Keshi must not coach Nigeria again

Stephen Okechukwu Keshi is a man that shouldn't go near any Nigerian soccer bench. After winning the 2013 edition of the African cup of Nations in South Africa, a steady fall was noticed in the performance of the team.

Just a month after the continental victory, Nigeria forced Kenya to a 1-1 draw in a World cup qualifier that was played in Calabar in March 2013.

The team have lacked coordination ever since February 2013. The team had a poor performance at the FIFA Confederations cup in Brazil where they lost 2 of their 3 group games.

After managing to overcome Ethiopia,Kenya and Namibia ensure route Brazil 2014 World cup, the Eagles lost a couple of friendlies against Greece, USA and Jordan.

The 2015 Nations  cup qualifier started in September with Nigeria losing at home to Congo Brazaville by 3-2. A goalless draw against South Africa and a 1-0 loss to Sudan made it almost impossible for the team to book a place at the AFCON 2015 tournament.

Victories over Sudan in Calabar and a 2-0 away win over Congo Brazaville revived the hopes of Nigerian fans,  but a shocking 2-2 home draw nailed the coffin on the crooked Super Eagles team.

It's still unclear  why Keshi decided to invite Emmanuel Emenike who had failed to score an international goal since February 2013.

Kenneth Omeruo was forced to play the match in Uyo despite having an injury. Azubuike Egwueke had been a suspect in the Nigerian defence for a long time and Keshi paid dearly for it as the South Africans got an impressive draw.

Nigeria's president actually facilitated the return of Keshi after NFF had failed to extend his contract.

Nigeria crash out of 2015 Nations cup race

The Bafana Bafana of South Africa have denied the Super Eagles of Nigeria a place at Equatorial Guinea 2015 in Uyo, Nigeria.

South Africa had earlier won the group before playing their final qualification match in Nigeria, but the African champions failed to capitalise on home advantage as they played out a 2-2 draw at the Nest of champions stadium.
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The visitors took the lead in the 42nd minute after Nigeria had missed several chances. Ahmed Musa rattled the crossbar in the early minutes of the encounter.

The free flowing style of play exhibited by the South Africans unsettled the sluggish and weak Nigerian defence line.
The quartet of Juwon Oshaniwa,Azubuike Egwueke, Kenneth Omeruo and Efe Ambrose couldn't prevent the 1996 champions from claiming a point in Uyo.

Omatsone Aluko scored a brace to earn Nigeria a 2-2 draw at home.

Stephen Keshi was earlier sacked by the Nigerian Football Federation after a poor showing in the first four matches of the campaign.

The team eventually finished 3rd with 8 points from 6 games.

The strong headed Keshi refused to invite top Nigerian players like Victor Anichebe, Chinedu Ogbuke and Sammy Amoebi.

The defending champions won't be in Equatorial Guinea between January 19th and February 2015.

NFF fires Stephen Keshi

The executive board of the Nigerian football federation has relieved Stephen Keshi of his job. The ex international took over the mantle of the Super Eagles gaffer in December 2011 after the nation failed to book a ticket to the AFCON 2012 tournament.

Nigeria won the African cup of nations under his tutelage in a tournament that was hosted in South Africa last year. The team laboured to go beyond the group stage of the tournament after playing draw against Burkina Faso and Zambia.

Victor Moses scored a brace in their last group match against Ethiopia before the team went on to claim the African title for the first time in 19 years.

In June 2013, Nigeria participated at the FIFA Confederations cup that was held in Brazil. The team beat Tahiti by 6-1, but lost their games against Spain and Uruguay.

The NFF decided to appoint a technical adviser that will assist Keshi, but the former Togo manager, rejected the offer as he claimed that there was no need to get a foreign assistance.

Sylvanus Okpala that assisted him had been fired by the board due to financial and disciplinary issues.

                                    Where did Keshi go wrong?
Stephen Keshi was at loggerheads with the top players in the team. He accused players like Ikechukwu Uche, Peter Odemwingie and Obafemi Martins of indiscipline and lack of commitment.

Uche's case was more pronounced because of his scintillating form in the Spanish league, but he was ignored by Keshi.

