Category: ⚽Supers Sport

Super Eagles and Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman has been nominated for the 2024 Ballon d’Or award.

Lookman made the award nomination list after his heroics in the Europa League final where he scored a hat-trick as Atalanta defeated Bayer Leverkusen.

Other nominees in the men’s player of the year nomination list includes Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr, Man City’s midfielder Rodri and Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal.

Ademola Lookman only African in full list of Ballon d’Or contenders

Antonio Rudiger – Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappe – Real Madrid

Lautaro Martinez – Inter

Ademola Lookman – Atalanta

Alejandro Grimaldo – Bayer Leverkusen

Dani Carvajal – Real Madrid

William Saliba – Arsenal

Lamine Yamal – Barcelona

Bukayo Saka – Arsenal

Hakan Calhanoglu – Inter

Rodri – Man City

Declan Rice- Arsenal

Harry Kane – Bayern Munich

Cole Palmer – Chelsea

Vitinha – PSG

Vinicius Jr – Real Madrid

Martin Odegaard – Arsenal

Dani Olmo – Barcelona

Florian Wirtz – Bayer Leverkusen

Mats Hummels – Roma

Erling Haaland – Man City

Nicolas Williams – Athletic Bilbao

Granit Xhaka – Bayer Leverkusen

Artem Dovbik – Roma

Toni Kroos – Real Madrid

Jude Bellingham – Real Madrid

Phil Foden – Man City

Ruben Dias – Man City

Federico Valverde – Real Madrid

Emiliano Martinez – Aston VIlla

Date of ceremony, awards up for grabs

The main award is set to hold on 28 October at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

The following awards will be up for grabs:

The Ballon d’Or – awarded to the best male player

The Ballon d’Or Feminin – awarded to the best female player

The Yashin Trophy – awarded to the best male goalkeeper

The Kopa Trophy – awarded to the best male player under the age of 21

The Gerd Muller Trophy – awarded to the best male striker

The Socrates Award – awarded to one player for their humanitarian work

Men’s club of the year award

Women’s club of the year award

Men’s coach of the year award

Women’s coach of the year award

Professional footballer Jude Ighalo has defended his younger colleague Victor Osimhen amid criticism over his recent failed transfer.

It would be recalled that Victor Osimhen was linked with a move to Chelsea and received a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli during the transfer window, but ultimately, no deal was finalized.

Consequently, Osimhen has been excluded from Napoli’s first squad, with his jersey number reassigned to Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku.

Jude Ighalo expressed his sadness over the criticisms Osimhen has received from his own country over the failed transfers without knowing what really transpired.

He reminded everyone that no one is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes. After speaking with Osimhen, Ighalo acknowledged the pain in his voice but remains confident that the forward will come back stronger.

His words: “No human being is perfect and we have all made mistakes in life but seeing comments about this young man from his own country people makes me sad, without even knowing what happened, I spoke to him and I can feel the pain in his voice the way he’s been treated. this young man play with his heart and pains for his country hmm it’s well, he will be back stronger. we learn everyday in life… happy new month to y’all”

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Napoli have signed Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea, the Serie A club announced on Thursday, ending the Belgium striker’s extended period in limbo with the Blues.

Owner Aurelio De Laurentiis confirmed the deal, worth a reported 30 million euros ($33.2 million), on social media by saying “Welcome Romelu” with a photo of him signing his three-year contract.

Lukaku’s move to Napoli keeps him in Italy, at his third club in as many years after loan spells at Inter Milan and Roma.

The 31-year-old was the idol of Inter fans when he fired their team to the Serie A title in 2021 under new Napoli coach Antonio Conte before being sold for well over 100 million euros to Chelsea that summer.

But Lukaku flopped on his return to Stamford Bridge, and that massive fee left him in limbo as clubs refused to meet the Premier League club’s valuations for a sale.

It led to an underwhelming year on loan back at Inter in the 2022/23 season during which he was dogged by injury and largely kept out of the team by Edin Dzeko.

His mooted permanent move to Inter broke down last summer as the club found out he had been making noises towards fierce rivals AC Milan and Juventus, so Lukaku and Chelsea eventually accepted another loan deal with Roma.

However Roma were not interested in shelling out for Lukaku, allowing Conte to be reunited with a striker whose reputation has suffered in recent years but is still Belgium’s all-time top scorer with 85 goals in 119 appearances.

