NFF settles with Paul le Guen as New Coach

The Nigerian Football Federation appoints French man Paul le Guen as the new Super Eagles coach,on the recommendation of the Nigerian Football Federation technical committee.

The 52-year-old  former Paris Saint Germain coach succeeds Sunday Oliseh, who left the post after his failed expedition at the 2016 African Nations Championship.

He will be assisted by Salisu Yusuf , Imama Amapakabo and Alloy Aguwho will serve as goalkeeper trainer.

Paul Le Guen had a brief spell in Africa when he took charge of the Indomitable lions of Cameroon in 2009 and took them to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Most recently, he was in charge of the Oman National team where he took them to the 2015 AFC Asain Cup.

His first challenge will be  against Tanzania in the 2017 African Nations Cup qualifier in September. 

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Good morning good people. Hope you all prayed for Nigeria this morning.
I'm sure most of us have participated in the daily ritual of going through our phones to see what issues have made news since yesterday.

Not much has happened really, our Edo uncles are still at it; but we won't get on their case, they're starting to look like school girls craving attention.

What's bigger news is Adele dropping another track off her upcoming album. The song, "when we were young" will take you down memory lane; one reviewer even said it will burst your heart open. Let's just keep calm and remember its just a song and refrain from poking the past in the backside (like you did with Hello) although I'm quite sure there won't be a" when we were young challenge". More importantly, it further buttresses what we've known for some time now, Adele is good.

The most interesting news item to me this morning is the #20000(twenty thousand Naira) paid to our world conquering Golden Eaglets. To further spread salt on such injury is the $40000 Governor Nyesom Wike would have to pay the Super Eagles as he promised, for scoring two goals against Swaziland.
This is a very funny country, our president recently promised to redeem the promise made to the Eaglets team that won us the first U17 title on 1985. Guess who was Head of State at that time. Although it can be said that it happened for unavoidable reasons, the President is just set to redeem his own promise 30 years later.
So what do we expect the Eaglets to do with #20000 (it's not even enough for a plane ticket to take them home). They certainly deserve more, and perhaps Gov. Wike could have made better use of his money by spending it on a more deserving set of people.

Back to the world stage, it's no more news that a potential cracker of a match between the National teams of Germany and Netherlands had to be cancelled yesterday due to a bomb threat. This is coming days after the deadly Paris attacks that left hundreds dead. Luckily the cancellation of the game was a pre-emptive measure and no damage whatsoever occurred.

A few of us must have heard bits and pieces about a group simply known as" Anonymous". They declared war on ISIS few days ago with the promise to bring them down, and in that light they released some information about some purported members of the group. This development is truly welcome and much needed.

Finally, our own sons of Belial; I'm talking about Boko Haram struck again. Al Jazeera reports that a bombing occurred in a popular fruit market in the Jimeta area of Yola, Adamawa state of Nigeria. Let us pray for the dead who have successfully become statistics (again). And let's keep praying for Nigeria and the world.

PRE - GAME TALK ... YOU WANT TO READ THIS

It's one of those Saturdays again. I mean the good ones where no matter what you have to do, you will finish in time to catch your favourite team play in the EPL. There are a couple of things to do though, before the games begin. Some of them are, but not limited to the following

1. Talk to your family

We get carried away in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and seem to forget the people we're doing it all for. Asking questions is a good way to find out things you don't know. People are secretive, children more so; but willingness to ask them what is going on with them might just make them want to open up to you. My little cousin just asked me if I'm not going to check his books today (I do that every Saturday and he uses the opportunity to tell me the things that happened during the week at school). He's a very inspiring kid, and he's probably the reason I'm writing this post.

2. Fix things around the house.

Little things will always need repairs around the house and the Pre - football moments of Saturday present the perfect opportunity to get down and dirty and fix them. It might be a couple of minor electrical stuff like changing bulbs, socket heads and whatever. Just do it. Preferably with another family member. This provides bonding time and could be the mystery "Quality Time" everyone talks about.

3. Get some exercise

This should be top on the list. Health is key to enjoying life (plus its really good to keep fit and have a presentable body). I know I've not had any exercise in weeks, my cousin just asked "what are these red shoes for?" about my football boots, I spent about 7 minutes explaining the concept to him, but long story short, I need to take this piece of advice too.

4. Visit friends 

This needs no explanation. Visits help to build ties. Visit friends on Saturday, Sunday is for family (this is not a general rule, it's just my rule).

5. Get your hands on some sports news 

This is most important to me. Please do not be that annoying guy at the viewing center who argues like a blind idiot (sorry). Use your phone, buy sports papers; one way or the other, just make sure you don't come to say "when will Wenger use Van Persie now? What is wrong with the man?" (what is wrong with you).

6. Have a nice weekend and may the odds ever be in your favour.

YAYA TOURE BLASTS AFRICAN PLAYERS FOR LACKING HUNGER

Ivory Coast and Manchester City midfield maestro, Yaya Toure believes that African players need to exhibit more desire to show that they deserve to be at the top level of the Beautiful game.
Toure, 30, is in the running to win the African Footballer of the Year award for a fifth time after the list of nominees was cut to a 10-man shortlist earlier this week.
“I admit that I see too many of them acting casually,” he told France Football. “You’d say that they’re not always very hungry. Not hungry enough, for my taste. They’re not conscious enough of the effort required to get to the very top.
Of course it can go quite quickly at the start. Too quickly, without a doubt. But when it comes to climbing the final steps to get to the very top with [Lionel] Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, there’s no longer anyone left.”
Toure who is also the only African on the shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for the fourth year in a row continued by suggesting the problem was that players like himself, compatriot Didier Drogba, former Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o, Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien and ex-Nigeria attacker Jay-Jay Okocha had set the bar very high for those following them, He also believes the current crop could be lacking ambition.
“It’s possible,” he said. “They let themselves go too quickly sometimes. They’re in their world. They think they’ve arrived — the most beautiful, the strongest — but they don’t understand that there are other steps to climb to get to the top. Unfortunately a lot of them only see the good side in this job: easy money, girls, nights out, nice cars, nice clothes. They abandon the idea of catching the best too quickly. They don’t always know how to suffer.”
The former Barcelona player also believes nothing should stop players from targeting becoming the very best.
“There are no extraterrestrials among the best players on the planet,” he said. “Just guys who want it a lot more than the others. Everything starts from there — I’m convinced of that.”