The manager refused to update his knowledge and his lack of technical depth affected the team's performance against established sides like USA, Greece, Scotland and Ireland.

Keshi also led the home based team to the third place at CHAN 2014 event. He chose a 3rd choice goal keeper in a club as the national team's first choice at the mundial. He eventually conceded 8 goals.

His poor tactics also led him to replace an injured Elderson Echiejile with a midfielder.

Finally, his poor form in the AFCON 2015 qualifiers where his wards picked just 4 points from a possible 12 nailed his coffin.

The Super Eagles can still make it to Morocco 2015 if they beat Congo Brazaville and South Africa in November.

Fear of ebola threatens AYC Qualifier

The football association of Lesotho seems to have pulled the country's under 20 national team out of the scheduled African Youth Championship qualifier against Nigeria.

The ebola virus disease that is currently ravaging some parts of West Africa is the reason for this decision. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have recorded over 1000 deaths in the last few months while Nigeria have witnessed the death of 3 citizens in Lagos. The citizens died after having contact with Patrick Sawyer who died from the same disease. The Liberian flew to Lagos with the disease.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian football federation has claimed that they have not received any official notice from Lesotho. The two countries were billed to play the first leg tie of the final qualifying round for the 2015 African Youth Championship.

Some members of the flying Eagles of Nigeria were part of the under 17 team that won the FIFA World Youth Championship in 2013.
The venue for the proposed match is the Ahmadu Bello stadium in Kaduna,Nigeria.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to decide on the overall winner of the tie if Lesotho should boycott the match on Sunday 17th August,2014.

FIFA hammer dangles on Nigeria

Unless there's a last minute resolution of the recurring crisis in Nigerian football, the reigning African champions will be hammered by FIFA. 

A possible ban for an unspecified period may be placed on the West African country.
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The administrator of a club known as Nembe City took the Nigerian football federation to court and got an injunction to sack the entire board. His name is Robson Baribote.
The order instructed the sports minister to appoint a sole administrator to manage the affairs of Nigerian football pending the final court judgement to be delivered on 11th July, 2014.

On his arrival from Brazil,  the NFF president was arrested by the police and quizzed for several hours before being released later in the day. The police wanted to know how the government fund was spent on the World campaign of the country.

FIFA has now instructed the Nigerian government to reinstall the board members of NFF not later than 8th July, 2014. Failure to do so may force the Zurich based association to ban Nigeria from taking part in international football.

The state FAs have  finally sacked the entire board of the Nigerian Football Federation after passing a vote of no confidence on the Aminu Maigari led body. An electoral committee has been inaugurated to oversee elections in August.

Messi and Musa score twice as Ecuador crashes out of Brazil 2014

Lionel Messi and Ahmed Musa both scored braces for their countries in Argentina's 3-2 win over Nigeria on Wednesday afternoon. The four times World best player scored his first goal of the game in the third minute. The Barcelona forward fired a loose ball into the net after Nigerian defenders failed to clear Angel Di Maria's shot.

A minute later, Ahmed Musa scored the equaliser for the reigning African champions. He received a pass from Michael Babatunde and curled in a shot round Romero that was in goal for the Argentines.

Messi made it 2-1 to Argentina shortly before the end of the first half. He curled a free kick over the defence wall and into the far corner of the Nigerian net.

Musa scored his brace within the opening minutes of the second half when he ran in between Argentine defenders before sending Romero the wrong way.

Rojo scored the winner for Argentina when the ball came off his knee after a corner kick was taken.

Argentina will face Switzerland in the round of 16 while Nigeria will meet France.

In group E, Ecuador were knocked out of the World cup after playing a goalless draw against France. The South Americans finished third in the group with 4 points.

Brazil 2014 World cup weekend review 2

Crunching fixtures were placed across different match centres at the ongoing FIFA World cup in Brazil. Costa Rica continued their Cinderella run by recording a 1-0 victory over Italy in Recife. The Central Americans are now on top of group D with six points.
Mario Balotelli missed several scoring chances in that encounter while Buffon couldn't have a clean sheet on his return from injury.