Conte said in a press conference on Thursday that Lukaku will be selected in the Napoli squad for Saturday’s home match with Parma “as loss as he doesn’t have any (physical) problems”.

Napoli are trying to bounce back from a dreadful league title defence last term in which they went through three managers and finished 10th.

Lukaku has been brought in as part of that rebuilding process and as a replacement for want-away star forward Victor Osimhen who is reportedly considering a move to Saudi Arabia as no European club has offered enough for Napoli to sell.

Napoli currently sits 11th in Serie A after a crushing defeat at Verona and convincing win over Bologna in their first two matches of the new season.

AFP

Former Arsenal goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny has announced his retirement from professional football.

Szczesny, who last played for Juventus, broke the news in a lengthy statement on his Instagram account on Tuesday.

The Poland goalkeeper retired from professional football at the age of 34.

He was released from his contract with Juventus at the end of last season.

Szczesny recently played for Poland at this 2024 European Championship in Germany.

“I left Warsaw, my hometown in June of 2006 to join Arsenal with one dream – to make a living out of football,” Szczesny said, announcing his decision to retire from football.

“I didn’t just realise my dreams, I’ve arrived where my imagination wouldn’t even dare to take me.

“Today, though my body still feels ready for challenges, my heart is not there anymore. Therefore, I have decided to retire from professional football.”

Global football icon Cristiano Ronaldo has shattered another record, becoming the fastest to ever reach 16 million subscribers on YouTube.

Ronaldo’s YouTube channel was announced on Wednesday around 2 p.m., and in a stunning display of his global appeal, he hit the 10 million subscriber mark in less than 12 hours—a milestone that took popular YouTuber MrBeast 132 days to achieve.

Checks by PUNCH Online reveal that by Thursday, Ronaldo’s YouTube channel had skyrocketed to 16 million subscribers, whom he playfully refers to as “SIUUUbscribers,” inspired by his iconic “Siuuuu” goal celebration.

Ronaldo’s rapid rise on YouTube further cements his status as one of the world’s most influential figures across social media.

His massive following extends beyond YouTube, with 636 million followers on Instagram, 107 million on Facebook, and 112.6 million on X (formerly Twitter), showcasing his unparalleled digital presence.

Nigeria’s women U-19 cricket team, otherwise known as the Junior Female Yellow Greens, are having an extended time to prepare for their upcoming 2025 U-19 T20 World Cup Qualifiers following the rearrangement of the tournament in Kigali, Rwanda, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The tournament is the second edition and will be played from January 8 to February 2, 2025, in Malaysia, featuring 16 teams.

Nigeria were initially billed to play in a two-group tournament of seven teams each, but the late inclusion of Zimbabwe resulted in the withdrawal of the top four sides from the series to form another division.

By their rankings, Junior Female Yellow Greens are now pitted in Division 1 of the Africa Qualifiers, which got underway in Rwanda on Wednesday with seven countries (Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone) facing one another in a single round-robin format in Division 2.

Nigeria, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe make up the strong field for Division 1, which will be played from September 23 to 29 in Kigali, Rwanda. They will be joined by the top two teams from the second division for the final tournament.

The winner of the Division 1 qualifier will pick Africa’s second ticket to the tournament in Malaysia.

They will join hosts of the previous edition, South Africa, New Zealand, and new entrants, Samoa, in Group C of the World Cup finals.

The Nigerian team have been training at the Nigeria Cricket Federation’s High Performance Centre in Benin City, Edo State, and will be in Lagos to finalise their preparations before departing for Rwanda.

Fulham manager, Marco Silva, has reacted to their 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Friday night.

Silva’s men began the new Premier League campaign with defeat at Old Trafford.

The visitors missed a couple of chances to score and were ultimately punished by substitute Joshua Zirkzee.

Zirkzee converted Alejandro Garnacho’s cross in the 88th minute, to grab all three points for Erik ten Hag’s men.

“We started well and had good counter-attacks to score. We adjusted things at half-time and the second half was much better.

“We had good moments, two against one, we should have done better.

“The main thing for us was to keep the emotional control. When the game becomes open we should have kept the balance and kept compact. But in those moments we lost emotional control and that allowed them to score.

“The game was open and broken, we tried to rush our decisions. Many times we started to lose the ball too quickly. We let the game go too emotional and we didn’t want that,” Silva said.