Is Etoo Joining Chelsea?

Samuel Fils Etoo (32), the Anzhi Makhachkala striker and Cameroon international may be leaving the ambitious and high spending Dagestan-Russia club with a couple of other stars of the club. Etoo has just indicated that he would be interested in joining Chelsea to reunite with his former coach, the Portuguese Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho wants to add a world class striker to his team, but has set his sight on Manchester United's want-away striker and England international, Wayne Rooney (27). Chelsea's second bid of €35m was rejected with the club's stance being that Rooney is not for sale.

Though Jose Mourinho, has stated publicly, that he will not give up on chasing the signature of Rooney until the transfer window closes at the end of the month, indications are that he may be also discretely looking elsewhere as a backup plan, since the new season is starting this weekend.

Samuel Etoo

 

It has been reported in the media, that he may be thinking of bringing Etoo Samuel, to the Stamford Bridge.

Read: melvinsports.blogspot.com

Etoo is quoted in the Daily Mirror, as having interest to play under Mourinho again, after their time together at Inter, where they won some trophies including a treble, among which was a champions' league cup.

"There is only one Jose Mourinho. I have played under a lot of great coaches - but there is no other character in the game like Jose."

"He is one of the best coaches in the world - and we had a lot of success together at Inter Milan. I would like to have the chance to play under him again - because it is never boring when Jose is around," he said.

The footballer continued, "Of course Chelsea are a great team - and when we have all the offers on the table then I will discuss with my agent and see what my next step is."

The Dagestan club, Anzhi, are very keen to allow some of their big stars to leave due to financial problems. It was reported in the media that the billionaire owner, Suleiman Kerimov, lost hundreds of millions of Euros in the stock market through Uralkali the Russian company that produces potash, in which he has the majority shares.

Following this situation, he ordered a sharp cut down on the club's budget. The president of the club, Remchukov, said in his twitter account that, "many of our expensive stars will leave Anzhi, while the club's budget will be decreased to €40m - €54m a year."

"We failed to clinch rapid success. Now Anzhi will develop it's academy to the medium-term plans of the club development," Remchukov said.

Samuel Etoo, who happened to be among the most expensive players in the world since he joined the club, earning a salary of €20m. No one is sure if Chelsea, will be ready to offer him the same salary or not. Samuel may also take a pay cut to join Chelsea, since the club owner, Roman Abramovich has toned down, his father christmas spending on the club.

Samuel Fils Etoo is undeniably, the most successful African footballer. He has won many league titles which included three champions' league and the African Cup of Nations trophies and two Olympic golds. He is the only African player to have won the African footballer of the year award, three times. And at 32 years, he is still hungry for more glories.

Gervinho Moves From Arsenal To Roma

Arsenal and Ivory Coast international striker Gervinho, (26), joins Italy's serie A club, AS Roma in a €9.2m deal.

The North London club made a statement thanking the player for his  contribution to the club. It also wish him all the best in his career.

"Everyone would like to thank Gervinho for his contribution to the club and wish him well for his future career."

Gervinho

Gervinho joined Arsenal in 2011 from the French Ligue 1- Lille.


But he has struggled to hold down a position in the team.
Before joining Lille, he played for the Belgium club - Beveren and the French club - Le Mans. He has featured for Ivory Coast for 45 times including, this years African Cup of Nations.

Drogba Recalled To The Elephant

The Ivorian international and Galatasaray striker, Didier Drogba (35), has been recalled back to the Ivory Coast national team, (The Elephant), ahead of the country's friendly match, against Mexico on the 14th of August, in New York.

The mercurial goal merchant, was dropped in the country's World Cup qualification matches in March and June, after Ivory Coast disappointing performances, at the 2013 African Cup of Nations, in January, in South Africa.

The country once again under performed in the biannual tournament, even though an over-whelming football loving fans believed, that they were the favourites to win the trophy. But the star filled team lost 2 -1 to Nigeria, the eventual Cup winner in the quater final.