Group E

Arena Fonte Nova stadium was the venue of the seven goal thriller between Switzerland and France. Didier Deschamps' men were very dominant throughout the game. Olivier Giroud scored the first goal for the 1998 champions before Valbuena,Sissoko and Karim Benzema added their goals. Benzema also missed a penalty in the first half.

The Swiss side scored two consolatory goals as the scoreline ended 5-2. France are now on top of group E with 6 points from two matches. Honduras were beaten 2-1 by Ecuador in an entertaining match that took place at the Arena de Baixada in Curitiba.

Group F
Argentina struggled to edge Iran by a lone goal in a match that was played at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte. The two time World champions laboured to break down a resolute Iranian defence for 90 minutes. Carlos Quieroz's Asian team were denied penalties by the centre referee. Romero was called into action on some few occasions as the Persian team tried to create an upset, but a last minute moment of magic from Lionel Messi was enough for Argentina to claim all the three points at stake.

Sabella's team are currently on top of the group standings with 6 points.

The Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba was the host venue for the encounter between Nigeria and Bosnia&Herzegovina. The African side recorded their first win in 16 years by claiming a controversial victory over Bosnia. Peter Odemwingie scored the only goal of the game in the 29th minute of action after Emmanuel Emenike has out-muscled a Bosnian defender on the right wing.

Edin Dzeko's goal was erroneously ruled out for offside. The Manchester City striker was furious after the match and alleged that the referee robbed his team of victory. Nigeria are now second in the group with 4 points.

Group G
Germany and Ghana played a 2-2 draw in Fortaleza. The encounter took place at the Estadio Castelao where Germany took the lead through a header from Mario Gotze. Andre Ayew equalised for Ghana before Gyan Asamoah put the African team in front the second half. Joachim Loew's German team were on the brink of suffering a shock defeat before Miroslav Klose came off the bench to equalise for the Germans. Klose has now equalled Ronaldo da Lima's 15 goal record in the World cup. The Germans are now on 4 points.

On Sunday night, Portugal scored a last minute goal to deny USA  a memorable win. Nani's 5th minute goal seems to be the motivation that Bento's team needed to erase the memories of their 4-0 demolition against Germany, but the American scored two second half goals through Jermaine Jones and Clint Dempsey. The American were less than 10 seconds away from victory, but Cristiano Ronaldo provided a nice cross that was nodded into the back of the net. Portugal are at the bottom of the group.

Group H
Belgium booked their place in the last 16 of the tournament after a 1-0 win over Russia. Marc Wilmots' team was unconvincing throughout the match, but they managed to get a late goal and they are now through to the first knockout stage of Brazil 2014. The Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro was the venue of the match,

The other group match ended in a 4-2 win for Algeria. The desert foxes of Algeria defeated South Korea at the Estadio Beira Rio in Porto Alegre. The victory was the first World cup success for the North African team in 32 years. The team now have 3 points and they are second behind Belgium.

Results 

Italy 0-1 Costa Rica

Switzerland 2-5 France

Honduras 1-2 Ecuador

Argentina 1-0 Iran

Germany 2-2 Ghana

Nigeria 1-0 Bosnia

Belgium 1-0 Russia

Algeria 4-2 South Korea

Portugal 2-2 USA

Clueless Nigeria draws again

The boring and clueless Super Eagles of Nigeria were involved in another draw against Iran at the on going FIFA World cup in Brazil.

The team drew against Mexico, Scotland and Greece in their pre tournament games before losing by 2-1 against USA.

The uninspiring African champions didn't play like a team that had a game plan or a reputable manager despite dominating the possession by 70%.

Victor Moses showed that he has not been in action for a larger part of the season.

John Mikel Obi was a boring midfielder that seems to have lost interest in football while Ahmed Musa failed to make use of his pace.
Godfrey Oboabona got injured after 30 minutes of action and he was replaced by Joseph Yobo.

The Iranians had just one shot on goal throughout the encounter.  Shola Amoebi came in to replace Moses.

Carlos Quieroz set up his team to defend while Keshi showed his lack of technical ability. Peter Odemwingie was introduced into the match towards the end of the game.

