away on March 21, 2025.

Although the circumstances surrounding his passing were kept private, his family expressed heartfelt gratitude to fans for their outpouring of love and prayers as they navigate their grief.

The post reads,“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman snr who peacefully departed on March 21, 2025.We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers as we kindly ask for privacy as we honor the extraordinary life of a man we were blessed to call our own”.

See below….

Former Chelsea player, Romelu Lukaku has explained why he decided to leave Chelsea during the second season at his second spell at the Stamford Bridge club.

The Belgian international was speaking in an interview where he revealed that the way he and some other senior players by the Chelsea board during their time at the club was not fair.

He said, while speaking to an Italian publication Corriere dello Sport that most clubs always put a bad image on players that they want at the club.

“I wasn’t alone at Chelsea,(Pierre-Emerick) Aubameyang and (Hakim) Ziyech were also out of the project. They made us change in the youth locker room. It’s business, the club tells you it doesn’t want you anymore and often also where you’ll end up. But if you want to leave, even for serious reasons, you don’t have the option. They drag it out until the last moment, they wear you down. Clubs have relationships with the media, and it doesn’t take much to put a player in a difficult position or create the wrong image. Believe me, I’ve seen things I never thought I would. One day, I’d like to explain all of this to younger players, who is really working for them and who is working against them.”

Romelu rejoined the Blues for a record transfer fee of £97m move from Inter Milan in the summer of 2021, seven years after he had left Chelsea to join Everton. But despite a promising start things soon turned sour for the forward in west London, and he rejoined Inter on loan a year later, before a further loan move to Roma and then a permanent switch to Napoli last summer.

However, Lukaku feels Chelsea supporters have a wrong impression of him in English where he was often be called overweight and lazy.

“For them I was lazy, but I never reacted to the attacks. I am someone who does his job and then goes home. In Italy the opinion has been reversed, here I am a worker. Now (at Napoli) I am better than when I was at Inter. There I was 101kg, here 99kg.”

Ahead of the June 2025 transfer window, tensions seem to be brewing with the future of Antony looking uncertain at Man United under Ruben Amorim.

Ruben Amorim for the first time addressed why Brazilian forward Antony struggled at Man United given his current run of form with Real Betis in the Spanish La Liga. Amorim categorised Antony’s newly vitalised form as due to the fact that the league’s intensity is different from what he’s used to in the Premier League.

He suggested that the physical demands in English football are significantly different, telling TNT Sports that players without sufficient physicality would struggle considerably in the Premier League.

However, Antony’s agent, Junior Pedroso, was having none of it with that statement as he promptly dismissed these remarks as overly simplistic.

Speaking to Marca Pedroso stated, “While we respect Coach Amorim’s perspective, we fundamentally disagree with his analysis. Attributing Antony’s challenges at United solely to physical capabilities represents a superficial argument that fails to capture the full complexity of the situation.”

After being loaned to Real Betis in January following a decline in his standing under Amorim, Antony has demonstrated impressive form, scoring three goals and providing two assists in just seven matches for the Spanish club.

Antony is expected to continue his current run of form, with Real Betis scheduled to play Vitoria S.C. in the Europa Conference League’s round of 16 on Thursday, March 6, 2025, followed by a La Liga match against Las Palmas on Sunday.

Manchester United manager, Ruben Amorim has eased off the pressure on his players ahead of their UEFA Europa League round of 16 game against Real Sociedad.

The Portuguese international was speaking at a pre-match press conference where he sent a message to those supporters expecting the team to win the competition. According to him, there are better things that can be achieved at this moment than winning the Europa League.

He said,

People are looking at Europa League as the unique competition that we can win, also the connection with qualifying for the UCL. But to tell you the truth, I think we have bigger things to think. I know it’s strange to say that, but it’s something that we are trying to build here, that is going to be more important than winning a Cup in this moment”

Manchester United have been in poor form since the Ruben Amorim took charge of the club from Erik Ten Hag. However a triumph in the Europa League will ensure that this season has an happy ending for the club’s supporters.

The Red Devils are currently placed in 14th place with 33 points having played 27 games, their worse position at this points in the season after over three decades.

Popular FIFA have their eyes set on taking the upcoming World Cup tournament to the next level as the president in an official announcement confirmed a major change ahead of the 2026 edition.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has announced a groundbreaking development for the 2026 World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium revealing that it will have the first-ever halftime show in the tournament’s history. Chris Martin from Coldplay will be involved in curating the list of artists for the performance, which is set to take place on July 19, 2026.

Unlike previous World Cup finals, such as the 2022 Qatar final between Argentina and France, which featured pre-match performances by artists like Gims and Ozuna, this upcoming final will introduce a comprehensive halftime entertainment spectacle.

Infantino enthusiastically shared the news on Instagram, describing the upcoming halftime show as a “historic moment for the FIFA World Cup” and promising an entertainment experience that matches the magnitude of the world’s most prestigious football tournament.