Didier Drogba

When the national coach, Sabri Lamouchi, did not include the captain Drogba, in the March and June World Cup qualifier, people began to speculate, including the media, that there may be problem between the coach and the captain.

So Lamouchi decided to speak to the media. He said, that there was no problem between him and Drogba. He said that he dropped him, because he was not in top fitness.

He then added, that Drogba will be back when he's very fit again, and that is exactly what the coach has done by recalling him now.

After Didier Drogba's late two goals against Arsenal at the Emirate stadium for the Emirate Cup which Galatasaray won 2 - 1, he was then recalled for national duties again.

Drogba, has been in good form since he joined Galatasaray from the Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua FC, which he joined from Chelsea, after helping the London club win their first champions league, two seasons ago. His two and half year contract with the Chinese club, lasted only half a year.

He left after club poor performances and some months of unpaid wages. The chinese club claimed that he cannot leave, since he still has two years contratual obligation to the club. But Drogba took the case to Fifa, who decided that the player can leave, because of months of un-paid wages to him.

Ethiopia Vs Central African Republic WC Qualifier Moved

The venue of September 7th World Cup qualifier match between Ethiopia and Central African Republic has been moved by Fifa to a neutral country - Republic of Congo due to some security reasons.

Fifa changed the venue because of the over-throw of the government  of the Central African Republic earlier this year.

The Ethiopian Football Federation announced the change of the venue few days ago. The match is the last and the decider of the winner of Group A. The winner of the group will qualify to play in the ten teams final play-offs.

Football Fans

Ethiopia needs to win the match to qualify while South Africa which is two points in second position behind Ethiopia will qualify if they win against     

Botswana and Ethiopia lose against Central African Republic.                     

Ethiopia was leading the group with 5 points but their last match which they won 2 - 1 against Botswana was forfeited. Fifa gave the three points to Botswana because Ethiopia fielded an unqualified player.

Senegal also will play their last decider match against Uganda in a neutral country - Morocco. Senegal has been playing their home matches in Guinea because Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned their stadiums for one year after their fans rioted in Dakar against Ivory Coast when they lost last year in African Cup of Nations qualifier.

The Teranga Lions are on top of their group with one point difference, so they also need to win their last match to qualify for the play-offs.

Isha Johansen Is New SLFA President

Isha Johansen (48), has been elected opposed as the new Sierra Leone Football Association President. She was the only one of the original four candidates who was not disqualified from contesting for the post.

The other three candidates who were disqualified were, the former striker of AS Monaco and Inter Milan, Mohamed Kallon, Rodney Michael and Foday Turay. Kallon was disqualified because he did not meet up with the regulation which stipulated that a candidate must be living in the country for the past five years of an election.

President Isha Johansen

The other two, Rodney Michael and Foday Turay, contravened article 25 of FIFA code of ethics which entails betting, gambling, lottery etc.

The men protested their disqualifications and even some football clubs boycotted the local league in protest as well. This caused the league to be suspended up till now.

After the poll today which declared Isha Johansen the winner, the happy lady said, that she was extending hand of friend during the holy month of ramadan to the three men. She said, that she would like to work with them to move forward as she did not have all the ideas.

"I want to use this holy month of ramadan and this opportunity to extend my hand of peace to Rodney Michael, Mohamed Kallon and Foday Turay.
I am the winner but I don't consider them as losers," she said.

"We can work together because I don't have all the ideas - I appeal for the anger to stop."

The newly elected president said that within the coming three months they will be holding an extra ordinary conference to map ourt the blue print for moving forward.

"In the next three months we 'll be holding an extra ordinary conference to map out the way forward, we 'll have a blue print," she said.

When the three men were disqualified, there was some sort of chaos as some clubs
refused to continue in the league. Then the disqualified candidates asked the President of Sierra Leone, Mr Ernest Koromah to mediate but the two FIFA officials Primo Corvaro and Prosper Abega, that came to monitor the election told the president that the decision disqualifying the men was upheld by FIFA.