The Stoke City striker showed why he shouldn't be left on the bench, but it was too late for him to rescue Nigeria from getting all the three points at stake.

The Nigerian Football Federation should start thinking of getting a coach with a better technical ability.

Final score: Iran 0-0 Nigeria

Nigeria lands in Sao Paulo

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The reigning African champions played four friendly matches in the build up to the biggest soccer fiesta. Stephen Keshi's men played goalless draws against Mexico and Greece before losing 2-1 to the United States of America.

Nigeria also played a 2-2 draw against Scotland at the Craven Cottage.

The Super Eagles has been training in Florida for about 5 days before they left Miami on Tuesday morning. Elderson Echiejile of AS Monaco of France didn't travel with the team due to injury. The former Sporting Braga defender was dropped from the World cup squad after he sustained an injury before the match against USA.

Ejike Uzoenyi is expected to join the team in Brazil as a replacement for Echiejile. Uzoenyi was the most valuable player of the African Championship of Nations in South Africa. The former Enugu Rangers player reportedly wept profusely after he was dropped from the initial 23 man list.

Nigeria's first group F match will be on June 16th in Curitiba. The team will meet Iran for the first time in 16 years. The only previous meeting ended in a 1-0 win for the African team.

African champions will leave Sao Paulo for Curitiba where they will aim to record their first World cup win since 1998.

World cup friendly round ups

As the Brazil 2014 FIFA World cup draws near, teams around the world are getting set for the biggest soccer fiesta on the planet by engaging one another international friendly matches.

England and Honduras played out a goalless draw in a match that was interrupted by electric storms.

Nigeria's group F opponent, Iran defeated Trinidad and Tobago by 2-0 while Belgium edged Tunisia by a lone goal in Brussels.

Super Eagles falter again.
African champions, Nigeria succumbed to a 2-1 defeat in Jacksonville,Florida. The 2013 African champions have not won a competitive match since a 1-0 win over Zimbabwe in January.

Steven Keshi's men were beaten by the United States soccer team that was led by Jurgen Klinsmann. The Nigerians dominated the game in terms of ball possession, but they failed to break down the US defence. Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore created so many problems for the sluggish Nigerian back four. After half an hour, the US took the lead via Altidore.

After the restart, the Nigerian team ran out of ideas after some substitutions were made. Michael Babatunde,John Mikel Obi and Shola Amoebi were some of the players that made way for others at half time.

Altidore doubled the lead after 62 minutes of action. The Sunderland player capitalized on the unreliable Joseph Yobo and made it 2-0. A late penalty was converted by Victor Moses as Tim Howard marked his centenary debut with a 2-1 win for the US team.

Nigeria drew goalless against Mexico and Greece and managed to play a 2-2 draw against Scotland.
The team's first group match will be on June 16 when they face Iran. Bosnia & Herzegovina  and Argentina are the other two teams in group F.

The Americans are placed in the same group with Portugal,Germany and Ghana.

RESULTS
France 8-0 Jamaica
Trinidad 0-2 Iran
San Marino 0-3 Albania
Argentina 2-0 Slovenia
Belgium 1-0 Tunisia
Cameroon 1-0 Moldova
Colombia 3-0 Jordan
Costa Rica 1-1 Ireland
Croatia 1-0 Australia
El Salvador 0-2 Spain
Greece 2-1 Bolivia
Mexico 0-1 Portugal
Japan 4-3 Zambia
Hungary 3-0 Kazakhstan

Nigeria record victories in African football qualifiers

The Flying Eagles of Nigeria recorded a 6-1 aggregate victory over the U-20 team of Tanzania in an under 20 African Youth Championship qualifier that was played in Kaduna. The Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Northern Nigeria was filled to capacity.

Some of the stars of the country's under 17 team that won the 2013 FIFA World Youth Championship in UAE are now in the nation's under 20 team. Kelechi Iheanacho,Musa Yahaya and Sunday Awoniyi played against the Tanzanians. The team won the first keg by 2-0 in Dar-es-Salaam a fortnight ago.

The Manu Garba tutored side will now face the winner of the match between Lesotho and Angola in August.

