Ideye makes premier league team of the week

Super Eagles and West Brom striker Brown Ideye has made the Barclays premier league team of the week after scoring twice and assisting once in two games.

In what could be seen as a sudden twist of fate, the player's fortune at the club has taken an all round shift less than a week after being linked with a move away from the Hawthorns.

West Brom's £10m striker, Ideye put up a quality display in Wednesday night's 2-0 victory for West Brom over Swansea, he scored a goal and created one and that performance earned him a debut appearance in the Barclays English Premier League team of the week.

Below is BPL Week 25, team of the week:

Goal keeper:

Robert Green (Queens Park Rangers)


Defenders:

Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)

Craig Dawson (West Brom)

Marcos Rojo (Manchester United)

Cheikhou Kouyat (West Ham)


Midfielders:

Mesut Ozil (Arsenal)

Samir Nasri (Manchester City)

Leroy Fer (Queens Park Rangers)

Nemanja Matic (Chelsea)


Forward:

Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspu)

Brown Ideye (West Brom)

Nigeria. step-up in Latest FIFA Ranking

Nigeria Super Eagles moved one place to 42 in the latest Coca-cola FIFA world ranking released today.

The three time African champions despite missing out on the 2015 AFCON tournament are ranked as the seventh best team on the continent behind Algeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tunisia, Cape-Verde and Senegal. Equitorial Guinea, Cameroon and DRCongo completes Africa top sides.

AFCON 2015 host Equitorial Guinea were the highest movers, as they climbed 118 places to become 49th best team in the world.

World champions Germany, Argentina and Colombia are the top three teams in the world.

The Boko-haram factor: Soldiers to escort Eaglets to Niamey

In order to avert any security breach from Boko Haram insurgence, a retinue of combined se­curity forces will today escort the 21-man Gold­en Eaglets with their coaches and officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) from Sokoto State to Niamey, Niger Republic for the Africa U-17 Champion­ship starting this week­end.

Fenerbahce boss praises 'brilliant' Emenike

Nigerian international Emmanuel Emenike put on a brilliant performance against Rizespor in the Turkish Cup according to Fenerbahçe head coach Ismail Kartal.
Fenerbahçe beat Rizespor 4-1 in the Turkish Cup Last 16 to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Liverpool target Enyeama

NIGERIA international Vincent Enyeama is the latest goalkeeper to be linked with a move to Liverpool.

Kop boss Brendan Rodgers is understood to be in the market for a new No.1 after axing Simon Mignolet earlier in the season.

Victor Moses now a proud father of two

Nigeria winger Victor Moses was excited to announce the birth of his new born baby girl named, Nyah. The Stoke City winger took to social network to disclose the birth of his second child after the Potters game against Newcastle United yesterday.

He said " Also delighted to announce the birth of my beautiful baby girl Nyah yesterday. Thanks for all of your messages."

The 24-year old is now a father of two, his first a male name Brentley Moses born in september 2012.

Stoke City played out a 1-1 draw with Newcastle at the St James Park with Petr Crouch canceling Jack Colback's early strike for the host.

Throw Back Pick Monday: Tijani Babangida

Tijani Babangida in action for the Super Eagles of Nigeria against Denmark at the 1998 FIFA world cup in France. He scored Nigeria's only goal of the match as the Eagles were eliminated from the mundial.

The former Ajax winger made four appearances in total at the tournament.

The Elephants, new king of African Football

Ivory Coast beat Ghana 9-8 in a penalty shootout in the Africa Cup of Nations final in Bata, Equatorial Guinea.

It was Ivory Coast’s second continental title and almost a repeat of the 1992 final when they defeated Ghana on penalties in Dakar, Senegal, when the shoot-out ended 11-10.

Musa, Ighalo, Eduok, Simon all on target in Europe

Nigerian winger, Ahmed Musa scored yet again for CSKA Moscow as the Army club lost a friendly game to city rivals, Torpedo Moscow.

Musa netted in the 31st minute as CSKA lost 1-2 to Torpedo but will be happy at his new found form in front of goal.

Kalu Uche on target in Levante Win

Nigerian attacking midfielder, Kalu Uche, was among the goals as Levante coasted to a 4-1 win over Malaga at the Ciutat de Valencia on Saturday.

Imoh Ezekiel scores in Standard Liege Return

Super Eagles forward Imoh Ezekiel stirred Standard Liege emotions and rekindled misty-eyed memories of his two and half year stay at the club as he scored his first goal since returning to Belgium in their 3-0 win against Mouscron-Peruwelz.

Ezekiel doubled Ivan Vukomanovic's side's lead in the 21st minute after Mehdi
Carcela-Gonzalez had given the home team the lead in the 10th minute.

The 21 year old who is on loan from Qatari side Al Arabi found the back of net 29 times in 79 starts during his first stint with the club.

Inter name Joel Obi in revised Europa league squad

Nigeria midfielder Joel Obi will still feature in this season’s Europa League for Inter Milan as he was picked by coach Roberto Mancini in a revised squad list.

Obi holds an Italian passport and so was listed as a local player and has been handed the No. 20 jersey.

Mancini announced a 25-man squad midweek and there were some changes because of the moves Inter did in the winter transfer market.

Here is the full player list:

1 Samir Handanovic
2 Jonathan
5 Juan Jesus
6 Marco Andreolli (local player A)
8 Rodrigo Palacio
9 Mauro Icardi (local player B)
10 Mateo Kovacic
13 Fredy Guarin
14 Hugo Campagnaro
15 Nemanja Vidic
17 Zdravko Kuzmanovic
18 Gary Medel
20 Joel Obi (local player A)
21 Davide Santon (local player A)
22 Dodò
23 Andrea Ranocchia (local player B)
24 Giacomo Sciacca (local player A)
28 George Puscas
30 Juan Pablo Carrizo
33 Danilo D'Ambrosio (local player B)
46 Tommaso Berni (local player B)
54 Isaac Donkor (local player A)
55 Yuto Nagatomo
88 Hernanes
91 Xherdan Shaqiri
92 Enrico Baldini (youth list B)
93 Federico Dimarco (youth list B)
94 Guy Eloge Koffi Yao (youth list B)
95 Davide Costa (youth list B)
96 Andrea Palazzi (youth list B)
97 Federico Bonazzoli (youth list B)

Elephants, Black Stars square up in Afcon final

Ghana moved a step closer to ending their 33-year wait for another Africa Cup of Nations title after defeating hosts Equatorial Guinea 3-0 in the 2015 tournament’s second semifinal, played in Malabo on Thursday night.

Untapped Resources: Meet the young Nigerian voted player of the week in Belgium

The Belgian league used to be the haven of Nigerian players, with Joseph Akpala then of Club Brugge and Imoh Ezekiel then with Anderletch the most recent.  

Emenike finally breaks goal drought after Undergoing Turkish Ritual

Super Eagles forward, Emmanuel Emenike, found the back of the net for the first time in ten games scoring Fenerbache's second goal in their 2-1 victory over Karabukspor after undergoing a Turkish ritual.