Before today's election there was an imtrime council after FIFA dissolved the SLFA executive committee when the president Nahim Khadi became ill and his vice Alie Kargbo resigned.

Isha Johansen is the second woman to be elected the President of an FA. The first woman elected was Lydia Nsekera of Burundi. She also made history by becoming the first woman to be elected into the FIFA executive committee.

Sassuolo Fined €30,000 For Racial Abuse

The newly promoted Italian football club, Sassuolo has been fined the sum of €30,000 for their fans racial chants and shouts of abuse against the AC Milan player, Kevin Constant, during a friendly match on the 23rd of last month.

The punishment was handed down to the club by the Lega Serie A, the statement following this says, "A €30,000 fine and a warning for Sassuolo for having supporters direct shouts and chants of racial discriminination at an opposition player in the 32nd minute of the game.

The statement went on to mention that Kevin Constant, himself was also fined for kicking the ball towards a group of Sassuolo fans who abused him, before he asked to be substituted and walked off the pitch.It claimed that the player disrupted the game for about two minutes.

 

"A €3,000 fine for Kevin Constant, who kicked a ball towards a group of opposition fans who insulted him with shouts and chants of racial discrimination, before asking to be substituted and walking off the field of play, disrupting the game for around two minutes."

The incident involving the Guinean international occured at the Reggio Emilia's Stadio del tricolore. AC Milan condemned the racial abuse but also said that Constant should not have left the field. It says that it was referee's decision as to what to do about the incident.

Six months ago the AC Milan and Ghanian international, Kevin-Prince Boateng suffered racist abuse in a friendly match with a division four team -Pro Patria. In that incident Boateng kicked the ball away and left the pitch and his team-mates followed him out of the field.

I don't think it was fair that Kevin Constant was also fined for leaving the field. It is a terrible thing to come to play football in a match, but end up being racial abused by those you don't even know. The primitive people doing these are either uneducated and afraid or they are purely doing it to disrupt the rythem and concentration of the black players against their team.

The players who are racially abused, are affected emotionally by the abuse because they are human beings. So it is quite understandable when a victim of such abuse decides to walk off the field.

There are racism everywhere you go in the human society,
but it must not have place in sports. The action taken recently by FIFA in making a new law that if any team or their fans are found to be involved in racism, the club may be punished by losing of the match or deductions of points or even relegation to the lower division etc. This is a good way to go about it, but we will see whether the fooball body will implement the new rules or not.

Enyeama: The New Nr 1 Goalkeeper at Lille

The French Ligue 1 coach of Lille, Rene Girard, has made the Nigeria's Super Eagle goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama (30), the number one keeper for the new season, according to the french sports magazine - Le Equipe.

"Vincent Enyeama, will be the number one goalkeeper of Lille next season, as Rene Girard has decided."

Vincent Enyeama

 

Reacting to the good news, the former Super Eagles goalkeeper and current goalkeeper coach with Super Eagles, Ike Shorunmu, said that he was not surprised, that Girard chose Enyeama as the number one goalkeeper for the coming season.

"Honestly I'm happy for him and it shows that he is our best and one of the best in Africa and the world at the moment. I am not surprised that he is now number one at his club," he said.

Shorunmu told the media, that every coach has their own plan and philosophy and he thinks that Mr Girard, feels Enyeama is good enough to be Lille's number one choice keeper. He was happy and it will be to the advantage of the Super Eagles.

"You know every coach has different philosophy or plan, so I believe his present coach feels Enyeama is good enough to be number one and I am happy, that has happened and it is an advantage to us at the national team,"
the former goalkeeper said.

Ike Shorummu, was the goalkeeper for FC Zurich and FC Luzern in Switzerland and also keeper for the Turkish clubs, FC Besiktas Istanbul
and Samsunspor.