Meanwhile, the nation's senior women team, Super Falcons also recorded an emphatic 4-1 away victory against Rwanda on Saturday. The six time champions of Africa defeated their hosts in Ginyeng. Nigeria will host the second leg of the match on June 7, 2014. The winner of the tie will proceed to the 9th African Women Championship to be hosted by Senegal this September.

Nigeria and Brazil 2014 World cup

The reigning African champions-Nigeria have been grouped with Argentina, Bosnia and Iran ahead of this year's FIFA world cup in the Samba nation.

Brazil remains the most successful team in World football. The South American country have won five World cups and appeared at every edition of the mundial since 1930.

Nigeria will lead four other countries to Brazil 2014 as African champions. This is the second time the West African country of about 170 million will be doing so after they emerged as champions of the continent in 1994.

Nigeria got to the summit of African football by winning the African cup of nations in 2013. The Super Eagles also became the first African team to book a place in Brazil after a 4-1 aggregate win over Ethiopia.

The supporters club of the country has given Stephen Keshi's men the mandate of playing in the semi final.
The football federation has also hinted that the team must go beyond the second round of the tournament.

Nigeria had disastrous outings in 2002 and 2010 when the team failed to scale through the preliminary rounds. 

The top players of the squad are currently finding it difficult to feature regularly for their clubs.

Mikel Obi has been warming the bench since December while Victor Moses has almost become a ball boy at Liverpool. Players like Shola Amoebi, Elderson Echiejile and Godfrey Oboabona are also bench warmers in their respective clubs.

One wonders how Stephen Keshi will be able to get a killer squad that can beat a Bosnian team inspired by Edin Dzeko or a star studded Argentine team.

The 'Albaceleste' of Argentina are currently enjoying scintillating performances from their players in Europe. Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Javier Pastore, Ezekiel Lavezzi, Zabaleta and others are doing well.
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Stephen Keshi should recall Peter Odemwingie and try to replace Ahmed Musa with Ejike Uzoenyi. These two players combined with Ogenyi Onazi(Lazio), Kelechi Iheanacho, Emmanuel Emenike, Kenneth Omeruo(Middlesbrough), Chinedu Obasi (Schalke 04) and Vincent Enyeama (Lille) should form the backbone of the final 23 man list that will be in Brazil.

Keshi has made the team one of the best squads to look out for in June.

USA to host Nigeria in a pre-world cup tournament

The United States of America will host the reigning African champions and seven other nations in a pre-world cup tournament in May.

Nigeria emerged as African champions after lifting the CAF African cup of nations title in South Africa last year. The Super Eagles also became the first African team to qualify for Brazil 2014 after a 2-0 win over Ethiopia in Calabar.

Bosnia,Spain and five other nations will make up an eight team international tournament. Bosnia and Nigeria are in the same group at the forthcoming FIFA World cup in Brazil.

It is being speculated that the MLS (Major League Soccer) is the main organiser of this competition. There is also a rumoured report that the USA will play a friendly match against Nigeria before the world cup. An official of the US Soccer association stated that he couldn't confirm if Nigeria and USA will be involved an a FIFA-sanctioned friendly match.

The Brazil 2014 world cup will commence in June,2014.

CHAN 2014 Quarter final review

The quarter final stage of the on going African Nations Championship has been completed. The four teams that qualified for the semi final of the tournament are Nigeria,Zimbabwe,Libya and Ghana.

Morocco vs Nigeria*

The first match was played in Cape Town on Saturday between Nigeria and Morocco. Prior to that fixture the Moroccans were unbeaten in the competition after finishing as group B winners with 5 points. The North Africans defeated Uganda by 3-1 in their last group match while Nigeria were second best in group A.
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The last group match ended in a 3-1 win in favour of the reigning African Cup of Nations(AFCON) which they won in 2013.

Morocco took a 3-0 lead in the first half of the quarter final match before Nigeria bounced back in the second half to make it 3-3.

Ibrahim Abdulsalam scored Nigeria's winning goal in the second period of extra time to book a place in the last 4.


                                               Mali vs Zimbabwe*
The Eagles of Mali lost by 2-1 to Zimbabwe in the second quarter final match. Mali finished as group A winners by getting a total of 7 points while Zimbabwe finished second in group B.

Zimbabwe scored a goal in either half and were almost hitting the 360th minute mark without conceding a goal until the Malians scored what turned out to be a consolation goal.

AFCON trophy being held by Nigeria

                                       *Gabon vs Libya

Gabon played a 1-1 draw during the regulation and extra time duration of the match. The central African nation bounced back from 1-0 goal deficit to level the scores at 1-1 through a second half penalty. The match was highly entertaining as both sides gave nothing short of their best.

Libya went ahead to qualify for the semi final with a 5-3 victory during penalties. They will meet Zimbabwe on Wednesday 29th January in the first semi final clash of the day.

                                          *Ghana vs DR Congo

The 2011 finalists-Ghana were clear favourites to win and they didn't disappoint their fans as they defeated a highly charged Congolese team. The Congolese side threw everything they had at the Ghanaians,but they failed to get a goal. They had plenty of chances to equalize, but they were wasteful in front of goal.

CHAN 2014 Review

The  African Nations Championship(CHAN) kicked off in South Africa on Saturday 11th January 2014. The biennial event was inaugurated in 2009 to enhance the development of African football. This tournament is meant for players that are based in their country's local leagues. Any player that is playing in another African league apart from his country of origin is not eligible to partake in this competition. For example, a Nigerian player that is on the payroll of a Tunisian club won't be allowed to play in this kind of competition.

The idea of having a "nations cup for home based players" is to give such people the chance to gather international exposure and serve as a breeding ground to raise formidable senior national teams.

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The 2013 edition was postponed to 2014 after the Confederation of African Football(CAF) switched the African cup of nations to odd-number years.

In the opening match of South Africa 2014, the host nation defeated Mozambique by 3-1. Parker scored a brace for the rainbow nation after the visitors had taken the lead through a deflected effort in the first half.

In the other group A match, Mali overcame Nigeria by 2-1 in Cape Town. The Nigerians are debutants at this tournament after the failed to qualify for the previous two editions. Gbolahan Salami of Shooting Stars FC scored the consolatory goal for Nigeria after the Malians had taken a 2-0 lead. Stephen Keshi's team was depleted after players Sunday Mba and Godfrey Oboabona left for greener pastures just before the end of 2013. The country also withdrew from West African Football Union(WAFU) cup in December. That competition would have served as a perfect preparation for Nigeria.

On Sunday, Zimbabwe and Morocco played a goalless draw in group B, while Uganda defeated Burkina Faso by 2-1. Ghana overcame Congo-Brazzaville by 1-0 on Monday before Libya dispatched the antelopes of Ethiopia by 2-0 in the second group C match.

In group D, Democratic Republic of Congo beat Mauritania by a lone goal at the Peter Mokoba stadium in Polokwane. The Congolese scored the only goal of the game in the second half. In the last match of the first round of group matches, Gabon and Burundi played a dull goalless draw at the same venue.

Nigeria dominates at Glo-CAF awards

The Super Eagles of Nigeria was named as the African national team of the year. The World's most populous black nation won the African nations cup title in South Africa.

Stephen Keshi was named as the coach of the year for leading Nigeria to a successful outing at South Africa 2013. He also led his team to qualify for Brazil 2014 World cup and championship of African nations.
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Kelechi Iheanacho was adjudged as the promising talent of the year. The young Nigerian player was the best footballer at the FIFA under 17 world cup in UAE.

The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria was named as the young team of the year for winning the under 17 World cup.

Nigerian supporters club won the fair play award of the year for their tremendous support for Nigerian teams in 2013.

Vincent Enyeama, Mikel Obi and Emmanuel Emenike made Africa's best XI of the year while Goodluck Jonathan won the platinum award for his contribution to Nigeria's success in 2013.

Sunday Mba came second in the African based player of the year award while John Mikel Obi was the runner up for the player of the year award.

Mikel to win African player of the year

John Mikel Obi is expected to be named as the African player of the year 2013 later on Thursday. The Chelsea midfielder was the best performer from Africa in the out gone year. He was instrumental to the success of the Super Eagles of Nigeria at the African cup of nations in South Africa.

He also won the UEFA Europa league with Chelsea in May. Mikel was also pivotal to the qualification of Nigeria for the Brazil 2014 World cup. He scored a spectacular goal against Uruguay at the FIFA confederations cup.
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Mikel is currently on a good form and he has gone beyond stabilising the Chelsea midfield. He has scored twice in the current season.

Yaya Toure is the current African player of the year, but he didn't achieve anything for both club and country. Manchester City and Cote d'Ivoire didn't win any title in 2013.

The same can also be said about Didier Drogba who failed to achieve anything in 2013.

The award winner will be unveiled at the Glo-CAF awards in Lagos, Nigeria. Mikel will be in attendance at the Eko Hotel and suites on Victoria Island.

Enyeama extends clean sheet in France

Vincent Enyeama of Lille recorded his eight consecutive clean sheet in the French Ligue 1. The Nigerian international goal keeper prevented his team from conceding a goal against Toulouse.

The Nigerian keeper has now recorded 11 clean sheets in 13 matches. He was named as the player of the month of October in France while CAF nominated him for Africa's best player award for 2013.

Nigeria held by Italy in London

The Super Eagles of Nigeria were held to a 2-2 draw by Italy in London. The reigning African champions had just booked their place at Brazil 2014 world cup 48 hours before the match.

The international friendly that was played at the Craven Cottage started with some early spells by the Nigerians but the Cesare Prandelli side scored their first goal in the 11th minute through Guiseppe Rossi.

Mario Balotelli was able to turn in the box 18 before releasing Rossi who was clearly unmarked. The Villareal striker fired the ball into an empty net.

The Nigerians absorbed the pressure and started dominating the fixture. In the 35th Shola Amoebi delivered a fine cross and Bright Dike nodded the ball into the net. The goal lifted the African champions and they went in front five minutes later.

Amoebi sidefooted after receiving a pass from the left flank of the Super Eagles. The Nigerians went into half time as the better team.

After the restart,Andrea Pirlo and Diamanti were introduced into the game. The Italians got an equaliser in a move that also involved Mario Ballotelli.

Austin Ejide sustained an injury after denying Parolo the chance to make it 3-2. Vincent Enyeama,Emmanuel Emenike and Ahmed Musa replaced Ejide,Dike and Victor Moses. There was no other goal from both sides but the Italians called Enyeama into action on many occasions. Parolo,Pirlo and Balotelli all forced him to make world-class saves.

Emmanuel Emenike and John Ogu also drew some top saves from the Italian keeper.

Nigeria can now look ahead to a promising 2014 football calendar.

Eagles qualifies for Brazil 2014 world cup

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have qualified for the 20th edition of the FIFA world cup in 2014. The reigning African champions defeated the 'Walya Antelopes' of Ethiopia at the UJ Esuene stadium in Calabar.

The Nigerians started the game by trying to score an early goal. Emmanuel Emenike should have put Stephen Keshi's men in front after six minutes. He received the ball in the penalty box but his tame shot was saved by Basa. The Ethiopian keeper went to save shots on goal that came from Ogenyi Onazi.

In the 20th minute, an Ethiopian defender handled the ball in the penalty area and Victor Moses converted from the spot to make it 1-0.

The Super Eagles slowed down the pace of the game for the remaining part of the first half.

Brown Ideye missed a couple of chances and failed to make a reasonable impact in the Nigerian attack.

After the restart, the Nigerians approached the game with more seriousness. The Ethiopians tried to mount pressure on Nigeria in order to get an equaliser that never came.

Sunday Mba and Victor Nsofor came on to replace Brown Ideye and Victor Moses respectively.

Nsofor main contribution to the game was a trademark freekick that was scored in the 81st minute. The ex-Inter Milan player curled a free kick that went into the top corner of the Ethiopian goal.

Nigeria could have won 3-0,but Ahmed Musa missed an absolute sitter in the injury time. He hit the ball with his knee with the goal at his mercy.

Nigeria will now head to the Craven Cottage where they will take on the 'Azurris' of Italy in an international friendly match.